Bobby Pierce led all 40 laps at Tri-City
The Castrol FloRacing Night in America Series took to the Tri-City Speedway to contest its fourth event of the 2021 season on Tuesday night. At the end of a dominating night of racing, it was Bobby Pierce who wheeled his Pierce Race Cars machine into victory lane at the Granite City, Ill. facility. The Oakwood, Ill. driver earned $10,000 for his efforts in a race shown live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 27 cars were signed in for competition.
Bobby Pierce was fastest in qualifying with a lap of 15.576 seconds around the 3/8 mile clay oval which bested the efforts of Billy Laycock, Tony Jackson Jr., Kyle Bronson, Chris Simpson, Daryn Klein, Shannon Babb, Kolby Vandenbergh, Mike Marlar, and Brandon Sheppard.
Bobby Pierce won the first heat race of the night over Shannon Babb, Earl Pearson Jr., Kyle Bronson, and Brandon Sheppard.
Billy Laycock took the second preliminary ahead of Jonathan Davenport, Chris Simpson, Jimmy Owens, and Kolby Vandenbergh.
Tony Jackson Jr. was the victor in the third and final heat as he topped Kyle Larson, Daryn Klein, Rick Eckert and Mike Marlar.
With inclement weather approaching, there were no B-main races held as all cars being allowed to start the main event.
When the green flag waved to start the 40-lap feature, Pierce took the early lead over Jackson, Laycock, Davenport, and Pearson. Davenport charged by Laycock to take third on the second circuit. The No. 49 then moved up to challenge Jackson for the runner-up position just before a caution for the slowing car of Kyle Bronson slowed the action.
Paul Roider and Chris Simpson tangled on the restart to bring out another yellow flag.
The race would stay green for the remainder of the distance following the Roider-Simpson caution. On the lap 4 restart, Davenport jumped to second with Pearson moving to fourth. But Pearson did not stay put long as he took third away from Jackson on lap 6. Further back, Larson entered the top-5 at the same time bypassing Laycock.
Pierce and Davenport pulled away from the rest of the field by lap 10. Not giving up, however, Larson rose to fourth when he moved around Jackson on lap 13. Two laps later the NASCAR star would take third away from Pearson.
By the halfway point, Pierce was employing a high line that saw him brush the wall on a couple of occasions while pulling far ahead of any potential challenger. Owens broke into the top-5 on lap 25 then went after Pearson for fourth. However, the No. 20 would ultimately fall back into the clutches of Babb who would later wrest fifth away from the defending Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion.
Over the course of the closing laps, Pierce held a commanding lead while Larson tried to close in on Davenport for second. In the end, it would be Pierce who sailed under the checkered flag to get the win in his home state.
Pierce became the fourth different winner in the four FloRacing Night in America features held this season.
Feature Finish: 1. Bobby Pierce, 2. Jonathan Davenport, 3. Kyle Larson, 4. Earl Pearson Jr., 5. Shannon Babb, 6. Jimmy Owens, 7. Tony Jackson Jr., 8. Rick Eckert, 9. Tanner English, 10. Brandon Sheppard, 11. Mike Marlar, 12. Gordy Gundaker, 13. Jeff Herzog, 14. Reid Millard, 15. Rusty Guffaw, 16. Billy Laycock, 17. Trevor Gundaker, 18. Kyle Bronson, 19. Kent Robinson, 20. Kolby Vandenbergh, 21. Daryn Klein, 22. Billy Moyer Jr., 23. Blake Bailey, 24. Ryan King, 25. Chris Simpson, 26. Brent McKinnon, 27. Paul Roider
