FAIRBURY, Ill. — A single, epic comeback from Saturday’s midrace spin made Bobby Pierce’s track record of letdowns at Prairie Dirt Classic a distant memory at Fairbury Speedway.

Like his previous 11 failed attempts, the Oakwood, Ill., superstar’s hopes of finally winning Fairbury’s marquee event dashed right before him with 40 laps remaining of the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series feature when contact in the battle for third spun him around and sent him restarting at the tail.

But the 34th running of the Illinois-based event didn’t add to Pierce’s ever-growing list of sorrows. Charging through the field down the stretch and completing a last-lap pass for the ages around race-long leader Nick Hoffman, Pierce captured his first-ever Prairie Dirt Classic in the most dramatic of ways.

And this time, the dramatics left him the good kind of speechless rather than the bitter kind. His last-lap pass of Hoffman — the race-long leader of 78 laps — had been the only lap Pierce led.

"That’s the first time I’ve gotten emotional for a race,” Pierce, the $50,500 winner, told World of Outlaws pit reporter Hannah Newhouse to open his victory lane interview in which he seemingly struggled to put the moment into words. “I wanted that pretty bad. … Yeah, it means everything. Somebody above us is helping us out there. Just an awesome car.”

Pierce was joined by his five-time Prairie Dirt Classic winning father, Bob, in victory lane. Needless to say, the win’s now perhaps their biggest for their family team.

“This ranks right up there with the World 100,” Bob Pierce said. “We got to do that together. Finally, the Prairie Dirt Classic after all this time. Yeah!”

All told, Pierce advanced 37 positions across the 100-lap feature: From his 24th-starting position to fourth and then from 18th on his drive back through the field to ultimately win his 24th total feature of the season. Pierce had to take a provisional for the century-grind finale because of a driveshaft failure in Friday’s second semifeature that buried him deep in Saturday’s B-main lineup.

It took Pierce 57 laps to initially break into the top-five Saturday, but only 22 laps — from laps 60 through 82 — the second time around to reenter the top-five after his midrace mishap that all but caved his chances at winning.

Barreling into turn three on lap 60 with momentum running fourth, Pierce couldn’t keep his race machine tucked below third-running Tim McCreadie, which resulted in Pierce clipping McCreadie’s left-rear quarterpanel and ultimately losing control.

“I screwed up getting under a lapped car and T-Mac was right there,” Pierce said. “Apologize for getting into him. I realized I had 40 laps left of that race and I was kicking myself in the butt. Trying to get back up to the front. I got to like fifth or sixth or so, and I was like, ‘Man, we can possibly do this if things happen to go our way.’”

Pierce’s chances of winning are virtually dashed under any other circumstance, but Saturday panned out as an eventful exception. Four cautions the final 40 laps helped Pierce get back into the mix: lap 74 for Jason Feger; lap 79 for Feger and Dustin Sorensen tangling; lap 90 for second-running Ricky Thornton Jr.; and lap 95 for Brandon Sheppard, who led the first 20 laps.

No caution benefitted Pierce more than Thornton’s stoppage with 10 laps remaining. At the time, Thornton had his own epic charge brewing aboard Kevin Rumley’s Late Model as he hunted down Hoffman in the closing laps from the 21st-starting spot. But as Thornton tried clearing the slower Garrett Smith in traffic, he bounced his car too hard off the turn four cushion that left him limping off the racetrack with a broken driveshaft.

That moved Pierce from fourth to third, and on the ensuing restart he dispatched Mike Marlar for second. Sheppard’s caution with five laps remaining gave Pierce another boost as he went head-to-head with Hoffman for the win.

Up to that point, Hoffman had fared well at the front of the field that saw eight drivers run second at some point during the feature (Feger, Ryan Gustin, Hoffman, McCreadie, Pierce, Sheppard, Brian Shirley and Thornton).

“It was pretty good there for the (78) laps that I led,” Hoffman said. “You don’t know if you’ll get this opportunity ever again to win one of these races. To be from Illinois, this race means so much to me. Man, it just sucks. Nobody remembers who ran second last year or whatever the case may be. To lose it on the last lap is really heartbreaking for me.”

Hoffman, too, was left speechless in a sense when breaking down the eventful finish, saying “I don’t know what I could’ve done different” on the final lap.” Most of the feature Hoffman “felt like my modified days out here when I was able to win this race twice,” implying that he could command the middle part of the quarter-mile because he “felt like my race car was perfect.” Pierce ultimately passed Hoffman around the top of the racetrack.

“He obviously hammered the cushion or whatever in one and two, and was able to get past by me before I was able to get into three,” Hoffman said. “You always say you’d wreck your mom to win $50,000. I probably could’ve had a good opportunity there. I didn’t want to do it. Good job to him. I know this race means a lot to him. He wasn’t able to win it until now. To win it in dramatic fashion’s pretty impressive from where he came from.

