Bobby Pierce, this year’s World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series champion, didn’t have much interest in racing when he was a kid.
As one could imagine, that created somewhat of a dilemma for his father, Bob Pierce, who enjoyed a Hall of Fame career as a dirt late model driver.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh no, I got a son who don’t wanna race a car,’” the elder Pierce said. “Now what do I do?”
As any dad would, Bob Pierce considered his options.
Though stick-and-ball sports were the obvious fallback for Bobby, it wasn’t a very appealing path in Bob’s perspective. Besides, he didn’t know much about them, considering he’d been racing since he was 17 years old.
Chasing wins at a dirt track was essentially the only life the Illinois native knew.
“It was like, ‘What can I help him with if he doesn’t want to race?’ Education-wise, I can’t teach him to be a doctor because I wasn’t smart enough to finish high school, let alone try to be a doctor or a lawyer,” Bob Pierce said, his worn face cracking a smile. “I’m a racer, you know?”
It was just as vexing for Bobby, who mainly viewed racing as a get-out-of-school card. But regardless of how he made it to the race track, what matters is he finally did.
In 2006, Bob Pierce stuck his 8-year-old son in a quarter midget — the tried-and-true testing ground for young racers.
Whether it was from the hours Bobby had spent in the grandstands watching his dad race, or simply the natural talent in his veins, it became clear there was something there.
“It seemed like car control, he had immediately,” Bob Pierce recalled.
Though Bobby’s early success certainly provided Bob a flicker of hope, the dirt late model veteran knew better than to predict his son’s future based on his performance at the quarter-midget level.
“You don’t know when the guy’s going to plateau. Like, OK, you won in a quarter midget, then we put him in a crate late model. Yeah, he won some races, but then you step up to the next level — full-load late models,” the elder Pierce explained.
Bob’s queries only deepened the more the two invested in the racing scene.
“OK, so he can beat some local guys and then it’s like, ‘Well, can he go on tour? Can he go out and beat the big guys?’” Bob said. “You don’t know when it’s going to stop.”
At the same time, Bobby had questions of his own about making a future in the sport. But there was one concern that lived at the top of his list throughout most of the early years — his nickname.
“My original nickname was the ‘Short Cool One,’ because my dad’s nickname was the ‘Tall Cool One.’ As I got older, I didn’t really like the ‘Short’ nickname. I’m like 5-foot-8, I’m still short, but you know,” Bobby said, shrugging.
He was dubbed the “Short Cool One” in the headlines in 2009 when he won his first crate late model feature, and again in 2011 when he visited victory lane in a super late model.
Though he acknowledged the family significance of the moniker, Bobby Pierce was looking to shed the name and earn one of his own — illustrating the double-edged sword Bobby often felt when trying to live up to his father’s dirt-track legacy.
“He tried to teach me everything he knows and was hard on me growing up in order for me to do good. He knew the potential was there, so he was on me a lot,” Bobby recalled. “But he’ll say now that I’m better than he was.”
Bob nods in agreement, his kind eyes filling with pride.
“When it happened, it’s just like the next best thing ever. I would’ve never dreamed it,” the 71-year-old father explained. “I was just lucky enough and blessed that I got a good racer.”
Still, Bobby’s talent in the driver’s seat didn’t mean the work was over. In fact, it only increased the pressure on Bob’s shoulders, as he was the lead mechanic on his son’s equipment.
“The real pressure came when I saw he was really, really talented,” Bob said. “Now, dad’s got to step up and make these race cars better. A lot of times he was better than me. Some of these races he won, I’m not saying we were off, but we weren’t dead on the money. He’s just got the natural talent to pull it off.”
In 2013, Bobby Pierce began to stack up UMP late model wins and a year later, he followed in his father’s footsteps by being crowned the UMP DIRTcar Late Model National Champion.
Bob Pierce was the UMP national late model champion in 1990.
Bobby went on to finish second in his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway in 2015, triumphed at both the World 100 and North/South 100 events in 2016, became a first-time Silver Dollar Nationals winner in 2019 and notched his inaugural World of Outlaws Late Model Series feature victory in 2021.
And, he earned a new nickname — “Smooth Operator” — from late model announcer Rick Eshelman along the way.
But much like the dilemma his father faced when Bobby was a kid, the “Smooth Operator” reached his own fork in the road.
“Summer Nationals and UMP points was what I ran for the last few years, and I kind of just needed to do something different,” Bobby said.
In January, Bobby Pierce announced his intention to run the full World of Outlaws tour.
He already had 89 starts and four wins under his belt with the series, but with curiosity pushing him to try something new, Bobby added his No. 32 Longhorn chassis to the Outlaws roster.
The adversity came quick, as the 26-year-old finished 25th and 17th during the season-opening Sunshine Nationals at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park.
“In the very beginning we were like, if we could get top five in points, that’d be good for our first year doing it,” Bobby said.
But it didn’t take long — about six races and three months — for the midwestern talent to change his tune. It was on Alabama Gang 100 weekend at the Talladega Short Track, during the $50,000-to-win feature on April 22, that Bobby Pierce had his breakthrough.
“I almost won the 50 grand,” he said, an easy smile curving around his face at the thought. “I was going to win it, but we broke a left-rear wheel and some other parts. But that was a track I’d never been to before in a region that I’m not very used to racing in with red dirt and stuff.
“I think we kind of looked at it as a turning point, like, if we’re good at this and keep it up, maybe we can be there at the end of the year. But we had a lot of points to make up at the time.”
With Bob’s expertise on the wrenches and Bobby’s blossoming skillset behind the wheel, the family-owned operation started to scratch and claw its way to the top.
They became an undeniable force during the midseason, racking up 13 feature victories from June to October, including a $50,000 USA Nationals triumph at Wisconsin’s Cedar Lake Speedway in August.
“It was getting to all of us. Every race was getting tighter and tighter. It was like, ‘Oh gosh, we can’t step on it now. We gotta keep going,’” Bob recalled.
With 14 wins, 25 top-five finishes and 31 top-10 results to his credit, Bobby Pierce entered the season-ending World Finals on cruise control. All the driver of the No. 32 car needed was to make a qualifying lap, and the title was his.
“It’s a dream season. I’ve seen a lot of guys in my day have one — you know, (Jonathan) Davenport had one just a couple years ago — win, win, win. There are guys that do it,” Bob said. “And you’re like, man, I wonder what that’s like.”
In all, Bobby Pierce won 34 features in 92 starts through Thanksgiving.
On Nov. 4, he received his hardware for winning the World of Outlaws Late Model Series championship. He is only the fifth driver to win the title in his rookie season.
“Now that it’s all said and done, I could say it’s a big weight off my shoulders, but we knew heading into tonight that we were going to get it done. However, it does feel nice for it all to be over and for us to be the champion,” Bobby said.
Meanwhile, Bob Pierce was named crew chief of the year — his first non-driver accolade.
Witnessing his dad receive the honor felt especially fitting for Bobby, who also dedicated his Outlaws championship to his father.
“Heck, he was the one out there with the signal sticks or the gloves, showing me where to go on the track or distance from the guy behind you. He’s always there,” Bobby Pierce concluded
This story appeared in the Nov 29, 2023, edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
