REAPING THE WIN: Ryan Gustin Wins Dairyland Showdown Thriller Over Bobby Pierce 

The Reaper wins his sixth career Feature and brings Todd Cooney his first World of Outlaws win as an owner

FOUNTAIN CITY, WI (May 4, 2024) – The conclusion of this year’s Dairyland Showdown at Mississippi Thunder Speedway announced the rise of a new empire. One led by Ryan Gustin and Todd Cooney Racing. 

Since joining forces at the beginning of 2024, Gustin and his new team have been collecting trophies throughout the first quarter of the season. And on Saturday night, they added their biggest one yet: a $25,000 Dairyland Showdown victory with the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models – Gustin’s sixth Series win and Todd Cooney Racing’s first. 

The Marshalltown, IA driver began the night setting a new track record (13.417 sec.) at the Fountain City, WI track – his first Simpson Quick Time Award of the year. Then, he followed that up by winning Heat 1. 

Gustin’s good fortunes continued by drawing the Bilstein Pole Award for the 50-lap finale - leading the field to the Gorsuch Performance green flag alongside New Waverly, TX driver Tyler Erb.

He commanded the field in the first half while a wave of cautions and a hornet’s nest of talented drivers traded positions across the top five that included Erb, reigning Series champion Bobby Pierce, Friday night Dairyland Showdown winner Nick Hoffman, and four-time Series champion Brandon Sheppard. 

The two fierce rivals in Erb and Pierce exchanged multiple slide-job moves on each other - with Pierce eventually clearing the driver of the #1T for the second-place spot. 

Halfway into the Feature, Pierce made his chance for the lead come to fruition - sliding his way by Gustin to take the lead. 

Lapped traffic played a heavy hand in deciding the night’s winner as the leaders attempted every inch of the 3/8-mile track to find clean air to navigate through the cars. The top two in Pierce and Gustin used these chances to try and one-up each other in the closing stages. 

With four laps to go in the $25,000-to-win competition, Gustin made his chance for the win on Pierce with a run down the front stretch. Using the lapped car of Daniel Hilsabeck as a pick, Gustin slid up through Turns 1 and 2 to take the lead with sparks flying off the back of the #19R from hitting the wall. 

Scurrying away from Pierce after the lead change, Gustin crossed under the flagstand to claim his first Dairyland Showdown Feature at a track that has seen him win five races previously with USMTS. 

“Well, this big ol’ Jay Dickens engine showed out to keep the tires pretty good,” Gustin said. “I was trying to pace myself there in the first half of (the Feature), then I let Bobby get a big ol’ run on me and slide on me and I knew I had to get up, follow him, and hopefully he had to slide somebody and that’s how it all worked out. You win and lose by lap traffic, I’ve lost a fair share and I’m sure he has too, so that’s how it all goes. 

“Everybody at Wells Motorsports has been great to us and I gotta shoutout Brandon Overton for helping us at Smoky Mountain Speedway and this thing has been on rails. My guys at (Todd Cooney Racing) have been working extremely hard and I can’t thank everyone enough for that.” 

Pierce, in an attempt to catch Gustin on the final lap, slid up the track and smacked the Turn 2 wall. This opened the door for Hoffman to slide under “The Smooth Operator” to finish the night in second. 

“I knew I wasn’t gonna pass Bobby and Ryan on the cushion,” Hoffman said. “I made a little bit of speed in the middle of the track when I needed to get back to fourth at that point. Once the top began to slow down and getting right against the wall, that bottom-to-middle came back into play. That’s how I won last night and that’s what we were set for tonight. The racetrack had a little more grip with the rain we had, and the (track crew) did a fantastic job to give us a track where we could race all around.” 

“When they started sliding each other, it got me back to them. I was gonna settle for third, but Bobby hit the fence on the last lap. I tried biding my time, stayed in fifth for a while battling with the guys and it got the tires hot, but I had enough left towards the end and if we got a caution with a few laps to go, we could’ve won again. To win once and run second the next like Farmer City is badass.” 

Pierce’s costly mistake had him finish on the last spot of the podium - a move he knows could have been avoided in his efforts to chase the lead back from Gustin. 

“It was definitely a heartbreaker for us,” Pierce said. “I thought I had it in the bag, but I caught the lap traffic with awkward timing. The top was kind of getting slower, but yet, it was still there. The way those guys ahead of me raced mattered a lot and messed up the air there. Just did the dip when I should've made a dive and Gustin capitalized on it. I wish I held onto second, but of course tried to get the lead and jumped the cushion. I’ll be kicking myself in the butt for a while for that. But it’s just one of them deals and who knows what could’ve been.” 

Sheppard’s consistent run inside the top five rewarded the current Series points leader with a fourth-place finish, while Erb managed to save his tires to complete the Feature’s top five finishers. 

Sheppard continues to lead the Series’ standings with a 24-point lead over Hoffman. Gustin is now eighth in points with a 136-point deficit. 

An 11-place climb rewarded Winona, MN driver Jake Timm with Saturday’s FOX Factory Hard Charger Award. 

