MOBERLY, Mo. — Bobby Pierce showed total dominance on Sunday night in what was a picture-perfect evening in the running of the third annual Wiener Nationals at the Moberly Motorsports Park.
Pierce pulled the clean sweep on the night, starting off by grabbing the $1,000 MyRacePass Quick Time Award, followed by a heat race win that placed him on the pole for the nights 30-lap main event.
Pierce started alongside of Jeff Herzog and wasted no time in showing that he would have the car to beat from the drop of the green flag, but it was all for not on the opening lap when third starting Mason Oberkramer spun in front of field in the first turn bringing out the nights first of four cautions.
Pierce brought the field to the green and jumped to a big advantage with rookie Dillon McCowan second.
The only thing to slow Pierce on the night was a heavy pack of lapped traffic that allowed McCowan to quickly close in on the leader.
However, for McCowan that opportunity quickly evaporated as once Pierce was able to clear the pack he jump right back out to a considerable advantage, leaving McCowan to scramble his way through the same traffic.
The final caution of the night slowed the field with just 11 laps to go. On the restart, Pierce and his Vic Hill powered Longhorn Chassis quickly left the field as he cruised to his 11th career Lucas Oil MLRA win by a margin of 3.074 seconds, cashing in on the $10,000 main event payday.
Chris Simpson used the final restart to charge past McCowan and held on for a runner up finish for the second consecutive night. McCowan’s third place run netted him his second podium finish of the season while MLRA point leader Chad Simpson finished a sold fourth with just three points events remaining on the season.
“The car was really good,” Pierce said. “We didn’t have to touch it too much tonight with the track staying fast. This is one of the first races in a long time that my dad hasn’t been at. They went home to get ready for Eldora, but we were on the phone a little bit tonight. I got to give a huge thanks to my crew and all these fans for coming out here tonight.”
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): 1. 32P-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 32S-Chris Simpson[4]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan[5]; 4. 25-Chad Simpson[8]; 5. 15-Justin Duty[11]; 6. 11H-Jeff Herzog[2]; 7. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[13]; 8. 1X-Aaron Marrant[10]; 9. 14G-Trevor Gundaker[12]; 10. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[6]; 11. 23-Chad Walter[16]; 12. 93-Mason Oberkramer[3]; 13. 14W-Dustin Walker[17]; 14. 26-Glen Powell[18]; 15. 10-TRACY Melloway[20]; 16. (DNF) 3-Jon Melloway[27]; 17. (DNF) 14X-David Melloway[19]; 18. (DNF) 81-Jimmy Dowell[23]; 19. (DNF) 22H-Dustin Hodges[7]; 20. (DNF) 50C-Kayden Clatt[14]; 21. (DNF) 7D-Dusty Leonard[9]; 22. (DNF) 00B-Matt Becker[15]; 23. (DNF) 29-Chandler Moenning[21]; 24. (DNF) 16-Ashlee Lancaster[25]; 25. (DNF) 32-Derek Fetter[24]; 26. (DNF) 14M-Nathan Herne[22]; 27. (DNS) 50-Kaeden Cornell