The pit crew swarmed the truck; the driver climbed out and threw his hands high into the night air; the owner ran around screaming and handing out hugs. In the background of this scene, as fireworks exploded over Eldora Speedway's half-mile dirt oval, race winner Christopher Bell turned victory donuts that sent plumes of dust skyward. The fact that Bobby Pierce finished second didn't dampen the celebration on pit road. In fact, it heightened it. In his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut, Pierce chased Bell all over the track in a thrilling conclusion to the third annual event at the Tony Stewart-owned facility in western Ohio. He did so in a battered #63 MB Motorsports Chevrolet that, by the end, looked like something from a nearby junkyard. Pierce led 39 of 154 laps after starting from the pole. He was in the top five throughout the entirety of the 1-800-Car-Cash Mud Summer Classic, including the frenzied finish that saw four cautions -- and thus four harrowing restarts -- over a 42-lap span and resulted in a green-white-checkered finish. Team owner Mike Mittler was fine with second. A team owner in the Truck Series since its inception in 1995, Wednesday was his best finish. His only other career top 10 in 213 starts was an eighth-place showing with Carl Edwards in 2002. It was a wait of 13 years for a man well-regarded in the NASCAR community, one who helped drivers such as Brad Keselowski (who finished 28th Wednesday), Edwards, Jamie McMurray and Justin Allgaier start their careers. After celebrating with Pierce and the crew, Mittler took a congratulatory phone call and helped wheel the truck across the infield for inspection before pausing to consider what the runner-up result meant. "I thought if it stayed green, we'd have every opportunity to work (Bell) and get by him, but it just didn't go that way," Mittler told NASCAR.com. "I just thought, 'Wow, what a phenomenal opportunity after 20 years, to be in position to finally have an opportunity to win a race.' " The opportunity came with a driver Mittler has known for years -- he is friends with Pierce's father outside of racing -- and one who watched the inaugural Eldora race on television at home, and took in last year's event from the grandstands.(NASCAR.com)
*Credit NASCAR.com for this Article*
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