Bobby Pierce finally found his way to victory lane in the contentious finale of the Wild West Shootout that will likely have fans talking for weeks about it.

Pierce started from the pole and very quickly jumped to the lead intent on gobbling up as much of the $500/lap money that he possibly could. And he led nearly the entire first half of the race, which was only paused for an early caution for debris with 48 to go in the 50-lap feature. While Pierce was leading, Hudson O’Neal was starting to work his way to the front like he’d done the previous five races. With 38 laps to go he had made his way to second and began closing on Pierce.

However, unlike the night before where it went green all the way, tire wear seemingly became a problem as Dustin Sorensen drew a caution for a flat right rear and Pierce’s lead was eliminated. As he’d done so many other times this week, O’Neal took advantage of the restart and slid Pierce through three and four to lead lap 23. However, Pierce did not let O’Neal pull away at all and got a monster run on the top of two and motored past O’Neal down the back stretch to retake the lead.

The two would get a brief respite from their battle with a caution for Jake O’Neil with 24 laps left in the race.

While there was plenty of action at the front between Pierce and O’Neal, Jonathan Davenport methodically worked his way to the front from the last row where he began in 23rd. He was up to 10th by the time of this caution. Davenport had to fight his way into the show after he was involved in a lap one incident with Tyler Erb in the first heat of the night.

After they went green again, O’Neal tested Pierce’s defenses again and it looked like Garrett Alberson was going to join the party. Unfortunately, Alberson had some kind of mechanical issue and pulled off. While he was heading to the infield, O’Neal ripped the top in 1 and 2 and used the momentum to cross Pierce over and slide him through 3 and 4.

In the next corner the two continued to battle, but it went all awry as they made contact coming out of turn 2. O’Neal got a huge run off the top, and Pierce slowly creeped up there from his line at the bottom and the two collided.

A caution would wave, but officials ruled that they could maintain their track position due to the blend rule. And while O’Neal had led the previous lap, Pierce was awarded the lead while O’Neal was moved back to second.

Unfortunately, the damage done to O’Neal’s car prevented him from ever challenging Pierce again, but he was able to hold on for a third place finish. Nevertheless, Davenport continued his slow march through the field and eventually broke into the top 5 with 19 laps to by sliding Ethan Dotson and getting past Cade Dillard. Davenport next set his eyes on Tyler Erb.

He caught Terbo with 16 to go and performed a tight slider on him. Terbo hit the brakes and let him take over the third position.

As a number of the previous nights of racing, a late race caution came out with 13 to go, this one was due to a flat right rear tire for Jake Timm. It promised a potential showdown between Davenport and Pierce. Unfortunately, the showdown never happened. Davenport was able to easily get around O’Neal for second on the initial restart, but Pierce checked out and eventually won by around a second. He ultimately led 47 of the 50 laps in the contentious race.

While Pierce got his first win, Hudson O’Neal’s third place finish did secure him the overall mini series championship. He beat Pierce by 21 points.

Official Finishing Order

1. Bobby Pierce
2. Jonathan Davenport
3. Hudson O’Neal
4. Tyler Erb
5. 5Dustin Sorensen
6. Chase Junghans
7. Ethan Dotson
8. Cade Dillard
9. Drake Troutman
10. Brandon Sheppard
11. Clay Stuckey
12. Jake O’Neil
13. Jake Timm
14. Justin Duty
15. Mike Marlar
16. Amelia Eisenschenk
17. Dillon McCowan
18. Kylan Garner
19. Garrett Alberson
20. Ryan Gustin
21. Tim Isenberg
22. Eston Whisler
23. Laela Eisenschenk
24. Bricen James