PEVELY, Mo. — The month of September continues to be unforgettable for Nick Hoffman.
He won his first World 100. He announced his his role as the new full-time dirt Late Model driver at Spire Motorsports.
And now, Hoffman is a World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision winner at the track that means more to him than any.
A native of nearby Belleville, Ill., Hoffman spent countless nights as a child in the grandstands at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park watching his dad, Darrell, along with all of his other racing heroes.
A move to Mooresville, N.C., took him away for a few years, but he returned as a teenager to hit the track himself in a DIRTcar UMP Modified. Hoffman won several races on the open-wheel side at Pevely, but ever since he started Late Model racing, a Pevely win has always been high on his to-do list.
Prior to Friday night, his best result in the full-fendered division was a seventh last year with the World of Outlaws. But after winning his heat to start third in the feature, he knew he had a chance to improve on that. The first two laps were spent racing side-by-side with Tim McCreadie for second, with Hoffman eventually clearing McCreadie off Turn 4 to win that battle.
Two laps later, Hoffman reached the back bumper of race leader Dallon Murty, and he slid up in front of the No. 13 in Turns 3 and 4 to take the lead. From there, Hoffman remained glued to the inside wall in the corners for the rest of the race, driving away from the rest of the field in the process.
Behind Hoffman, things were a whole lot more dicey. World of Outlaws points leader Bobby Pierce struggled for most of the night, resorting to a Last Chance Showdown to earn the 17th spot in the starting order.
The “Smooth Operator” didn’t stay there for long, though, as Pierce pounded the Pevely cushion to climb all the way to second with 10 laps remaining. But with a gap of nearly five seconds between himself and Hoffman at that point, it looked like second was as high as he could get – until the caution came out with nine to go.
The final run to the checkered flag was a duel between the top two cars on tour, but Hoffman’s low line won out over Pierce up high.
The win was Hoffman’s seventh of the season in World of Outlaws competition, but it snapped an 18-race drought dating back to his $100,000 score at Mansfield Speedway on May 30. Hoffman also moved into a tie with his good friend Jonathan Davenport for 15th on the all-time series wins list with 18 wins in his career.
“I was going to probably get yelled at by my old man [Darrell] if I let [Pierce] pass me on the top,” Hoffman said. “Earlier, he said, ‘If you’re doing it right, you’re going to knock that spoiler off to win this race tonight.’ I just wanted to prove to him that I can get it done around the bottom. I just gambled on tires, I don’t know what [Pierce] was on, but almost the whole field was on softer stuff than I was. It was kind of a gamble there and it just played out. I had to get to the lead to control the race a little bit. It was throwing dry crumbs across the race track where you couldn’t run that middle very well, and I was just gauging myself off them lap cars. A couple guys could get the top rolling, but I remember Trevor Gundaker squirting off the bottom really nice, so I knew I just had to stay committed to that.”
Behind Hoffman and Pierce, McCreadie held on for third to complete the podium ahead of Dennis Erb Jr. in fourth and Jason Feger in fifth.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Hoffman[3]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[17]; 3. 9M-Tim McCreadie[2]; 4. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[7]; 5. 25-Jason Feger[14]; 6. 18-Shannon Babb[6]; 7. 58V-Daulton Wilson[12]; 8. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[4]; 9. 11-Gordy Gundaker[9]; 10. 1-Tyler Erb[10]; 11. 13-Dallon Murty[1]; 12. B1-Brent Larson[24]; 13. 74X-Ethan Dotson[18]; 14. 19R-Ryan Gustin[8]; 15. 1Z-Logan Zarin[11]; 16. 18J-Chase Junghans[13]; 17. 14-Trey Mills[22]; 18. 19-Dustin Sorensen[23]; 19. 11G-Trevor Gundaker[20]; 20. 1X-Aaron Marrant[5]; 21. 09-Michael Leach[21]; 22. 55E-Eli Johnson[15]; 23. 11H-Jeff Herzog[19]; 24. 33H-Wil Herrington[16]
