MARYVILLE, Tenn. — Racing can often be a ‘right place, right time’ kind of sport. Saturday night at Smoky Mountain Speedway, Bobby Pierce was in that ideal spot when it mattered most.
The early stages of the Tennessee Tipoff set up an all-southeastern showdown between Brandon Overton and Chris Madden at the front of the field.
But with two laps remaining, contact on the backstretch sent Dennis Erb Jr. sideways in front of the field. With no time to react, Overton clobbered Erb’s machine to set off a multi-car pileup that also included Madden.
With both leaders knocked out of contention, Pierce advanced from third to first for the final sprint to the finish. Two laps later, the “Smooth Operator” clinched his second win of the season with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision and his second in a row at Smoky Mountain.
“It doesn’t feel like a win, but I’ll take it,” Pierce said. “That looked like a pretty hard hit from my viewpoint. I saw it happening right away, I was able to duck down to the infield and I still felt like I was almost in the wreck. That’s how big the wreck is, spread out, it took Madden out too, so that sucks to see for him, Brandon and all them guys.
“I don’t know what happened there, but it’s great to get the win. When that did happen, it was me and them Nick [Hoffman] on a single-file restart. The stakes kind of got upped a little bit, because not only was I competing for the win, I had Nick behind me and I really wanted to beat him.”
The win allowed Pierce to extend his small advantage over Hoffman in the standings, as the gap now sits at seven points between the two leaders. It also marked the 44th World of Outlaws win of his career, bringing him within four of Shane Clanton in fourth on the all-time wins list with 48 victories.
A third World of Outlaws championship remains Pierce’s ultimate goal for 2026, and leaving a southeastern red-dirt facility with the trophy for the second-consecutive year served as a reminder that the No. 32 team’s dominance can stretch far beyond the Midwest bullrings.
“The track tonight felt a lot like Lake Cumberland [Speedway] or Ponderosa [Speedway],” Pierce said. “Just not quite up on the wheel, it got that southern-style driving towards the end. But I liked it, looking forward to coming back here in the future.”
Hoffman, Ricky Thornton Jr., Dale McDowell and Tim McCreadie rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. 9-Nick Hoffman[5]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 4. 17M-Dale McDowell[6]; 5. 9M-Tim McCreadie[11]; 6. 58V-Daulton Wilson[8]; 7. 22-Chris Ferguson[7]; 8. 74X-Ethan Dotson[22]; 9. 157-Mike Marlar[10]; 10. 71-Hudson O’Neal[13]; 11. 57-Zack Mitchell[12]; 12. 14-Trey Mills[15]; 13. 19-Dustin Sorensen[24]; 14. 1Z-Logan Zarin[20]; 15. 1-Tyler Erb[23]; 16. 49-Jake Timm[25]; 17. 19R-Ryan Gustin[14]; 18. 22*-Drake Troutman[19]; 19. T1-Todd Morrow[21]; 20. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[26]; 21. 76-Brandon Overton[3]; 22. 44-Chris Madden[1]; 23. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[18]; 24. 93-Carson Ferguson[9]; 25. 16-Sam Seawright[16]; 26. 23V-Cory Hedgecock[17]
