PENNSBORO, W.Va. (Oct. 26) — As confident as Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., is in his ability to rally from a setback, he had his doubts after a flat right-rear tire knocked him from the lead six laps into Saturday’s 50-lap Mason-Dixon 100 finale at Pennsboro Speedway.

“When that happened, I guess I had flashbacks to the PDC, me going to the tail and coming back to the front,” Pierce said, recalling his dramatic charge to capture July 27’s Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway. “But I didn’t think it was really possible tonight. I kind of stalemated there at one point in time around sixth or seventh.”

The 27-year-old superstar “eventually got going again,” however, and ran down Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, to regain the lead on lap 36 en route to a $30,000 triumph that closed the XR Super Series-sanctioned grand reopening weekend for the historic half-mile track. Pierce, who won Thursday’s $10,000 opener and finished second to Moran earlier Saturday in the 25-lap feature that was postponed from Friday by rain, beat Moran to the finish line by 0.840 of a second as the reborn Pennsboro oval saw its first action since 2002.

Doug Drown of Wooster, Ohio, slipped past Michael Lake of Uniontown, Pa., for third on a lap-45 restart and finished in the position. Nick Hoffman of Mooresville, N.C., who pitted to change a tire on lap 13 while running second, followed Drown by Lake and placed fourth while fifth went to Lake, who clinched the 2024 Jay’s Automotive United Late Model Series championship.

Pierce, who started from the pole position in his Longhorn Chassis, seized control at the initial green flag and appeared primed to dominate the race. A flat tire after he led the first six laps, though, turned his outing upside down.

With the fourth-starting Moran inheriting the top spot with Pierce’s misfortune, the possibility of a second win in the three-night meet seemed unlikely for Pierce.

“I was just trying to get back to like a podium spot, a good little finish there,” Pierce said. “And then when we were rolling and we got to second and we were catching Devin and I caught him, I knew I had a really, really good car to be able to do that.”

Pierce reached second on lap 29 with an inside-out move in turn two by Kyle Thomas of Pennsboro, W.Va. He quickly erased Moran’s roughly 2-second edge with help from lapped traffic and muscled his way into the lead on lap 36, surging ahead off turn four after his right-rear made contact with Moran’s left-front as Moran was trying to pivot and lap Clint Coffman.

“I think I got through the field pretty good,” Pierce said. “The only contact was a little bit with Devin. That’s just the way this track is here. You saw it Thursday night and it happened again. I hated to get into him, but it just gets super tight right there, and then with that lapped car there it happened.

“With the lappers, that’s what it took there. You go high, the other person goes low. You dip when you dodge, you duck when … whatever that saying is. It’s just, you don’t know where to go, and that’s one of the things that made it exciting all these nights.”

Moran, 30, thought he had his second victory of the night in his crosshairs while leading laps 7-35 but fell victim to slower traffic and the relentless Pierce.

“Just one of them nights I felt like we were in control of the race and the lapped cars got in the way a little bit and Bobby did to me what I did to him the other night,” Moran said. “He’s talking a little bit, but obviously he’s willing to do the same … I’m not too worried about it.”

Pierce remarked that “you gotta have a good car to come from the back like that,” but he acknowledged that circumstances fell his way to make the comeback possible.

“The cautions came at the right time, I’ll say that,” Pierce said. “But we had everything against us there. We had the flat tire early, a little scare down there for a second, all the restarts, and that caution there at the very end (lap 50 as Pierce was heading toward the checkered flag). It was just a matter of time before Devin caught on to my restarts in turn three there.”

But Pierce survived the green-white-checkered finish to tally his 37th overall victory of the 2024 season and push his earnings for the year to nearly $1.15 million. It was his sixth XRSS win of the season and the ninth of his career on the tour and second (both during the Pennsboro weekend) with the Jay’s Automotive United Late Model Series, which co-sanctioned the Mason-Dixon 100.

Pierce, who leads the XRSS points standings, called Saturday’s finale a “super fun race” and the egg-shaped Pennsboro layout a “super fun racetrack to race on.”

