Bobby Pierce puts an end to Davenport's win streak and hopes for a $300,000 bonus and a new Chevy Silverado truck. Vado track prep crew did another fantastic job producing a racy surface that was fast and had a little character giving the drivers options where to run.
Photo Credit - Wild West Shootout Facebook
The evening started off with JD topping qualifying with the quickest time of the week so far with a 14.177. With 51 cars in attendance they would have 6 heat races. Davenport would go out and win the first heat sending him off to the redraw for starting spots for the 30 lap $10,000 to win feature. Moyer won his heat race for the first time this week showing signs that the veteran driver still can wheel a car around at a high competitive level. Rookie Dustin Sorensen, in the MB Customs house car owned by the recently retired Jimmy Mars, would take the 3rd heat race. Familiar faces from the mini series event would take wins in heat races 4,5,6. Brandon Sheppard , Garrett Alberson , and Bobby Pierce.
Those 6 heat racers drew for their starting spots with Garrett Alberson once again drawing the pole position. This was the 3rd time out of 4 nights pulling out the number 1 spot. "Superman" would draw the 2 making everyone think here we go again. The fastest car of the week on the front row. Row 2 would be Moyer with BShepp along side. Row 3 was Pierce and Sorensen.
The big news of the night involved Kyle Larson. The 2021 NASCAR champ was chasing down heat race leader Pierce when a slower car not only messed up the leader but Larson plowed right into Trenton Jessen causing the Missouri driver to end up on his top. It killed Larson's radiator setting up Larson to start the B Main on the tail.
Larson from his 12th starting spot would win the 10 lap B Main setting up what would be a magical run in the 30 lap A Main.
The feature would start with Davenport jumping out to the early lead with Sheppard and Alberson battling hard for 2nd. Davenport would stretch out to a sizable lead in clean air with everyone else battling behind him.
On lap 5 Pierce would move up to the 3rd spot on the leaderboard and moving up quickly to start battling Alberson for the runner up spot. Lap 7 he would overtake the hometown hero for 2nd setting up his attack for the top spot.
The first caution would fly on lap 9 for Kyle Beard , Terry Phillips, and Mikey Kile. It appeared Beard had an issue with his LF down the backstretch going into the turn and the other 2 drivers had nowhere to go causing a pileup in turn 4.
The green replaces the yellow and Davenport smashed The Loud Pedal down with Pierce,Alberson,Sheppard, and the rookie Sorensen behind him. On lap 12 Sheppard and Sorensen would make slight contact battling for 4th with Sorensen getting over the cushion sparking the wall but able to continue. Meanwhile Alberson had a great restart getting by Pierce but Pierce would take the spot back with a slider on lap 15 setting his sights back on the leader Davenport.
Pierce looked a lot quicker than JD and the stopwatch proved it as Pierce was putting down better lap times compared to the leader. He would pull off the pass in lap 17. On lap 20 Kyle Larson was up to 6th and broke into the top 5 on lap 22. He would pass B Shepp for 4th on lap 26 and that would be as high as the NASCAR driver would get.
Near disaster struck for the leader Pierce as Dillon McCowan would lose a tire in turn 2 right in front of the pack. Pierce avoided the slowing McCowan car as the yellow came out setting up a 2 lap dash for the win. With the reigning "Driver of The Year" behind Pierce for the restart the Danville,IL driver knew he had to have a perfect restart and he would accomplish that winning by .950 ahead of the undefeated driver of the 2023 Wild West Shootout. Alberson would claim the 3rd place finish for his best finish of the week. Larson 4th from his 20th starting spot and Brandon Sheppard 5th.
Pierce has been off to a hot start despite switching over to a Longhorn Chassis but has adapted quickly to the different chassis. He would thank Matt Langston , of Longhorn Chassis , for his first win of 23 along with his crew and sponsors.
Davenport is no longer eligible for the big bonus but is still in line for a bonus. If he wins the last 2 nights of the shootout he will earn a $100,000 bonus while 1 win would give him a $25,000 boost to his checking account.
Friday's Feature Results
1) Pierce
2) Davenport
3) Alberson
4) Larson
5) Sheppard
6) Weiss
7) Marlar
8) Dillard
9) J. Scott
10) Pospisil
11) Leighton
12) Bagley
13) S. Scott
14) Schlenck
15) Kile
16) McCowan
17) Sorensen
18) Stuckey
19) Moyer
20) Erb
21) Phillips
22) Beard
23) Duty
24) Shaw
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