Bobby came up one spot short of the $50,000 top prize Saturday night at Boothill (LA) Speedway, finishing second after an all-out battle for the win in the 70-lap World of Outlaws Bayou Classic.
Starting ninth, Bobby slipped back to 11th early before finding his rhythm and charging forward. By lap 14, he had climbed into the top five, running fifth when the caution waved on lap 17. After the restart, he picked off another spot to move into fourth. A caution on lap 42 reset the field—and from there, the show was on.
On the restart, the front runners hugged the bottom, but Bobby jumped to the high side and started rolling. He blasted to third on lap 43, then grabbed second on lap 60. Over the final ten laps, fans were treated to a “sliderfest” for the win, with Bobby throwing everything he had at the leader.
Coming to the white flag, Bobby slid into the lead in turn four, the two drivers crossing the stripe side by side with just one lap to go. He continued to fight to the finish, ultimately coming up just short and settling for a hard-fought runner-up result in a thriller.
“We got through there pretty good in the beginning, kind of hung around there in the middle. Then that caution came out with 29 to go. I was like, it’s go time now. There’s a little bit of cushion up here. We’re going to go for it. And it was a heck of a race,” Bobby said.
Reflecting on the final laps, he added, “We were side by side at the white flag and we were rubbing down the front stretch and went into turn one. I thought I had him. I didn’t really get a great entrance to turn one and there wasn’t really much cushion until you got to turn two and that’s the spot he was in. I got right there and then he was kind of right where I needed to be. Even then, going down the back stretch, I thought I had another shot at it because he went to protect. I was like, all right, here we go. And I just kind of hung up there in turn three. Couldn’t get enough to run down the hill.”
“Not from a lack of effort,” Bobby said. “We’ve been trying everything, somewhat throwing the kitchen sink at it. Matt (Langston) was helping me some this weekend trying to get me going. We were right there, just second both nights. I’ve been here four races — I got three seconds and a first. So, we’ll take it and move on. I can’t thank these fans enough for coming out and watching. Lots of Pierce shirts in the stands. Thank you for the support.”