Bobby stormed from 20th to victory Sunday night at Lucas Oil (MO) Speedway, capturing the $75,000-to-win Show-Me 100 for the second consecutive year and the third time in his career.
After difficult preliminary nights that resulted in finishes of 22nd and 15th, Bobby and his team completely turned things around for the crown jewel finale.
“We were off during the preliminary nights again this year, and honestly I didn’t think we had a shot to win like we did last year,” Bobby said. “The rain changed everything, and the track crew gave us a completely different racetrack. You never run the same setup here—it keeps you guessing.”
Starting 20th in the 100-lap feature, Bobby wasted little time charging toward the front. With the high side coming to life, he entered the top 10 with 71 laps remaining and continued carving through traffic.
By lap 39, Bobby had already climbed to fifth while rolling the cushion around the top side of the speedway. Following a restart with 54 laps remaining, he slid into fourth before taking over third just five laps later.
On lap 58, Bobby powered into second and immediately set his sights on the leader.
Three laps later, he completed the winning pass.
Using the top groove to perfection, Bobby ripped around the outside and took command on lap 61 before driving away from the field. At one point, he stretched his advantage to more than two seconds with 26 laps remaining.
The closing laps were far from easy, however.
Late cautions with 16 and seven laps remaining erased Bobby’s advantage and forced him to survive multiple restarts with challengers lined up directly behind him. Despite the pressure, Bobby remained committed to the cushion and held on to score the victory by 1.2 seconds.
The winning drive featured a rim-riding masterclass around the top side of the speedway, with Bobby flirting with the wall lap after lap while searching for every ounce of momentum.
“I felt the wheel hit the wall,” Bobby said. “I would kind of push and get into a little rut in three, and sometimes it actually helped me because it would push the car up on top of the cushion and I’d get a better run off the corner. But a couple times when I did that, I felt the rim hit the wall and I was pretty worried about it.”
Bobby credited the team’s nonstop adjustments throughout the weekend for helping turn around the performance after the early struggles.
“My guys worked their butts off this weekend,” he said. “Every single time I was in the pits, we were changing something. Throwing the kitchen sink at it is an understatement for sure.”
The victory marked Bobby’s second straight Show-Me 100 triumph, joining him with two other drivers as three-time winners of the prestigious event.
“Awesome to come back and repeat this thing,” Bobby said. “This is the reason we came here. We really needed to get home today so we could work on a new car, but came to defend our title and it worked out.”