MINERAL WELLS, W. Va. — After more than a decade of trying, Bobby Pierce can finally call himself a Dirt Late Model Dream champion.
Winning the North-South 100 and the World 100 within a month in 2016 at age 19 let the world know the teenager was something special. It didn’t take long for Pierce to start checking off other crown jewels, including the Show-Me 100 in 2017, the Silver Dollar Nationals in 2019 and the USA Nationals in 2023.
Then came 2024, when Pierce added the Prairie Dirt Classic – a win that meant more than any to the lifelong Illinois resident – plus the Late Model Knoxville Nationals and the Dirt Track World Championship.
Along the way, the No. 32 team elected to hit the road fulltime with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision in 2023, and Pierce has already become a two-time champion and the fourth-winningest driver in the history of the series.
Even with all that success, Pierce knew his resume wouldn’t be truly complete without late model racing’s original six-figure payday.
But after charging up from 13th and taking the lead from Brandon Sheppard with 42 laps to go on Saturday night at Eldora Speedway, the “Smooth Operator” finally got to check the box next to the Dream.
“It feels probably about the same as those experiences,” Pierce said. “Obviously, winning my first World, I was so young, I didn’t even know what was going on, to be honest. The second one was really cool because it had been so long. It was like, ‘OK, we got a second one, the first one wasn’t a fluke or something.’ The first Dirt Track World Championship was awesome because of the money, being $100,000-to-win. Just to do it at Eldora, be on the stage yet again, there’s nothing like being on the stage at Eldora.
“The Dream has been a race that, for several, several years, I’ve struggled at the Dream. I would always do really well at the World, even back in the Pierce car days. I would do well at the World, struggle at the Dream. It was just a constant, every year I wouldn’t look forward to this race. And then over the last couple years, we’ve put down some solid finishes, got on the podium year after year after year. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t feeling the most confidence heading into this weekend, but it quickly turned around when we won our prelim race. From then on, it was just make the right calls and hope it happens.”
Pierce certainly isn’t the only one on his crew who recognizes the significance of the achievement. His crew chief and father, Bob Pierce, came close to winning a Dream of his own multiple times in the 1990s before stepping out of the seat to guide his son’s budding career.
In a sport where most drivers who started out racing with their parents eventually moved on to other opportunities that could take them to the next level, every accomplishment of Pierce’s is more meaningful because of how it came with the same family team that he’s been with since his quarter midget days 20 years ago.
“[Bob]’s been around forever, and he knows the struggles of racing,” Pierce said. “It’s an up-and-down sport. He’s got more experience at it than I do. For him, to see me win, that feels like a win for him, I know it does. He can kind of puff out his chest and be like, ‘Yeah, I helped set up that car.’ It’s a really good feeling for all of us, my whole family. All of our friends, sponsors and fans that were there to celebrate with us, it’ll be an awesome memory.”
Between the 2024 World 100, back-to-back Dirt Track World Championships in 2024 and 2025 and now the 2026 Dream, Pierce has won four of his last six Eldora crown jewel starts. That’s an incredible statistic on its own, but it’s also part of a larger changing of the guard at the “Big E.”
Throughout its 70-year history, Eldora has tended to favor age and experience over the bright young stars. In recent seasons, the favorites to end up in the top five by the end of 100 laps have included drivers like 42-year-old Jonathan Davenport, 51-year-old Chris Madden and 60-year-old Dale McDowell.
However, Pierce is carrying the flag for a new and youthful wave of Eldora legends. McDowell and Davenport were the only two drivers in the top 10 over the age of 40, and Pierce was one of four in their 20s. Those numbers don’t include Trey Mills, who earned the pole at age 18 before dropping back and finishing 17th in his first Dream feature start.
“They just know how to get around here, they know how to save their tires,” Pierce said of the advantages the veterans carry at Eldora. “You saw it tonight, so many young generation drivers, like Trey Mills starting on the pole. I started back in 13th, and I just looked through the field, I was like, ‘OK, under 20, in his 20s, in his 20s, in his young 30s, maybe pushing 40, young 20s.’ Everyone was just young. The sport’s going to do pretty good.”
Pierce’s next focus is his first visit to the reconfigured West Virginia Motor Speedway (Friday-Saturday, June 12-13).
