In his first two trips to River Cities Speedway, Nick Hoffman hadn’t finished better than 12th.
He wasn’t going to let that be an excuse for another lackluster showing on Friday night.
With 13 laps to go in the Grand Forks Showdown, Hoffman stormed into the lead and never looked back for his second win of the year with the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision.
“That’s about as elbows-up as I’m going to get,” Hoffman said. “That was really fun. Hell, for a guy who’s never finished in the top 10 here, it wasn’t too shabby.”
Hoffman drew the Bilstein Pole Award to put himself in prime position for the Feature, but it was anything but smooth sailing to victory. The No. 9 lost the lead on the start to second-starting Ashton Winger, who used a great run around the top to pull away to the early lead. Five laps later, a slip-up exiting Turn 2 allowed Brian Shirley to get by for second.
Winger’s lead was up to nearly a second by that point, but Shirley didn’t waste any time shrinking the gap. Sixteen laps into the 40-lap contest, Shirley was looking to the inside of Winger down the backstretch when the two made contact, folding in the body around the left-rear corner of the No. 12 car.
The run-ins didn’t end there, as Winger got into the back of his fellow Georgia driver Cody Overton to damage his nose just past halfway. Nevertheless, Winger held onto the lead.
That was until Sam Mars slowed down the backstretch to bring out the caution with 13 to go. Hoffman had climbed back up to second prior to the yellow, putting him right behind Winger with the trophy within reach. Despite the damage on Winger’s car, Hoffman knew getting by him wouldn’t be an easy task.
“I don’t know what all kind of damage he had, but he was still able to make speed even with the damage before we had that caution,” Hoffman said. “Obviously you’re worried about it blowing a tire or something in front of you, you just don’t know. If we were on a bigger racetrack, yeah, I might say there was a big difference. But here, you probably could have knocked the spoiler off of it and been able to keep up and been fine. Either way, you’re still like a shark out there trying to get its prey.”
With clean air on what was left of Winger’s nose, Hoffman wasn’t going to let him stay comfortable for long. “The Thrill From Mooresville” lived up to his nickname, as he sent it to Winger’s inside entering Turn 3 from a car length back and made the slide job stick exiting the corner to take over the lead.
Once Hoffman got back to the front, there was no stopping him. His gap to the field was up to three seconds six laps after taking the lead, and while a pair of late yellows erased that margin, they didn’t keep Hoffman out of Victory Lane.
“I said I’d feel like a real dummy if I drove backwards from the pole here,” Hoffman said. “A lot of things played into this Feature here tonight. Different strategies on tires, what they were going to do with the racetrack. It was obviously a lot faster in the Feature than what we Heat Raced with. Wasn’t really sure what to do with the race car, what tires to choose, it just kind of played out there.”
Coming home in the second spot was Dennis Erb Jr., who quietly made his way up from sixth to second for his best World of Outlaws result of the season.
“It’s just a lot of hard work, things are just turning around for us,” Erb said. “We always enjoy coming up here and racing up here at River Cities, it’s a good track for us. Just got to keep plugging away and keep working hard, that’s what we’re doing here.”
Despite having a left side that looked to have been hit by a monster truck, Winger held onto the third spot for his third World of Outlaws podium of the year.
“Just can’t seem to win one of these things to save my life right now,” Winger said. “My guys probably deserved a little better than that, I probably could have done some things different. Hopefully we can get one soon.”
Drake Troutman drove from 12th up to fourth for the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award while Shirley completed the top five.
RACE NOTES:
Brent Larson set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.
Brian Shirley won the Simpson Quick Time Award.
Brian Shirley won Real American Beer Heat 1.
Jake Timm won STAKT Products Heat 2.
Ashton Winger won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.
Nick Hoffman won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.
Ethan Dotson won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdown.
Nick Hoffman won the Bilstein Pole Award.
Drake Troutman won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.
Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.
Dennis Erb Jr. won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.
Drake Troutman was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.
Brian Shirley was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.
Bobby Pierce was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.
Tyler Bruening was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.
Ethan Dotson was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.
Jake Timm was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.
Tanner English was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision makes the one-hour tow south to Norman County Raceway in Ada, MN for the Norman County Showdown on Saturday, June 28. Get your tickets in advance by clicking here.
If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Hoffman[1]; 2. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[6]; 3. 12-Ashton Winger[2]; 4. 22*-Drake Troutman[12]; 5. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 6. 32-Bobby Pierce[9]; 7. 19R-Ryan Gustin[11]; 8. 16-Tyler Bruening[5]; 9. 74X-Ethan Dotson[17]; 10. 49-Jake Timm[4]; 11. B1-Brent Larson[19]; 12. 96-Tanner English[15]; 13. 9M-Tim McCreadie[14]; 14. 09-Michael Leach[18]; 15. 42S-Don Shaw[8]; 16. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[10]; 17. 2-Cody Overton[22]; 18. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[16]; 19. 19-Dustin Sorensen[23]; 20. 71-Dustin Strand[21]; 21. 76-Blair Nothdurft[7]; 22. 28M-Sam Mars[13]; 23. 44*-Cole Schill[20]; 24. 5E-Shane Edginton[24]