UNION, Ky. — The 43rd annual Sunoco North-South 100 will go down in the history books for a couple of obvious reasons.

Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., became the first to capture Florence Speedway’s crown jewel event three years in a row, and the first driver to win it four times.

But the throng packing the half-mile northern Kentucky oval won’t soon forget the feisty mid-race battle between the 14th-starting Pierce and polesitter Jonathan Davenport between laps 55-62 with a lead-swapping, paint-swapping — and eventually comment-swapping — battle that spiced Pierce’s $75,000 victory capping a three-day Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series weekend.

"I know he was mad,” Pierce said in victory lane.

A few moments later, a shouting fan suggested that Davenport “kick his ass,” and with a chuckle, the Blairsville, Ga., driver couldn’t resist with a retort: “He probably needs it.”

While J.D. might’ve won the war of words, Pierce won the race that counted in leading the final 39 laps, collecting Florence’s coveted hardware for the fourth time while Davenport, struggling with left-front nose damage, manhandled his car to a third-place finish behind runner-up Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz.

Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, who held the second spot from laps 66-97, settled for a fourth-place finish while ninth-starting Zack Dohm of Cross Lanes, W.Va., was fifth to match his best career North-South 100 finish from 2017.

Pierce, the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series points leader and interloper in the Lucas Oil event, knows his rival series competitors were eager to win at Florence, but “I wanted that win pretty bad, too,” he said. “It was just fun, hard racing and we got it done.”

A third-place finish in a heat race gave him a seventh-row starting spot for the feature, but the high-flying Pierce overcame the handicap, breaking into the top five by the 25th lap.

"I've done it here from the back before, but I definitely was in a bad mood at the start of the race just because, I didn't wanna start that far back. It makes it a lot harder,” Pierce said. “So we were coming up through the field. I was just worried about my tires. I was spinning pretty bad in certain parts, and then certain parts it was really hooked up, so it was really a challenge. Once I got to second there, it was just try to win the race and got the job done.”

While the first half of the race was dominated by Davenport and the second half by Pierce, it was their back-and-forth duel just after a lap-53 restart that had fans standing, cheering, pumping fists and pulling for their favorites as the frontrunners made contact multiple times, including when both took a swipe at the other exiting turn four to unsettle the other car.

“We raced hard, me and J.D. I know he was mad, but you know it was just, it's hard racing here. He runs a specific line — it's nothing against him, it's a very, very good line — it's just very hard to make a pass,” Pierce said, drawing hoots from the crowd. “It works for him. He's won a lot of big races kind of running that diamond line and it's just tough when you're trying to guess exactly if he's gonna do it or not.

“I hit the brakes down the straightaway because he ran up to the wall, so I'm like, 'OK, he's running the top,’ then (I) went into the bottom and then he kind of came down and we made contact.”

Davenport, after hearing Pierce’s comments, responded that “obviously he's always right — so I don't know how to throw sliders, and he does.”

Several times in his postrace interview, Davenport tried to dismiss what had just transpired — “it just keeps beating a dead horse,” he said — but he couldn’t ignore it.

In thanking Lance Landers of Double L Motorsports, Davenport guessed his car owner was “pretty mad about me not wrecking (Pierce) or something. I just hit him a couple of times just to show him that I could wreck him if I wanted to, but I'm not that kind of person,” Davenport said.

Over the last 40 laps, Davenport had his hands full trying to figure out how to keep his Longhorn Chassis pointed the right direction.

“This thing was so yaw sensitive that if I went a corner too straight I couldn't steer, obviously, because the left front's bent and stuff, but then if I got a little too crooked, it was like a big sail up there in the left front and it would just turn me sideways,” he said. “It took a lot behind the wheel, back and forth, to try to figure out how to drive it and salvage a good finish.”

The eighth-starting Thornton ran in the top five most of the way and slipped past Moran to grab second with four laps remaining.

"I definitely felt like I was running as hard as I could there, and, it just wasn't enough. Obviously, Bobby's stuff was really, really, really good, so I could barely see him there the last couple laps. Go back to the drawing board, try to get a little bit better,” said Thornton, who will head to next week’s Topless 100 on the Lucas Oil Series next weekend at Batesville Motor Speedway in Locust Grove, Ark. “We’ve got good speed. We just don’t got our great speed like we had at the start of the year so we'll go to Batesville next week, and kind of tear it back down and just kind of go through it and try to get a little bit better.”

2025 North-South 100 Results From Florence Speedway

Pos. Driver (car no.), hometown, chassis, earnings

1. Bobby Pierce (32), Oakwood, Ill., Longhorn, $75,000

2. Ricky Thornton Jr. (20rt), Chandler, Ariz., Longhorn, $25,000

3. Jonathan Davenport (49), Blairsville, Ga., Longhorn, $10,000

4. Devin Moran (99), Dresden, Ohio, Longhorn, $9,000

5. Zack Dohm (17), Cross Lanes, W.Va., Longhorn, $8,000

6. Jason Jameson (12), Lawrenceburg, Ind., Longhorn, $7,000

7. Hudson O’Neal (71), Martinsville, Ind., Longhorn, $6,000

8. Brandon Overton (76), Blairsville, Ga., Longhorn, $5,000

9. Cory Hedgecock (23v), Loudon, Tenn., BMF, $4,750

10. Nick Hoffman (9), Mooresville, N.C., Longhorn, $4,500

11. Carson Ferguson (93), Lincolnton, N.C., Longhorn, $4,250

12. Brandon Sheppard (1), New Berlin, Ill., Rocket, $4,000

13. Donald McIntosh (79), Dawsonville, Ga., Longhorn, $3,750

14. Mike Marlar (157), Winfield, Tenn., Longhorn, $3,700

15. Chris Ferguson (22), Mount Holly, N.C., Stinger, $3,650

16. Clay Harris (6), Jupiter, Fla., Longhorn, $3,600

17. Garrett Alberson (58), Las Cruces, N.M., Longhorn, $3,550

18. Dustin Nobbe (5N), Batesville, Ind., Rocket, $3,500

19. Dan Ebert (60), Lake Shore, Minn., Rocket, $3,500

20. Daniel Hilsabeck (22), Earlham, Iowa, Capital, $3,500

21. Josh Rice (11), Crittenden, Ky., Rocket, $3,500

22. Joseph Joiner (10), Milton, Fla., Capital, $3,500

23. Daulton Wilson (18D), Fayetteville, N.C., Longhorn, $3,500

24. Justin Rattliff (16), Campbellsville, Ky., Longhorn, $3,500

25. Jimmy Owens (20), Newport, Tenn., Rocket, $3,500

26. Ryan Montgomery (12), Fairmont, W.Va., Longhorn, $3,500