Nick Hoffman couldn’t have asked for a better 34th birthday present than the one he gave himself.

Entering Friday’s portion of the Dairyland Showdown at Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Bobby Pierce had won the last three races on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision trail, and Hoffman was at risk of letting Pierce pull away in the points battle. He needed a momentum shift, and that’s exactly what he got.

Pierce had already made headlines before the Feature began, as a tight battle with Ethan Dotson in his Heat Race ended in contact that knocked Pierce out of a Redraw spot. Meanwhile, Hoffman went wire-to-wire in his Heat Race to lock in a top-four starting spot.

With Pierce mired back in the pack, Hoffman was putting on a show at the front of the field. The opening laps saw him in the middle of a three-wide battle for second alongside Tyler Erb and Ryan Gustin, which Hoffman came out on top of before setting his sights on Dotson out front.

A caution for debris six laps in allowed Gustin to get back to second on the restart, but Hoffman quickly moved back ahead two laps later. As Hoffman began putting the pressure on Dotson, the No. 74X jumped the cushion and smacked the wall in Turn 1, giving Hoffman all the space he needed to take the lead.

That turned out to be the last battle Hoffman had to fight, as he went unchallenged the rest of the way to score his fifth World of Outlaws win of the season and his third at Mississippi Thunder. Most importantly, with Pierce unable to climb any higher than ninth, Hoffman climbed back to the top of the points table by six markers ahead of Saturday’s program.

“Woke up this morning, and I was like, ‘Man, I’m tired of screwing around,” Hoffman said. “This car’s been up in the trailer, I think it’s win percentage has been around 75% now. It hasn’t raced since Volusia [Speedway Park], just wanted to bring it back out, see how good it was again since I planned on racing it in a couple weeks in Delaware. This thing was just really good.”

Gustin was on the podium for the second time in as many nights in second, while Erb got around Tim McCreadie for third in points with his third-place run. Fourth went to Dotson, while Brent Larson was fifth for his best result of the season.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision wraps up the Dairyland Showdown at Mississippi Thunder Speedway with the 50-lap finale on Saturday, May 2. Get your tickets in advance by clicking here.

Want to watch the World of Outlaws? Stream every race live on DIRTVision.

RACE NOTES:

Jonathan Davenport set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.

Tim McCreadie won the Simpson Quick Time Award.

Tyler Erb won Heat 1.

Nick Hoffman won STAKT Products Heat 2.

Ethan Dotson won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.

Ryan Gustin won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.

Tristan Chamberlain and Dylan Thornton won the Last Chance Showdowns.

Ethan Dotson won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Cade Dillard won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Daulton Wilson won the MD3 Rookie of the Race Award.

Ryan Gustin was the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher.

Tyler Erb was the WIX Filters Third-Place Finisher.

Ethan Dotson was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.

Brent Larson was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

Drake Troutman was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.

Daulton Wilson was the Penske Racing Shocks Seventh-Place Finisher.

Trey Mills was VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.

Bobby Pierce was the Lifeline Ninth-Place Finisher.

Tim McCreadie was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.

Dallon Murty was the Quarter Master 11th-Place Finisher.

Dennis Erb Jr. was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

Clay Stuckey was the Quarter Master 13th-Place Finisher.

Dustin Sorensen was the ARP 14th-Place Finisher.

Jonathan Davenport was the Arizona Sport Shirts 18th-Place Finisher.

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Hoffman[4]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin[3]; 3. 1-Tyler Erb[2]; 4. 74X-Ethan Dotson[1]; 5. B1-Brent Larson[5]; 6. 22*-Drake Troutman[7]; 7. 58V-Daulton Wilson[6]; 8. 14-Trey Mills[11]; 9. 32-Bobby Pierce[10]; 10. 9M-Tim McCreadie[8]; 11. 13-Dallon Murty[9]; 12. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[14]; 13. 15-Clay Stuckey[13]; 14. 19-Dustin Sorensen[16]; 15. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[17]; 16. 1Z-Logan Zarin[19]; 17. 15D-Justin Duty[20]; 18. 49D-Jonathan Davenport[12]; 19. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[22]; 20. 97-Cade Dillard[24]; 21. 49-Jake Timm[21]; 22. 55E-Eli Johnson[23]; 23. 09-Michael Leach[15]; 24. 38T-Dylan Thornton[18]

This article was republished with the permission of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. Original article can be found here:https://worldofoutlaws.com/latemodels/hoffman-reclaims-points-lead-with-friday-mississippi-thunder-victory/

NEXT: Ricky Thornton Jr. Denies Hudson O’Neal For Circle City Victory On Friday Night