North Carolina driver wins $30,000 World of Outlaws A Main at Mississippi Thunder Speedway

FOUNTAIN CITY, Wis. — With 10 top-10 finishes through the first 12 races of the year, Nick Hoffman has been one of the most consistent drivers on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.

But the Mooresville, N.C., native knows it takes more than consistency to win a championship against the best Late Model drivers in the country. It takes wins, something he had lacked in the early portion of the season.

That was until Saturday night at Mississippi Thunder Speedway, when Hoffman laid down a dominant run for his second win in the Dairyland Showdown.

“This place is just awesome,” said Hoffman, who earned $30,000 for his victory. “I’ve been fortunate to win here last year and run really solid. Just my style — momentum, slick and slow, just doing everything you can to make grip and make momentum speed.”

Hoffman drew the fourth starting position for the 50-lap feature. He started behind the front row of Brian Shirley and Tim McCreadie, who rode the cushion around the opening set of corners to lead his first laps of the season, but Brandon Overton quickly moved up from third to take over the top spot four laps in.

A handful of early yellow flags kept the front of the pack bunched up and the leaders in Hoffman’s range.

Hoffman got by McCreadie for third place 10 laps in, then immediately got by Shirley on the next restart and sneaked to the inside of Overton for the lead down the backstretch.

Hoffman tried the cushion for himself four laps later and sailed around Overton down the frontstretch to take command of the race. A flat tire on Tyler Bruening’s car gave the field one more chance to catch Hoffman with 13 laps to go, but the gap was already up to half a straightaway a lap after the restart.

Even after catching traffic before the checkers, Hoffman was able to maintain a blazing pace and crossed the line 1.7 seconds ahead of his closest challenger. Hoffman’s runner-up effort on Friday night, behind winner Tyler Erb, proved he was only a few minor adjustments away from Victory Lane.

“If I could get myself tightened up just a little bit where I could drive straighter, I’d be better, and that was what I was able to do tonight,” Hoffman said. “I was worried those first couple laps when it was dirty that I would end up hurting tires, so I was kind of conservative those first 10 laps, and then after that I pushed pretty hard once the track started to slow down. So I was glad to see that caution, it got me re-racked and I was able to run my line again.”

Series points leader Bobby Pierce finished second to claim his second podium of the weekend, but conceded that Hoffman was on another level in the closing stages.

“I really wanted that caution and it came out, I thought that was my chance,” Pierce said. “When we took the green, (Hoffman) just blasted out, half a straightaway lead right at the green flag.”

Overton brought his No. 76 car home in third place in his first visit to Mississippi Thunder, although a deflating tire put that result in jeopardy in the final laps.

“I’m glad it wasn’t any more laps, we just had a flat so that was plenty enough,” Overton said. “We’re fast, I don’t know if I was a little too aggressive early and hurt my tire or what. I just wanted to get out front, my car felt really good early. There’s just a couple little tweaks we should have done. Nick was really good, he drove right by me and got gone. I kind of started reeling Bobby back in there at the end, we caught traffic and they were kind of in my lane.”

Shirley and McCreadie rounded out the top five.

Hayfield's Brandon Davis won the 35-lap USRA Modifieds feature, with the Chisholm brothers, Jim and Joe, placing second and third, respectively. Kaden Blaeser of Chippewa Falls, Wis., finished fourth, and Grand Meadow's Parker Hale placed fifth.

Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of "staff." Often, the "staff" byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.