Leading 39 of 154 laps while staying in the top five throughout the entirety of the race and having a chance to win it at the end, Bobby introduced himself to the NASCAR world in a big way Wednesday night finishing second in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Mud Summer Classic at Eldora Speedway in his NASCAR debut.
“It was a lot of fun out there. I’m out of breath, but so happy.” Pierce said. “I know a lot of people before the race were thinking I was going to be the Kyle Larson this year, probably. I didn’t want to be the guy in second, but that’s how it goes.”
Team owner Mike Mittler was fine with second. A team owner in the Truck Series since its inception in 1995, Wednesday was his best finish. His only other career top 10 in 213 starts was an eighth-place showing with Carl Edwards in 2002.
Earlier in the day, Bobby became the fifth driver in Truck Series history to qualify on the pole in his first start with a speed of 86.889 mph. He followed that up by winning his qualifying race to earn the pole for the main event.
In the two practices to start the day, Bobby ran 19 laps in the opening session with a quick time of 20.248 seconds putting him third on the leaderboard. Backing up his top five speed, Bobby clocked in fourth quickest in the final practice. Totaling 56 laps, his best time was 20.892 seconds.