Both Bobby Pierce and Nick Hoffman addressed their battle for second and Pierce’s controversial slider at Mason City Speedway for the FloRacing Night in America event.
Following a restart with 30 laps to go, Hudson O’Neal was able to get past Nick Hoffman for the lead and put him back to second. Meanwhile Bobby Pierce, who was in fifth, fell back to seventh as both Devin Moran and Ethan Dotson got past him. However, Dotson would attempt to slide Moran and ended up smashing into the outside turn 2 wall and ending his night.
On the ensuing restart with 25 laps to go, Hoffman continued to challenge O’Neal for the lead, while Pierce began to slowly work his way word. His slid Sheppard through 3 and 4 and moved into fifth. With 14 to go, Pierce pulled to the inside of Moran exiting turn 4 and then slid him through 1 and 2 on the next lap. A few laps later and he slid Ricky Thornton Jr. in 1 and 2 for the third position.
With 5 laps left, Pierce threw a slider at Hoffman through 1 and 2, but as he was coming up out of the exit of turn 2, Hoffman had a run on the top and the two made contact with Pierce’s right rear making contact with Hoffman’s left front. The contact sent Hoffman up and over the cushion and into the wall.
Pierce would take the second position and attempt to mount a charge on O’Neal, but in the final corner of the last lap he chose to take the bottom line and that allowed Hoffman to motor past him on the top and get to second. Unfortunately, Jake Timm broke ahead of him and as he was going into turn 1 on the cool down lap, he slammed into him hard causing significant damage to both cars.
In his second place podium interview, Hoffman shared that he was not pleased with Pierce’s move. He told FloRacing’s Trenton Berry, “Those last 7 laps, when [Bobby Pierce] slid me I seen red. And I was just pretty pissed. And it was like if I could’ve got back to him I was going to feed him the same business. But it’s just part of it. I was pretty frustrated.”
As for Pierce, he told Berry in his third place interview, “I saw Dotson slide Devin early in the race and he wiped out the wall. So it was really hard to send it in there at the speeds we were going. When I sent her in there, I slid a couple people perfectly, and that time when I went in there I think my right rear was getting a little hot and it started to slide and I started to back off it. Without seeing a replay, I don’t know what happens, but I pry didn’t give Nick enough room, but that’s hard racing. I don’t know. Until I see a replay I can’t comment on that stuff.”
Both drivers will be back in action with the World of Outlaws Late Models when they compete at Maquoketa Speedway for the Hawkeye 100, which begins on Friday night with a 40-lap $12,000 to-win race and then concludes on Saturday with a 60-lap, $25,000 to-win battle.
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