With five laps to go, Bobby Pierce held a big lead over Ricky Thornton Jr. to lead the 75-lap Illini 100. Pierce was going for his first career World of Outlaws Late Models victory.
That’s when the 20RT pulled off the track and brought out the yellow flag.
On the restart, Cade Dillard passed Pierce for the lead. It looked like another one would slip away from the 32.
“Welcome to the Gulag,” Pierce said on the DirtVision broadcast while in victory lane. “I was kicking myself there.”
Pierce lets Dillard by, but took three laps to set up a methodical pass coming to the white flag, holding off Dillard and taking the win.
He’s walking off, literally, with a big $20,000 check as well as a gigantic monkey off of the veteran racers back.
“My dad said he was about to kill me on that restart right there when I did that,” Pierce said. “Man I’m shaking. This is awesome. It feels like winning the World 100. This is awesome. Thanks to all these people for coming out. Just to get it for myself, but for my family and friends – they wanted it as much as me.”
Pierce was in the lead for the majority of the race.
He took the lead from Kevin Weaver coming to the line on lap two and held it up to the final restart. The race was green for the first 70 laps.
Despite being passed off the restart, he was still able to salvage one of the biggest wins of his career.
“I’ve got a bad ass trophy here,” Pierce said. “This is awesome.”
Dillard will settle for a second-place finish, matching his best run of the season that he had in the tour’s opening race at Volusia.
He said he wanted to be a little bit more aggressive in the final five laps after inheriting the second-place position form Thornton Jr.
“I was probably just too conservative at the end,” Dillard said on the DirtVision broadcast. “Congrats to him. He ran a good race.”
Rounding out the podium was Brandon Sheppard, who charged all the way to third from an 18th-place starting position.
The driver of the Rocket1 was behind the 8-ball all night, but still managed a huge run to close the gap on series points leader Kyle Strickler.
Sheppard’s finish means that he is just 24 points back of the lead as he chases yet another championship with the tour.
He’ll be able to try and make up more ground next weekend, while Pierce will go for another big win, as the series heads to Bristol for its first race on the asphalt track covered in dirt.
For now though, Pierce and his team are going to celebrate.
They just got one of their biggest wins, ever.
World of Outlaws Late Models
13th Illini 100 Results
1. Bobby Pierce
2. Cade Dillard
3. Brandon Sheppard
4. Chris Madden
5. Rick Eckert
6. Shannon Babb
7. Kyle Bronson
8. Mike Spatola
9. Brian Shirley
10. Frank Heckenast Jr.
11. Dennis Erb Jr.
12. Darrell Lanigan
13. Kyle Strickler
14. Scott Bloomquist
15. Taylor Scheffler
16. Jimmy Mars
17. Ricky Weiss
18. Kevin Weaver
19. Tyler Bruening
20. Boom Briggs
21. Brent Larson
22. Trevor Gundaker
23. Ricky Thornton Jr.
24. Ryan Gustin
25. Tanner English
26. Allen Murray
27. Shane Clanton
28. Blake Spencer
