Bobby Pierce wins 2023 World of Outlaws Late Model title in first try
In his first fulltime attempt with the World of Outlaws Late Model series, Bobby Pierce made the most of his opportunity by winning 14 races, finishing in the top five 25 times and worse than 10th only six times on his way to winning the 2023 championship.
Pierce made 89 starts in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series from 2010 through 2022 but never attempted the full schedule until this year. In fact, this was only the second time that Pierce competed fulltime in either of the two premiere national late model series after completing 50 of 51 Lucas Oil Late Model race in 2018 and finishing seventh in that title hunt.
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"It was really nice proving everybody wrong, all the naysayers and all that," Pierce said in a press release. "And not just proving them wrong but winning the whole thing and dominating toward the end.
"I don’t doubt them for having disbeliefs. I only ran a full series one time. It was a long time ago. It was 2018. You see it all the time, guys drop off and they go run Summer Nationals or whatever they might do, and it just doesn’t work out. We knew we had a set mind that we were going to do it."
While Pierce got off to a solid start in 2023, winning one of four races at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Florida in February, it was a strong late-season surge in which he secured nine victories in the span of 13 races from Rounds 23 to 35. Twice during that streak, he won three consecutive races and in one of those stands he started on the front row each time.
A strong inaugural campaign is not unique. Pierce is the fifth driver to win in his first full Outlaws season along with Billy Moyer (1988), Scott Bloomquist (2004), Brandon Sheppard (2017) and Mike Marlar (2018).
"Man, it’s just, it’s really a goal that came true," Pierce said. "We set out with our goal at Volusia (Speedway Park in January) to run the whole series, and then when we noticed we were pretty fast the goal quickly changed to win the series. We had a lot of points to make up at one time and we did that. Yeah, just a crazy effort by everybody.
"The car was really fast all year. Won a lot of races. Just been one of them monumental years for us. It’s pretty crazy. The Outlaw title is something that, for me… I never knew when I was going to run a national series again. So, like, when we ran it this year, at first, I wasn’t sure we would even be in the hunt to win this thing. To come out on top was very very special for us. The history with the World of Outlaws, I think it is one of the best Series of racing in the world. It’s pretty cool."
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