SENOIA, Ga. — For the second time in as many nights, there’s a new man atop the points table in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision.
Friday night at East Alabama Motor Speedway, Nick Hoffman took the checkers to lead Bobby Pierce by three points. Pierce rolled into Saturday’s stop at Senoia Raceway with the goal of striking back, and he did exactly that with his fourth win of the year in the Billy Clanton Classic.
With 15 laps remaining, the low lane had become the dominant groove, but Pierce went against the grain to the top of Turns 1 and 2 to build some momentum on Hoffman in the lead.
Pierce made contact with third-running Ashton Winger as the two met in the middle down the backstretch, but both drivers kept it straight and Pierce remained in second.
Moments later, Hoffman missed the bottom going into Turn 3, leaving a lane open for Pierce to slip by on the bottom and for Winger to follow him through. The battle for the win became Pierce vs. Winger in the closing laps, and Pierce was able to hold off the winner of the last two World of Outlaws races at Senoia for his first win at the Georgia oval.
“When we had that caution, it’s like the rubber went away for a second, at least a couple laps off of [Turn] 2,” Pierce said. “That’s what allowed me to get the run to get to second. Once we caught the lap cars, it was like, ‘Man, it’s either risk it for the biscuit or settle in for second.’ I noticed how bad [Hoffman] was bunched up there behind the lappers.
“Sent it in there, and by that time, my tires were kind of shot and I just drifted for a second and that let Winger in the door. I’ve really got to apologize to him, I chopped his nose off. Plain and simple, I chopped it off. But that’s what it took to get the win, it was either that or finish third or fourth.”
The win was the 46th of Pierce’s career with the World of Outlaws, moving him within two of Shane Clanton in fourth on the all-time wins list. It also has his points lead over Hoffman at three markers going into one of his home tracks at Farmer City Raceway in two weeks.
Behind Pierce, Winger and Hoffman, Chris Madden and Ryan Gustin made up the rest of the top five.
The finish:
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 2. 12-Ashton Winger[1]; 3. 9-Nick Hoffman[2]; 4. 44-Chris Madden[6]; 5. 19R-Ryan Gustin[4]; 6. 9M-Tim McCreadie[5]; 7. 19-Dustin Sorensen[11]; 8. 14-Trey Mills[14]; 9. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[12]; 10. 74X-Ethan Dotson[23]; 11. 49M-Luke Morey[7]; 12. 25-Shane Clanton[18]; 13. 1Z-Logan Zarin[13]; 14. 1-Tyler Erb[9]; 15. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[24]; 16. 16-Sam Seawright[10]; 17. 22*-Drake Troutman[19]; 18. 58V-Daulton Wilson[15]; 19. B1-Brent Larson[21]; 20. T1-Todd Morrow[25]; 21. 21-Mario Gresham[16]; 22. 55E-Eli Johnson[26]; 23. 11-Austin Smith[22]; 24. 22-Chris Ferguson[20]; 25. 49-Jonathan Davenport[8]; 26. 18X-Michael Page[17]
