Bobby Pierce took the lead after a lap 37 restart and led the last 23 laps of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series on Saturday night at Illinois’ Fairbury Speedway.
Pierce became the tenth different winner this season, pocketing $30,000 for the win.
Pierce, who started eighth, held off Dalton Wilson and Brandon Sheppard for the win. Evans, Georgia’s Brandon Overton followed in fourth, with Jimmy Owens in fifth. With his fourth-place finish Overton is the new point leader in the Big River Steel Chase for the Championship.
Shannon Babb grabbed the lead at the start of the race as he dueled it out with Dennis Erb, Jr. who rode the bottom from fifth to take the lead from Babb on lap six.
The first caution of the race came out with ten laps scored for Blairsville, Georgia’s Jonathan Davenport. On the restart, Erb led Babb and Hudson O’Neal, who had slipped back to third after starting from the pole. O’Neal took second from Babb on lap 18 and then started to close the gap on Erb as was encountering heavy traffic in front of him.
A restart on lap 36 would see Erb and O’Neal complete one lap before contact between the two in turn one. With Erb’s driver side door facing the field a caution immediately flew for safety concerns, with Babb also coming to a stop trying to avoid the incident. Erb would have to restart on the tail of the field after being charged with the caution. Erb’s night would come to an end three circuits later with a broke driveshaft.
On the restart O’Neal would be the race leader but before he would officially lead a lap Pierce nipped him at the scoring line to take the lead for the first time in the race with 37 laps in the record books. Wilson, who started 11th showed his strength on the bottom-side as he and O’Neal would go at it for second. With ten laps to go it was Pierce, Wilson and O’Neal in a battle for the race lead.
Wilson came close to sneaking by Pierce at the scoring loop as O’Neal went to the outside to regain the second spot on lap 52. O’Neal didn’t give up on Pierce as he started to reel him in. O’Neal would drift high in turn two with two laps to go, but O’Neal’s night would end shortly thereafter as he climbed the wall inflicting front end damage to his car.
A green-white-checkered restart would see Pierce hold off Wilson by 0.471 seconds at the finish.
“It’s redemption from last night at Farmer City for sure,” Pierce said. “I just messed up yesterday and my team told me to get back in the car and drive it. I have got to give a huge thanks to them. I went home last night, and they got the job done on the car. We won with a Longhorn at Fairbury on the cushion. It was an awesome night. I was pumped there. It was exciting to run the bottom or the top. It was super difficult up top.
“The whole race I really didn’t know where to go on the track. I figured if someone was going to pass me let it be on the top. If I could slide them and pass them back, then that’s what I was going to do. I was just trying to find out where I was best at.”
Spencer Hughes, Devin Moran, Gordy Gundaker, Tyler Bruening, and Max Blair rounded out the top 10.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series returns to action on Friday at 300 Raceway in Farley, Iowa. The series then moves to 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa on Saturday night. For more details, visit LucasDirt.com.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Fairbury Speedway – Fairbury, IL
FALS Spring Shootout – May 13, 2023
1. 32-Bobby Pierce
2. 18D-Daulton Wilson
3. B5-Brandon Sheppard
4. 76-Brandon Overton
5. 20-Jimmy Owens
6. 11-Spencer Hughes
7. 99-Devin Moran
8. 11G-Gordy Gundaker
9. 16-Tyler Bruening
10. 111B-Max Blair
11. 46-Earl Pearson, Jr.
12. 10-Garrett Smith
13. 3S-Brian Shirley
14. 39-Tim McCreadie
15. 99B-Boom Briggs
16. 1H-Hudson O’Neal
17. 20RT-Ricky Thornton, Jr.
18. 28-Dennis Erb, Jr.
19. 18B-Shannon Babb
20. 58-Garrett Alberson
21. B12-Kevin Weaver
22. 89M-Mike Spatola
23. 24-Ryan Unzicker
24. 157-Mike Marlar
25. 1T-Tyler Erb
26. 42-Mckay Wenger
27. 7-Ross Robinson
28. 49-Jonathan Davenport
