GRANITE CITY, Ill. — Plenty of folks during the second half of Tuesday's Castrol FloRacing Night in America were hoping for a caution flag to tighten up the action — especially second- and third-running Jonathan Davenport and Kyle Larson — but dominating leader Bobby Pierce definitely wasn't one of them.

Holding a four-second lead through much of the race, Pierce wasn't interested in seeing a yellow flag at the 3/8-mile oval during the 40-lapper.

"I really didn't want to see a caution there. That could've got interesting," the 24-year-old Pierce said. "Bad for the fans, but good for me."

Good for Pierce for sure as the Oakwood, Ill., driver won yet again at a track where he's run as many laps as just about anywhere. Pierce clicked off his 30th career Tri-City Late Model victory — 26 in Super Late Models — and pushed his career earnings at the track near $100,000.

Davenport, of Blairsville, Ga., finished 4.177 seconds back in second with Larson, the open-wheel and NASCAR star from Elk Grove, Calif., in third on a drizzly night near St. Louis, Mo. Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., was fourth followed by Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill., who started fourth and slipped back to 11th after a first-lap brush with the wall.

Pierce's biggest concern was Davenport, a previous Castrol tour winner who was looking for his first career victory at Tri-City after getting up to the second spot on the sixth lap.

"I was pretty nervous. The main reason I'm out of breath, you know, I had a pretty good guy running second behind me," said Pierce, whose high-side line kept him snuggled up against the outer concrete wall much of the race. "A couple of times I'd mess up (and) I could tell he caught me by my dad's signal sticks a little bit. It wasn't much, but just a little. It kind of made me a bit nervous and I almost wish he just would've lied to me. I probably could've run a better race there."

Davenport couldn't match Pierce's high-side momentum on a track that, because of prerace sprinkles, required some extra pace laps to get the surface into shape.

"We went a little bit softer on tires and I didn't know that (the surface) would quite blow off like it did," Davenport said. "I was hoping it would stay dirty and we could run more through the middle. Bobby done a great job. He's one of the best around the wall, especially here. If he'd have stayed at home, I think we could've finally gotten a win here."

Davenport matched his previous best Tri-City finish of second in 2016 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series action when he lost the lead to Scott Bloomquist with eight laps remaining.

"We rebounded from qualifying 17th. We was terrible," Davenport said of Tuesday night's performance. "We found some stuff on the car that we just overlooked and started that heat race and it was a whole different race car again and drove to the front."

Larson, whose car was towed off the track on his second time trial lap when he got into the wall, recovered to start sixth in the main event and moved into the third spot on the 16th lap. He'd advance no further after another bout with the concrete.

"I got into the wall, I don't know, as soon as I got to third and right after that I got really loose (into the corner)," said Larson, a Castrol winner at Brownstown, Ind. " I think if I wouldn't have gotten into the wall, I'd have been able to run the middle strong like I was and would've chased them down ... and who knows? We did get really good there at the end and was hoping for caution. I was watching the (score)board and was just praying that a caution would come out just to give me some sort of opportunity."

He feared the setup on his Kevin Rumley-owned ride might not like the wet surface for the 40-lapper.

"I just kept asking to be tighter and tighter, than it rained, and I was like, 'Uh-oh, we're going to be way too tight here.' But thankfully the track blew off quickly and we were really good," Larson said. "Definitely felt like I had a car to win. I just needed maybe a caution or (not gotten into) the wall and maybe we could've gotten it done."

Two cautions, both on the fifth lap, slowed the action. Kyle Bronson's flat left-rear tire halted the action first with 10th-running Chris Simpson spinning on the restart and collecting Paul Roider, whose car got hung up on Simpson's nosepiece. Both retired.

