Bobby Pierce addressed the physical contact he had with Hudson O’Neal a little over halfway through the Wild West Shootout Finale as the two were racing hard for the lead.

With 21 laps left in the 50-lap feature, Hudson O’Neal crossed Bobby Pierce over coming out of turn 2 and slid him through 3 and 4. Pierce countered a lap later with a slider through 1 and 2, but the two came together exiting the turn as O’Neal roared across the top as Pierce was sliding up.

The caution would come out, but both drivers would maintain the top two positions on the track. However, Pierce would assume the lead and O’Neal went back to second due to the blend rule.

🤯 WHAT JUST HAPPENED!? @BobbyPierce32 and @HudsonONeal71 get together racing for the lead! #WildWestShootout pic.twitter.com/yNPXBGZoh0

— FloRacing (@FloRacing) January 19, 2026

Pierce went on to win the race and was never really changed again. While O’Neal nursed a wounded car to a third place podium finish.

In victory lane, Pierce addressed the contact, “First off, apologize to him. might have been my mistake there. I think I kind of misjudged how quick he was getting around 2, but that’s hard racing. That’s dirt track racing. And he earlier slid me into 3 so I figured I was going to give it back to him in 2. But, I don’t know, just didn’t work out. Just glad we were both able to finish the race. He was able to get his spot back.

“Just a hard racing deal there. It’s not like I’m forming a rivalry with Huddy. He’s a great driver, but just kind of misjudged a little bit there. But we’re going so fast around this race track, you try to do that,” he concluded.

After being informed by FloRacing’s Trenton Berry he brought home $51,500, Pierce said, “That’s a lot of money on the line. I tow my own stuff. So far we were kind of in the negatives heading into tonight. That’s kinda why we were racing so hard out there. If you’re kind of wondering why, that’s why. Just an awesome race. A little debacle there, which if it wasn’t for that it was an awesome race.”

As for Hudson, he shared his side in his third place podium interview, “It was unfortunate. I don’t really know what to say. It’s a tough situation. I think he knew better. It’s just part of it. We had a really good race car all week. And I can’t thank all my guys [enough]. … It’s a tough way to end it, but all in all we had a good week. To be able to still salvage a third with the damage that we had and to people to take home the points was awesome.”

“So we’ll move on. That one stings a little bit, but that’s part of it, part of racing. And we’ll regroup and get ready for Volusia next week and be looking forward to that,” he concluded.

NEXT: Jason Welshan, Jonathan Joiner, & Garrett Smith React To Terbo’s Slider On Jonathan Davenport