NEW RICHMOND, Wisc. — Bobby Pierce added another piece of history to his World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series resume Friday afternoon at Cedar Lake Speedway.
The Oakwood, IL driver took the lead from Tim McCreadie on lap 2 and drove to his sixth consecutive series victory to open the 37th annual USA Nationals.
He joins former champions Billy Moyer and Darrell Lanigan as the only drivers to win six World of Outlaws Features in a row.
“I like setting records,” Pierce said. “It’s cool. The best of the best have run this Series. We’ve had to do it through two crown jewels, so it hasn’t been an easy one. The car’s been great, and I can’t thank my crew enough.”
Tim McCreadie, the Bilstein Pole Award winner, led the field to the green in the 25-lap opener, driving away from Pierce’s No. 32 to lead lap 1.
But as the Watertown, N.Y., driver entered turn 2 on lap 2, he slid his car too high up the banking, allowing Pierce to pull even with him.
McCreadie’s bobble was all the “Smooth Operator” needed as he stormed past the No. 1 on the inside lane, taking the lead away as he drove his Longhorn chassis down Cedar Lake’s backstretch.
From there, Pierce survived four restarts, including one with four laps to go to score his 28th career World of Outlaws CASE Late Models feature win, tying Steve Francis for 10th on the all-time wins list.
Thursday afternoon’s heat challenged Pierce as he aimed for the $6,000 prize.
“I’ve never been in Wisconsin when it’s this hot,” Pierce said. “And we just happened to have a day race. You had to fight the car, and I’m glad it was only 25 laps and not 30, 40, 50, or whatever.
“It might’ve looked like I was pretty smooth out there, but it was hard to stay out of the bad spots and hit your marks. I was slipping bad there at the end. I knew my tires were gone, and it was getting pretty hard to handle.”
McCreadie settled for second, his best World of Outlaws finish driving for Rocket1 Racing.
According to “T-Mac,” the difference between him and Pierce came down to what happened on lap 2.
“I made a big bobble in turn 1, bobbed out and shoved, and gave it away,” McCreadie said. “I was matching lap times with him. I just made one mistake, and that’s all it takes sometimes.
“I just want to thank Mark Richards, Steve Baker, Danny (White), Joel (Rogers), Austin (Hargrove), and this Rocket1 team. This is a brand new XR car, version two, and it’s been good since the beginning of last week.”
Kyle Bronson finished third, earning his fourth World of Outlaws podium of 2024.
The Brandon, Fla., driver passed Nick Hoffman on lap 18 to reach the final podium position.
“I feel like we were pretty good early,” Bronson said. We were a little too tight early in the race, but as the race went on, it came to us pretty good. It was bottoming out too much at the beginning, but it was pretty good.”
Hoffman finished fourth, cutting the Series points lead to 22 points behind Brandon Sheppard, who finished sixth.
Three-time USA Nationals winner Jonathan Davenport rounded out the top five.
The finish (25 laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. 1-Tim McCreadie[1]; 3. 40B-Kyle Bronson[8]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman[5]; 5. 49-Jonathan Davenport[7]; 6. B5-Brandon Sheppard[16]; 7. 25-Jason Feger[12]; 8. 19R-Ryan Gustin[10]; 9. 71-Hudson O’Neal[17]; 10. B1-Brent Larson[9]; 11. 10-Garrett Smith[13]; 12. 18-Shannon Babb[22]; 13. 97-Cade Dillard[11]; 14. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[23]; 15. 1T-Tyler Erb[20]; 16. 19-Dustin Sorensen[18]; 17. 74X-Ethan Dotson[19]; 18. 22*-Max McLaughlin[3]; 19. 55C-Chad Mahder[21]; 20. 7-Ricky Weiss[14]; 21. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[25]; 22. 3S-Brian Shirley[4]; 23. 16-Tyler Bruening[6]; 24. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[15]; 25. 97JR-Cody Overton[24]