Pierce Rules LaSalle Revival; Banks $20,000 FloRacing Win

LA SALLE, Ill. – Bobby Pierce won Tuesday night’s season opener for the Castrol FloRacing Night in America series at a revived LaSalle Speedway.

While he started back in sixth, the “Smooth Operator” started picking off the field one by one. With 23 laps to go in the 50-lap feature, Pierce passed Drake Troutman on the high side in turn four and never looked back.

Pierce’s only threat was a charge from defending series champ Ricky Thorton Jr., but a late yellow stopped Thornton’s charge right when it started.

With eight laps to go, Pierce made the most of the final restart and opened up a comfortable gap to RTJ by the time the checkered flag flew, winning by over three seconds and earning his 12th win of the year.

Worth $20,000, it was also Pierce’s eighth career FloRacing miniseries victory, the most all time.

“I told D.J. we were getting 12 tonight, so we got it,” Pierce said in victory lane. “Tony Izzo [Jr.] did a great job. The track was phenomenal. I know the infield tires got knocked down in [turn four] and it got a little dusty. If you could hit a good lap on the top it was really fast. You could go to the bottom and make some passes down there too.

“[It’s] pretty cool to see a race track come back to life like this. There's a lot of good fans in this area. They deserve a good track here, so that's cool to see,” he continued. “[It’s awesome to win the first Flo race of the year, too. We didn’t qualify good. I thought our night was going to be a long night. I haven’t been used to being this slow in qualifying. But it ended up being not that bad; we were second row in our heat race.

“Qualifying can be so important and crucial on these nights, especially when you’ve got a World 100 [caliber] field like tonight.”

Tuesday marked the first time since June of 2021 that LaSalle saw fans in the stands for a night of racing. Fans poured out to watch practice on April 29 in preparation of the action, and they showed up in droves for race night.

Tony Izzo Jr. and Justin McCoy joined together to bring back the speedway and have made full renovations to the facility. It isn’t just a one-time show either, as they will continue to have racing, as well as car shows, monster truck shows, and even a rodeo later this year.

“I don’t deserve a congratulations; it’s all you [fans] who came out that help make this successful,” an emotional Izzo said. “Thank you to everyone leaving. Be careful going home. Thank you for supporting what we’re doing. Without [Justin McCoy] and my mother, who could have sold the property several times and chose to keep it as a racetrack; [McCoy] stepping up and saying ‘Let’s do it. Let’s bring it back’ … this wouldn’t have happened.

“He deserves [the credit]; my mom deserves it, and [the fans] deserve it. I love every one of you. Thank you so much.”

McCoy echoed Izzo Jr.’s sentiments.

“[I] just thank everyone for coming out. LaSalle’s back baby!” McCoy exclaimed.

‘The Reaper’ Ryan Gustin started the race from the pole, but Troutman was able to take the lead on lap four on the outside of turn two, with fireworks still going off in the background. Despite several challenges from Gustin, Troutman held him off and Gustin fell into the clutches of Pierce.

Pierce took over second place with 31 laps to go and started reeling in Troutman, getting by for good on lap 28.

The first caution fell on the next lap as Cody Overton slowed off turn four before pulling into the pits. Troutman kept Pierce in his sights once he was passed, but the restart changed all of that.

Troutman tried to jump to the outside in turn four on the restart, but hit the wall and fell back all the way to eighth in one lap. That promoted Thorton to second but let Pierce get a big lead.

With 17 laps left, Devon Moran spun in turn two off the nose of Tyler Erb Jr. in turn two, but was able to do a 360 and kept going, allowing the race to stay green.

As Pierce got into lapped traffic, Thornton was able to close the gap, but the caution fell with eight to go for a piece of Kyle Bronson’s spoiler that got stuck in the catch fence in turn four.

Gustin had to pit under the caution while running in third to change a right rear tire, ending the good run he was having. Pierce held strong on the restart and took the win, with Thorton finishing runner-up and Nick Hoffman on the bottom step of the podium.

Brandon Sheppard and Jonathan Davenport rounded out the top five.

The next FloRacing Night in America race is Wednesday night at Spoon River Speedway in Canton, Ill. Coverage starts at 6 p.m. ET, live on FloRacing.

The finish:

Feature (50 laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce [6]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr. [7]; 3. 9H-Nick Hoffman [9]; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard [4]; 5. 49-Jonathan Davenport [11]; 6. 3S-Brian Shirley [5]; 7. 157-Mike Marlar [3]; 8. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr. [12]; 9. 74X-Ethan Dotson [10]; 10. 22*-Drake Troutman [2]; 11. 111-Max Blair [19]; 12. 9-Tim McCreadie [18]; 13. 1T-Tyler Erb [14]; 14. 58-Garrett Alberson [8]; 15. 19R-Ryan Gustin [1]; 16. 76-Brandon Overton [15]; 17. 96-Tanner English [21]; 18. 81-Jason Riggs [16]; 19. 18D-Daulton Wilson [24]; 20. 40B-Kyle Bronson [17]; 21. 99-Devin Moran [13]; 22. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr. [20]; 23. 2-Cody Overton [23]; 24. 89-Mike Spatola [22].