Bobby Pierce broke down his up and down night one of the Hawkeye 100 at Maquoketa Speedway as he fought a power issue that caused him to miss his heat race and send him to a Last Chance Showdown, but he rallied for a 6th place finish in the feature..

Pierce started off the night well qualifying third in Group B. That set him up for a second place starting position in Heat 3. Unfortunately, as he rolled out onto the track, the car lost power and he had to be pushed back to the pits. 

Always Race Day reported that the issue was a problem with the Master Kill Switch.

Issue with the master kill switch on Pierce’s car.

They have a WoO provisional to burn but they’re going to run the B as things stand right now.

— Always Race Day (@AlwaysRaceDay) August 22, 2026

Pierce and his team were able to fix the issue and started at the tail of Last Chance Showdown 2. He ran through the field and ended up finishing 3rd, the final transfer spot. That set him up for a 22nd starting position in the feature. The race when green to checkers without any cautions and Pierce ran through the field driving up to sixth when it was all said and done.

“Had a hot rod,” Pierce wrote on X after the race. “Looking forward to tomorrow.”

Had a hot rod. Looking forward to tomorrow. https://t.co/meJfygv2AW

— Bobby Pierce (@BobbyPierce32) August 22, 2026

Pierce went in-depth about his night with DIRTVision ahead of tonight’s Hawkeye 100 finale, “Our night started off great. We got a front row starting spot of our heat race. Had a great qualifying lap. Getting ready to start the car in the lineup shoot there waiting for the other heat race to finish, and went to start it, and just click, lost all power. There was nothing we could do. We pushed it back to the pits.”

“You can look at it however you want,” he continued. “We kinda got lucky that didn’t happen in the feature. So we were still able to manage a good night. We came from 22nd to -. Well, really we started in the B-Main came from last, got the transfer, and then 22nd to 6th. No cautions. 40 laps on that track. We were pretty fast.”

“It sucks that we weren’t able to show our speed to race for the lead, but qualifying we were fast. We were fast for the feature when it got really slick. There was just a little bit of a cushion up there. I wouldn’t even call it a cushion, just kinda some powdery stuff to run off of there, and could kinda drag the yuke tires on the bottom and get off really good. Really no matter where guys were in front of me, I go bottom pass them there, go top, I could go middle. So the car was really good.”

Bobby Pierce’s night one at Maquoketa didn’t go as planned after mechanical issues forced him to miss his Heat Race. He raced his way through the Last Chance Showdown and had a strong showing in the Feature, giving the team confidence heading into tonight. pic.twitter.com/o4y5hpckP8

— DIRTVision (@dirtvision) August 22, 2026

NEXT: Hudson O’Neal Emerges Victorious From Three-Wide Battle At Maquoketa In Hawkeye 100 Opener