CLOSE-UP
Don O’Neal
Worth
the Wait
D
on O’Neal strapped down his
’99 Chevy Monte Carlo for the 12-
hour drive from his southern Indi-
ana home to the Carolinas with an
uncomfortable level of uncertainty.
He was rolling into his sponsor’s
race, the NGK Spark Plugs NHRA
Four-Wide Nationals, with a completely empty 2018 logbook,
devoid of the information he would need to get his nitrous-as-
sisted Top Sportsman entry down the zMAX Dragway quarter-
mile concrete strip. O’Neal’s worries would be stripped away
some six days later following a test session and a whirlwind
weekend that culminated with O’Neal’s first national event
winner’s circle experience.
“We were a complete and utter mess,” O’Neal admits of his
position going into the race weekend. “We spent Wednesday
testing with Jeffrey Barker and Stevie Jackson at Carolina
Dragway. I made 300-foot hits all day long, just trying to get
things worked out, get comfortable and knock the rust off.
We drove into zMAX Thursday afternoon, probably one of
the last dozen rigs to get parked for the race. To be the last
rig in the row on Sunday night, holding the Wally...man, you
want to talk about a rollercoaster ride for a five-day period?
That was it.”
O’Neal, who retired from the U.S. Army as a Sergeant First
Class in 2013, qualified No. 8 in the Four-Wide Nationals
field and marched past Frederick Perkins, Girard Milette
and DragstersForSale.com teammate Mark McDonald be-
fore lining up against NHRA Division 2 Top Sportsman star
Sandy Wilkins in the final round. O’Neal ran 6.903 on his
6.89 dial-in to defeat Wilkins, who ran 6.627 on a 6.59 dial-
in. “I grew up watching and idolizing Sandy, even though we
aren’t that far apart in age, but to see him over in the other
lane was cool,” O’Neal says.
Winning a national event has been the ultimate goal for
O’Neal, who nearly became the first active duty