KNOXVILLE, Iowa — In a season where he seems to be winning virtually everything, pole-starting Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., won a race that had slipped away from him a couple of times in capturing Saturday's 20th annual Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals.

The 27-year-old phenom notched his 34th victory of the season by dominating most of the 75-lap feature and waiting out a late rain delay at the half-mile oval to collect a $50,000 payday and his sixth Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory of the season.

The top-ranked Pierce, who led all the way except for Hudson O'Neal's lap 35-42 stint up front, carefully approached the final 15 laps after the rain delay to make sure his No. 32 was still fast on the half-mile, black-dirt oval known as the Sprint Car Capital of the World.

"You had to chase (the surface) and that's nerve-wracking to be the leader on track that's transitioning every lap," Pierce said. "So we got her done and I can't thank all these fans (enough) for sticking around."

Pierce took the checkers 1.178 seconds ahead of fellow Illinois driver Brian Shirley, who rallied from his 15th starting spot, while Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, finished third. Garrett Alberson of Las Cruces, N.M., climbed eight positions to finish fourth and Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., collected a fifth-place finish that secured a spot in the Big River Steel Big Four playoff over O'Neal, who faded in the second half of the race.

Pierce ran mostly unchallenged the first half of the race, and even when O'Neal went ahead after a restart, the winner remained confident.

"Hudson got by me, but it looked like he was struggling," Pierce said. "He was kind of laid over wasn't really getting off them corners and I could tell how I was eating them up through the corner and whenever you can be that close to somebody on this big of a track and be right here on them, you know you got a good car, probably better than theirs."

Going under O'Neal between turns one and two eight laps later, Pierce had one job the rest of the way: "Don't jump the cushion."

That's the mistake that cost him a chance at beating Jimmy Owens in 2018 a Knoxville, and Pierce's next best chance to win at the high-profile oval in 2022 ending when an engine expired just a few laps after taking the early lead.

Neither the cushion nor mechanical woes proved problematic, but a drizzling rain that picked up during a lap-60 caution period created some unease for Pierce as he waited out the rain delay in the infield.

"You know, that was kind of a weird deal there," Pierce said. "Typically when rain falls after halfway, they throw the checkered, but I guess they saw it was a little (rain) cell and they thought they'd get us back out there quickly — and they did. Hat's off to them for letting us complete the race and giving the fans a full 75 laps.

"I kind of knew on before the restart I was pulling away and with the rain, typically when it rains the track, even the slick spots get a little tacky for a while. The nerve-wracking part was more so the racetrack because they gave us like a quick maybe lap and a half to kind of feel the track out before they went and the top fell slimy. So that's where I was running before the caution and that was very nerve-wracking because I know (Shirley) was kind of running the middle and I didn't want to give him the middle and the top be slimy and him passing me."

Shirley didn't let Pierce run away, but never mounted a serious challenge in the final laps.

"It feels great to win this race, man," Pierce said. "I don't know how many times I've been here — maybe five or six times — and it's an awesome place. I know a lot of people have mixed (feelings) about it, but it's just such a unique track and everything about this place is very unique. It doesn't really race like anywhere else and it's a lot of fun out there. I'm just glad I had a really fast race car to be able to win tonight."

Shirley caught a break with the lap-60 caution as officials allowed drivers to add 10 gallons of fuel during the red flag. He needed it more than most as he'd apparently virtually run out of fuel, twice requiring pushes to get his car started before the rain forced him to the infield.

He believed he was having engine problems before later discovering the fuel issues, but he felt like he had a car capable of challenging Pierce.

"It's just a tough one to be so close, you know, to be racing against the best guys in the business," he said. "And not very often do you get a race car that could be that phenomenal. It just show hard work" pays off for the Bob Cullen Motorsports team.

Moran, who started third, fell back to as far as seventh just before the rain delay.

"That's the Knoxville we come to race for," he said. "They did a great job on the track with the weather and I'm kind of glad that they didn't (stop the race after 60 laps); they could've and it benefited me. So just glad to get out of here in one piece and ready to come back next year."

Besides the lap-60 caution, three other yellow flags appeared. Home-stater Ryan Gustin stopped to draw a lap-20 yellow (he rallied to finish seventh). Dillon McCowan shredded a tire for a lap-35 yellow. And on the 56th lap, three-time race winner Mike Marlar slowed with a flat right-rear tire.

Notes: Pierce has finished worse than second just once since Aug. 21. ... He has seven victories paying $50,000 or more in 2024. ... While three of the four playoff spots were secured before Knoxville, Hudson O'Neal had a 15-point edge on Tim McCreadie in the race for the final spot. O'Neal was in position to secure the spot most of the race, but that slipped away late. O'Neal got too high on the lap-56 restart and faded, eventually slowing while running 16th to draw a lap-61 yellow (he didn't have a flat tire). McCreadie, meanwhile, started fourth and never ran worse than seventh. ... Daulton Wilson was running fourth at the rain delay but faded and retired five laps later. ... In the B-main, Brenden Smith blew a right-front tire and hit the turn-three fence while leading, bending his car's chassis; he didn't have a backup car but took a single lap in the backup car of fellow provisional starter Cory Lawler.