ROSSBURG, Ohio — Fourth-starting Nick Hoffman took the lead on lap 17 of Wednesday night’s FloRacing Night in America event at Eldora Speedway and fought off a late-race charge from Devin Moran to score his first-career FloRacing Night in America victory.
Hoffman’s win was worth $20,000.
“I could see Devin coming on the bottom. I couldn’t stick the bottom quite as good as I needed to, so a lot of times I left that one open for him,” Hoffman said in victory lane. “I knew it was gonna get close, so I had to shut it down there the last couple of laps.
“Right now everything is just going our way, and we hope we can translate this into a (Dirt Late Model) Dream win on Saturday night.”
The 50-lap feature was led to the green flag by Max Blair and Kyle Bronson. As the race went green the duo battled side-by-side for the top spot throughout the opening 10 circuits with Bronson maintaining a slim advantage.
By lap 17 Hoffman was up to second and overtook Bronson for the lead. The pilot of the Tye Twarog Racing No. 9 had to turn back a bevy of challenges from Bronson over the ensuing laps before slowly starting to motor away from the field.
As the drivers in the running order behind him changed regularly, the Mooresville, North Carolina racer stayed consistent at the front of the pack. Late in the event, eighth-starting Devin Moran closed in on Hoffman, pulling alongside exiting turn two with three laps remaining, but Hoffman proved to be too much, racing to his first FloRacing Night in America victory by 1.216 seconds over Moran with 11th-starting Dale McDowell finishing third.
Twenty-first starting Brandon Sheppard crossed the finish line in fourth with Chris Ferguson completing the top-five finishers.
With FloRacing Night in America’s anonymous Angel Donor offering $2,000 to the feature winner’s charity of choice it was “the Kyle and Samantha Busch Bundle of Joy Fund” that Hoffman selected.
The Dirt Late Model Dream XXXII weekend kicks into gear with the field split into complete, preliminary programs on Thursday and Friday. Each night is capped by a $30,000-to-win / $2,000-to-start program leading into Saturday’s finale, which boasts a $100,000 top prize along with $6,000 to take the green flag in the finale.
The finish:
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Hoffman[4]; 2. 99-Devin Moran[8]; 3. 17M-Dale McDowell[11]; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard[21]; 5. 22-Chris Ferguson[3]; 6. 14JR-Trey Mills[5]; 7. 111-Max Blair[1]; 8. 51-Tyler Erb[20]; 9. 71-Hudson O’Neal[14]; 10. 49-Jonathan Davenport[10]; 11. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 12. 10-Garrett Smith[18]; 13. 157-Mike Marlar[13]; 14. 44D-Dalton Cook[23]; 15. 11R-Josh Rice[17]; 16. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[16]; 17. 3S-Brian Shirley[6]; 18. 76-Brandon Overton[15]; 19. 25C-Shane Clanton[7]; 20. 12-Jason Jameson[19]; 21. 44-Chris Madden[12]; 22. 57-Zack Mitchell[24]; 23. 12W-Ashton Winger[9]; 24. 5-Mark Whitener[22]
