ADA, Minn. — Nick Hoffman continues to win features with the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models in spectacular fashion.
The Mooresville, N.C., driver survived a leader’s curse and claw his way to the lead against a stout field of late models to score his fifth win of 2024 at Norman County Raceway.
Beginning the 50-lap feature from outside the front row, Hoffman had to play second fiddle to Kyle Bronson as he took command of the early portion of the race.
Hoffman fell back to seventh while Bobby Pierce and Ryan Gustin stepped up to challenge Bronson for the lead.
Then, on lap 24, Bronson blew a right rear tire while racing Pierce for the top spot, evaporating his chance to win the feature.
Then, three laps later, Pierce lost his motor while leading and pulled off the track to bring his night to a disappointing close.
The struggles with the leaders continued as Gustin suffered mechanical issues on the restart and pulled off in turn one.
The three leaders suffering problems opened the door for Devin Moran to inherit the lead with 23 laps to go. Hoffman moved back to second and four-time series champion Brandon Sheppard moved into the final podium spot.
Using his familiar bottom-line tactic, Hoffman got to the bumper of Moran as lapped traffic approached the two leaders.
When Moran got stuck on the bottom line, Hoffman swapped to the high line to take the Feature lead, sneaking his way through traffic as Moran was relegated to a fight with Sheppard for second.
A caution with two laps to go set up a green-white-checkered finish. Hoffman fired off the way he needed, leading the last two laps to win the inaugural Titan Machinery Showdown at Norman County and score a $15,000 payday.
“I got a couple of gifts there with those guys falling out,” Hoffman said. “It sucks for them, I was back to seventh at one point and I was getting frustrated there, but eventually the track came back to me. When you get back there, you feel like you’re screwed and can’t get back to the lead, but it all played out there and it was pretty good. I found the middle lane there and could start hammering on it. I was able to drive by (Devin) there.
“I was definitely worried because I hit a piece of debris with about eight to go, then the caution as you take the white flag definitely sucks there. It got the wheels turning of what I need to do to block a slider and still carry enough speed off the corner. The racetrack came in better than I think a lot of us expected, but it was a fun place to race.”
Moran finished second to Hoffman after one last gasp to steal the win.
“My team makes sure I have a great car underneath me,” Moran said. “It was unfortunate to see Bobby, Kyle and Gustin have those issues, but I feel like we got some work to do. We didn’t have near enough of a good race car, so we’ll have to work on it and hopefully be better in (River Cities) tomorrow.”
Sheppard completed the night’s podium, viewing the improvements his team can work on while continuing to lead the points by 14 points over Hoffman.
“We were OK,” Sheppard said. “We had a good balance so we could race with everyone there. The restarts were our weakest point there, so we need to work on that. All in all, the track was awesome there, it raced about as good as it could have, I believe. Another good night, just need to keep plugging away and keeping to work at getting better.”
Brian Shirley picked up the fourth-place finish and Cade Dillard took the last spot in the top five to move back to third in the championship standings.
The finish:
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Hoffman[2]; 2. 99-Devin Moran[4]; 3. B5-Brandon Sheppard[7]; 4. 3S-Brian Shirley[9]; 5. 97-Cade Dillard[11]; 6. 22*-Max McLaughlin[8]; 7. B1-Brent Larson[14]; 8. 40B-Kyle Bronson[1]; 9. 16-Tyler Bruening[10]; 10. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[17]; 11. 97JR-Cody Overton[21]; 12. 28M-Sam Mars[13]; 13. 76-Blair Nothdurft[5]; 14. 71-Dustin Strand[19]; 15. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[18]; 16. 19-Dustin Sorensen[15]; 17. 18X-Shawn Meyer[24]; 18. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[20]; 19. E85-Jason Strand[22]; 20. 14W-Dustin Walker[16]; 21. 19R-Ryan Gustin[3]; 22. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 23. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[12]; 24. 44*-Cole Schill[23]