On Saturday night inside The Dome, Bobby Pierce walked out in driver intros wearing a Fallout themed Vault suit to match his vehicles wrap. His fiancé Abby Jo held a sign declaring the Dome at America’s Center was Vault 32 and Pierce fulfilled that claim by totally nuking the field in the feature without even having to throw any bombs.

Pierce started from the pole and immediately jumped to the lead, but had to do it all over again as Brenden Smith got sideways heading into turn 1 and caused a stack up bring out the caution. after the field was reracked, Pierce pulled to the lead again running a slider line through 1 and 2 and began pulling away from the field as the field including Ricky Thornton Jr., Jason Feger, and Mike Harrison worked their way around Brenden Smith.

Another caution would come out just two laps later after Jonathan Davenport suffered a flat left rear tire after contact with Brian Shirley. Dustin Sorensen would also exit the race with a flat tire. Brian Shirley, who had spun into the infield, found himself multiple laps down despite trying to get back onto the track. However, he was not allowed to reenter and finished in 20th ahead of only Mark Whitener who exited the race due to a broken power steering pump.

On the ensuing restart, Pierce again had a great restart and began pulling away while Jason Feger was able to masterfully slide Ricky Thornton Jr. and take the second spot. Meanwhile Tyler Carpenter had worked his way into the top 10 after starting 18th. When the field began getting into lap traffic just ahead of the halfway mark, Thornton Jr. began putting the pressure on Jason Feger for the second spot as both of them began reeling Pierce in due to lap traffic. At the halfway point, Thornton made his move and the race of the night began as Feger and Thornton began sliding each other back and forth. With 18 to go, Thornton was able to fully clear Feger and put his sights on Pierce, who had only gotten past Trevor Gundaker at the back of the field.

Unfortunately, there would be no duel between THornton and Pierce as Mike Harrison, who was running in fourth and had tracked down Feger, spun as he got to the bottom of Feger.

That would pretty much be all she wrote as there would not be any long green flag runs anymore and Pierce would pull away on multiple restarts. Brandon Sheppard did move his way into third around Ashton Winger and Feger with 12 to go. However, a caution for Carpenter, who exited the race, would put him back to fourth. Feger took advantage of his good fortune on the next restart and worked his way back into second past Ricky Thornton Jr., but he had nothing for Pierce either.

The cautions continued flying every two laps or so until 8 laps to go where it went green the rest of the way. Pierce jetted to a four car length lead immediately and continued to extend that lead. Meanwhile, Thornton and Sheppard were able to get around Feger with four laps left after he hit a couple of the holes in the corner. He would hold off Nick Hoffman for fourth. Pierce would end up winning his 32nd race of the season by over three seconds.

In Victory Lane, Pierce said, “You just dream of things like this. Ever since this event came around it was a spectacle from the beginning. And I’ve watched it grow to what it is now. We’ve got a packed house. I don’t see it stopping from growing. One day this place will pry be full from the tippy tops. So thanks to these fans for making this all possible and Cody Sommers and everybody. Man, we just won the Gateway Dirt Nationals three times, let’s go!”

Pierce went on to share he expected the race to be cautioned filled and would have multiple restarts, “A track this small you’re going to have some cautions. You’re going to have some drama. I told everyone back there, ‘It’s going to be a long 40 laps.’ As much as you love to get the lead right away you know it makes the race feel like it’s 140 laps. You just have to get in that mind state, know it’s going to happen, hit your marks on your restarts. I kind of changed it up a couple of times. I think that gave me a little bit of an edge too. I was coming down the hill and then towards the end I started going on top.”

“Turn 1 was tricky bouncing through that hole,” he continued, “A couple of times I felt like I was hitting it perfect and then I would come up the ground. A couple of times I’d go in there and I’d go, ‘Oh I really messed that up!’ and the car would go around there perfectly. Just an awesome weekend. I guess we swept it all. Had some luck on our side and just all the hard work paid off. It’s great when that happens!”

Official Finishing Order

1. Bobby Pierce
2. Ricky Thornton Jr.
3. Brandon Sheppard
4. Jason Feger
5. Nick Hoffman
6. Ashton Winger
7. Brenden Smith
8. Zack Dohm
9. Devin Moran
10. Carson Hocevar
11. Ethan Dotson
12. Josh Rice
13. Dylan Thornton
14. Typer Carpenter
15. Mike Harrison
16. Dan Ebert
17. Trevor Gundaker
18. Jonathan Davenport
19. Dustin Sorensen
20. Brian Shirley
21. Mark Whitener

NEXT: Carson Hocevar Explains Why Dirt Racing Is “Real Racing”