MANSFIELD, Ohio (May 29) — Tyler Erb’s strategy for the start of Friday’s 40-lap Blaster 57 Special preliminary feature at Mansfield Speedway changed quite dramatically once he heard some shocking news relayed to him and his fellow race starters through their one-way radio connection to the World of Outlaws Late Model Series race director.

Erb and everyone else in the 26-car field learned while sitting on the backstretch before commencing parade laps that the A-main’s $12,000 winner’s prize had ballooned to a blockbuster $100,000 thanks to the largesse of the Dan and Brenda Niss, a prominent family in the Mansfield community who wanted to make the event bigger “in celebration” of the facility’s reopening after seven years under new owner Matt Tifft. With so much more money on the line, Erb knew he had to be quick on the draw when the green flag was displayed.

“I mean, for $100,000, I kind of rethought my corner entry into one,” Erb said. “Obviously you want to get the lead, that’s the most important thing in any race, and you want to have the ability to lose the race or win the race.”

Erb, 29, of New Waverly, Texas, surged from outside the front row to seize command at the initial start from polesitter Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz. The move put him in front for good as he maintained control throughout the distance to defeat Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga., by 0.551 of a second for the six-figure payday — a personal career-high — and his first WoO triumph of the 2026 season.

WoO points leader Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., came from the 10th starting spot to finish third but never seriously threatened Erb and Overton. Josh Rice of Crittenden, Ky., placed fourth after his JRR Motorsports team made an engine change before the start of the evening’s program due to water in the oil and Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., was fifth after briefly climbing as high as third at the race’s halfway mark.

The unexpectedly rich winner’s check produced an ecstatic victor in Erb, who understood that his opening-lap aggressiveness to grab the lead was critical to his success. Racing on a choppy, dusty track surface that proved difficult for drivers to tame even after an extensive working following time trials, Erb knew the best place for him to be with his Best Performance Motorsports Rocket Chassis was at the front of the pack.

“I took off into one (at the initial start), which was no different than qualifying, and, you know, was able to gather it back up, and Ricky didn’t, you know, completely use me up there in three and four, and I appreciate that,” Erb said. “So after that, I was like, ‘I led lap one. Thirty-nine more laps, and (then) a hundred-thousand.’

“It was a crazy race. Obviously, there’s so-slick spots, and then the traction’s in the rough, and you kind of got to aim for that …  I don’t even know what’s going on behind me, and I’m so glad that I wasn’t a part of it.”

Erb threw out high praise to Tifft for reopening the 4/10-mile oval and the Niss family for turning a lower-key preliminary feature into a race for big bucks.

“I can’t them enough,” Erb said. “For $12,000 I’d like to think I’d drive really hard, but for $100,000, that’s the biggest race I’ve ever won for sure. It takes a lot of balls (for Tifft) to open a place that everybody bitches about and cries about … and for everyone to make this a hundred-thousand-to-win race, just at the drop of a hat, that means a lot. It means a lot to me to win obviously — winning’s what you’re all about— but I can't appreciate them enough.

“Hell,” he added, thinking ahead to Saturday’s 75-lap, $57,000-to-win weekend finale, “I hope he pays more tomorrow, too. That’d be cool.”

The 35-year-old Overton certainly wouldn’t mind having more money to chase on Saturday after falling short of the six-figure pot of gold in Friday’s feature. He slid into second place on lap three and pursued Erb the remainder of the race, drawing truly close only on lap 37 exiting turn four. His hopes, however, were thwarted when his car pushed and he lost ground that he never recovered.

“It’s treacherous out there, you know?” Overton said. “I could get a launch on the restarts, but it’s so bad where I would need to enter (the corner) that I’d just flip over, probably, honestly, so I just had to follow (Erb) once I got down there. I had a couple chances to get him but I bounced so bad that I lost front end and about bounced and landed into him.

“Like, I would normally be happy about second right now, how we’ve been running, but …”

Overton acknowledged the vast difference in first- to second-place pay — a whopping $94,000 with his runner-up finish worth the posted $6,000 — but noted that he had no designs on throwing a dirty move on Erb in order to win the race.

“Terbo’s my buddy,” Overton said. “He would never do that to me, but I was never close enough to even try to slide him. I would catch him at the wrong time, and he had a little harder tire on than we did and I was protecting, protecting, protecting, trying to just, at the end, get where I could go.

“The positive is our car felt really good. We threw some stuff at it, and then we get out there, and they say, ‘Yeah, you’re racing for a hundred-grand,’ so maybe the same guy that put it up tonight will add it again tomorrow.”

