INDEPENDENCE, Iowa — The third podium of the Heartland Grand Tour was the charm for Bobby Pierce’s return to victory lane with the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models.
In a display of dirt Late Model prowess at Independence Motor Speedway, Pierce grabbed the lead halfway through the 40-lap feature to win the Monday Madness in Iowa.
Beginning the night by setting a track record during qualifying and taking a dominant victory in the first heat, Pierce commenced the feature from the front by drawing the pole.
Nick Hoffman took the top spot on the first lap by using the outside line of the track to clear Pierce after front-row starter Chad Simpson fell out of the race due to a mechanical issue.
Hot on Pierce’s trail was Brandon Sheppard, who used every lane of the race track to get by the Pierce.
When Hoffman got held up by a lapped car on the high line, going over the cushion and pulling a wheelie, the No. 32 machine slipped by Hoffman through turns three and four 4 to take the lead with two laps before the halfway mark on lap 20.
The final caution with seven laps to go gave Hoffman and Sheppard one last sniff at taking the lead away from Pierce, which never came to fruition as he crossed the checkered flag to seal his third series win of the season at the three-eighths-mile track.
The feature triumph moved Pierce up to fourth in the series standings, sitting 120 points back from Sheppard for the lead.
“From the start, I was a little worried,” Pierce said. “I knew Nick and Brandon were (on soft tires) and when Chad fell out of the race, that gave Nick the front row. If I can just hang with him, and we did. We got him in lap traffic, and it was great. The later half of the race, the car was great.”
Sheppard got by Hoffman on the final restart to get a chance at closing in on Pierce, however, the soft tire he chose did not help the driver of the No. B5 Longhorn Factory Team late model get closer to Pierce.
“We didn’t snug up quite as much tonight,” Sheppard said. “We had a different tire on (the car) than Bobby, and I think that hurt us more than anything. Once the track got black, my tire wasn’t as good. Once we got to lapped traffic, Bobby could squeeze through them better than we could. I think we got a really good balance on our race car, we were right there with him. I feel pretty good about it, just gotta get a little better in the race and make the right tire call next time.”
Hoffman closed out the podium after leading the first 17 laps. He leaves the Iowa race track only 14 points back from the series points lead.
“I should’ve known better,” Hoffman said. “I probably should have crossed over on the bottom and get myself back on and not lose a spot. That’s basically what gives it away at the end of the day. I didn’t want to see that caution at the end because that’s when I gave up second. I felt like I was okay. That last five or six laps I wasn’t as good, so we’ll work on that a little bit. All in all, the car was good for us.”
Cade Dillard finished fourth, with Brian Shirley fifth.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. B5-Brandon Sheppard[6]; 3. 9-Nick Hoffman[4]; 4. 97-Cade Dillard[12]; 5. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 6. 76-Blair Nothdurft[9]; 7. 19R-Ryan Gustin[5]; 8. B1-Brent Larson[14]; 9. 22*-Max McLaughlin[7]; 10. 40B-Kyle Bronson[17]; 11. 16-Tyler Bruening[16]; 12. 97JR-Cody Overton[20]; 13. 19-Dustin Sorensen[15]; 14. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[19]; 15. 43-Derrick Stewart[10]; 16. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[18]; 17. 14W-Dustin Walker[23]; 18. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[11]; 19. 11-Jon Kirby[24]; 20. 58-Garrett Alberson[13]; 21. 22-Charlie McKenna[22]; 22. 17-Tim Simpson[21]; 23. 29-Spencer Diercks[8]; 24. 25-Chad Simpson[2]