Bobby Pierce looked to be in command on his Friday night preliminary feature, but a late race restart gave Josh Rice another chance at the win and he took full advantage of it.
Rice closed on Pierce coming out of turn 4 then threw a slider in 1 and 2. He was able to beat Pierce down the back stretch and then sent it into 3 and 4. He banged off the turn 4 wall, but was able to beat both Pierce and Zack Dohm as they drag raced off the corner and back to the line.
In his post-race interview with FloRacing on the front stretch, Pierce told Dustin Jarrett, “I felt like I didn’t get great off 4 and then so I went to protect the slider if someone was there in 1 and I hit that hole like Leach and made sure to let off the gas ’cause I didn’t want to end up like him. That looked like a hard roll. Thankfully, he’s okay. Definitely got a hole down there. Hopefully, they work on that, but all-in-all I thought the track was really good gave us lots of room to race around. Gave us a last lap pass in both features. Really good track.”
Pierce went on to share, “I said like if I wasn’t going to win it, maybe second would be okay, worse than that I was going to probably start fading to the back just so we can get a better start tomorrow. I know Ricky [Thornton Jr.] did it. I guess Sheppard had a flat tire whatever, but with the invert that’s kinda in the back of your mind. Come home with a second place finish after how yesterday started is pretty good.”
Pierce shared more details speaking to StockCarReport.com, “Josh did a good job. Congrats to him on the win. Looking at my tires, they’re pretty killed so I think that probably was a big part of just not being able to get off the corners how I needed to.”
“I think all-in-all we learned a lot tonight, made big gains from yesterday,” he continued. “Yesterday we qualified dead last so tonight to win the heat race, it’s just a big turnaround. So I’m just hoping tomorrow make just as many gains because we still need a little more.”
“I’m a little upset with just how-. I wish would have finished like 9th just to hit that invert. Now, we’ll be starting second row. Man, if I wasn’t going to win the race I would have preferred to sandbag a little bit, but it is what it is. At least we know we were fast tonight. As long as I get in the feature tomorrow that’s what we got to do and go from there.”
Speaking specifically to the finally restart, he shared, “I hit the hole that Michael flipped on. The one in turn 1 in the middle of the track and hit that the first lap after the restart. Kinda made me a little timid to run that corner ’cause I was wanting to run the middle. And then when Josh slid me, I had to get the car set to cross him over, right when I saw the car I kinda dipped and bounced. Regardless, given my tires, how chewed up they were, pry wasn’t going to have enough to beat him off the corner.”
Pierce finished 6th in the Sunoco North/South 100 Prelim Points and with the invert he will start in the sixth and final heat race in the fourth position behind Drake Troutman, Jimmy Owens, and Garrett Alberson. His heat race also includes Daniel Hilsabeck, Dallon Murty, Michael Chilton, Brody Smith, and Josh Dietz. Only the top three finishers from the heat race will advance to the feature.
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