BROWNSTOWN, IN – Bobby Pierce continued his historic run with the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series Friday night at Brownstown Speedway, displaying another “smooth operation.”
The Oakwood, IL won the Hoosier Dirt Classic, his 13th Series win of the year, and extended his points lead with the World of Outlaws World Finals (Nov. 1-4) less than a month away.
Pierce began the night by scoring the Simpson Quick Time Award and then won CASE No.1 Engine Oil Heat #1.
When it came time for the 40-lap Feature, Ryan Gustin lined up on the pole with Pierce to his outside. However, Gustin was out of contention early after suffering an issue on Lap 2.
Batavia, OH’s Adam Stricker took the lead at the start of the race and led the first seven laps. Pierce kept Stricker within striking distance and perfected a slider on Lap 8 to take the lead.
Once out front, he never relinquished the lead. But cautions didn’t make it an easy cruise to the checkered flag, opening the chance for more drivers to challenge. One of those drivers was Gray Court, SC’s Chris Madden – Pierce’s closest points competitor.
“Smokey” gave Pierce a scare on a restart, diving underneath the #32, but Pierce was too strong around the top. Once he found his rhythm, Pierce pulled away.
With the win, Pierce builds confidence heading into Saturday night’s program at Fairbury Speedway and the southern tracks next week.
“During the first Heat Race, it was a little tricky” Pierce said. “We had to guess on what the track was going to do after the Heats. I told my dad ‘The tacky spots are tacky, and the slick spots are slick.’ So, we went ahead and tightened it up. I was a little nervous on the tire choice because everyone else was almost the same, and we had one tire that was different than the rest of the field. I think that’s why I got tight, but an awesome car, awesome effort by my team again. I can’t thank those guys enough.”
Madden finished second – his second runner-up in a row with the Series. However, he now trails Pierce by 150 points with six races remaining.
“We had a good race,” Madden said. “Started fourth, worked to second, and had a solid car all night long. You can’t pass a guy following around, so we had to set the car up to be better in the middle, but we were close. Just a little bit more, and we would have been right there. Another second, so it was a great night for my team.”
Completing the night’s podium was New Waverly, TX’s Tyler Erb, who also earned the Fox Factory Hard Charger Award after starting back in 16th place.
“It was a good race,” Erb said. “The track had a lot of character which doesn’t make the Heats very good, but the Feature was where I had to ran the top of Turns 1 and 2 and all over in Turns 3 and 4. I had to be careful with the tires when I ran down low, but all in all it was really good.”
St. Charles, MO’s Gordy Gundaker finished fourth – his first top-five since May – and Stricker held on to finish fifth.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models make their return to Fairbury Speedway on Saturday, Oct. 7, with the running of the FALS Frenzy.
If you can’t make it to the track, watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online on with the DIRTVision App.
RESULTS:
CASE Late Mode Feature (40 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. 44-Chris Madden[4]; 3. 1-Tyler Erb[16]; 4. 11-Gordy Gundaker[5]; 5. 68-Adam Stricker[3]; 6. 40B-Kyle Bronson[10]; 7. 97-Cade Dillard[8]; 8. 25-Shane Clanton[14]; 9. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[20]; 10. 96V-Tanner English[23]; 11. 9-Nick Hoffman[18]; 12. B1-Brent Larson[17]; 13. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[19]; 14. 76-Shelby Miles[11]; 15. 30-Todd Cooney[9]; 16. 71R-Rod Conley[21]; 17. B5-Brandon Sheppard[7]; 18. 32S-Chad Stapleton[25]; 19. 33AJ-Austin Lay[26]; 20. 3S-Brian Shirley[12]; 21. 15-James Rice[13]; 22. 1G-Devin Gilpin[22]; 23. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[6]; 24. 33-Jesse Lay[27]; 25. 14W-Dustin Walker[24]; 26. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 27. 88-Greg Johnson[15]
