PEVELY, Mo. — Bobby Pierce has conquered many of DIRTcar’s most historic venues across the Midwest over his young career, but one track had continuously excluded him from DIRTcar Summer Nationals victory lane.
Saturday night at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55, the three-time Hell Tour champion finally checked the third-mile, high-banked oval off of his list with a victory in the 40-lap feature, worth $10,000. It was Pierce’s 39th victory with the tour.
For as many times he’s raced I-55 with the Summer Nationals but never won, some might think he’d dread coming to the place every year. But in reality, it’s one of his favorites.
“This is definitely one of the top-three of my favorite tracks, if not, my favorite,” Pierce said. “Throughout the years of coming here for Summer Nationals, if it hasn’t rained out, it’s been really tough competition every time.”
But to reach victory lane, he had to do what he failed to the night before at Highland Speedway – defend the lead from a hungry Brandon Sheppard.
Pierce inherited the lead after an unfortunate incident on lap eight between polesitter and race leader Logan Martin. Martin and Jeff Roth came together in turn three as he was trying to make the pass to put him a lap down, leaving Martin in the wall and off on the hook.
“I saw that almost before it happened, luckily,” Pierce said of the incident. “I had the car checked-up, or else, I would have been in that, probably.”
Now with the lead and a clear track ahead of him, Pierce went back to work. As did Sheppard, who moved up to second by lap 13.
Several caution flags were seen over the course of the race, but Pierce held strong on the restarts. Sheppard gave chase in the closing stages, chopping the lead down to under a full second in traffic, but was unable to catch Pierce at the checkers.
“With Brandon [Sheppard] behind me, he’s one of the best in the biz… last night, we had a hell of a battle. I didn’t want to give that to him again,” Pierce said.
Sheppard crossed in second, Ashton Winger in third, Shannon Babb in fourth and Gordy Gundaker the top-five.
The Finish:
1. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 2. B5-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 3. 12-Ashton Winger[5]; 4. 18-Shannon Babb[6]; 5. 11-Gordy Gundaker[8]; 6. 25-Jason Feger[15]; 7. 81E-Tanner English[7]; 8. 26M-Brent McKinnon[11]; 9. 54-Dane Dacus[10]; 10. 74- Mitch McGrath[9]; 11. 44-Blaze Burwell[17]; 12. 23-Paul Roider[14]; 13. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[20]; 14. 33-Rickey Frankel[16]; 15. 14R-Jeff Roth[12]; 16. 14G-Joe Godsey[19]; 17. 248-Brandon Lance[22]; 18. 10-Daryn Klein[2]; 19. 14- Paul Kuper[18]; 20. 16-Rusty Griffaw[13]; 21. 36-Logan Martin[1]; 22. 6K-Michael Kloos[21]