Bobby continued his stellar season Wednesday night at Fairbury (IL) Speedway, capturing the $20,000-to-win FloRacing Night in America feature after an exciting early charge and a strong late-race surge.
Starting sixth in the 50-lap main event, Bobby quickly made his presence known. With 40 laps to go, he made a bold three-wide move through the middle of turn four to vault into second, sliding into the spot entering turn one.
By lap 13, he powered into the lead and began setting the pace out front. Navigating heavy lapped traffic, Bobby maintained a steady gap over the field until a caution slowed the action on lap 29 and erased his advantage.
Thornton brought the heat in the closing laps, briefly slipping ahead with 12 laps to go. But Bobby remained composed and countered immediately to retake the top spot and pull away over the final stretch, ultimately winning by 3.2 seconds.
“It was a hot one in the car tonight,” Bobby said in victory lane. “Ricky was putting the pressure on me for sure and it was a lot of fun. I knew any second, he was going to throw a slider in there, I was just waiting on it. It seemed like I’d get a couple laps that were good and he’d get a couple laps that were good.”
Having watched Thornton and Davenport go at it hard earlier in the night, Bobby knew the intensity would be high once the green flag dropped.
“I watched him and JD go at it hard in the heat race,” he added. “And I was like, man, I don’t want that to happen because I just want to get away and sail off in the lead. So luckily at the very end we did, but fun race with him. What an awesome race.”