– Announcement –
FAIRBURY, Illinois (May 13, 2023) – Bobby Pierce took the lead after a lap 37 restart and led the final 23 laps of the FALS Spring Shootout Presented by Titan Industries Saturday night at Fairbury Speedway.
Pierce became the 10th different winner this season in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, pocketing $30,000 for the win.
Pierce, who started eighth held off Dalton Wilson and Brandon Sheppard for the win. Rounding out the top five were Brandon Overton and Jimmy Owens. With his fourth-place finish, Overton is the new points leader in the Big River Steel Chase for the Championship presented by ARP.
Shannon Babb took the lead early in the race as he dueled with Dennis Erb Jr., who came up late from fifth to take the lead from Babb on lap six.
The first caution of the race came out with ten laps scored by Jonathan Davenport. On the restart, Erb led Babb and Hudson O’Neal, who had moved back to third after starting from the pole. O’Neal took second from Babb on lap 18 and then began closing the gap on Erb as he found heavy traffic in front of him.
A lap 36 restart would see Erb and O’Neal complete a lap before contact between the two in turn one. With Erb’s driver’s side door facing the field, a safety warning immediately came out, and Babb also pulled over in an attempt to avoid the incident. Erb should resume at the tail end of the field after being charged with the caution. Erb’s night would come to an end three circuits later with a broken driveshaft.
On the restart, O’Neal would be the race leader, but before officially leading a lap, Pierce bit him at the score line to take the lead for the first time in the record-book 37-lap race. Wilson, who started 11th, showed his strength at the bottom as he and O’Neal would make it to second. With ten laps to go, Pierce, Wilson and O’Neal were battling for the race lead.
Wilson came close to sneaking up on Pierce in the scoring loop when O’Neal went to the outside to reclaim second place on lap 52. O’Neal didn’t give up on Pierce as he began to stick- the O’Neal would. drift high in the second lap with two laps to go, but O’Neal’s night would end shortly after as he scaled the wall causing damage to the front of his car.
A green-white checkered restart would see Pierce hold off Wilson by 0.471 seconds at the end.
In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 13th time in his career, Pierce showed his exuberance after exiting his race car. “It’s definitely redemption from last night at Farmer City. I made a mistake last night and my team told me to get back in the car and drive it. I have to give them a big thank you. I went home last night and they did the job on the car. We won with a Longhorn at Fairbury on the cushion. It was a great night. They pumped me up there. It was exciting to run on the bottom or the top. It was super tough up top. The whole the race I didn’t really know where to go on the track. I thought if somebody was going to pass me, let them be up there. If I could slide them and pass them again, that’s what I was going to do. I was just trying to ‘find out where it was best’.
Wilson, in his second full season with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, earned $15,000 for his runner-up finish in just his second appearance at Fairbury. “We’ve been busting our tails lately. About 3 hours ago we were in the trailer with the straps on this thing and the door closed. We thought it was done after the rain. Even getting this run tonight was Unbelievable. We had a really good car. We’ve had good speed here lately. We’re getting better. I hope this shows that we’re here and we finally put a whole night together.”
Sheppard came from tenth to complete the podium in third. “I didn’t know if I had a chance at the end when there were two left. The last two laps were two wide in front of me so there was nowhere to go. My car was very good. It wasn’t very good at the start of the race. I didn’t know if it was a little too hard on the tires of what. It really took me about half way to roll. Once we got going, I was just waiting for someone to move in front of me and go the opposite direction I wanted to go so I could make a pass.”
The winner’s Longhorn chassis is powered by a Vic Hill Racing engine and sponsored by Hoker Trucking, Allgayer Inc., Mesilla Valley Transportation, Senior Life Insurance, Rio Grande Waste Services, PureMax Racing Oil, Toyota of Danville, Bloomington-Normal Truck Performance, VP Fuels, A-Plus Vacuum, Velocita Suits, Bilstein Shocks, Leka Tree Service and Carnaghi Towing and Repair.