Pierce, 29, advanced from the 10th starting to control third by lap 22 but was resigned to claiming the final podium position. The big money pumped him up for a feature that he didn’t feel real positive about, but he wasn’t quite strong enough to contend for the win.

“I was like, ‘Man, that’s cool, for sure,’” Pierce said of his reaction when the first-place boost was announced. “Of course, going through my mind, I was like, ‘Man, I wish I was a little better tonight,’ because I didn’t think I’d get to third. So seeing 100-grand to win, I was like, ‘Hey, I guess we’re gonna try a little harder for sure.’ I think it made the whole field try harder.

“Obviously, when you get a track that’s that rough you don’t want to beat your equipment up and it’s a points night, but 100-grand to win, you’re going to go for it. I was just waiting for Brandon (Overton) to kind of throw a slider on Terbo or something and hopefully they wrecked each other because I didn’t quite have anything for them.”

Five caution flags dotted the race, including debris-caused cautions on lap 17 and a lap-27 restart. Tristan Chamberlain slowed his overheating car on lap 18 and again on lap 21 while Ryan Gustin triggered a lap-27 caution with right-rear tire trouble.

The polesitting Thornton fell from third to fifth on lap 13 when he bounced hard in turn two and later pitted on lap 18. He was credited with a 20th-place finish.

Feature lineup

(40 laps)

Row 1: Ricky Thornton Jr., Tyler Erb
Row 2: Ethan Dotson, Brandon Overton
Row 3: Chris Madden, Nick Hoffman
Row 4: Garrett Alberson, Drake Troutman
Row 5: Josh Rice, Bobby Pierce
Row 6: Hudson O'Neal, Chris Ferguson
Row 7: Devin Moran, Dennis Erb Jr.
Row 8: Tim McCreadie, Dale McDowell
Row 9: Daulton Wilson, Dallon Murty
Row 10: Brandon Sheppard, Kyle Moore
Row 11: Max Blair, Rod Conley
Row 12: Ryan Gustin, Dustin Sorensen
Row 13: Trey Mills, Tristan Chamberlain

Consolation race results

(10 laps; top three transfer)

First consolation: Daulton Wilson, Brandon Sheppard, Max Blair, Eric Wilson, Michael Norris, Ryan Gustin, Logan Zarin, Trey Mills, Dustin Sorensen, Mason Zeigler. Scratched: Mike Marlar, Corey Conley, R.J. Conley, Steve Banal, Ron Hamlin.

Second consolation: Dallon Murty, Kyle Moore, Rod Conley, Tyler Wyant, Jon Lee, Matt Irey, Ryan Markham, Ryan Montgomery, Eli Johnson, Lincoln Smith, Larry Bellman, Tristan Chamberlain, Brock Pinkerous. Scratched: Matt Tifft, Brent Larson.

Heat race recap

Ethan Dotson fought off early challenges from Chris Madden and led the final seven laps in winning the first heat race by 1.633 seconds over Madden. Josh Rice started and finished third while fifth-starting Devin Moran claimed the fourth and final transfer spot into the night’s 40-lap main event. … Brandon Overton fired off from the outside front row and led all eight laps, winning the second heat by 1.280 seconds over polesitter Drake Troutman. Fourth-starting Hudson O’Neal finished third with Tim McCreadie hanging on for the final transfer position into the $12,000-to-win Blaster 57 Special preliminary feature. … Tyler Erb earned a flag-to-flag victory in winning the night’s third heat race, taking the checkers 0.873 of a second ahead of Garrett Alberson, who trailed Erb all eight laps. Bobby Pierce and Dennis Erb Jr. both held serve in finishing third and fourth. … Second-starting Ricky Thornton Jr. controlled all eight laps in winning the fourth and final heat race by 1.269 seconds over polesitter Nick Hoffman, who remained hot on Thornton’s heels the entire way. Chris Ferguson and Dale McDowell rounded out the top-four finishers.

Heat race results

(Eight laps; top four transfer)

First heat: Ethan Dotson, Chris Madden, Josh Rice, Devin Moran, Daulton Wilson, Brandon Sheppard, Michael Norris, Dustin Sorensen, Mason Zeigler, Logan Zarin, R.J. Conley. Scratched: Ron Hamlin.

Second heat: Brandon Overton, Drake Troutman, Hudson O'Neal, Tim McCreaadie, Eric Wilson, Max Blair, Mike Marlar, Ryan Gustin, Trey Mills, Corey Conley. Scratched: Steve Banal.