RECAP NOTES:
Dirt King Simulator Hottest Hot Lap of the Night Award Winner – Cade Dillard
Bilstein Pole Award Winner – Ryan Gustin
Simpson Quick Time Award Winner – Ryan Gustin
CASE Heat Winners – Gustin (Heat 1), Erb (Heat 2), Pierce (Heat 3), and Cade Dillard (Heat 4).
CASE Last Chance Showdown Winners – Dennis Erb Jr. and Sam Mars
FOX Factory Hard Charger Award Winner – Jake Timm 

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws CASE Late Models return to racing in the month of May with a swing through Ohio and Pennsylvania in two weeks - beginning with Raceway 7 (May 16), Bedford Speedway (May 17), Marion Center Raceway (May 18), and Path Valley Speedway (May 19). For more information about each of the races and ticket options, CLICK HERE. 

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch every World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model race live on DIRTVision. 

Feature Results 

FUELING THE THUNDER: Nick Hoffman Wins Third World of Outlaws Feature of 2024 at Mississippi Thunder

Hoffman leads the final 45 laps to score his fourth career Feature with the World of Outlaws CASE Late Models

FOUNTAIN CITY, WI (May 3, 2024) –

Nick Hoffman has continued to show that he is a threat for the 2024 World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models championship with his performance on Friday night at Mississippi Thunder Speedway.

The Mooresville, NC driver began the night by going fastest in his group of Sea Foam Qualifying, then followed up by winning his Heat race by over four seconds.

Hoffman started the Feature on the outside of the front row alongside Bilstein Pole Winner Brian Shirley for the 50-lap battle - sliding into second from the drop of the green flag.

On lap five, Hoffman powered his NOS Energy Drink #9 down the bottom of the front stretch to power by Shirley for the lead into Turn 1.

During the stretch of green flag racing, Hoffman had to navigate the continuous packs of lap traffic while fighting to stay at the front of a revolving door of contenders for the win that included Oakwood, IL driver Bobby Pierce, New Berlin, IL driver Brandon Sheppard and Robeline, LA driver Cade Dillard.

The sole caution of the Feature for a flat tire on Rochester, MN driver Dustin Sorensen’s machine on lap 35 gave the field their only sniff at competing against Hoffman for the win.

On the ensuing restart, Hoffman got the jump on the restart on the field into Turn 1 - leaving Pierce and Sheppard to fight for second place while new faces in Marshalltown, IA driver Ryan Gustin and Gray Court, SC’s Chris Madden fought their way inside the top five in the closing stages of the Feature.

With a clear track and twin checkered flags flying high in the air - Hoffman crossed the finish line with his fist high in the air to celebrate winning the largest purse of his racing career.

“This is the biggest money win I’ve ever had in my career,” Hoffman said. “Right now, we need every dollar we can get in building a new shop and everything. This is more of my style of racing right there and what I’ve made a living doing in my Modified by running through the middle of the race track when it’s slick and slow. So, I’m super pumped to race for another $25,000 tomorrow night. 

“I can’t thank everyone enough. Darien and Zach have done a great job for me, along with NOS Energy Drink, C&W Trucking, Peteroff Towing, Bilstein, Longhorn, and Clements Racing Engines. To get our third win of the year and fourth Outlaw win is special and we gotta keep it rolling because these guys are gonna be hot on our tail all year and I fully believe this points battle will go all the way down to Charlotte.”

Pierce finished second after starting the Feature in eighth place. The reigning Series champion is happy with the result - accepting that he used up the tires on his #32 machine in his quest towards the Hoffman.

“This track moves around a lot,” Pierce said. “In the beginning stages, everyone was running the middle to bottom, and then once the top got clean enough, everyone jumped up there. But, with the new dirt, it had some spots that were flatter than it used to be, so it made it tough to enter the corner and get a good run on the top side because it felt like as flat as can be.

“Nick had a really good car, he could pace himself in that middle line and I know I was hurting my tires in the charge to the front - especially the runs I had on Dillard and Sheppard, I knew I abused the tires getting around them. Once I got to second (place), I knew I didn’t have much left for Nick because he had it dialed. I’m pretty happy with second, but we’ll see what we can do to work on it and I know they’re gonna make the track more tacky tomorrow because it rubbered up down the back. You gotta stay on your toes at this place.”

Sheppard crossed the line to finish third and cap off a night that saw improvements from the Longhorn Factory Team #B5 - winning his Heat race and sitting inside the top-five for all 50 laps.

“It was definitely different than the last few years,” Sheppard said. “They did a good job prepping the track all night and it was definitely slick all night long. It was drier than what I anticipated. The car had good balance and we were able to drive nicely all night long and came up a little short tonight. I probably could’ve been more aggressive at the start, but Nick’s been rolling really good so we just gotta keep working and catch up to him.”

Gustin finished just short of the podium to take a fourth-place while Madden followed suit to finish out Friday’s top-five finishers.

Climbing 11 spots to earn the Feature’s Fox Factory Hard Charger Award was won by Lake Elmo, MN driver Brent Larson.

Dillard won his first Simpson Quick Time Award of 2024 with a 13.596 lap time around the 3/8-mile facility.

Heat race winners from Friday night included Dillard in Heat 1, Shirley in Heat 2, Hoffman in Heat 3, and Sheppard in Heat 4.

Jake Timm and Jordan Yaggy claimed the wins in two Last Chance Showdown races.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws CASE Late Models cap off the weekend at Mississippi Thunder Speedway with racing on Saturday night, May 4. Like Friday, the Feature will go for 50 laps with $25,000 on the line for the winner. For more information about the event, CLICK HERE.

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch every World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model race live on DIRTVision.

Feature Results: