Bobby Pierce qualified second in his Friday night preliminary group at Knoxville and it stood to be the only spot that he relinquished to one of his competitors throughout the evening.
Pierce used the cushion to his advantage in a vintage drive to the front of the field and secured the pole position for Saturday’s race with the dynamic drive.
“It was an awesome night,” Pierce said in Victory Lane. “It was a big turnaround from last night from not even making the show. We were a little negative heading into it, because we know it takes some luck just to make the show.”
The story from Night 1 was how hard it was for drivers to pass because of track conditions allowing drivers to run wide open the entire way around.
Pierce wasn’t optimistic about it, tweeting this just before hot laps:
— Bobby Pierce (@BobbyPierce32) September 16, 2022
But Knoxville’s track crew delivered once again – a theme we’ve seen develop from the resilient group that surrounds the famed half mile track.
“We had an awesome car,” Pierce said. “Hat’s off to everyone that works on this thing. To end up here in Victory Lane means everything. I made it kind of exciting on the restart when the carburetor stumbled and I couldn’t get going. I hope I didn’t bottle the field behind me. We got back to the lead and it was awesome. The track was good. If you hit the brown right, it was like a traction strip on Mario and you would rocket off.”
Pierce will line up at the point on Saturday, trying to upset a driver in Jonathan Davenport that’s shown little signs of weakness throughout this season.
The action is slated to kick off a bit early on Saturday, with Knoxville moving hot laps up an hour to 5:45 p.m. CT. For fans unable to attend, the race will be streamed live on FloRacing.
18th Knoxville Late Model Nationals starting lineup
75 laps
1. 32, Bobby Pierce, 498
2. 49, Jonathan Davenport, 489
3. 16, Tyler Bruening, 489
4. 20RT, Ricky Thornton Jr., 488
5. 46, Earl Pearson Jr., 486
6. 32s, Chris Simpson, 482
7. 25c, Shane Clanton, 482
8. 76, Brandon Overton, 481
9. 39, Tim McCreadie, 480
10. 20, Jimmy Owens, 480
11. 1, Brandon Sheppard, 478
12. 8, Kyle Strickler, 477
13. 71, Hudson O’Neal, 476
14. 7w, Ricky Weiss, 461
15. 11, Spencer Hughes, 460
16. 19R, Ryan Gustin, 458
17. 04, Tad Pospisil, 456
18. 1x, Aaron Marrant, 454
19. 18J, Chase Junghans, 452
20. 3s, Brian Shirley, 451
21. 58, Garrett Alberson, 450
22. 157, Mike Marlar, 449
23. 62, Justin Zeitner, 448
24. 29D, Spencer Diercks, 445
25. B-Main 1 P1 transfer
26. B-Main 2 P1 transfer
27. B-Main 1 P2 transfer
28. B-Main 2 P2 transfer
29. B-Main 1 P3 transfer
30. B-Main 2 P3 transfer
B-Main eligible drivers
25. 7, Ross Robinson, 441
26. 22H, Daniel Hilsabeck, 440
27. 44, Chris Madden, 439
28. 2s, Stormy Scott, 436
29. 99JR, Frank Heckenast Jr., 432
30. 56, Chris Spieker, 419
31. 1T, Tyler Erb, 414
32. 18s, Jesse Sobbing, 413
33. 18D, Daulton Wilson, 398
34. 15, Justin Duty, 397
35. 22, Charlie McKenna, 396
36. 21, Billy Moyer, 392
37. 51, Matt Furman, 391
38. 33, Nick Marolf, 391
39. 40B, Kyle Bronson, 390
40. 1st, Johnny Scott, 390
41. 42, Johnathan Huston, 385
42. 53, Andrew Kosiski, 384
43. 14w, Dustin Walker, 378
44. 93, Chad Simpson, 378
45. 14M, Reid Millard, 375
46. 48, Tim Lance, 373
47. 10, Junior Coover, 369
48. 6H, Al Humphrey, 367
