SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — Independence Day wasn’t the only “fourth” that Nick Hoffman got to celebrate on Friday night at Deer Creek Speedway.
The Mooresville, N.C., driver cruised to his fourth World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision victory of the season and the 10th of his career in the Friday portion of the NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50.
After starting outside of the front row alongside Tyler Bruening, Hoffman settled into second while Bruening led until Chris Simpson blew an engine to bring out the first caution on Lap 3.
When the race resumed, Hoffman wasn’t going to let Bruening get away as easily. The No. 9 stayed side-by-side with Bruening on the bottom down the backstretch, dove to the bottom entering Turn 3 and slid up into the top spot. That move got Bruening out of shape, and the No. 16 got sideways, slid down the track and in front of the field to kickstart a massive pileup.
“Big slider there, I felt like it was a pretty late slider,” Hoffman said. “Felt like [Bruening] could have lifted. Just one of those deals, he was turned down the hill to probably try and cross me. As soon as he got underneath me, it turns you around like that in front of everybody. It sucks.”
The wreck knocked five cars out of the race, including points leader Bobby Pierce, who got upside down. When the carnage was cleaned up, Hoffman powered away to the lead while Jake Timm and Brian Shirley raced for second.
Once he got clear of Timm, Shirley began hunting down Hoffman as the leaders made their way through slower traffic. But with seven to go, Shirley made contact with Tristan Chamberlain entering Turn 3 and went around.
Before the caution came out, Ryan Gustin had made his way up to second to be the next in line to challenge Hoffman on the final run to the checkers. The “Reaper” had nothing for Hoffman’s speed on the cushion though, as Hoffman drove a perfect final eight laps on his way to the checkered flag.
The victory combined with Pierce’s DNF cut Hoffman’s deficit in the standings down to 50 points, although it wasn’t the way Hoffman intended on closing the gap.
“You don’t want to win them this way, this is probably the worst way to win them,” Hoffman said. “Our race car was good, probably should have been a little more patient obviously. Bobby goes from sixth to third there right away, lined up beside him, felt like I got a good restart and just had to throw a pretty big bomb there. It can go both ways.”
Gustin’s second-place run was a remarkable showing considering he needed a provisional to start the feature, extending his World of Outlaws top-five streak at Deer Creek to six in a row.
“Felt like we had a really good car there, we just weren’t as fast as Nick there at the end,” Gustin said. “He could leave a lot better than I could coming off two there through the middle, but I felt like that’s the best I’ve been through the middle in a long time. Definitely learned something for the notebook.”
Dennis Erb Jr. rounded out the podium in third to establish a new career best at Deer Creek and close within 24 points of Tim McCreadie as they race for a spot in the top five.
“Things have been rolling pretty good for us,” Erb said. “We were a little bit behind the eight-ball tonight, qualified bad but got away through the Heat Race and then was able to get up through there. That deal that happened earlier was a bad deal for everybody, hate to see that, but we were able to finish it off here and come home third.”
Tanner English continued his resurgence with his second fourth-place run of the weekend, while Drake Troutman rounded out the top five after charging forward from 24th.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Hoffman[2]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin[23]; 3. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[16]; 4. 96-Tanner English[20]; 5. 22*-Drake Troutman[24]; 6. 49-Jake Timm[11]; 7. 3S-Brian Shirley[14]; 8. 0-Jake O’Neil[7]; 9. 09-Michael Leach[22]; 10. 43-Derrick Stewart[18]; 11. 2-Cody Overton[15]; 12. 99B-Boom Briggs[17]; 13. B1-Brent Larson[13]; 14. 40B-Kyle Bronson[21]; 15. 76-Blair Nothdurft[19]; 16. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[12]; 17. 1X-Aaron Marrant[9]; 18. 19-Dustin Sorensen[5]; 19. 16-Tyler Bruening[1]; 20. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 21. 9M-Tim McCreadie[3]; 22. 25-Chad Simpson[8]; 23. 74X-Ethan Dotson[10]; 24. 32S-Chris Simpson[4]
