BEDFORD, Pa. — Bobby Pierce was not caught resting on Thursday night at Bedford Speedway.
Using track position to his advantage, Pierce held off multiple championship contenders for his 24th career World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models win in the Billy Winn Classic.
From the start, Pierce went to work from the outside of the front row by challenging polesitter Brian Shirley for the lead. A battle that the No.32 Low Voltage Solutions overcame on the second lap of the 45-lap feature.
Multiple cautions were thrown for tires going flat on a plethora of dirt late models, Pierce had to defend his position from Brandon Sheppard and Ryan Gustin to retain the lead.
Pierce had to manage his tired wisely while flying through the clean air in front of him and utilizing the high line around the 0.625-mile track to build the interval between himself and the other two drivers as the laps closed fast.
Crossing the twin checkered flags, Pierce became the winningest driver of the season with his sixth triumph, but the fireworks continued after the finish as Pierce damaged his left-rear in an attempt to avoid a spun out car in the middle of turn one. The contact did not take away the joy of winning.
“We’ve been on a roll lately,” Pierce said. “This was a new track so we didn’t know what to expect, but we rolled pretty good there. It reminded me of Port Royal Speedway. It’s fun going to these big tracks because you have a lot of speed. The straightaways are so long, so on the restarts, you had to build up the speed. It was a different challenge in turn one compared to turn three. The car was awesome all day.”
Sheppard finished second, extending his lead in the series title chase by 34 points over Nick Hoffman.
“I don’t think any of us knew where to be,” Sheppard said. “I was sticking it out and had to use the outside to get by (Gustin). I feel we had as good of a car as Bobby did. The car was awesome all day.
“We’ve got a lot better consistency now. You gotta find the right balance and fine tune it from there. It’s been great with the Longhorn guys. Apparently, I drive different compared to everyone, I have this weird style compared to others, but everyone has been a huge help from Longhorn, Bilstein, and all of the sponsors. We’ll just keep continuing to work.”
Gustin earned his fifth consecutive top-five finish.
“It’s always fun getting to race with Brandon when he’s one of the cleanest guys in the pit area,” Gustin said. “This was a whole new program for us going into this year and it takes a lot of time and effort. There’s been a lot of sleepless nights to get here, but I feel like we’re on the right track for sure.”
Gregg Satterlee picked up his first top-five finish with the series in 2024 with his fourth-place result and Tyler Bruening rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (45 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. B5-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 3. 19R-Ryan Gustin[8]; 4. 22-Gregg Satterlee[9]; 5. 16-Tyler Bruening[15]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[19]; 7. 19-Dustin Sorensen[13]; 8. 3S-Brian Shirley[1]; 9. 97JR-Cody Overton[7]; 10. 9-Nick Hoffman[5]; 11. 40B-Kyle Bronson[11]; 12. B1-Brent Larson[23]; 13. 97-Cade Dillard[4]; 14. 8-Matt Sponaugle[16]; 15. 39-Timothy Smith Jr[25]; 16. 14W-Dustin Walker[24]; 17. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[20]; 18. 119-Bryan Bernheisel[14]; 19. 0-Rick Eckert[12]; 20. 22*-Max McLaughlin[17]; 21. 92-Jeff Rine[21]; 22. 2T-Kyle Lee[10]; 23. 1C-Alex Ferree[6]; 24. 21-Jakob Piper[18]; 25. 24-Dylan Yoder[22]