OGILVIE, Minn. (July 3) — Bobby Pierce needed a financial boost after back-to-back DNFs due to engine trouble in weekend World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series action.

The answer? A holiday week XR Super Series tripleheader in the Upper Midwest.

Pierce, 27, of Oakwood, Ill., topped off a spectacular rebound from despair with a $50,000 victory in Wednesday night’s 50-lap Minnesota Mega feature at Ogilvie Speedway. It came after he earned a $15,000 win Monday at Proctor (Minn.) Raceway and finished second Tuesday at Gondik Law Speedway in Superior, Wis.

The influx of XR cash helped Pierce set his checkbook back on track following his rough WoO outings on Saturday at Norman County Raceway in Ada, Minn., and Sunday at River Cities Speedway Grand Forks, N.D.

Even the driver who finished second in Ogilvie’s A-main — Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio — felt good for Pierce.

“Congrats to him,” Moran said. “He had a long week earlier in the week, so that made it up for him.”

Pierce was without a peer in his first-ever visit to the 3/8-mile oval. He marched his Longhorn machine forward from the sixth starting spot to grab the lead on lap 19 from race-long pacesetter Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., and never looked back en route to beating Moran by 3.178 seconds in a caution-free affair.

Thornton settled for a third-place finish after losing second to Moran on lap 42. Ryan Gustin of Marshalltown, Iowa, was the race’s biggest moved with an advance from the 12th starting spot to a fourth-place finish while Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas, completed the top five after ceding fourth to Gustin on lap 44.

Pierce was in a very upbeat mood after registering the richest victory of his 15-win 2024 season.

“I really looked forward to coming to this track,” said Pierce, whose most lucrative victory prior to Wednesday was his $20,000 WoO Illini 100 finale success on April 13 at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway. “It had an awesome shape and everything to it. I obviously never raced here before not knowing what it was gonna do, but it was an awesome racetrack. It really allowed us to go from sixth to first.”

Pierce vaulted from sixth to third on the opening lap and ran there until slipping inside Moran for second on lap 13. He quickly ran down Thornton and made his winning move with a slider through turns three and four on lap 19.

“Really (it was) the same thing that’s happened all weekend long — I felt like it took about five or six laps for us to really get going,” Pierce said. “Obviously I got into fourth there quickly, but when I was riding in third I kind of started catching them guys on the bottom and then we caught some lapped traffic and I moved up and it felt pretty good up there too.

“It was totin’ the left front pretty good, so I guess I had some traction.”

Pierce just never knew how much he had pulled away from his nearest challengers, so he simply kept pouring on the speed.

“I really wasn’t sure if I had a big lead or a small lead,” Pierce said. “It was really hard to see my dad (Bob) on the backstretch there so I was just gassing it the whole time and trying to pick my way through there the best I could.”

The non-stop race played right into Pierce’s hands.

“I love the long runs too. It really helps us,” Pierce said. “And the way we just set the car up and the way we do the tires, how we cut ‘em and sipe ‘em to make ‘em last, it’s always hard when you go to a new racetrack. You never really know how it is on stuff, but I think we had an awesome setup tonight. We really changed the whole setup after the heat race.”

Moran, 29, conceded that Pierce was the class of the field.

“I felt like I had a really, really good car,” said Moran, who registered his fifth runner-up finish in his last six starts. “As the race went on I kept getting better. I just can’t run through that dirty stuff like Bobby and them guys. We needed this thing to slow down a little bit to keep up with him.”

But Moran, the XRSS points leader, smiled when he noted, “We’ve been running really, really good. If we keep running like this, we’ll get some wins.”

The 33-year-old Thornton never felt like he had a vehicle that could win the race.

“I was just way too good early,” Thornton said. “We’ve been fighting a problem the last couple nights with this thing three-wheeling real bad, so we didn’t tighten up as much as we really should’ve and when we took off I knew it … I knew Bobby or Devin was probably gonna get by me.”

Notes: Pierce recorded his fifth career triumph on the third-year tour. … The non-stop race was completed in just over 13 minutes with nine drivers finishing on the lead lap. … Chase Junghans hit the wall on his second qualifying lap, ripping the right-rear quarter panel off and causing heavy spoiler and deck damage. He made repairs and fell one spot short of transferring in the first B-main. … Max McLaughlin also made wall contact in his time trial attempt.

Feature lineup

(50 laps)

Row 1: Ricky Thornton Jr., Devin Moran
Row 2: Cade Dillard, Mike Marlar
Row 3: Brandon Sheppard, Bobby Pierce
Row 4: Brian Shirley, Tyler Erb
Row 5: Kyle Bronson, Dennis Erb Jr.
Row 6: Nick Hoffman, Ryan Gustin
Row 7: Tyler Stevens, James Giossi
Row 8: Billy Moyer, Sammy Mars
Row 9: Brent Larson, Chad Mahder
Row 10: Pat Doar, Max McLaughlin
Row 11: Don Shaw, Shane Sabraski
Row 12: Jase Lien, Nick Panitzke

Consolation race results

(10 laps; top three transfer)

First consolation: Brent Larson, Pat Doar, Don Shaw, Chase Junghans, Josh Zimpel, Jared Zimpel. Scratched: Dylan Kromschroeder, Zach Wohlers