Notes: Pierce scored his fourth career five-figure payday at Tri-City. His previous came in DIRTcar Summer Nationals action in 2016 and '20 and in 2018 on the Lucas Oil Series. ... Jonathan Davenport poked fun at NASCAR driver Kyle Larson's rainy competition Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. "He was the only one that had any experience running in the rain, so I figured he might pull one out," Davenport cracked. ... Reigning track champion Billy Laycock was among heat winners and started alongside Pierce on the front row, but he slipped back before retiring. ... With the threatening weather, promoters scrapped the consolation race and started all 27 Late Model entrants with the feature starting about 8:35 p.m. ... Besides Larson, two other drivers had problems in time trials. Tanner English hit the wall in turns three and four and limped in without completing a lap; he started 20th in the feature and rallied to ninth. ... Ryan King caught the turn-four wall and did damage that kept him from running his heat; he retired from the feature in 24th.

Feature lineup

Row 1: Bobby Pierce, Billy Laycock
Row 2: Tony Jackson Jr., Shannon Babb
Row 3: Jonathan Davenport, Kyle Larson
Row 4: Earl Pearson Jr., Chris Simpson
Row 5: Daryn Klein, Kyle Bronson
Row 6: Jimmy Owens, Rick Eckert
Row 7: Brandon Sheppard, Kolby Vandenbergh
Row 8: Mike Marlar, Kent Robinson
Row 9: Billy Moyer Jr., Gordy Gundaker
Row 10: Brent McKinnon, Tanner English
Row 11: Jeff Herzog, Rusty Griffaw
Row 12: Paul Roider, Reid Millard
Row 13: Blake Bailey, Trevor Gundaker
Row 14: Ryan King

Heat race results

(Eight laps; all transfer)

First heat: Bobby Pierce, Shannon Babb, Earl Pearson Jr., Kyle Bronson, Brandon Sheppard, Kent Robinson, Brent McKinnon, Rusty Griffaw, Blake Bailey.

Second heat: Billy Laycock, Jonathan Davenport, Chris Simpson, Jimmy Owens, Kolby Vandenbergh, Billy Moyer Jr., Tanner English, Paul Roider, Trevor Gundaker.

Third heat : Tony Jackson Jr., Kyle Larson, Daryn Klein, Rick Eckert, Mike Marlar, Gordy Gundaker, Jeff Herzog, Reid Millard. Scratched: Ryan King.

Time trials

Driver (car no.), hometown, time

1. Bobby Pierce (32), Oakwood, Ill., 15.576
2. Billy Laycock (82), Marine, Ill., 15.749
3. Tony Jackson Jr. (56), Lebanon, Mo., 15.762
4. Kyle Bronson (40B), Brandon, Fla., 15.796
5. Chris Simpson (32), Oxford, Iowa, 15.810
6. Daryn Klein (33), Fairview Heights, Ill., 15.839
7. Shannon Babb (18), Moweaqua, Ill., 15.846
8. Kolby Vandenbergh (15), Ashland, Ill., 15.884
9. Mike Marlar (157), Winfield, Tenn., 15.890
10. Brandon Sheppard (b5), New Berlin, Ill., 15.920
11. Jimmy Owens (20), Newport, Tenn., 15.922
12. Kyle Larson (6), Elk Grove, Calif., 15.981
13. Earl Pearson Jr. (1), Jacksonville, Fla., 16.038
14. Billy Moyer Jr. (21jr), Batesville, Ark., 16.044
15. Rick Eckert (0E), York, Pa., 16.067
16. Brent McKinnon (26M), Carlyle, Ill., 16.085
17. Jonathan Davenport (49), Blairsville, Ga., 16.120
18. Jeff Herzog (11H), Festus, Mo., 16.179
19. Kent Robinson (7R), Bloomington, Ind., 16.245
20. Trevor Gundaker (11T), St. Charles, Mo., 16.271
21. Gordy Gundaker (11), St. Charles, Mo., 16.303
22. Rusty Griffaw (16), Festus, Mo., 16.461
23. Paul Roider (23), Columbia, Ill., 16.989
24. Reid Millard (14R), Jefferson City, Mo., 17.115
25. Blake Bailey (11B), Bunker Hill, Ill., 17.692
26. Tanner English (81E), Benton, Ky., no time
27. Ryan King (1G), Seymour, Tenn., no time