Nick Hoffman led the early portion of the World of Outlaws Late Models race at Independence Motor Speedway in Independence, Iowa, but Bobby Pierce was able to slide him on a restart and never looked back.

Hoffman led the first six laps, but a caution for Tyler Bruening slowed the race. On the ensuing restart, Pierce was able to find some grip on the bottom and slide up on Hoffman through turns 1 and 2. Instead of attempting to cross him over, Hoffman moved up the track to try to sneak by him, but had to get on the binders as he quickly ran out of track. The move hurt his momentum and allowed Pierce to pull away while Hoffman had to fend off a hard-charging Garrett Alberson. 

Hoffman would secure the second position and would hound Pierce for much of the race, but was unable to reclaim lead and would eventually lose the second spot to Tyler Erb, who found something on the bottom at the end of the race.

In his post race interview with DirtVision, Hoffman broke down how Pierce was able to get past him on the restart, “On that restart there, I felt like I maybe wheel spun just a little bit once I got to the entry of 1 and Bobby [Pierce] was able to run off in there wide open and slide me. I just did a bad job of not turning back underneath him and try and get back to his inside and slide him in 3 and 4. And hung myself off of 2. So that was really, I felt, my fault than anything.”

“Then I pressure him the whole race and I feel like end up using my stuff up really just trying to blitz the cushion as hard as I was and keep pace with him. Just put that in our notebook,” he added. “Just really got beat. They were just a little better than I was.”

As for the battle for second with Terbo, he shared, “Obviously, Terbo running the Dennis Erb line like his dad right around the infield and was able to pass me on the last lap. I felt like I ran 39 really good laps around the top and coming to the white I got tight in 3 and 4 and that’s what allowed him really to clear me and slide me into 1. That kind of sucks, but [crap] happens and we’ll move onto this weekend. I know we’ve got a really good car and Mississippi Thunder is one of my favorite race tracks in the country.”

In his victory lane interview, Pierce shared his surprise that Hoffman did not try to cross him over heading into three and four, “I noticed he slipped just a little bit in turn 1 on the top, and I had a good run coming off of 4 on the restart. There’s a lot of moisture down there at the bottom of 1 still, was able to get some grip down there and slingshot ahead of him.

“I was expecting to see him on my inside into turn 3, but luckily pulled away down the backstretch and from then on it was just hit my marks lap after lap on those restarts and try to get through lap traffic as best I could. Luckily, I didn’t have to mess with that too much because the cautions kept coming out,” Pierce concluded. “Just an awesome night for us. This car was awesome. My crew guys did awesome tonight. And thanks to these fans for coming out.”

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