“I guess, by talks of them widening the bridges (over the creek underneath the track in turns one and three), that’ll definitely help out a little bit there because you get to certain situations where it kind of takes some traffic to make a move,” Pierce said. “I think that’ll be a lot better.

“As far as the racing surface, it’s been super glass-smooth all weekend. I don’t think there was even a little ripple in it anywhere, but it still had a little cushion there in turn four, so I kind of liked that. High speeds, a little sketchy in places. It’s fast, and it took all weekend really to figure that turn three out.”

Moran, whose father Donnie won the Hillbilly 100 (1988 and ’89) and Dirt Track World Championship (’88) at Pennsboro, also relished the opportunity to compete at the historic track.

“It was cool to kind of throw back to Pennsboro with the big crowd and stuff,” Moran said. “So who knows, maybe they can redo these bridges and it can be a really, really entertaining race next year.”

Six caution flags slowed the event. Pierce triggered the first slowdown on lap six with his flat tire while George Klintworth paused the race on lap 13 when he fell off the pace. Additional yellows came for Eddie Carrier Jr., who slowed while running third on lap 28; Todd Brennan, who spun from eighth on lap 43; and Dave Stamm,who spun on laps 43 and 50.

Stamm’s second twirl came off turn four just a bit ahead of Pierce, who was looking to take the checkered flag. A brief red flag was thrown for the incident because when Stamm hit the outside wall his car’s nosepiece was ripped off and became lodged in the steel guardrail.

A red flag was also displayed for 10 minutes after the lap-43 caution flag so the ambulance crew could respond to a fan needing medical attention near the front gate.

Feature lineup

(50 laps)

Row 1: Bobby Pierce, Nick Hoffman
Row 2: Kyle Thomas, Devin Moran
Row 3: Tyler Carpenter, Eddie Carrier Jr.
Row 4: Dylan Lewis, Mike Benedum
Row 5: Doug Drown, Michael Lake
Row 6: Derek Rogers, Todd Brennan
Row 7: Zak Kimbrew, Logan Zarin
Row 8: Corey DeLancey, Clint Coffman
Row 9: Brandon Francis, Corey Conley
Row 10: James Dennis, Robbie Scott
Row 11: Kyle Moore, Daniel Hill
Row 12: George Klintworth, Ken Schaltenbrand
Row 13: Dave Stamm

Consolation results

(10 laps; top six transfer)

Finish: Brandon Francis, Corey Conley, James Dennis, Robbie Scott, Kyle Moore, Daniel Hill, Ken Schaltenbrand, Ed Shuman, Shawn Donahue, Matt Martin, Dustin Sprouse, George Klintworth, Dave Stamm. Scratched: Robbie Bostic, Freddie Carpenter.

Heat race recap

Bobby Pierce fended off an opening-lap challenge from Tyler Carpenter and led all eight laps to win the first heat race by 1.420 seconds over Carpenter. Doug Drown started and finished third, while fifth-starting Zak Kimbrew grabbed the fourth and final transfer spot into the 50-lap, $30,000-to-win finale. The first caution came on lap three when Brandon Francis slowed abruptly, leaving Kyle Moore nowhere to go and sending him spinning after the two made contact in turn four. Francis continued to finish fifth, while Moore spun again to cause the second stoppage on lap seven and pulled off. … Pole-starting Nick Hoffman led the entire way to win the second heat by 3.464 seconds over fourth-starting Eddie Carrier Jr. Fifth-starting Michael Lake finished third, while Logan Zarin held on for the fourth and final transfer position. Hoffman’s closest challenger in the early going, James Dennis was initially called for jumping the race’s opening start, then pushed high out of turn two on the ensuing restart attempt, getting stuck in the cushion, collecting Corey Conley and Robbie Bostic. Dennis limped to complete four laps before pulling off with heavy damage, while Conley and Bostic were unable to continue. … Second-starting Kyle Thomas used a last-lap, last-corner pass by race-long leader Dylan Lewis and beat him to the line by 0.339 of a second to win heat three. Thomas was called for jumping the race’s initial start, then tangled with pole-starting Freddie Carpenter on the ensuing restart, as Carpenter appeared to clip an infield tractor tire and pushed high. Carpenter pulled off with heavy nose damage and did not complete a lap. Fifth-starting Lewis led the opening seven laps before giving way to Thomas, while sixth-starting Derek Rogers finished third. … Devin Moran dominated the fourth and final heat race, leading all eight laps from the pole and winning by 4.354 seconds over Mike Benedum. Fourth-starting Todd Brennan and fifth-starting Clint Coffman rounded out the top-four finishers.

