HARLAN, Iowa — Bobby Pierce won a thrilling Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event on Tuesday night at Shelby County Speedway, as he led the final 14 laps of the Kosiski Family 53, earning $25,053.
It was for second series win of the year.
Pierce, who started seventh, passed Ricky Thornton Jr. on lap 39 and then went on to win by 1.249 seconds over fellow Illini driver Brandon Sheppard, who finished second after starting in 12th.
Thornton, who started sixth, led three laps and rounded out the podium in third.
Hudson O’Neal, who had to take a provisional starting from the 23rd spot, finished fourth, with Jonathan Davenport, who led the first 36 laps, coming home in fifth.
“First off, I’ve got to say thank you to Shelby County Speedway — it’s an awesome race track,” Pierce said. “Thank you to all the fans for coming out tonight and packing this place. I kind of had to make some of the holes myself with the sliders; those were just death sliders there. I knew I had to make them check-up.
“We just had to get something going; we needed a consistent line of cars running the top. I was waiting on Brandon (Overton) to make another move like he did before— that one caution he started sliding Thornton, so that let me get in the mix, but someone had to start it, so I just started throwing the bombs.”
Sheppard, who won Saturday night’s race at Lucas Oil Speedway, continued his mid-season surge in Rocket1 and earned $10,000 for finishing second.
“I knew he (Pierce) was going to be good, so I kind of followed him throughout and watched the lines he was running, using that to judge my own performance,” Sheppard explained. “He was really impressive, so congratulations to Bobby and Ricky. Thanks to all the fans for coming out; we appreciate all of you. Man, track prep tonight was on point—that thing was racy. Last year, it was pretty bottom-dominant, but they learned from that and fine-tuned it perfectly for the feature.”
Thornton, who now resides back in Iowa, was aiming for his 11th series win of 2025 and is now just 25 points behind Davenport heading to Huset’s Speedway on Thursday night.
“Man, I felt like I had a lot of fun last night, but tonight was actually more fun. Anytime you can race JD and Bobby like that and throw sliders like that, knowing they aren’t going to run you over, it’s pretty awesome,” Thornton said. “Of course, it sucks not to win a race like that, but Bobby was really good, and Shepp was really good as well. I feel like I need a little more to get a bit better, but we’re improving on these small bullrings, so hopefully we’ll go to Huset’s and be really good.
“Hats off to everyone here — the whole city came together and helped us with gift cards and stuff like that. Hopefully we come back for a 2 or 3-day show.”
The finish:
Bobby Pierce, Brandon Sheppard, Ricky Thornton Jr., Hudson O’Neal, Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Overton, Garrett Alberson, Dennis Erb Jr., Devin Moran, Carson Ferguson, Daulton Wilson, Daniel Hilsabeck, Donald McIntosh, Clay Harris, Blair Nothdurft, Dan Ebert, Ethan Dotson, Tyler Bruening, Spencer Hughes, Dylan Thornton, Jesse Sobbing, Shane DeMey, Ryan Gustin, Derrick Stewart.
