WALTON, Ky. — Bobby Pierce and Jonathan Davenport won the Friday night preliminary events for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at the Florence Speedway.
Pierce won his third Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race of 2024 after he and Devin Moran officially swapped the lead four times during the 25-lap main event. Moran came home in second followed by Mike Marlar, Max Blair, and Dale McDowell.
Davenport picked up his sixth series win of the season leading all 25 laps in the second A-Main of the night. Ricky Thornton Jr. was second followed by Garrett Alberson, Jason Jameson, and Tim McCreadie.
Pierce and Moran dueled it out, trading the lead four times in the first 13 laps of the race. Pierce was ultimately able to open his advantage to 1.709 seconds over Moran at the finish.
In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 20th time in his career Pierce, the defending Sunoco North/South 100 champion now has his sights set on his third consecutive crown jewel Saturday night.
“That was a fun race with Devin, we’ve had a lot of fun races lately, back at the Silver Dollar Nationals we raced it out good. We had an awesome race car yet again, it was a bad-fast race car we could run anywhere on the track tonight. I can’t wait for the race on Saturday night,” said the driver who now has 27 overall wins in 2024.
Pierce will attempt to become the first driver since Don O’Neal in 2012 and 2013 to win a North/South in back-to-back years.
Moran, who is looking for his first win in the event came home in second. Moran is looking to join his father, Hall-of-Famer Donnie Moran, who won the North/South 100 twice as the second father-son combo to win the historic event.
“He [Pierce] was a little bit softer on tires. I was sitting there under the red flag, I don’t think it sealed my tires up, but it just took me a couple of laps to get going,” Moran said. “He was already checked out by that point. They’re doing a really good job. I felt like we learned a lot tonight. It’s the most comfortable I’ve been at Florence in a long time. After last night I wasn’t excited as much, but tonight I felt a lot better, at least I could see the 32 up there.”
Marlar went to a back-up car for Friday after damage to his primary car from a Thursday night incident.
“I feel a lot better when I am up there racing and instead of back there wrecking that’s for sure. But I know it was fun tonight. I had a really good car all night. Not getting to race last night was a big draw back you know, so at least we got one night in here before we got some idea of what you’re going to need for tomorrow.”
Feature Two
The second 25-lap preliminary race would go caution free as Davenport and Thornton ran one-two the entire race, quickly distancing themselves from the rest of the field.
The only threat to Davenport was traffic that allowed Thornton to cut the gap near the end of the race.
Nick Hoffman held third until the wall-running Alberson took over on lap 19. Alberson then made one last run on the final lap but fell a half-car length short of passing Thornton at the checkers.
Davenport in Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 80th time in his career led wire-to-wire for his second win in two nights at Florence.
“There at the end I didn’t feel like I could get by the lapped cars as fast as I wanted to,” Davenport said. “I had to get a little more aggressive than I wanted to. I was trying to take my time there a little bit and not bang wheels with anybody. We’ve got a long race tomorrow and I’d rather be working on getting more speed than fixing stuff. Our car was pretty good. I don’t know much I could have done any different. I always have something in the back on my mind I could do. I am sure we will tweak on it a little bit tomorrow for the 100-lapper.”
Thornton, who won one of the preliminary events on Thursday came home in second to Davenport, crossing the line 1.982 seconds behind the winner.
“For tomorrow night we need to be a little faster. He [Davenport] was good. I felt like in lapped traffic we were about the same pace,” Thornton said. “It really got a lot drier than I expected it to. I was watching the first one with Bobby and Devin really charging the corner, running super hard and we come out for our feature, and it was pretty slick. I think we have a couple of things to work on, but overall, it’s been a really good weekend for us so far.”
Alberson had the fastest car on the track as timing and scoring had him .5 of a second quicker than anyone, but with no caution flags he could not quite clear Thornton, settling for third.
“I think I had the right tires for a little bit longer run,” Alberson said. “I don’t know what Davenport had on, I think Ricky had a little bit softer. I really found a way to make a little bit of momentum that’s kind of a key here and the straightaway speed and once I did that, I could do whatever I wanted to.”
The finishes:
First feature: Bobby Pierce, Devin Moran, Mike Marlar, Max Blair, Dale McDowell, Tanner English, Hudson O’Neal, Daulton Wilson, Zack Dohm, Drake Troutman, Cory Hedgecock, Dustin Linville, Donald McIntosh, Michael Chilton, Trent Ivey, Dillon McCowan, Billy Green, Jordan Koehler, Tyler Collins, Blake Creech, Kyle Bronson, Josh Rice, Brandon Hardgrove, Trevor Landrum.
Second feature: Jonathan Davenport, Ricky Thornton Jr., Garrett Alberson, Jason Jameson, Tim McCreadie, Nick Hoffman, Ross Bailes, Brandon Overton, Ethan Dotson, Carson Ferguson, Jimmy Owens, Spencer Hughes, Devin Gilpin, Tyler Erb, Tripp Gerrald, Jordan Wever, Boom Briggs, Ross Robinson, Derek Groomer, Robby Hensley, Tyler Stevens, Clay Harris, R.J. Conley, Austin Lay.