Rounding out the top ten were Spencer Hughes, Devin Moran, Gordy Gundaker, Tyler Bruening and Max Blair.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Summary of the race
FAKE Spring Shootout Presented by Titan Industries
Saturday, May 13, 2023
Fairbury Speedway – Fairbury, IL
Allstar Performance Time Trial
Fast Time Group A: Hudson O’Neal / 12.794 seconds (overall)
Fast time Group B: Jimmy Owens / 12.870 seconds
Penske Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (10 laps, top 4 carry over): 1. 1H-Hudson O’Neal[1]; 2. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[3]; 3. B12-Kevin Weaver[2]; 4. 99B-Boom Briggs[5]; 5. 39-Tim McCreadie[7]; 6. 76-Brandon Overton[6]; 7. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[8]; 8. 3-Dale Markham[4]; 9. 7-Ross Robinson[9]; 10. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[11]; 11. 76T-Titus Sneed[10]
Summit Racing Products Heat Race #2 finish (10 laps, top 4 carry over): 1. 10-Garrett Smith[1]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 3. 18D-Dulton Wilson[4]; 4. 24-Ryan Unzicker[3]; 5. 58-Garrett Alberson[6]; 6. 111B-Max Blair[7]; 7. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 8. 99-Devin Moran[10]; 9. 33 4-Billy Hough[11]; 10. 80-Rich Dawson[8]; 11. (DNS) 174-Ethen Dotson
Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 (10 laps, top 4 carry over): 1. 18B-Shannon Babb[2]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 3. B5-Brandon Sheppard[4]; 4. 49-Jonathan Davenport[3]; 5. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[6]; 6. 7T-Drake Troutman[7]; 7. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[5]; 8. 130-Chase Osterhoff[8]; 9. J12-Jason Wagner[11]; 10. 10S-Scott Schmitt[10]; 11. (DNS) 4G-Bob Gardner
Insurance AP1 Heat Race #4 finish (10 laps, carry over to top 4): 1. 11-Spencer Hughes[1]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 3. 42-McKay Wenger[3]; 4. 16-Tyler Bruening[4]; 5. 3S-Brian Shirley[6]; 6. 25-Jason Feger[5]; 7. 89M-Mike Spatola[9]; 8. 7W-JC Waller[10]; 9. 89-Logan Roberson[7]; 10. (DNS) 18-Chase Junghans
Fast axles Race #1 B-Main Finish (12 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 39-Tim McCreadie[1]; 2. 58-Garrett Alberson[2]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[3]; 4. 111B-Max Blair[4]; 5. 1T-Tyler Erb[6]; 6. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[5]; 7. 99-Devin Moran[8]; 8. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[11]; 9. 7-Ross Robinson[9]; 10. 3-Dale Markham[7]; 11. 76T-Titus Sneed[13]; 12. (DNS) 33 4-Billy Hough; 13. (DNS) 80-Rich Dawson; 14. (DNS) 174-Ethen Dotson
UNOH Race #2 B-Main Finish (12 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[1]; 2. 3S-Brian Shirley[2]; 3. 89M-Mike Spatola[6]; 4. 25-Jason Feger[4]; 5. 7T-Drake Troutman[3]; 6. 89-Logan Roberson[10]; 7. 10S-Scott Schmitt[11]; 8. 130-Chase Osterhoff[7]; 9. J12-Jason Wagner[9]; 10. (DNS) 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr; 11. (DNS) 7W-JC Waller; 12. (DNS) 18-Chase Junghans; 13. (DNS) 4G-Bob Gardner
FAKE Spring Shootout Presented by Titan Industries Feature finish (60 laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[8]; 2. 18D-Dulton Wilson[11]; 3. B5-Brandon Sheppard[10]; 4. 76-Brandon Overton[21]; 5. 20-Jimmy Owens[6]; 6. 11-Spencer Hughes[4]; 7. 99-Devin Moran[24]; 8. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[18]; 9. 16-Tyler Bruening[16]; 10. 111B-Max Blair[25]; 11. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[27]; 12. 10-Garrett Smith[3]; 13. 3S-Brian Shirley[20]; 14. 39-Tim McCreadie[17]; 15. 99B-Boom Briggs[13]; 16. 1H-Hudson O’Neal[1]; 17. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[23]; 18. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[5]; 19. 18B-Shannon Babb[2]; 20. 58-Garrett Alberson[19]; 21. B12-Kevin Weaver[9]; 22. 89M-Mike Spatola[22]; 23. 24-Ryan Unzicker[15]; 24. 157-Mike Marlar[7]; 25. 1T-Tyler Erb[26]; 26. 42-McKay Wenger[12]; 27. 7-Ross Robinson[28]; 28. 49-Jonathan Davenport[14]
– Announcement –
