By Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWatcher
It was the final night of another exciting Lucas Oil Late Model season, culminating at the Dirt Track World Championship at the Eldora Speedway. 100 laps would decide the title, and would award a $100k payday to the winner. Ohioan Devin Moran had a slim 15 point lead over Ricky Thornton Jr headed into the feature, it was basically a winner-take-all scenario for the $250k winners share of the Lucas Championship fund. Moran would start the feature third, RTJ would roll off eighth.
The front row would consist of the Chris’s of Ferguson and Madden, followed by Moran, Garrett Alberson, Brandon Sheppard and Dale McDowell as your first three rows. When the green flag flew, it was Madden who took the lead as Ferguson, Alberson, and Moran followed. Madden quickly put nearly a second on Ferguson, and the lead was 1.204 seconds by lap five. RTJ was up to sixth on lap five, with Moran still in fourth. The first yellow of the race flew on lap seven as Daulton Wilson came to a stop with right rear damage.
On the restart, Madden would assert his dominance, something he would do well throughout the race. Alberson took a peak at second, but Ferguson held strong as RTJ started slicing and dicing, trying to make something happen. By lap 13, Madden’s lead was nearly two seconds, but the yellow would fly again for debris. Madden got another good restart, as Alberson and Ferguson battled once again for second, and a hornets nest ensued for fourth behind them with RTJ again trying to make moves. Things settled down between Moran, McDowell, RTJ, and Sheppard. Moran, and McDowell would slide into fourth and fifth, respectively. By lap 19, Nick Hoffman had moved into sixth, with RTJ seventh. On lap 21, Sheppard, Hoffman, and Bobby Pierce had made their way by RTJ. Meanwhile, Madden’s lead was 2.301 seconds.
The third caution would wave on lap 30 as Hudson O’Neal found the wall. On the restart, Moran would take second place, and McDowell would go to work on Ferguson for third, and would nearly take it, before Pierce came out of nowhere into fourth over McDowell. The yellow would fly once again for Alberson, and RTJ would end up having right rear damage on his car. The following restart was Madden’s worst, as he bobbled slightly in turns three and four, allowing Moran to get close, but not close enough. Meanwhile, Mike Marlar had made his way from the BMain to fifth, but here came Pierce.
Pierce was now third on lap 39 as RTJ threw a huge slider to get back into sixth. Moran had a slight bobble and almost got into the wall, allowing Pierce to take the second spot and try and track down Madden, who was on cruise control. Pierce cut Madden’s lead to a second, then .750 seconds as Moran’s title combatant RTJ had significant RR damage now. Pierce was now within striking distance of Madden, and he made his move. Pierce and Madden would go to war for the lead. Madden would retake the lead at the halfway point in lapped traffic. The yellow would fly again on lap 54, allowing everyone to breathe.
It was go-time on this restart. Rain was moving in, the race was past halfway. Madden the restart master did his thing again, but Bobby also did his thing and threw a slider. Madden slid back. Pierce threw another slider. Madden countered with his own slider. Pierce crossed over. Madden slammed the door and maintained the lead. Simple, right? Then the sliders started getting bigger. Pierce threw a huge one to take the lead, Madden countered with one even bigger. Pierce was able to fend this one off somehow and retake the lead. The dramatics weren’t done there. Soon after this battle, RTJ smacked the turn one wall and collected Jonathan Davenport. The only two drivers who had a shot at the championship other than Moran. They both had significant damage that would take them out of contention. With 37 laps left, Pierce and Madden were battling hard once again for the lead, but Pierce would be able to pull away this time. With 32 laps left, the 32 machine had a 2.155 second lead over Madden and Moran.
Pierce stretched that lead to 3.149 seconds with 25 laps left, and lapped traffic looming, but the yellow would come out for Josh Rice who was off the pace. Pierce had a slight bobble on the restart, washing up the track, but it worked out. Moran was into second over Madden and Marlar made his way into third. The yellow came out quickly, though as Davenport lost debris off his machine. The ensuing restart was super close between the lead trio, but it worked out. Moran and Marlar filed in in second and third and Pierce would gap them by a second before the next yellow came out on lap 80.
This restart was somehow even closer between the lead cars but Pierce would hold serve over Moran and Marlar. Pierce gapped them by 1.323 seconds as Marlar started to fade. With 15 circuits remaining, Pierce was on cruise control and kept gapping the field with Moran solidly in second. The final caution would come out on lap 88. Pierce nailed this restart as they nearly hit the inside wall. Moran washed up some and slipped to third. Pierce had a second lead with nine laps left as Sheppard made it by Moran for third. The laps clicked off, and as the checkered flag flew, it would be Bobby Pierce winning the Dirt Track World Championship and $100,000. Devin Moran settled for fourth, but it was a $250,000 fourth place finish. I’m sure he’s ok with that.