Pierce fell back six car lengths at that point and only just got back to Lawson’s bumper over the final seven circuits, coming up .168 of a second short at the checkered flag.
After the race, there was nothing but smiles from both Lawson and Pierce at the fierce battle they enjoyed.
“I’m out of breath, I’m not in shape for this, but I don’t care right now!” Lawson grinned. “This is unreal. I can’t believe I just won a 410 pavement race. That was so much fun at the end. Aaron raced me hard but it was all clean … and I can’t believe it worked out for us.”
“Getting up off of four … Bronzie was loose up off the corner and he was dragging a little bit, so I knew he moved his wing back some and was trying to hang on,” said Pierce. “I got up under him and was footing it just a bit off the exit of four, and he was just hammer down. He chopped me there into one with eight to go, but it was clean. We never touched each other and I really appreciate that. I wanted to throw him the chrome horn on the last lap, but I’d already torn up one wing this weekend and I wasn’t going to tear up a second one. Congratulations to Bronzie, man. He really earned that one.”
Pierce was the night’s hard charger as well, coming from ninth on the grid to finish second.
“We had a good run tonight. Coming from that far back … I found the outside really fast and that’s where you had to go if you wanted to pass everybody,” said Pierce. “Clean air is everything. If you’re the leader, you’ve got to make the guy behind you pass you and we couldn’t quite get where we needed to. We’ll regroup though, and come back stronger next time.”
Florida’s Shane Butler scored his second-straight podium finish to open the season, coming in third behind Lawson and Pierce and having a front-row seat to their battle in the final laps.
“Man, I was hoping they’d get to racing and it would slow them up enough to where I might have a chance, but this is a great weekend for us,” said Butler. “We weren’t sure how we were going to stack up against these guys coming into this Southern Shootout, but second and third are two strong results for us and I couldn’t be happier.”
Three-time defending series champion Jimmy McCune, who had won the last three Must See Racing features at Hickory entering Saturday night’s event, struggled all race long and finished fourth.
Fast qualifier Jacob Wilson completed the top five and former supermodified ace Charlie Schultz was sixth, the final car on the lead lap in a race of attrition where only seven cars made it to the finish.
The finish:
Bronzie Lawson IV, Aaron Pierce, Shane Butler, Jimmy McCune, Jacob Wilson, Charlie Schultz, Bronzie Lawson III, Jerry Caryer, Anthony McCune, Jeff Bloom, Tom Jewell, Johnny Bridges, Johnny Petrozelle, Anthony Linkenhoker, Adam Biltz.
