MARKLEYSBURG, Pa. (April 24 ) — Don O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., badly wanted — needed — a win when he took the green flag from the outside pole in Friday night’s 50-lap Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature at Roaring Knob Motorsports Complex. That was clear by the way he handled the opening circuit.

Tossing his Clint Bowyer Racing Barry Wright Race Car to the top of turns one and two on a track surface that saw passing difficult during heat action, O’Neal sailed around polesitter Chris Ferguson of Mt. Holly, N.C., to assume command in a manner that could only be described as powerful. The defending Lucas Oil Series champion controlled the remainder of the distance, surviving four restarts and a late challenge from points leader Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., to register his first triumph of 2015 on the national tour.

“I really thought I was gonna be really lucky if I did get (Ferguson) cleared on the first lap, but it all worked,” said O’Neal, who entered the event — the first Lucas Oil Series action in a month following weather-related wipeouts of scheduled shows for three of the last four weekends — with three top-five finishes in 11 tour starts this season. “I knew that outside wasn’t the preferred spot, but actually it was a little better out there than I thought. The car stuck real good, I got a little bit of momentum and a good run through there, and finally cleared him down there at the other end.”

O’Neal, 50, earned $10,000 for his 41st career win on the Lucas Oil Series, ranking him third on the tour’s all-time victory list. He also surged from sixth to third in the points standings as the circuit kicked off a Mid-Atlantic doubleheader that is scheduled to conclude on Saturday night at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway.

The only drivers remaining ahead of O’Neal in the series points race are the two racers who chased him across the finish line at the Knob: Davenport, who settled for a close runner-up placing after his last-ditch bid to overtake O’Neal fell short, and Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., who climbed as high as second midway through the race before Davenport dropped him to a third at the checkered flag.

Kyle Hardy of Stephens City, Va., started and finished fourth — a career-best Lucas Oil Series result for the 21-year-old driver who briefly held second place early in the event — and the 25-year-old Ferguson placed fifth after also holding the second spot during the race’s first half.

“This is a huge win for us,” said O’Neal, who hadn’t reached the month of April winless since 2009. “This ain’t been one of my good racetracks either, so it means a lot to come here and be good all night — from the time we unloaded, we were fast. This is also our first win on Penske Shocks, and hopefully now we got things going in the right direction.

“I sure hope it turns us around and gets us winning more races — gosh, anytime you can get a win it helps the confidence of the driver, the team and everybody else. And we all know for sure that with all the rain we’ve been getting lately everybody’s not been racing a whole bunch, so the money’s good too.”

O’Neal preserved his ’15 breakthrough triumph by tip-toeing around the bottom of the track as Davenport threw everything he had at the leader over the final 10 laps.

“I felt like I was a little better when I’d go out a little wider in (turns) three and cut four off, but there at the end I just sort of protected the bottom and tried not to make any mistakes,” O’Neal said. “You never knew if you’d come around there and somebody would’ve knocked that water (pooled) on the bottom out on the racetrack, so you didn’t know what you were gonna get each lap. You had to be careful.”

Davenport, 31, steadily worked his way forward from the seventh starting spot in his K&L Rumley Longhorn machine, finally landing in second place with a lap-36 pass of Pearson. He caught O’Neal by lap 40 and repeatedly attempted to find an outside route into the top spot but couldn’t make a move stick.

“I was trying to make something happen there,” Davenport said. “I found a little bit on the top down there (in turns three and four), but I could just never leave off of two as good as (O’Neal) could. I could catch him getting in, but I couldn’t leave good enough to stay with him to able to roll by him on the outside (in three and four).

“All in all, it was a good night for us,” he added. “The last time I came here (driving for Clint Bowyer in 2012) … it wasn’t good. Me and Don were talking about in victory lane — we raced like crazy for 23rd and 24th. This was definitely an improvement.”

Pearson, 43, lost ground to the leaders during the race’s closing stages but was satisfied with his third-place run. Starting fifth, he slung his Dunn-Benson Racing Longhorn mount to the outside of Ferguson rounding turns one and two on a lap-28 restart to grab second and momentarily appeared primed to threaten O’Neal, but he couldn’t maintain the pace.

“I knew I had a shot right there on that restart,” Pearson said. “I could go for a couple laps because I was on soft tires, and I rolled (Ferguson) on the outside there and got ourselves into second. But after we run three or four laps my car got a little bit looser and looser and I couldn’t hold off Jonathan.

“We won here last year, but we’re still top three,” he continued. “We had a good night, but O’Neal had the best car all night, there ain’t no doubt.”

Four caution flags slowed the event. Three were caused by stopped or spun cars: Kenny Pettyjohn of Millsboro, Del., twirled on the homestretch on lap three; Tim Senic of Elkins, W.Va., pulled up lame between turns three and four on lap 11; and Justin Kann of Huntingdon, Pa., stopped on the homestretch on lap 28. The only accident was a multi-car tangle between turns one and two on lap 29 involving Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., Keith Jackson of Odenton, Md., Mike Lupfer of Shermansdale, Pa., and Gregg Satterlee of Indiana, Pa.

Notes: Cool, windy conditions prevailed, with temperatures plunging into the 30s by the end of the night. … Jared Landers of Batesville, Ark., relinquished seventh place when he stopped on the homestretch during the lap-29 caution period because his car was smoking heavily due to an oil line that had been knocked loose. … World of Outlaws Late Model Series regular Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., was uncharacteristically not a factor, finishing last in the third heat after starting sixth and falling short of a transfer spot in a B-main with a sixth-place finish. ... Other non-qualifiers included Dan Angelicchio, Matt Cochran, Bob Gordon, Jason Miller and 13-year-old Michael Lake.