“It sucks but hopefully it was at least a good finish for all you fans,” Hoffman added.

Third-finishing Daulton Wilson managed to stay inside the top-10 for all 100 laps of Saturday’s eventful feature that saw the demise of three frontrunners: Second-running Gustin on lap 22 for nose damage from running into an infield tractor tire, Thornton’s fall out of second and early-leading Sheppard slowing out of 14th with five laps to go.

“We had a real good car around the bottom. Just slow and steady there,” Wilson said. “If I wouldn’t have screwed up there on one of them restarts with 15 or 20 to go — I got down there in no man’s land and lost four or five spots — we might’ve got there sooner. To run podium here for my guys, this is awesome.

“It’s hard. At the end of the day, Bobby’s the best to get all you can get around the top here. If he wants to get it, he can get it up there. I got to wait for it to slow down to get around that bottom. We just waited around and luckily it came to us.”

34th annual Prairie Dirt Classic
Pos. Driver (car no.), hometown, chassis, earnings
1. Bobby Pierce (32), Oakwood, Ill., Longhorn, $50,500-x
2. Nick Hoffman (9), Mooresville, N.C., Longhorn, $59,000-x
3. Daulton Wilson (18D), Fayetteville, N.C., Longhorn, $12,000
4. Mike Marlar (157), Winfield, Tenn., Longhorn, $7,500
5. Chase Junghans (18), Manhattan, Kan., Rocket, $6,000
6. Devin Moran (99), Dresden, Ohio, Longhorn, $5,000
7. Brian Shirley (3s), Chatham, Ill., Longhorn, $4,750
8. Garrett Alberson (58), Las Cruces, N.M., Longhorn, $4,500
9. Shannon Babb (18), Moweaqua, Ill., Longhorn, $4,250
10. Tyler Bruening (16), Decorah, Iowa, Longhorn, $4,000
11. Dennis Erb Jr. (28), Carpentersville, Ill., Rocket, $3,900
12. Cade Dillard (97), Robeline, La., Longhorn, $3,800
13. Jason Feger (25), Bloomington, Ill., Longhorn, $3,700
14. Kyle Bronson (40B), Brandon, Fla., Longhorn, $3,600
15. Brandon Sheppard (B5), New Berlin, Ill., Longhorn, $13,500-x
16. Max McLaughlin (22*), Mooresville, N.C., Longhorn, $400
17. Carson Ferguson (93), Lincolnton, N.C., Longhorn, $3,300
18. Tim McCreadie (1), Watertown, N.Y., Rocket, $3,700-x
19. Mike Spatola (89), Manhattan, Ill., Rocket, $3,100
20. Garrett Smith (10), Eatonton, Ga., Rocket, $3,080
21. Ricky Thornton Jr. (20rt), Chandler, Ariz., Longhorn, $3,060
22. Dustin Sorensen (19), Rochester, Minn., Longhorn, $3,060
23. Max Blair (111), Centerville, Pa., Longhorn, $3,020
24. Austin Smith (11), Cedartown, Ga., Capital, $3,000
25. Ryan Unzicker (24), El Paso, Ill., MB Customs, $3,000
26. Brent Larson (B1), Lake Elmo, Minn., Longhorn, $0
27. Ryan Gustin (19r), Marshalltown, Iowa, Infinity, $3,000
28. McKay Wenger (99), Fairbury, Ill., Longhorn, $3,000
29. Chris Simpson (32), Oxford, Iowa, Longhorn, $3,000
Lap leaders: Sheppard 1-20; Hoffman 21-30, 32-99; McCreadie 31; Pierce 100
Fast qualifier (among 78 cars): Tanner English, 13.319 seconds
Semifeature winners: Gustin, Sheppard, Marlar, Feger
Consolation winners: D. Erb, Moran, Babb
Non-qualifiers’ race winner: Alberson
Provisional starters: Pierce, Dillard, Unzicker, Dillard, Larson, McLaughlin
x-Additional lap money for Nick Hoffman ($39,000), Brandon Sheppard ($10,000), Bobby Pierce ($500) and Tim McCreadie ($500).

Correction: Fixes earnings for Larson and McLaughlin; corrects spelling of Sorensen's surname.

Feature lineup

(100 laps)

Row 1: Jason Feger, Brandon Sheppard
Row 2: Mike Marlar, Ryan Gustin
Row 3: Daulton Wilson, Chris Simpson
Row 4: Brian Shirley, Nick Hoffman
Row 5: McKay Wenger, Tim McCreadie
Row 6: Austin Smith, Tyler Bruening
Row 7: Kyle Bronson, Max Blair
Row 8: Chase Junghans, Dustin Sorensen
Row 9: Dennis Erb Jr., Devin Moran
Row 10: Shannon Babb, Carson Ferguson
Row 11: Ricky Thornton Jr., Garrett Smith
Row 12: Garrett Alberson, Bobby Pierce
Row 13: Cade Dillard, Ryan Unzicker
Row 14: MIke Spatola, Max McLaughlin 
Row 15: Brent Larson

Correction: Fixes starting lineup in rows 5-8.

