FOUNTAIN CITY, Wis. — Ryan Gustin is at his best when the big money is on the line.
Two of his biggest wins last season came in the $100,000-to-win USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway and the $50,000-to-win Bayou Classic at Boothill Speedway.
Through the first 19 races of the 2026 World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision season, Gustin was uncharacteristically winless.
But with $40,000 up for grabs in the finale of the Dairyland Showdown at Mississippi Thunder Speedway, the “Reaper” found a way to strike.
After scoring three-straight regional wins in the past two weeks, it appeared as if the Cooney Motorsports No. 19r team had shaken off their slow start to the season. They opened the weekend at Mississippi Thunder with a third-place finish on Thursday, then improved to second on Friday. When Saturday’s 50-lapper rolled around, Gustin and team put all the pieces together for a wire-to-wire victory.
The race was on between the likes of Nick Hoffman, Jonathan Davenport and Michael Leach early on, but none of them had anything for Gustin out front. It wasn’t long before Bobby Pierce joined the party after starting 15th, and he quickly disposed of all of them and started to run down Gustin.
In the span of six laps, Pierce cut the gap to Gustin from two seconds to half a second when the caution flag flew with four to go. Two more solid restarts later, Gustin ensured Pierce never got close enough to try any last-lap heroics and made his way to World of Outlaws Victory Lane for the 16th time in his career.
“I looked up there on the board and seen 32,” Pierce said. “I figured he was probably going to try fire on the cushion, but I didn’t want to leave a lane down there at the same time. Just tried to hit that grip the best I could, and then the first one, I turned left off of it. I just felt like I wasn’t going down the backstretch. Getting ready for the slider, trying to do something, but he was never there. Then that second one, I just kind of attacked it a little bit harder just to not leave the door open, I don’t know how close he was or anything like that.”
Pierce crossed the line second to cut Hoffman’s points lead down to three, while Davenport had his best finish of the week in third. Nick Hoffman and Daulton Wilson completed the rest of the top five.
The finish:
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 19R-Ryan Gustin[2]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[15]; 3. 49D-Jonathan Davenport[7]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman[1]; 5. 58V-Daulton Wilson[8]; 6. 9M-Tim McCreadie[9]; 7. 09-Michael Leach[4]; 8. 74X-Ethan Dotson[23]; 9. 1-Tyler Erb[5]; 10. 22*-Drake Troutman[17]; 11. 97-Cade Dillard[14]; 12. 19-Dustin Sorensen[16]; 13. 13-Dallon Murty[11]; 14. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[20]; 15. 76-Blair Nothdurft[13]; 16. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[22]; 17. 28M-Sam Mars[19]; 18. 14-Trey Mills[12]; 19. 15A-Nick Anvelink[21]; 20. B1-Brent Larson[3]; 21. 1Z-Logan Zarin[24]; 22. 14S-Collen Winebarger[6]; 23. 55E-Eli Johnson[25]; 24. 32S-Chris Simpson[18]; 25. 49-Jake Timm[10]
