HELD ‘EM OFF: Pierce Defends Lead from Sheppard at I-55 to Win 12th of Season
Martin speaks after early incident while leading, Feger 15th-sixth
PEVELY, MO – Aug. 14, 2021 – Bobby Pierce has conquered many of DIRTcar’s most historic venues across the Midwest over his young career, but one track had continuously excluded him from Summer Nationals Victory Lane.
Saturday night at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55, the three-time Hell Tour champion finally checked the third-mile, high-banked oval off of his list with a victory in the 40-lap Feature event, worth $10,000 and his 39th career victory with the tour.
For as many times he’s raced I-55 with the Summer Nationals but never won, some might think he’d dread coming to the place every year. But in reality, it’s one of his favorites.
“This is definitely one of the top-three of my favorite tracks, if not, my favorite,” Pierce said. “Throughout the years of coming here for Summer Nationals, if it hasn’t rained out, it’s been really tough competition every time.”
But to reach Victory Lane, he had to do what he failed to the night before at Highland Speedway – defend the lead from a hungry Brandon Sheppard.
Pierce inherited the lead after an unfortunate incident on Lap 8 between polesitter and race leader Logan Martin. He and Jeff Roth came together in Turn 3 as he was trying to make the pass to put him a lap down, leaving Martin in the wall and off on the hook.
“I went in there, and he didn’t hold his line. He started at the bottom of Turns 1-2 and exited on the top, and I about got him, so I exited on the bottom because I thought he was going to run the top. Then we get down into 3-4 and he turns left to go to the middle, and we ended up in it,” Martin said.
“It’s just super frustrating for our race team when we put a ton of work and effort into this. You try and do everything you can to try and put yourself in position to win those races and end up losing it on a deal like that, it’s just super frustrating.”
“I saw that almost before it happened, luckily,” Pierce said of the incident. “I had the car checked-up, or else, I would have been in that, probably.”
Now with the lead and a clear track ahead of him, Pierce went back to work. As did Sheppard’s B5, who moved up to second by Lap 13.
Several caution flags were seen over the course of the race, but Pierce held strong on the restarts. Sheppard gave chase in the closing stages, chopping the lead down to under a full second in traffic, but was unable to catch Pierce at the checkers.
“With Brandon [Sheppard] behind me, he’s one of the best in the biz… last night, we had a hell of a battle. I didn’t want to give that to him again,” Pierce said.
Sheppard crossed in second, Ashton Winger in third, Shannon Babb in fourth and Gordy Gundaker the top-five.
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33 entries
DIRTCAR LATE MODELS
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 2. B5-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 3. 12-Ashton Winger[5]; 4. 18-Shannon Babb[6]; 5. 11-Gordy Gundaker[8]; 6. 25-Jason Feger[15]; 7. 81E-Tanner English[7]; 8. 26M-Brent McKinnon[11]; 9. 54-Dane Dacus[10]; 10. 74-Mitch McGrath[9]; 11. 44-Blaze Burwell[17]; 12. 23-Paul Roider[14]; 13. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[20]; 14. 33-Rickey Frankel[16]; 15. 14R-Jeff Roth[12]; 16. 14G-Joe Godsey[19]; 17. 248-Brandon Lance[22]; 18. 10-Daryn Klein[2]; 19. 14-Paul Kuper[18]; 20. 16-Rusty Griffaw[13]; 21. 36-Logan Martin[1]; 22. 6K-Michael Kloos[21]
Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps): 1. 44-Blaze Burwell[4]; 2. 14-Paul Kuper[2]; 3. 35-Claude Walker[1]; 4. 25T-Tucker Finch[6]; 5. 38-Thomas Hunziker[9]; 6. 4D-Doug Tye[15]; 7. 15-Kolby Vandenbergh[13]; 8. 4-Jason Suhre[11]; 9. 1H-Josh Heuiser[8]; 10. 26-Matt Zimmerly[5]; 11. 3-Scott Henseler[14]; 12. 16W-Tony Wolf[10]; 13. 14G-Joe Godsey[3]; 14. 148-Tim Lance[7]; 15. 248-Brandon Lance[12]; 16. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[17]; 17. (DNS) 6K-Michael Kloos
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. B5-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 2. 12-Ashton Winger[1]; 3. 74-Mitch McGrath[3]; 4. 16-Rusty Griffaw[5]; 5. 35-Claude Walker[4]; 6. 26-Matt Zimmerly[8]; 7. 38-Thomas Hunziker[6]; 8. 15-Kolby Vandenbergh[7]; 9. (DNS) 11T-Trevor Gundaker
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. 81E-Tanner English[1]; 3. 26M-Brent McKinnon[4]; 4. 25-Jason Feger[6]; 5. 14G-Joe Godsey[3]; 6. 148-Tim Lance[5]; 7. 4-Jason Suhre[7]; 8. (DNS) 4D-Doug Tye
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 36-Logan Martin[2]; 2. 18-Shannon Babb[1]; 3. 54-Dane Dacus[4]; 4. 23-Paul Roider[5]; 5. 14-Paul Kuper[3]; 6. 25T-Tucker Finch[6]; 7. 16W-Tony Wolf[7]; 8. 3-Scott Henseler[8]
Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 10-Daryn Klein[2]; 2. 11-Gordy Gundaker[1]; 3. 14R-Jeff Roth[6]; 4. 33-Rickey Frankel[4]; 5. 44-Blaze Burwell[5]; 6. 1H-Josh Heuiser[7]; 7. 248-Brandon Lance[8]; 8. 6K-Michael Kloos[3]
Qualifying Group 1 (2 Laps): 1. 12-Ashton Winger, 00:12.291[8]; 2. 81E-Tanner English, 00:12.300[1]; 3. B5-Brandon Sheppard, 00:12.389[14]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:12.394[11]; 5. 74-Mitch McGrath, 00:12.458[4]; 6. 14G-Joe Godsey, 00:12.593[7]; 7. 35-Claude Walker, 00:12.719[3]; 8. 26M-Brent McKinnon, 00:12.732[13]; 9. 16-Rusty Griffaw, 00:12.761[6]; 10. 148-Tim Lance, 00:12.770[2]; 11. 38-Thomas Hunziker, 00:12.794[9]; 12. 25-Jason Feger, 00:12.799[17]; 13. 15-Kolby Vandenbergh, 00:12.810[15]; 14. 4-Jason Suhre, 00:13.079[16]; 15. 26-Matt Zimmerly, 00:13.417[12]; 16. 4D-Doug Tye[5]; 17. (DNS) 11T-Trevor Gundaker
Qualifying Group 2 (2 Laps): 1. 18-Shannon Babb, 00:12.174[1]; 2. 11-Gordy Gundaker, 00:12.344[12]; 3. 36-Logan Martin, 00:12.424[11]; 4. 10-Daryn Klein, 00:12.468[15]; 5. 14-Paul Kuper, 00:12.601[3]; 6. 6K-Michael Kloos, 00:12.674[10]; 7. 54-Dane Dacus, 00:12.707[14]; 8. 33-Rickey Frankel, 00:12.820[6]; 9. 23-Paul Roider, 00:12.860[5]; 10. 44-Blaze Burwell, 00:12.864[16]; 11. 25T-Tucker Finch, 00:13.002[9]; 12. 14R-Jeff Roth, 00:13.046[8]; 13. 16W-Tony Wolf, 00:13.504[2]; 14. 1H-Josh Heuiser, 00:13.522[7]; 15. 3-Scott Henseler, 00:14.182[13]; 16. 248-Brandon Lance, 00:14.725[4]