The “Smooth Operator” Bobby Pierce was equally proficient in the Lucas Oil and World of Outlaws Late Model Series and a propensity for finishing better than he started contributed to his ranking of 49th on the Flo 50 list of 2017’s greatest dirt track drivers.

However, at the start of the season, it didn’t appear that Pierce would be able to grab one of the top spots. He scored only one top five finish and another top 10 in his first five races in the marquee series, while finishing outside the top 15 twice.

His third top 10 of the season at Luxemburg (WI) Speedway in May is when his season began to turn around. Pierce finished seventh in the second night of the Spring Shootout, but that was a confidence booster considering that he fell from third to 17th the night previous at LaSalle (IL) Speedway.

Pierce was able to match that result in his next outing — this time in the Cowboy Classic opener to the Lucas Oil Show-Me 100. In an event with 67 entrants, his seventh-place result netted 91 percentage points*, which made this his second-best outing of the season — and it put him in a position to capitalize on the momentum. Pierce scored perhaps the biggest win of his career one night later when he bested the same field of more than 60 drivers to win the 100.

With that victory in the bank — and 100 percentage points that went along with it — Pierce maintained a comfortable position in FloRacing’s Power Rankings, but it was not until late summer that he began to score top fives again. A third top five finish on night three of the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, WI, was followed by three more top fives in his next four races.

Pierce’s final top five of the season came in his last race, and he had to come from outside the first five rows to score a fifth in the Outlaw Clay Classic on the Dirt Oval at Route 66 in Joliet, IL.

Pierce’s Achilles' heel in the final portion of the season was qualification and heat races. Notably, his surge at Route 66 was not uncommon, and with better starting positions in the A-main, Pierce might be much further up the list than 49th. His last six major Late Model races all began outside the top 10, but he managed to scored five single-digit results as the leaves began to turn.

Flo 50

*Percentage points utilize the baseline belief that a win is a win in the major series covered. One hundred points is awarded to first and the points decrement below that as a percentage of the field. For example, in a 25-car field, each position behind the winner is worth four fewer points. In races with incredibly large fields, the points decrement to a less extreme degree. A 50-car field decrements two points per position, and drivers earn points even if they fail to make the A-main.

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