SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — There are few pairings in grime racing fairly as robust as Bobby Pierce and victory lane at Deer Creek Speedway.
In his first NAPA Auto Components Gopher 50 in 2023, he gained. Pierce got here again later that yr for his first World of Outlaws Actual American Beer Late Mannequin Collection introduced by DIRTVision begin on the observe and gained once more. When the Gopher 50 returned to the World of Outlaws schedule in 2024, he gained it.
And in Thursday night time’s kickoff to Gopher 50 weekend, the “Clean Operator” took the checkers in Spring Valley as soon as once more to make it four-straight journeys to Deer Creek during which Pierce has collected at the very least one trophy.
“I really like this observe, it at all times races very well,” Pierce mentioned after his sixth World of Outlaws win of the yr and nineteenth total triumph of 2025. “They know the way to prep it good, they’re not afraid to prep it if it wants it. Our automotive’s actually good proper now.”
Pierce began the 30-lap Characteristic on the second row trailing Bilstein Pole Award winner Ryan Gustin and hometown hero Dustin Sorensen. Gustin gained the battle of the No. 19 automobiles to guide early, whereas Sorensen misplaced second to Pierce 5 laps in.
The hole between the highest two was roughly a second when Pierce acquired the spot, however he trimmed that all the way down to a automotive size over the following 5 laps. Pierce made his first bid for the lead on the underside simply earlier than midway, however Gustin was initially capable of finding sufficient pace on the excessive aspect to carry the lead. That was till Pierce absolutely dedicated to the slide job getting into Flip 3 and cleared the No. 19r, however Gustin crossed him over off of Flip 4.
The following few laps had been a primary instance of why Deer Creek is a fan favourite in grime Late Mannequin racing. Nook after nook, Pierce dove it in on the underside and slid up in entrance of Gustin earlier than Gustin reduce down and powered again forward. Gustin tried the underside himself on just a few events to counter Pierce, however after half a dozen laps of back-and-forth racing, Pierce lastly took command.
“What an superior race me and Gustin had,” Pierce mentioned. “Due to him for racing me clear, lot of enjoyable there. Due to Deer Creek for having an superior racetrack permitting us to race like that.”
The No. 32 began to drag away whereas Gustin fell into the clutches of Sorensen for second with the laps winding down. However earlier than Pierce might experience off into the sundown, Brian Shirley slowed with a flat tire to carry out the warning, organising a restart with three circuits remaining.
That gave the sphere their probability to pounce on Pierce, however they had been unable to capitalize because the Oakwood, Ailing., held on to assert one other Deer Creek trophy.
“Worst timing for the warning, I didn’t know the place to go,” Pierce mentioned. “I actually felt like I had a horrible restart by means of one and two, so I used to be fairly anxious down the backstretch pondering I would get slid into three or one thing.”
The win got here after 4 World of Outlaws races and not using a journey to victory lane, Pierce’s longest drought for the reason that season-opening occasions at Volusia Speedway Park.
“Essential simply to get again within the routine of attending to win at the very least as soon as each weekend, at the very least one,” Pierce mentioned. “Final weekend, we simply had a number of, I assume you could possibly say unhealthy luck, however simply a number of little issues that simply didn’t actually go my manner. River Cities, I certified unhealthy, and from there, I couldn’t catch a break with the cautions I felt like.
“After which Ada, I had the flat tire with 10 to go, Bruening finally ends up having a flat and I get into him when he has a flat and it blows the deck out. Nonetheless ran seventh, after which clearly the brake concern [at Nodak Speedway], that was in all probability the win final weekend that acquired away. I felt like I had a extremely good automotive that positively, for my part would have gained. So it’s good to lastly have an evening that went actually, actually clean for us.”
Whereas Gustin got here out on the shedding finish of the sliderfest with Pierce, his runner-up consequence at certainly one of his residence tracks was his greatest World of Outlaws consequence since successful at Swainsboro Raceway in March.
“We had been alright there, Bobby simply type of discovered one other gear as soon as he acquired by us there,” Gustin mentioned. “Was capable of run round that prime loads straighter than we had been, I type of needed to again into it as a result of we had been tight. As quickly as you again into it right here, you simply lose all of your pace on exit. All in all, we’ll take it.”
Third was Tyler Bruening, who had a front-row seat for Pierce and Gustin’s battle however was unable to make it a three-way combat for the win.
“Bobby was fairly good, he’s good at utilizing the wall even for a bit little bit of traction,” Bruening mentioned. “I used to be good on the underside, I simply wanted a bit extra dig by means of the middle getting off to get that little squirt to get again in control. You’ve acquired to decelerate a lot right here working the underside.”
Tanner English completed fourth, whereas Tim McCreadie backed up his Nodak win from 4 days prior with a fifth-place effort.
The end:
Characteristic (30 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 3. 16-Tyler Bruening[3]; 4. 96-Tanner English[6]; 5. 9M-Tim McCreadie[11]; 6. 9-Nick Hoffman[7]; 7. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[10]; 8. B1-Brent Larson[8]; 9. 22*-Drake Troutman[18]; 10. 25-Chad Simpson[12]; 11. 74X-Ethan Dotson[17]; 12. 99B-Growth Briggs[5]; 13. 49-Jake Timm[14]; 14. 0-Jake O’Neil[22]; 15. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[24]; 16. 3S-Brian Shirley[9]; 17. 09-Michael Leach[21]; 18. 19-Dustin Sorensen[2]; 19. 2-Cody Overton[23]; 20. 76-Blair Nothdurft[16]; 21. 9T-Tim Isenberg[15]; 22. 32S-Chris Simpson[20]; 23. 22-Nick Panitzke[13]; 24. 1X-Aaron Marrant[19]