Third heat: Tyler Erb, Garrett Alberson, Bobby Pierce, Dennis Erb Jr., Dallon Murty, Eli Johnson, Kyle Moore, Lincoln Smith, Matt Irey, Tyler Wyant, Ryan Montgomery, Larry Bellman.

Fourth heat: Ricky Thornton Jr., Nick Hoffman, Chris Ferguson, Dale McDowell, Tristan Chamberlain, Brock Pinkerous, Jon Lee, Rod Conley, Ryan Markham, Matt Tifft, Brent Larson.

Time trials

Group A
Driver (car no.), hometown, time (unofficial)
1. Ethan Dotson (74x), Bakersfield, Calif., 16.468
2. Drake Troutman (22*), Hyndman, Pa., 16.558
3. Chris Madden (44), Gray Court, S.C., 16.647
4. Brandon Overton (76), Evans, Ga., 16.709
5. Josh Rice (11), Crittenden, Ky., 16.712
6. Tim McCreadie (9m), Watertown, N.Y., 16.742
7. Daulton Wilson (58v), Fayetteville, N.C., 16.769
8. Hudson O’Neal (71), Martinsville, Ind., 16.838
9. Devin Moran (99), Dresden, Ohio, 16.864
10. Mike Marlar (157), Winfield, Tenn., 16.885
11. Brandon Sheppard (1s), New Berlin, Ill., 16.889
12. Eric Wilson (27w), Cortland, Ohio, 16.890
13. Mason Zeigler (25z), Chalk Hill, Pa., 16.920
14. Trey Mills (14), St. Augustine, Fla., 16.950
15. Michael Norris (1n), Sarver, Pa., 16.958
16. Max Blair (111), Centerville, Pa., 16.967
17. Dustin Sorensen (19), Rochester, Minn., 16.970
18. Ryan Gustin (19R), Marshalltown, Iowa, 17.017
19. R.J. Conley (71c), Wheelersburg, Ohio, 17.108
20. Steve Banal (8B), Lincolnton, N.C., 17.114
21. Logan Zarin (1z), Moon Township, Pa., 17.166
22. Corey Conley (14c), Wellsburg, W.Va., 17.312
23. Ron Hamlin (33), Lakeville, Ohio, no time
Group B
1. Tyler Erb (1), New Waverly, Texas, 16.570
2. Nick Hoffman (9), Mooresville, N.C., 16.614
3. Garrett Alberson (58), Las Cruces, N.M., 16.652
4. Ricky Thornton Jr. (20rt), Chandler, Ariz., 16.678
5. Bobby Pierce (32), Oakwood, Ill., 16.711
6. Chris Ferguson (22), Mount Holly, N.C., 16.952
7. Dennis Erb Jr. (28), Carpentersville, Ill., 16.989
8. Dale McDowell (17m), Chickamauga, Ga., 16.992
9. Kyle Moore (1*), Mansfield, Ohio, 17.001
10. Brock Pinkerous (555), Ellenville, N.Y., 17.014
11. Dallon Murty (13), Chelsea, Iowa, 17.101
12. Tristan Chamberlain (20tc), Richmond, Ind., 17.110
13. Lincoln Smith (31), Belmont, Ohio, 17.206
14. Brent Larson (B1), Lake Elmo, Minn., 17.246
15. Eli Johnson (55E), Clewiston, Fla., 17.318
16. Jon Lee (5L), Summerville, Pa., 17.383
17. Matt Irey (36), Ashland, Ohio, 17.393
18. Rod Conley (71R), Wheelersburg, Ohio, 17.452
19. Tyler Wyant (24), Oil City, Pa., 17.707
20. Ryan Markham (5m), Ashland, Ohio, 17.757
21. Larry Bellman (59), Wooster, Ohio, 17.832
22. Matt Tifft (5mt), Cleveland, Ohio, no time
23. Ryan Montgomery (12), Fairmont, W.Va., no time

Friday’s schedule

(All times local)
1 p.m. - Pits open
2 p.m. - Grandstands open (presale ticketholders)
3 p.m. - Grandstands open
6 p.m. - Drivers’ meeting
6:30 p.m. - On-track activity
- Late Model hot laps
- Modified group qualifying
- Late Model time trials (2 laps)
Opening ceremonies
- Late Model heats (8 laps)
Intermission/WoO redraw
- Late Model consolations (10 laps)
Feature events
- Late Models (40 laps)
- Modified heats (8 laps)
- Modifieds (25 laps)