SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — After smashing the wall and breaking an axle in Thursday's preliminary feature at Deer Creek Speedway, Bobby Pierce was leery about attempting such a move again while chasing leader Hudson O'Neal in the final laps of Saturday's 75-lap NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50 finale.

"I'm not gonna lie," the 26-year-old Oakwood, Ill., driver. "I was scared, very scared to send that slider in there after what happened Thursday night."

Not scared enough to give it a shot.

After stalking O'Neal in the high groove over the final 20 laps, the 10th-starting Pierce took advantage of the leader's bobble exiting turn two on the final lap and flung his No. 32 into turn three with abandon, sliding in front of O'Neal in turn four and barely — barely — held off O'Neal's crossover move at the checkers for a $50,000 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series payday.

Pierce pumped a victorious left fist on the cool-down lap, but his victory by two-thousandths of a second — matching the closest finish in series history — wasn't assured until officials examined the placement of the transponders of both cars to verify the results, announcing it 10 minutes after the drivers took the checkered flag.

"I was like, 'Well, he bobbled and I gotta go for it. It's the last lap.' People are gonna ask me why I didn't (try it). ... I'm sure I probably bottled him up in turn four and I got the cushion pretty good," Pierce said in victory lane after his second Lucas Oil Series victory of the season and 14th of his career. "I was worried about the wall because it kind of sticks out, and I got the cushion good, but the car is aimed down the hill. So I was like, 'Well, we're gonna go for it' ... I heard Hudson to my left and we were both just turning 9500 (rpms) coming to the line. It was awesome."

While Pierce was exultant, the fourth-starting O'Neal of Martinsville, Ind., called it "the biggest heartbreak I've ever had in my life" and said he let down his Rocket Chassis house car team with his last-lap mistake at the top of the backstretch after leading laps 37-74 of Minnesota's richest Dirt Late Model event.

While Deer Creek's weekend, capped by a record-setting crowd on Saturday, had plenty of action and drama, it all came down to the weekend's final lap — along with the lengthy official ruling of the winner.

Pierce said he had to "have everything go my way" to pull off the victory after rebounding from the weekend's gloomy start on Thursday with a DNF.

VIDEO: Bobby Pierce reacts in victory lane after winning in a photo finish at Deer Creek. 

On the last lap of the finale, Pierce said it was "just one of them deals where Hudson just pushed ... bad timing on the last lap. I've had it happen to me plenty of times. You get them last couple of lap jitters when you're leading. You just want that race to be over.

"He made a little push and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to (take advantage). Like, he was pushing but every time he pulled me (exiting turn) two and I knew (turns) three and four was gonna be the one I was gonna slide him in, because that corner is such a far away around."

O'Neal knew Pierce's last-lap move was coming after his slip-up.

"I knew if I just didn't mess up that I was probably going to have it. And that's exactly what I did, I just was going down that front straightaway and thought about it too much," O'Neal said. "I don't know. That's, that's the biggest heartbreak I've ever had in my life. I don't know. I don't really have any words. I definitely gave one away and that (in) this big of a race to be leading in that position, you don't get those (opportunities) very often. I don't hate it for me. I hate it for my team."

With O'Neal and Pierce running dangerously close to the wall in the race's late stages, the tricky groove bit O'Neal at the worst of times.

"I thought I'd parked in the fence a couple of times on both ends, just where it kind of shelves off and it gets kind of flatter," O'Neal said. "It was just hard to get to the cushion early and hit it with enough speed to be able to cross him over, and I was just trying to be patient and not make a mistake to where I at least had a shot at crossing him over and getting down the front straightaway and get underneath of him. But it just didn't work that way."

"It was a close finish. You know, whenever you're in the race car, it's hard to tell, because I was underneath him couldn't see the flagstand and I didn't really know where we were on the straightaway as far as where the (start-finish) line was. But yeah, congrats to him. He had to be there in order to take advantage and he did the right thing."

Pierce called it an "awesome weekend really, for us to rebound. You know, we were saying — my crew, everyone, can't thank them enough — we we're saying it's gonna be of a somewhat fairy tale (finish) if we could rebound from Thursday and get a top-five out of this thing. To get the win, that's just amazing."

"I'm not going to lie, when you're racing for a lot of money like that, coming down to the wire, you're shaking in the car a little bit trying not to make a mistake. It just so happened I was in that catbird's seat where I could just wait for him to make a mistake. He was so perfect a lot of the race there. He was fast. It's just one of them deals."

Notes: The 0.002 of a second margin of finish matched the margin Earl Pearson Jr. beat Josh Rice by on July 10, 2020, at Florence Speedway in Union Ky. ... With the field running several pre-race laps to help work in the racing surface, teams were allowed a refuel before taking the initial green. ... Nine cautions slowed the 53-minute race, all for single car incidents. ... Stormy Scott slowed on lap 18. ... Spencer Hughes lost a driveshaft on lap 26. ... Shane Clanton slowed on lap 35 and two laps later Ross Robinson did the same. ... Max Blair retired with mechanical issues on lap 38 and Tyler Erb did the same running ninth three laps later. ... Dillon McCowan spun on lap 48. ... Devin Moran (lap 55) and Thornton (lap 65) both had late-race flat tires while running seventh. ... Deer Creek has another national touring race remaining this season with a $20,000-to-win event on the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series scheduled for Sept. 2.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Deer Creek Speedway Results

1. Bobby Pierce

2. Hudson O'Neal

3. Brandon Sheppard

4. Chris Madden

5. Jonathan Davenport

6. Tim McCreadie

7. Garrett Alberson

8. Earl Pearson Jr.

9. Dustin Sorensen

10. Chad Simpson

11. Devin Moran

12. Brandon Overton

13. Chris Simpson

14. Ricky Thornton Jr.

15. Justin Duty

16. Daulton Wilson

17. Tyler Bruening

18. Daniel Hilsabeck

19. Shane Clanton

20. Boom Briggs

21. Dillon McCowan

22. Tyler Erb

23. Mike Marlar

24. Max Blair

25. Ross Robinson

26. Spencer Hughes

27, Trevor Gundaker

28, Stormy Scott