Cedar Lake Speedway
English targets Pierce with words (and his car)
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Tanner English set fast time Thursday at Cedar Lake.
NEW RICHMOND, Wis. (July 30) — Tanner English considers himself one of the more level-headed drivers on the Dirt Late Model circuit.
But after Thursday's 30-lap USA Nationals opener at Cedar Lake Speedway, the 33-year-old set that reputation aside, sounding off on Bobby Pierce after last-corner contact in their heat race cost him the final transfer spot.
“I mean, if he hits me in the inner (door) entering or in the center, it's fine. Whatever. It's racing. He hit me on the exit of the corner. He knew there was no chance he was gonna make that corner,” English said. “I mean, he's better than that, and that's what I've always said. Any time he hits me, which is a lot, he’s better than that. He doesn't have to do that s---. So why do it, you know what I mean?
“He gets away with it because he's so fast and he can drive away from you when he does it. He never gets any consequences. So, I had a shot at giving him a little bit of consequences.”
On the final lap of the feature, English — who charged from 21st — unleashed a hellacious slider at the top-running Pierce entering turn one, admitting afterward it was an attempt at payback fueled by frustration that had been over previous run-ins with the Oakwood, Ill., superstar.
“I ain't no good at (payback). I mean, I'll be the first one to tell you, I can't wreck anybody,” English said. “If I'm wrecking somebody, it's on accident. There, like, I had full intentions of destroying his s---. But I ain't good at it. He is. He's really good at it. And then he's good at driving off.
“At least, I think I pissed him off a little bit, and that's what he needs. He needs a little bit of reality, like, just somebody feeding it back to him.”
In his immediate postheat interview on the DIRTVision broadcast, Pierce took no serious issue with the last-corner maneuver. And when asked about it again by DirtonDirt on Friday, the Oakwood, Ill., driver doubled down, saying “the replay looked about what happened."
“I mean, it's just a hard racing deal. You leave the door open, I'm gonna fill that gap,” Pierce said. “Unfortunately, the door was closing as quick as it was opening, but it was for the last transfer spot to make the show. I don't think we even bent any sheetmetal. So like, I kind of just rubbed on him a little bit. I don't think I really even knocked him out of the way.
“As any driver would do, as I would do in his position — if I missed the bottom of the corner, like, two corners in a row, of course, the only thing I'm trying to do is get down as quick as possible to block that car that might be filling that hole. And vice versa, the same other way. I mean … any hole that opens up for an opportunity to pass, if you don't try to take that opportunity, you're not a race car driver.”
Pierce also pointed to several factors he believes contributed to both the contact and the ire it drew from English. He felt English's car "had a slight delay mid-corner, so that washed him off the bottom."
“You kind of get a four-wheel slide here, and his car kind of did that,” Pierce said.
Pierce also noted the track conditions. With their heat race opening Thursday's program, he said the racing surface still had a slimy film around the very bottom that contributed to the contact.
“So when I filled that hole, I myself hit some slime, and that made me push up into him a little more than I wanted to,” Pierce said. “Of course, if I could make no contact, that would have been the best way to pass him, but, you know, as a race car driver, you never know what's gonna happen all the time.
“We're professionals, but there's no guarantee when we go in a corner, we make a pass that things are gonna work out perfectly. Sometimes they just don't work out perfectly, and you have your drivers that get more mad about things, and your drivers that let things blow over more.”
English vehemently disagreed, saying Pierce “shouldn't have even considered” the very bottom into turns three and four "because of all the slime down there in the first place." Before the incident, English had set fast time and was slated to start from the pole of his heat before being penalized one row for jumping the initial start.
“He was probably still angry from jumping that start,” Pierce said. “And then getting passed on the last lap. He went from the penthouse to the outhouse.”
Pierce wasn't wrong. English acknowledged Friday that part of his frustration stemmed from the jumped-start penalty.
“I agree that it was a little early because, I mean, where is that line? You know what I mean? Like, some of these people making these calls have never drove a race car,” English said. “When you're in that car, once you lose sight of that cone, it's time to go. And I was past the cone in my eyesight."
English indicated, however, that his frustration with Pierce went beyond Thursday night. He pointed to an incident in last September's C.J. Rayburn Memorial at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway, where he believes Pierce shoved him into the infield tractor tires.
“At Brownstown last year when he ran me smack dab in the tires, all I did was try to go talk to him — if he would just talk about it, you know, everything might be cool,” English said. “There's too many people there protecting him. I don't know, it's just a s----- deal.
“I mean, when I grew up racing, I raced against everybody I knew that I idolized,” he added. “I didn’t wanna run over those guys. Some people don’t care.”
Pierce remembered the incident at Brownstown differently.
“He poked his nose in there a little bit as I was coming down (the track) at Brownstown and he ran into that tire, and he tried to jump in my cockpit as I was driving by,” Pierce said. “I was parked in the back beyond the bridge (in the pits). And he was standing right in the middle of that bridge where it let me cross. I mean, I don't know what he was gonna do. So I wasn't wanting part of it, you know?
“I mean, I feel like you're kind of vulnerable being in the cockpit in the car. I'm not able to do anything. So I didn't play part of whatever he was wanting to do that night. Tanner gets mad at a lot of people. Stuff happens. Heck, he ran over me at Brownstown Bullring earlier this year” on April 24 with the MARS Championship Series.
While Pierce acknowledged lingering tension between the two, he argued that English's admitted attempt at payback should have carried consequences of its own.
“We got a guy out here trying to wreck me, and they're still letting him race. Openly admitting it,” Pierce said. “The Outlaws aren’t going to do anything. He hit me after the heat race last night and by the Outlaws rules, he should’ve been parked for the night. … You can put all that out there, too.”
English, however, says drivers who race as hard-nosed as Pierce should expect similar treatment in return.
“Just like him, if he's willing to dish it out like he does, he's got to be able to take it,” English said.
Pierce maintained that hard racing inevitably brings conflict, even if drivers don't always agree on where the line should be.
“Some drivers like to openly admit that they want to wreck the guy in the next race. … That’s a part of racing and that's what makes racing so good,” Pierce said. “It’s a contact sport. At the end of the day, we don't want it to be. We try our best not to be, but we never know what exactly is going to transpire once we, like I said, kind of fill that gap.”
English, meanwhile, insisted the ledger hasn’t been balanced.
“With him, OK, I still owe him about six more times,” English said. “The score ain’t settled. You can add that — for sure.”
