Cedar Lake Speedway
Third USA Nationals win a special one for Pierce
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Bob Pierce joins son Bobby in victory lane. (photosbyboyd.smugmug.com)
NEW RICHMOND, Wis. (Aug. 1) — By virtue of his hard-nosed driving style and, at times, blunt remarks, Bobby Pierce has become known in the Dirt Late Model world for his brazen demeanor. | RaceWire
It's a double-edged sword: the same qualities that have fueled his dominance over the last four seasons have also made him one of the sport's most polarizing figures. For example, the 29-year-old superstar opened the 39th annual USA Nationals by drawing the ire of Tanner English — after muscling past him via last-corner contact in Thursday's heat race for the final transfer spot — and plenty of fans who disagreed with the move on social media.
He closed the weekend with an equally emphatic statement in victory lane Saturday, fashioning an imaginary championship belt around his waist before pretending to take it off and whip the air three times, a celebration that reflected the beatdowns he's delivered throughout another dominant season.
"That's just how this year's been," Pierce said with a grin when asked about his celebration, underscoring the stranglehold he's maintained on the competition.
His 25th victory of the season, 10 more than Brandon Sheppard, the next winningest Dirt Late Model driver with 15 victories. Yet beneath the swagger is a groundedness that's only deepened over the last three weeks, a sobering stretch for Pierce after his father Bob suffered a serious stroke on July 15, just hours after Pierce's stirring victory from 12th at Adams County Speedway in Corning, Iowa.
In the days that followed, Pierce and his family had no idea what Bob's recovery would look like or what the road ahead would hold. Until capturing his third USA Nationals title Saturday, Pierce hadn't won since his father's stroke, a five-race, 18-day stretch that, by his lofty standards, marked his longest winless skid since going 33 days — from Jan. 18 to Feb. 20 — between victories earlier this season.
His Adams County triumph had marked his 12th victory in a 14-race stretch, a run that made him feel nearly invincible. Everything since, however, has been a reminder of how fragile life can become.
“When you come off doing stuff like that, even one bad night makes you go, ‘Damn, what the heck happened?’ But that’s racing. It’s very humbling,” Pierce said. “Every track can be different. We can go to so many different tracks, different types of dirt, the sizes of tracks. You have to be on your game — setup, driving the car, crew — everyone has to be on their game to win these races. It’s very tough.
“Dad’s the backbone of our team. He’ll admit it himself, he’s getting there,” Pierce added. “It’s a slow comeback to 100 percent. To have him here and everything, it means the world. I’m so blessed to have my parents at the track all the time and all the help they give.”
The last three weeks have fueled Pierce's appreciation for the people closest to him all the more. His mother, Angie, has watched the outpouring of support for Bob's recovery while also seeing the criticism that inevitably follows her son's success — and, in some corners, the lack of empathy shown after Bob's stroke.
“Listen, everybody loves Bob. Bobby? Maybe not so much,” Angie said. “I feel like, my theory on that honestly, I feel like Bobby has the biggest fanbase in Dirt Late Model racing. And I don’t think there’s as many haters as what people say or think. My theory on that is haters wanna be heard. Most haters don’t have a life. They don’t have much going for themselves. And they’re losers. I’m going to be point blank about that. Anybody who hates just to hate.
“Of course, there’s people that may not be my favorite person, but I don’t cheer and clap when something happens to them. Yeah, I mean, what’s wrong with people?”
Pierce, meanwhile, doesn’t let the outside noise get to him. What matters most is having his father back at the racetrack, which carries every bit as much significance as collecting another crown jewel trophy.
The elder Pierce processed Saturday's race almost as though he'd never missed a beat. From his vantage point stick-signaling on the backstretch, he continued doing what he's done throughout Bobby's career — reading the racetrack, recognizing changing conditions and helping point his son in the right direction.
“Start of the race, the bottom was pretty good, we could keep up with them, stay with them. It moved out half a lane and we passed a couple cars. I go, ‘OK, we can maneuver,’ ” the elder Pierce said. “I knew when he went to the top, we were going to be OK. But if he went up there too soon, it’d wear our tires out. That’s what it does at this place.
“Just before halfway, everybody started moving up right away. I was like, ’S---, I gotta move him up or everyone will get away from him,’ and if we had no yellows, we’d be in trouble. So I moved him up — and he wasn’t going crazy, so I knew he was hanging on to his tires, staying with them.”
The younger Pierce understood the importance of tire management, something made possible by a balanced race car.
“The car was good the whole race. Early on, even when they dropped the green, the car was never really quite unbalanced,” the younger Pierce said. “I felt like we had really good balance the whole race. I was even able to make a move right off the bottom, in the middle, on a couple cars early to get me more positions. Just biding my time, saving my tires.
“This track can be really hard on tires if you push too hard at the beginning. … You kind of have to bide your time and not push it too hard. You have to get your positions when you can get them.”
Even after taking command on lap 67, Pierce never felt entirely comfortable. His handling tightened through the middle of the corners, specifically getting hung up on the cushion in turns three and four on laps 82 and 86.
“At the very end, it was getting really tricky to run. I think my last 10 laps, I made some super inconsistent laps,” the younger Pierce said. “If lapped traffic came into play, I think it would’ve been pretty hairy for me and whoever was second would’ve caught up to me.”
The elder Pierce believes he knows where the problem lies. Now comes finding the solution.
“We don’t know why, but right now, he can’t turn late in the race, right in the middle of the corner. He gets tight,” the elder Pierce said. “He did a great job. The car was close, and he did what he could.”
With four cautions over the final 33 laps that Pierce led, he only had to navigate traffic once — on the green-flag run from laps 79-93. Well-timed yellows aided his charge to the front, too. Moments before the lap-54 caution, he'd climbed into third, allowing the restart to erase the deficit to Nick Hoffman and Brandon Sheppard ahead of him.
“I had a little luck on my side. I got to third at the perfect timing because the caution just came out,” the younger Pierce said. “That reset the leaders right there. From then on, it was, ‘OK, how am I gonna stay here? How am I gonna pass the leaders?’ At the time it was Hoffman. Had that awesome restart and got that run off of four. I was waiting for the car and tires to give up and me to start fading. But it never quite happened.”
If there's one thing Pierce has learned over the last three weeks, it's not to take his remarkable success for granted. Saturday's victory only reinforced that.
That perspective even shapes the way Pierce views his three USA Nationals victories. Joining Scott Bloomquist, Billy Moyer and Jonathan Davenport as the only drivers to win the event at least three times points to a level of dominance at Cedar Lake few have ever achieved. Pierce, however, thinks about how easily each one could've ended differently.
His first came by just 0.073 of a second over Hudson O'Neal in 2023 — a photo finish that just as easily could've gone the other way — while the rain-shortened triumph in ’24 likely could’ve belonged to someone else had the race reached its scheduled 100 laps instead of ending after 56.
“I was honestly this close to this being my very first USA Nationals,” Pierce said. “The first one, it was me and Hudson in a photo finish at the line. … In the second, (Dustin) Sorensen was about to pass me on the top and (Kyle) Bronson was right there. A couple guys would’ve had a chance to win that race if it wasn’t for that rain. I killed my right-rear tire.
“My tire wouldn’t have made it 100 laps. I was kind of pushing hard, banking on that rain to come. And it did. Just very fortunate this is our third because it could’ve been our first.”
