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Series points leader and two-time reigning Summer Nationals champion Bobby Pierce could do no better than ninth on Saturday after race officials made a judgment call that sent him to the rear of the field shortly after the halfway point of the race.
Battling Simpson for the third spot in heavy traffic, Pierce made contact with the lapped car of Tim Manville. Manville spun, bringing out the second caution of the night on Lap 28.
Pierce said he had been following a slower Manville for several laps and "barely tagged" him.
Race officials determined that Pierce was responsible for the mishap and assessed a track position penalty that left the Oakwood driver fuming.
"It seems like it's always something here and it always goes back to one thing, the Fairbury officials," Pierce said. "The bad thing is, these Fairbury officials are the ones making the calls and everyone knows they don't like me here, so whether it's right or wrong they're going to do it."
Pierce said he believes that other front-runners have skated in similar circumstances at other tracks in the series this year, including an incident involving El Paso's Ryan Unzicker and Larson at Sycamore.
"Nothing against Ryan, I love Ryan. But he took out Larson, hit him in the quarter panel and spun him around and Ryan gets his spot back," Pierce said. "Well, if they're going to do that in the same series, why don't they do that now? They have to figure out whether they're going to make it one way or not. You can't keep going back and forth and do this for this guy and that for that guy. I think we had a good shot at this race."