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Don O’Neal wasn’t necessarily looking for opportunities to race again at the start of this year.

Owning and operating his own business, O’Neal’s Salvage and Recycling, and fathering his 24-year-old son Hudson as he’s grown into one of the sport’s best drivers, the 60-year-old O’Neal had been perfectly content being four years removed from the driver’s seat.

“I was completely fine watching him,” the Martinsville, Ind., racer said in a phone interview Thursday evening.

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“I spend a lot of time at our business that I really enjoy doing, too.”

But then his good friend, veteran chassis builder Tader Masters, made him an offer he had to entertain. And O’Neal’s superstar son, Hudson, didn’t let his so-called retired father push the opportunity to the wayside.

“Tader wanted to do some racing and, really, Hudson kept saying, ‘Dad, you need to do something.

You don’t do much with work and you watch me, and that’s about it