COLUMBUS, Miss. — No one loves to see a new addition to the schedule more than Bobby Pierce.
The first of eight tracks hosting their first World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision race in 2026 was Hendry County Motorsports Park in February, and Pierce was the first to reach victory lane.
Fast forward a month to the first night of the Duel at the Mag, and the two-time and defending Series champion once again rallied to the front to win Magnolia Motor Speedway’s first World of Outlaws race.
“That’s just a cool piece of history there to be part of,” Pierce said following the 45th World of Outlaws win of his career. “Man, I’m wore out from that race. The track formed those dirt bike ruts and the tires would sit in it, you never knew if it was going to take it or not. You had to be up on the wheel constantly. Fun race track, really. I loved it.”
At the start of the 40-lap Feature, it appeared Drake Troutman was in position to grab the first win of his sophomore World of Outlaws campaign. Engine trouble earlier in the week forced crew chief Hunter Cornell to make an emergency trip back to the G.R. Smith Motorsports shop in Statesville, N.C., to pick up another car, a situation that prevented Troutman from turning any laps in Thursday’s practice sessions.
Nevertheless, Troutman proved he had the fastest car on the track early on, roaring around the outside of Nick Hoffman to take the lead six laps in. The gap ballooned to north of two seconds at one point, but it quickly began diminishing once Pierce passed Hoffman for second and began matching Troutman’s pace on the cushion.
Soon after a caution around the halfway point, Pierce threw a big slider into Turn 1 and cleared Troutman. The No. 22* pulled the crossover down the backstretch but then committed to the bottom, leaving the high side wide open for Pierce to set sail. The No. 32 was in command from that point forward, leading the rest of the way for his second win in seven days following last Saturday’s triumph at Smoky Mountain Speedway.
“When I caught Nick for second there, I think I kind of reeled him down and he went down, got around the top,” Pierce said. “Then that caution came out, I wasn’t really wanting to see that because we were catching Drake. Once again, I feel like I kind of chose the wrong spot on the restart. Hoffman kind of got around us, we had a really good race, racing three-wide for second. I don’t know, just kept working and working [Troutman], the car was good.”
Hoffman crossed the line second to keep Pierce within 10 points in the championship standings, while Jonathan Davenport finished third in his first World of Outlaws start of the season. Ryan Gustin and Ashton Winger rounded out the top five, while Troutman faded to sixth at the checkers.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 2. 9-Nick Hoffman[1]; 3. 49-Jonathan Davenport[10]; 4. 19R-Ryan Gustin[5]; 5. 12-Ashton Winger[9]; 6. 22*-Drake Troutman[4]; 7. 58V-Daulton Wilson[17]; 8. 74X-Ethan Dotson[21]; 9. 1-Tyler Erb[3]; 10. 16-Sam Seawright[13]; 11. 09-Michael Leach[7]; 12. 14-Trey Mills[11]; 13. C6-Oakley Johns[14]; 14. 11-Austin Smith[15]; 15. 49M-Luke Morey[16]; 16. 97-Cade Dillard[8]; 17. T1-Todd Morrow[26]; 18. 19-Dustin Sorensen[24]; 19. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[18]; 20. 1Z-Logan Zarin[22]; 21. 19M-Brenden Smith[20]; 22. B1-Brent Larson[25]; 23. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[2]; 24. K3-Spencer Hughes[12]; 25. 90-Brian Rickman[19]; 26. 9M-Tim McCreadie[23]
