UNION, Ky. (Aug. 9) — The story of Saturday’s 43rd annual North-South 100 at Florence Speedway could be inferred from the study in contrasts visible during the postrace ceremonies on the frontstretch.

As Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., celebrated and talked about his record third straight and fourth overall victory in the crown jewel event, the driver he overtook to assume command for good midway through the race, Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., stood alongside his third-place car a short distance away with a clear of discontent on his face.

“I know he was mad,” Pierce said of Davenport, who was indeed, if not seething, still angry over the intense sequence mid-race sequence he had engaged in with Pierce.

Davenport’s initial comment when approached by a reporter while Pierce, 28, enjoyed his $75,000 triumph: “Got run over, and that’s it.”

The 41-year-old Davenport glanced down at the source of anger: the left-front corner of his Double L Motorsports Longhorn Chassis. The fender flare was pushed upward and was separated from the hood, the result of a lap-55 encounter with Pierce at the start of their frenetic battle for the top spot that lasted nearly 10 circuits.

“That’s a lot of damage, though, for somebody saying that they’re going to show me how to throw clean sliders,” Davenport said, slyly referring to comments Pierce made (“J.D. don’t know how to throw sliders”) on Feb. 14 after a World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series feature at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla.

Davenport, who started from the pole position, dominated the first half of the 100-lapper. Seeking his third career North-South 100 victory, he built as much as a straightaway edge over his closest pursuers.

But then came a lap-53 caution flag. Pierce, who started 14th, had reached second place on lap 32 and was already closing on Davenport, so it was clear that the race would be on.

And it became heated quickly, beginning on lap 55 when Pierce slid underneath Davenport entering turn one. Contact ensued between the first and second corners — Davenport’s left-front to Pierce’s left-rear. The impact was heavy enough to momentarily lift Davenport’s left-front wheel off the ground and leave the left-front of his nose with the damage he pointed to after the race.

Davenport felt that Pierce was over-aggressive in attempting the move at that particular moment.

“I knew the top was going to be better, and he’s good up there, but I was just trying to be patient and, like, run my race,” Davenport said. “He’s way faster than me at that point. Just f------ past me on the top or something.

“That’s fine if you get a big run. I mean, a slider’s fine, but I don’t think there was any need of that at that time of the race. But I could be wrong. Whatever.”

Pierce disputed Davenport’s assessment. He maintained that he didn’t “run over” Davenport but that J.D. nailed him in the midst of navigating the corners in what Pierce called Davenport’s trademark manner.

“The line he runs, he wins a lot of races. He’s really good doing that specific line,” Pierce said. “And it’s like, you can kind of call it the J.D. line. He enters kind of high in the corner, and then before anyone else’s car really cuts that good, he cuts down and he makes a long straightaway, you know? And a place like Florence, you can really do that here and make up a lot of speed, so it works good here.

“He’s not really running the cushion. I wouldn’t call it like the bottom, I wouldn’t call it the middle, I wouldn’t call the cushion. He’s kind of using not all the lanes, but … and I don’t even want to say he’s making his car wide, it’s just a line that works for him. It works for his car. 

“And knowing that, you know, I’ve raced J.D. several times and I have lots of respect for him. Knowing that, when I catch J.D., you have to race him different than anyone else because no one else does that line.

“And I caught him,” he continued. “Like, I pushed really hard for a couple laps, caught him. Coming out of (turn) four I had a hell of a run, then coming down the straightaway, by the time we get to the flagstand, he creeps up to the wall, so I hit the brakes and I’m like, ‘OK, he's going to run the top into this corner.’ So I shoot down low. And then next thing I know, he’s shooting down low again.”

Pierce said he “didn’t really hit him.” He noted that the contact came from behind him.

