Pierce Controls Spoon River For Home-State WoO LM Win

Bobby Pierce celebrates in victory lane at Spoon River Speedway. (Emily Schwanke photo)

LEWISTOWN, Ill. – With a double-digit win total in each of the past two years with the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTvision, it wouldn’t have been hard to predict that Bobby Pierce would have eight wins in the first 31 races this season.

What would have been more difficult to foresee, however, was that he would have to wait until August to win one in Illinois.

The Oakwood, Ill., native rolled through Farmer City Raceway, Fairbury Speedway and Highland Speedway and left each one empty-handed. But the inaugural World of Outlaws visit to Spoon River Speedway was different.

After storming into the lead with 15 laps remaining, Pierce never looked back on his way to becoming the first World of Outlaws winner in track history.

“I love this racetrack when it’s like that,” Pierce said. “Grew up racing here a lot, and that’s the old Spoon River right there. There’s a little bit on top, but you had to really hang your tire off the edge to get it, but it was there. And then you had the moisture line around the bottom.

“Just an awesome Illinois track right there.”

The fans had no lack of local stars to root for up front, as the top five spots in the starting lineup were occupied by drivers hailing from the state. Bilstein Pole Award winner Dennis Erb Jr. led them early, but third-starting Brian Shirley quickly made his way to second and didn’t make life easy for Erb.

Shirley got to Erb’s inside and ran side-by-side with the No. 28 for multiple circuits, eventually clearing him into turn three to take over the lead. He stayed there until lap nine, when Brent Larson, Jason Wagner and Roben Huffman piled up in turn two to bring out the first caution.

Shirley survived that restart, plus another one for a spinning Cody Overton shortly thereafter, and pulled back out to a lead of more than a second. However, that advantage wouldn’t last long once Pierce got around Erb and into second with 27 to go.

Pierce only needed four laps to catch Shirley, but Tanner English slowed on the backstretch to press pause on his bid for the lead.

Shirley drove the wheels off of the No. 3S keeping Pierce at bay for eight laps after the restart, but the “Smooth Operator” eventually got enough of a run on the bottom to clear Shirley and slide up in front off turn four to take command.

From that point forward, it was all Pierce as he drove away to the 39th World of Outlaws victory of his career, tying him with Chris Madden for sixth on the all-time list.

“We definitely got them on tires tonight for sure,” Pierce said. “That helped a lot. I think I was really the only one out there on that [harder compound], it worked out.”

Trailing Pierce at the checkered flag was Jason Feger, who got by Shirley for second with seven to go for his best World of Outlaws run since his most recent victory at Davenport Speedway in 2022.

“We’ve had a really good car all summer,” Feger said. “We race regional, and we’ve got some really good cars around here, but you don’t know how you are until the big boys stack up. Bobby’s number one in the country for a reason, he’s a hell of a driver. He’s always really tough here.

“I was pretty worried there at the beginning of the race, we fell back to like eighth. Felt like we had the wrong tire on, and Bobby was struggling a little bit too because he was on a different combination yet,” Feger added. “Once it cleaned up there, we just were able to take back off and got the top working.”

Rounding out the all-Illinois podium was Brian Shirley in third with his best result since his Prairie Dirt Classic triumph at Fairbury.

“We went soft on tires,” Shirley said. “It held on to get to the lead and run until about lap 25 [or] 30, and about 10 [or] 15 to go, it got really spongy. Track just went away a little bit more than what I thought was going to happen, and hard tires were better than us.”

Nick Hoffman recovered from a switch to the backup car after a wounded engine in qualifying to finish fourth, while Shannon Babb rounded out the top five.

The finish:

Feature (40 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce [2]; 2. 25-Jason Feger [5]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley [3]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman [14]; 5. 18-Shannon Babb [4]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr. [1]; 7. B5-Brandon Sheppard [7]; 8. 9M-Tim McCreadie [10]; 9. 19-Dustin Sorensen [8]; 10. 89-Mike Spatola [17]; 11. 49-Jake Timm [22]; 12. 19R-Ryan Gustin [20]; 13. 74X-Ethan Dotson [6]; 14. 22*-Drake Troutman [9]; 15. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain [19]; 16. 99B-Boom Briggs [16]; 17. 98-Cole Swibold [24]; 18. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr. [13]; 19. 21B-Rich Bell [21]; 20. 96-Tanner English [12]; 21. 2-Cody Overton [11]; 22. 33H-Roben Huffman [25]; 23. 27-Rodney Melvin [15]; 24. B1-Brent Larson [18]; 25. J12-Jason Wagner [23].