CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — All the momentum of a championship chase lies on Bobby Pierce as eight races remain in the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models campaign.
Needing the feature win to keep his bid for a second consecutive series title alive, the Oakwood, Ill., driver led all 40 laps for his 12th series win of the season at Atomic Speedway on Friday night.
Pierce began the night with a win in heat four, then drew the pole for the main event.
On his outside, Brian Shirley whipped by Pierce for the lead until six cars created a pileup before the field finished the first lap. That gave Pierce one more opportunity to hold off Shirley on the restart. Pierce kept the top spot on the second attempt by sliding up the track and blocking Shirley’s chance to pass by him once more.
Clean air helped Pierce build distance on the field of cars behind him, but could not shake off Shirley as his No.3s late model stayed glued to the back of Pierce’s bumper.
Behind the two leaders, a hornet’s nest of racing inside the top five included Nick Hoffman, Cade Dillard, Ryan Gustin and Tyler Bruening, with each of them trading positions throughout the run of green-flag racing by using the range of lanes open around the three-eighths-mile race track.
Hoffman kept third throughout most of the feature while Dillard slipped back to open the door for Gustin and Bruening to get inside the top five.
At the front, Shirley threw everything he had for Pierce to steal the lead from the Megan’s Mission No.32 late mModel, but Pierce only got stronger as the race progressed into the last quarter of the feature.
Then, Dillard and Tyler Erb made contact entering turn three which sent Dillard up the wall through Turn 4 and eventually having to retire the car. The exit from the feature hurt Dillard in the points hunt by dropping him down to sixth in series points.
That late caution gave Shirley one final opportunity to get by Pierce for his fourth consecutive feature win in August.
However, Shirley’s hopes of winning did not come to fruition as the “Smooth Operator” scored his 30th career win with the World of Outlaws CASE Late Models.
“It’s really nice to have things go our way tonight,” Pierce said. “I felt like when we were leading, it was good enough to keep our distance from (Shirley), but I don’t feel like I was the best car tonight. I was really struggling through turns one and two.
“I was struggling even though it didn’t look like it, but it was a really demanding racetrack. It was tough through lap traffic, but it was great to win and get my 30th with the Outlaws. That’s incredible, so hopefully we can get up to 100, or even more than that.”
Shirley wrapped up the night with the second-place result. Adding to his impressive turnaround in the year’s second half, “Squirrel” has finished inside the top-10 in 12 of the last 13 races – a streak that began at the NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50 in July.
“I don’t feel like our car was the greatest,” Shirley said. “We might’ve been a smidge better, but the track position was important. I’d get to (Bobby) and then get aero push, but he had a better car than us late in the race. We’re getting better, but we’re still trying to find that edge. I’m proud that we were able to race with him for a long time. But, our goal is to race at the front and learn and continue to find that extra 10nth.”
Gustin made a last-lap pass around Hoffman to place his No.19r Todd Cooney Racing late model on the podium to end the first night of the Fireball 50 weekend at Atomic.
“It was extremely tough to pass,” Gustin said. “The top was really dominant through the first two corners and vice versa (through turns three and four). It was hard to make anything happen in those first 30 laps. At the end, you could move around a bit. It was a good night for us, we just gotta start winning these things. I don’t think we were good enough to win, but I feel like we could’ve gotten to (Shirley). It is what it is, we’ll go to work and get another shot (on Saturday).”
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 3S-Brian Shirley[2]; 3. 19R-Ryan Gustin[6]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman[4]; 5. 16-Tyler Bruening[14]; 6. B5-Brandon Sheppard[16]; 7. 19-Dustin Sorensen[21]; 8. 40B-Kyle Bronson[18]; 9. 68-Adam Stricker[5]; 10. 71C-RJ Conley[9]; 11. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[13]; 12. B1-Brent Larson[19]; 13. S21-Seth Daniels[22]; 14. 97JR-Cody Overton[7]; 15. 90-Michael LeFevers[25]; 16. 1-Tyler Erb[8]; 17. 97-Cade Dillard[3]; 18. 19M-Spencer Hughes[10]; 19. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[23]; 20. 22*-Max McLaughlin[15]; 21. 14W-Dustin Walker[24]; 22. 71R-Rod Conley[17]; 23. C4-Freddie Carpenter[20]; 24. 11-Jared Hawkins[12]; 25. 28C-Tyler Carpenter[11]