Non-qualifiers' race winners

(25 laps; winner transfers)

Finish: Garrett Alberson, Gordy Gundaker, Trevor Gundaker, Tyler Millwood, Jonathan Davenport, Tanner English, Bob Gardner, Myles Moos, Justin Duty, Dale Markham, Colby Sheppard, Mike Provenzano, Brenden Smith, Tommy Sheppard Jr., Alex Wilson, Tristain Chamberlain, Billy Hough, Dillon McCowan, Mike Spatola. Scratched: Ethan Dotson, Thomas Hunziker.

Consolation race results

(15 laps; top two transfer)

First consolation: Dennis Erb Jr., Carson Ferguson, Bob Gardner, Dale Markham, Tommy Sheppard Jr., Colby Sheppard, Thomas Hunziker, Billy Hough, Trey Mills, Kyle Hammer, Allen Weisser, Jake Liittle, Ashton Winger, Ryan Unzicker, Cade Dillard. Scratched: Steven Roberts, Manny Falcon, Mike Harrison, Donny Walden, Frank Heckenast Jr.

Second consolation: Devin Moran, Ricky Thornton Jr., Garrett Alberson, Tristan Chamberlain, Jonathan Davenport, Tanner English, Ethan Dotson, Mike Spatola, Myles Moos, Timmy Dick, Kaede Loudy, Chris Ferguson, Lyle Zanker, Cody Overton, Brayton Wallace, Max McLaughlin, Ross Camponovo. Scratched: Matt Tifft, Jeffrey Ledford, Dustin Walker.

Third consolation: Shannon Babb, Garrett Smith, Trevor Gundaker, Dillon McCowan, Tyler Millwood, Mike Provenzano, Brenden Smith, Justin Duty, Alex Wilson, Shane Clanton, Brian Rickman, Spencer Hughes, Daniel Adam, Derrick Stewart, Bobby Pierce, Tyler Erb, Brent Larson. Scratched: Josh Rice, Hudson O'Neal, Kye Blight.

Consolation lineups

(15 laps; top two transfer)

First consolation
Row 1: Ryan Unzicker, Dennis Erb Jr.
Row 2: Ashton Winger, Allen Weisser
Row 3: Bob Gardner, Gordy Gundaker
Row 4: Thomas Hunziker, Colby Sheppard
Row 5: Trey Mills, Carson Ferguson
Row 6: Kyle Hammer, Steven Roberts
Row 7: Manny Falcon, Jake Little
Row 8: Dale Markham, Mike Harrison
Row 9: Donny Walden, Tommy Sheppard Jr.
Row 10: Frank Heckenast Jr., Billy Hough
Row 11: Cade Dillard
Second consolation
Row 1: Devin Moran, Tanner English
Row 2: Ricky Thornton Jr., Tristan Chamberlain
Row 3: Garrett Alberson, Ethan Dotson
Row 4: Jonathan Davenport, Max McLaughlin
Row 5: Cody Overton, Mike Spatola
Row 6: Kaede Loudy, Brayton Wallace
Row 7: Timmy Dick, Ross Camponovo
Row 8: Chris Ferguson, Matt Tifft
Row 9: Myles Moos, Jeffrey Ledford
Row 10: Lyle Zanker, Dustin Walker
Row 11: Matt Cosner
Third consolation
Row 1: Trevor Gundaker, Tyler Erb
Row 2: Garrett Smith, Shannon Babb
Row 3: Dillon McCowan, Derrick Stewart
Row 4: Tyler Millwood, Spencer Hughes
Row 5: Brenden Smith, Josh Rice
Row 6: Mike Provenzano, Brent Larson
Row 7: Brian Rickman, Bobby Pierce
Row 8: Hudson O’Neal, Justin Duty
Row 9: Alex Wilson, Shane Clanton
Row 10: Kye Blight, Daniel Adam

Saturday’s schedule

(All times local)
7-11 a.m. - VFW Post PDC breakfast (VFW Building 205 E. Locust Street)
3 p.m. - Live Suave Talk show (at the bus on the backstretch turn two)
4-4:45 p.m. - Drivers’ autograph session (vendor row on backstretch)
5 p.m. - Drivers’ meeting (WoO command center)
5:30 p.m. - On-track activity begins
- Late Model hot laps (consolation entrants)
- Modified hot laps (consolation entrants)
Opening ceremonies
6:20 p.m. - Redraw and prerace festivities
- Modified consolations (15 laps, top two transfer)
- Modified hot laps (feature entrants)
- Late Model consolations (20 laps)
- Late Model hot laps (feature entrants)
- Modified feature (40 laps)
- Prairie Dirt Shootout (25 laps)
- 34th annual Prairie Dirt Classic (100 laps)