For the first time in 2024, Bobby Pierce returned to victory lane, passing Mike Marlar with three laps to go to secure the win in Night 2 of the Wild West Shootout at Vado Speedway Park.
The pass came two laps after a late-race caution, when the driver of the No. 32 car got a run off of turn 2 and snuck his nose underneath Marlar’s to get by.
“I knew it had to be that time,” Pierce said on FloRacing after the race. “I knew (Marlar) was probably going to come down, but I had to stick my nose in there and go for it. I figured it was probably a matter of time before he moved up in turn 1. If he would have moved up, he probably would have gotten me.”
“I had to go for it,” Pierce said. “I don’t know how much room I gave him, but I was going for the win.”
Marlar, who had led the entirety of the race to that point and had held off multiple charges from Kyle Larson, thought his combination of pace and a softer tire compound would be enough to hang on for the win himself.
“We probably had her there, but (my tires were) one compound softer than (Pierce’s),” Marlar said on the FloRacing broadcast. “When we had that caution, I thought, ‘Well, these tires will cool down, I’m probably home free now,’ but it wasn’t like that at all. When I took off, I was skating around and couldn’t go, and his harder tire was gripping. So, congratulations to Bobby. He’s fun to race with and hard to beat.”
Tyler Erb snuck by Larson in the waning moments of the race to take the final spot on the podium. Saturday’s winner Cade Dillard finished P5.
“That was an awesome race,” Pierce said. “We missed a little bit on the setup. We kind of tuned her down too much. Just trying to rip around there, I was giving her all she had, but it made the car pretty good on the slick.”
The Wild West Shootout will continue throughout the weekend after Monday serves as an off day and Tuesday is open free for fans in the area to see practice. Night 3 of the event kicks off Wednesday afternoon live on FloRacing.
Dirt Late Model race results
Wild West Shootout Night 2
Vado Speedway Park
Sun. January 7, 2024
1. Bobby Pierce
2. Mike Marlar
3. Tyler Erb
4. Kyle Larson
5. Cade Dillard
6. Garrett Alberson
7. Shannon Babb
8. Ricky Weiss
9. Tyler Stevens
10. Don Shaw
11. Kyle Beard
12. Drake Troutman
13. Justin Duty
14. Jake O’Neil
15. Kaden Koneycutt
16. Chase Junghans
17. Rodney Sanders
18. Jake Timm
19. Mikey Kile
20. Forrest Trent
21. Clayton Stuckey
22. Bricen James
23. Sam Mars
24. Collen Winebarger
25. Preston Luckman
