COLUMBUS, Miss. — Bobby Pierce dominated the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series opening night of the General Tire Clash at the Mag presented by Big River Steel on Thursday Night at Magnolia Motor Speedway.

Pierce led wire-to-wire in the 25-lap feature to kick off the weekend.
For the Illinois native, it was his first win of the season as he became the 11th different winner in 16 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series events this year.

Pierce had a healthy lead throughout the race and cruised to the victory. His win came ahead of a torrid battle for second on back that saw current series point leader Jimmy Owens finish in second followed by Ross Bailes, Shane Clanton, and Tyler Erb.

Pierce got to the lead at the start of the race while the race for second raged on behind him. Owens and Bailes went back-and-forth several times in the race for second. Owens was finally able to wrestle second-place from Bailes on the 23rd lap.

The 23-year-old Pierce went to Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Victory Lane for the 11th time in his career.

“The way the night started, I was not happy,” Pierce said. “We were bad in qualifying. All-in-all it was a great ending to the night. This is our first win of 2020. This Pierce car with Advanced Shocks has been working well. I want to thank my crew and my family.

“It feels great to get that first win, but it’s 100 laps here on Saturday, it’s going to be a little different,” Pierce continued. “We had just got to get a little better. I feel like when I got to those lapped cars I was struggling a little bit. I saw my dad giving me signals and the sticks were getting closer together at the end. I messed up a couple of times and with this type of field of cars, you cannot do that too many times. It feels to get that monkey off our back.”

Owens finished in second and was happy with another podium finish.

“After they worked the track there were crumbs on the bottom and I didn’t get off to a good start,” Owens said. “It did not pack in as good as the top. Me and Ross had a good race. We just raced around the top and really couldn’t move around like we wanted to. We will come back tomorrow night and try to pick up one more spot.”

The finish:

1)Bobby Pierce 2)Jimmy Owens 3)Ross Bailes 4)Shane Clanton 5)Tyler Erb 6)Billy Moyer 7)Tim McCreadie 8)Timothy Culp 9)Hudson O’Neal 10)Josh Richards 11)Neil Baggett 12)Kyle Bronson 13)Joseph Joiner 14)Jonathan Davenport 15)Spencer Hughes 16)Shanon Buckingham 17)Michael Page 18)Drew Armstrong 19)Michael Arnold 20)Billy Moyer Jr. 21)Devin Moran 22)Johnny Scott 23)Scott Dedwylder 24)Rick Rickman