Second consolation: Chad Mahder, Max McLaughlin, Shane Sabraski, Dave Mass, Nick Panitzke, Larry Fitzsimmons, Joel Collins, Jase Lien. Scratched: Dustin Walker

Heat race recap

Ricky Thornton Jr. inherited the first heat race victory after apparent winner Kyle Bronson was docked two finishing positions for a post-race deck height violation. Brandon Sheppard inherited the runner-up spot and Tyler Stevens held serve in fourth place, with all four drivers punching their ticket into Wednesday’s $50,000-to-win Minnesota Mega. … Cade Dillard led all eight laps to win heat two by 2.068 seconds over third-starting Brian Shirley. Nick Hoffman slipped to third, with Billy Moyer grabbing the fourth and final transfer spot into the night's 50-lapper. … Second-starting Devin Moran dominated heat three, leading the entire distance and winning by 0.974 of a second over Bobby Pierce. Dennis Erb Jr. placed third, with fifth-starting James Giossi taking fourth. The race’s initial start was called off as Max McLaughlin rolled onto the track late and tagged the field. McLaughlin rebounded to finish fifth after his team narrowly completed repairs following a wall scrape in time trials. … Mike Marlar scored a flag-to-flag victory to win the fourth and final heat race by 2.427 seconds over Tyler Erb. Ryan Gustin finished third, with Sammy Mars fending off a late-race challenge from Chad Mahder and beating him to the line by 0.130 of a second for the final transfer position.

Heat race results

(Eight laps; top four transfer)

First heat: Ricky Thornton Jr., Brandon Sheppard, Kyle Bronson, Tyler Stevens, Pat Doar, Don Shaw, Dylan Kromschroeder, Jared Zimpel.

Second heat: Cade Dillard, Brian Shirley, Nick Hoffman, Billy Moyer, Brent Larson, Josh Zimpel, Chase Junghans, Zach Wohlers.

Third heat: Devin Moran, Bobby Pierce, Dennis Erb Jr., James Giossi, Max McLaughlin, Nick Panitzke, Shane Sabraski, Joel Collins, Larry Fitzsimmons.

Fourth heat: Mike Marlar, Tyler Erb, Ryan Gustin, Sammy Mars, Chad Mahder, Dave Mass, Dustin Walker, Jase Lien.

Time trials

Group A
Driver (car no.), hometown, time (unofficial)
1. Kyle Bronson (40B),  Brandon, Fla., 15.494
2. Cade Dillard (97), Robeline, La., 15.645
3. Ricky Thornton Jr. (20rt), Chandler, Ariz., 15.658
4. Nick Hoffman (9), Mooresville, N.C., 15.831
5. Brandon Sheppard (B5), New Berlin, Ill., 15.909
6. Brian Shirley (3s), Chatham, Ill., 15.934
7, Tyler Stevens (2), Searcy, Ark., 15.968
8. Billy Moyer (21), Batesville, Ark., 16.051
9. Jared Zimpel (27), Braham, Minn., 16.182
10. Pat Doar (11), New Richmond, Wis., 16.182
11. Don Shaw (42s), Ham Lake, Minn., 16.338
12. Brent Larson (B1), Lake Elmo, Minn., 16.369
13. Dylan Kromschroeder (9k), Cambridge, Minn., 16.530
14. Zach Wohlers (71), Cohasset, Minn., 16.674
15. Josh Zimpel (5), Braham, Minn., 16.884
16. Chase Junghans (18), Manhattan, Kan., 17.789
Group B
1. Bobby Pierce (32), Oakwood, Ill., 15.543
2. Mike Marlar (157), Winfield, Tenn., 15.679
3. Devin Moran (99), Dresden, Ohio, 15.770
4. Tyler Erb (1), New Waverly, Texas, 15.808
5. Dennis Erb Jr. (28E), Carpentersville, Ill., 15.910
6. Ryan Gustin (19R), Marshalltown, Iowa, 16.012
7. Nick Panitzke (22), Lonsdale, Minn., 16.034
8. Sammy Mars (28), Menomonie, Wis., 16.274
9. James Giossi (11G), Hudson, Wis., 16.314
10. Dave Mass (2m), East Bethel, Minn., 16.339
11. Max McLaughlin (22*), Mooresville, N.C., 16.369
12. Chad Mahder (55c), Bloomer, Wis., 16.473
13. Shane Sabraski (7A), Rice, Minn., 16.483
14. Dustin Walker (14w), Polk, Mo., 16.816
15. Joel Collins (21x), Princeton, Minn., 16.955
16. Jase Lien (24L), Mora, Minn., 17.285
17. Larry Fitzsimmons (73), East Bethel, Minn., 17.311

Wednesday’s schedule

(All times local)
2 p.m. - Pits open
2-6 p.m. - Drivers’ registration open
3-6 p.m. - Technical inspection open
4 p.m. - Grandstands open
6 p.m. - Drivers’ meeting (backstretch registration trailer)
6:30 p.m. - On-track activity
- Late Model hot laps
- Midwest modified hot laps
- Late Model time trials (2 laps)
Opening ceremonies
- Late Model heats (8 laps)
- Midwest modified heats (8 laps)
- Late Model consolations (10 laps)
Intermission/track prep
- Minnesota Mega (50 laps)
- Midwest Modified feature (25 laps)