“I got ahead of him, and then he gassed it,” Pierce said. “I was kind of coming to a stop, because by the time I see he’s coming down, I don’t really want to take him out, so I kind of slid the car right there on the bottom, kept it on the bottom, and I’m waiting for him to drive around me. Well, I get a shot in the shorts. That’s where my left quarter(panel) got really messed up the first time.”

Pierce brushed off the scrape, saying, “I was like, ‘OK. That’s a hard racing deal.’ ” Then the tussle between him and Davenport escalated, becoming even more physical.

“And then after that, he was on the gas,” Pierce said. “He was putting up a good fight. And it was a lot of fun. We were going at it.”

There were sliders galore between the pair — and several near disasters. On lap 56, Davenport got into Pierce’s right-rear on the homestretch, turning Pierce sideways for a split second. Pierce bumped Davenport’s right-rear in almost the same spot the following lap. And on lap 61 heading down the backstretch, Davenport touched Pierce’s left-rear wheel as Pierce came off the cushion exiting turn two.

Pierce said he “felt like we raced really clean” during the wild stretch that had the crowd roaring, “besides the time” on lap 61 when he absorbed the left-rear contact from Davenport. That could have ended Pierce’s hopes.

“My left-rear wheel cover did get taken off and my valve stem got nicked,” said Pierce, who was scored the leader only on lap 56 before seizing command for good on lap 62. “So I was legit, like, probably an eighth-inch away from having a flat tire.”

The slider-filled stretch was effectively Davenport’s last hurrah. He knew he wouldn’t be able to keep pace with Pierce because of the damage to his car’s left-front.

“I just showed him a couple times that I could wreck him any time I wanted to, but I’m not going to do that,” Davenport said. “It just ruined our chances. These things are so aero-dependent anymore, and I never could turn into corners, so then I was always too tight, and then I would slide. I mean, just one thing creates many more problems.”

Davenport slipped back as far as fifth for laps 83-91, but he rallied to grab third from Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, coming to the white flag and finished there behind runner-up Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz. The fact he was able to salvage a podium left him wondering if perhaps he could have stuck with Pierce’s fleet Longhorn Chassis to the checkered flag.

“Hell, I got back to third there with that (damage), and probably, if we hadn’t had that damage, we could have probably run second,” Davenport said. “I don’t know if I could run with Bobby. Maybe, but who knows? That’s just the way it goes.”

All that could have been was on Davenport’s mind after the race. The emotion led him to send a couple warnings Pierce’s way.

“I still got a few years left in me, so I mean, if that’s how he wants to race, that’s fine. I mean, that’s the way it is,” Davenport said. “I’m old enough now. I let that s--- go, but I’m putting all these receipts back. I’ll start cashing ‘em in one day.”

Davenport had one brief, face-to-face moment with Pierce after the race. It came during the photo of the podium finishers, and it was much anticipated by the crowd. All eyes were on Davenport as he walked up to take his place next to Pierce. Would he have a comment for Pierce? Would he give Pierce a playful but meaningful bump like he did to Thornton last year in a similar situation at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga.?

Pierce, standing on the highest, middle rung of the top-three podium, certainly wondered how Davenport would react as well.

“Yeah, he was approaching me, and, I mean, I know he’s not happy,” Pierce said. “And I’m just like, I said, ‘Hey, I didn’t mean to upset you there. I’m just trying to like … it’s a racing deal.’

“He says, ‘That’s what you’re going to say, didn’t mean to?’ And I’m just standing there. I didn’t say anything back. I was just like, I’m not gonna have a skirmish here.”

Then Pierce and Davenport looked straight ahead — with runner-up Thornton, ironically, the other guy in the photo this time — and posed for the photographers. Nothing else was said, though they still had the race, and February’s slider comments by Pierce, on their minds.

“I mean, I don’t know what to say about it,” Pierce said. “It’s just a hard racing deal.”

And Pierce even complimented Davenport’s slider acumen.

“He’s gotten way good at sliders,” Pierce said with a smile. “Yeah. He threw the sliders perfectly tonight. It was fun.”