Heat race results

(Eight laps; top four transfer)

First heat: Bobby Pierce, Tyler Carpenter, Doug Drown, Zak Kimbrew, Brandon Francis, Daniel Hill, Dustin Sprouse, Kyle Moore.

Second heat: Nick Hoffman, Eddie Carrier Jr., Michael Lake, Logan Zarin, James Dennis, Corey Conley, Robbie Bostic. Scratched: Shawn Donahue.

Third heat: Kyle Thomas, Dylan Lewis, Derek Rogers, Corey DeLancey, Robbie Scott, Ed Shuman, Dave Stamm, Freddie Carpenter.

Fourth heat: Devin Moran, Mike Benedum, Todd Brennan, Clint Coffman, Matt Martin, George Klintworth, Ken Schaltenbrand.

Time trials

Driver (car no.), hometown, time (unofficial)
1. Bobby Pierce (32), Oakwood, Ill., 19.941
2. Nick Hoffman (9), Mooresville, N.C., 20.498
3. Freddie Carpenter (c4), Parkersburg, W.Va., 20.603
4. Devin Moran (99), Dresden, Ohio, 20.610
5. Tyler Carpenter (28), Parkersburg, W.Va., 20.734
6. James Dennis (156), Lower Salem, Ohio, 20.858
7. Kyle Thomas (57), Pennsboro, W.Va., 20.932
8. Mike Benedum (25), Salem, W.Va., 21.038
9. Doug Drown (12), Wooster, Ohio, 21.054
10. Logan Zarin (1z), Moon Township, Pa., 21.101
11. Corey DeLancey (c2), Parkersburg, W.Va., 21.284
12. Ken Schaltenbrand (29k), Sarver, Pa., 21.344
13. Kyle Moore (14), Mansfield, Ohio, 21.373
14. Eddie Carrier Jr. (75), Salt Rock, W.Va., 21.429
15. Robbie Scott (18), Shinnston, W.Va., 21.500
16. Todd Brennan (20), Zanesville, Ohio, 21.505
17. Zak Kimbrew (88), Grafton, W.Va., 21.518
18. Michael Lake (27), Uniontown, Pa., 21.592
19. Dylan Lewis (44), Oakland, Md., 21.624
20. Clint Coffman (2c), Ashland, Ohio, 21.702
21. Brandon Francis (113), Parkersburg, W.Va., 21.786
22. Corey Conley (1), Wellsburg, W.Va., 21.798
23. Derek Rogers (23), Spelter, W.Va., 21.851
24. Matt Martin (6), Indiana, Pa., 21.946
25. Daniel Hill (grs1), Morgantown, W.Va., 22.012
26. Robbie Bostic (24R), Mineral Wells, W.Va., 22.092
27. Ed Shuman (0), Mineral Wells, W.Va., 22.287
28. George Klintworth (k11), Lowell, Ohio, 22.734
29. Dustin Sprouse (43), Parkersburg, W.Va., 22.919
30. Shawn Donahue (34c), Athens, Ohio, no time
31. Dave Stamm (10), Millmont, Pa., no time

Saturday’s schedule

(All times local)
1 p.m. - Pits open, shuttle parking begins
3 p.m. - Registration and prerace tech opens
4 p.m. - Grandstands open
5:30 p.m. - On-track activity
- 604 Crate hot laps
- Super Late Model hot laps
- 604 Crate group qualifying
Opening ceremonies
- Friday Super Late Model feature (25 laps)
- 604 Crate heats (6 laps)
- Super Late Model time trials (2 laps)
- Super Late Model heats (8 laps)
- Super Late Model consolation (10 laps)
Intermission/track prep
- 604 Crate feature (25 laps)
- Mason-Dixon 100 (50 laps)