Competing for national touring wins and triumphing at racetracks he hadn't previously won at, Josh Rice’s confidence this season has been noticeably high. Entering Saturday’s Dream XXXI finale at Eldora Speedway after Friday's prelim action, his confidence must now be nothing short of sky-high.

The 26-year-old added to his surging stock Friday by capturing the biggest win of his career to date — the $30,000 rain-postponed prelim from Thursday in impressive, poised fashion over the sport’s top-ranked driver, Bobby Pierce.

Friday’s victory at Eldora marks his seventh overall win of 2025, with five of those wins over his last six races.

“I thought (Indiana’s) Brownstown (Speedway) was hard to win at, this place is damn near impossible to win at. Especially to do it over the 32, he wins every damn weekend,” Rice said of outdueling Pierce. “We’ve been good here recently. Good thing we hot lapped again. I’m glad it rained out (Thursday) because I probably would have never won this deal.

“We hot lapped there and wasn’t very good, threw what we knew was going to be close. Honestly, we didn’t know if it was going to be close or not, but it worked — $30,000 holy s—!”

Rice’s Eldora win adds to a season where he’s picked up first-time wins at Brownstown on May 31 and Butler Motor Speedway in Quincy, Mich., on May 24, and a campaign where he's challenged for Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series wins March 21-22 at Ohio's Atomic Speedway (runner-up finish) and Brownstown Speedway (fifth-place finish).

Friday's winning move for Rice, whose full-time job is working nightshifts at international shipping company DHL Group, came with 11 laps to go where he ran away from Pierce on a lap-41 restart for a decisive 4.677-second victory.

The path to victory for Rice also came without challenges from the front row starters, Wil Herrington and Carson Ferguson, both whom experienced rollovers that drew two separate red flags during the 50-lap feature. Both drivers also emerged unhurt.

Second-starting Carson Ferguson flipped after overstepping the turn-one cushion on the initial start. Ferguson landed on his roof and collected Chris Simpson, who came away with left-knee discomfort after the race.

“Just the way the air is here, clean air is just really important, so me and Wil, we were just trying to beat each other to the cushion,” Ferguson said. “He had turned down when he needed to clear me and I just, the way the air was, I didn't position myself good enough to counter him beating me to the cushion. I kind of gave myself no way out."

Herrington, meanwhile, led the opening nine laps from the pole before fading to fourth when the turn-one cushion bit him on a lap-41 restart attempt, sending him twirling upside down before landing back on four wheels.

Fourth-starting Tyler Erb commanded laps 10-30 aboard his Dukes of Hazzard-inspired race car before overstepping the turn-two cushion and letting Rice by on lap 31.

Pierce, who overcome right-rear damage when he narrowly missed Ferguson’s opening-lap flip, thought he had Rice beat when he surged around the Verona, Ky., driver on lap 33. But Pierce only led laps 33-39 until the lurking Rice made his winning move on lap 40. When Pierce passed him on lap 33, Rice thought, ‘Well, there’s that,’ believing that Pierce had the race won.

“I was just riding through the middle there and felt like I was staying with him, and I felt like he was getting tighter and tighter,” Rice said of trying to catch Pierce. “I told these guys, man, I don’t want to fix this thing. I just want to finish. I kept riding and riding, and he kept getting closer and closer. Finally, I was like, ‘Hell with it. It’s time to send it in three and four.’ What a hotrod, man.”

Can Rice now string together 100 laps and win the $100,000 Dream top prize? He's given observers no reason to believe he can't, not even Jonathan Davenport, Friday’s first prelim winner who watched Rice impressively outduel the nation’s top-ranked driver in Pierce.

“That’s so awesome to get your first win here," Davenport said. "It’s definitely an unbelievable feeling. And the way he done it, man. Bobby drove up through there, Bobby got by him, but he kept his head about him and drove back by him. Congratulations to him. He done an excellent job.”

After compiling the second-most Dream points, Rice will start fourth in Saturday's second heat after the four-car inversion. A heat race win means he starts the 100-lap finale in fifth. Finishing second means he'd start eighth and third in his heat would start him 14th.