Photo Credit- Todd Boyd
Bobby Pierce wins the rain shortened USA Nationals last night at Cedar Lake Speedway. Last year's winner took the lead from polesitter Jonathan Davenport on lap 2 then right before the rain hit the top 4 of Pierce ,Bronson ,Sorensen, and Gustin were under a blanket for the lead and win. Davenport would finish 5th as the race was called on lap 56 of 100.
Davenport jumped out to the early lead at the drop of the green as 3rd starting Brandon Sheppard took 2nd from eventual winner Pierce.
Bad luck struck the World of Outlaws point leader , Sheppard, as they came around for lap 2 he would slow to bring out the first caution of the race. It was discovered in the hot pit that he had a fuel line issue. Since there was no tire change he was not given any courtesy laps to repair the line as the field went back to green during the quick yellow.
Pierce would pass leader Davenport to lead lap 2. Pierce would stretch his lead by a couple of seconds as he approached the rear of the field. Several of the cars were battling for position in front of the leaders running the bottom and top making it hard for the leaders to get around them for their own battles.
The yellow would wave again on lap 18 for Shannon Babb. The top 5 at the time was Pierce,Davenport, Bronson,Hoffman, and Ricky Thornton Jr. Hoffman looking to take advantage of Sheppard's misfortune to gain some distance in the season point standings.
When the green waved Bronson started pressuring Davenport for 2nd and would take over the spot. Also making some noise was the rookie Dustin Sorensen. Sorensen has several laps around Cedar Lake.
The final racing yellow waved on lap 47 for Jason Feger coming to a stop. Under the yellow you could see lightning in the distance as the storm was moving close to the track. Pierce leads Bronson , Sorensen , Davenport , and Friday night's winner Gustin.
When the racing resumed Sorensen found a line in turn 2 pounding the cushion on exit to have a ton of speed down the backstretch into turn 3 & 4. As the rain hit the track Pierce was just as Bronson and Sorensen was side by side with Gustin right behind them. Disappointing for the fans and the drivers not to have the full 100 laps especially rift when the racing was getting good.
The series will be off until August 14th as they go to Highland Speedway for $10,000 to win.
USA Nationals Finish
BOBBY PIERCE
Bronson
Sorensen
Gustin
Davenport
O'Neal
Dillard
Thornton Jr
McCreadie
Shirley
Mars
Hoffman
T. Erb
Bruening
Weiss
Dotson
Larson
McLaughlin
Marlar
Feger
Erb Jr
Smith
Bloomquist
Chamberlain
Overton
Mahder
Sheppard
Gundaker
Babb
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