Mike Marlar Stops Bobby Pierce at Sharon to Return to World of Outlaws Victory Lane

HARTFORD, OH (July 12, 2025) – Over the past two years, Bobby Pierce and Sharon Speedway have been an unbeatable combination – unless you’re Mike Marlar.

The 2018 champion of the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision had been waiting since the 2023 World of Outlaws World Finals to return to Victory Lane with the Series. Marlar’s time finally came on Saturday night at Sharon Speedway, as he cruised around the winner of the last three races at the track on his way to the checkered flag in the Battle at the Border finale.

It hasn’t been the season a driver of Marlar’s caliber expects of himself, as Saturday’s win was his first national-level top five since the Alabama Gang 100 at the Talladega Short Track in April. That’s partially due to Marlar’s decision to do less traveling than he has in years past, but that shift paid dividends when he returned to the big stage at Sharon.

“Haven’t been really running very good, and we stayed around closer to home the last couple weeks,” Marlar said. “I got second last Thursday and then won Saturday in a regional deal. That just really helps me dial my car in. I think sometimes when I’m out here racing the toughest guys all the time, it just gets you out in left field a little bit. If you’re struggling, it’s hard to beat these guys. It was nice to stay around home for a few weeks and get my stuff working a little better, then come back and give them a better shot.”

Early in the Feature, it looked like a different driver could be on their way to their first World of Outlaws win since 2023. Dennis Erb Jr. drew the Bilstein Pole Award to start up front alongside Pierce and commanded the race early on until the first caution flew seven laps in.

When the race got back going, Pierce quickly dove to the bottom entering Turn 1 and powered to the lead to end Erb’s time out front. While Pierce started to pull away, Marlar was looking for a way around Erb and into second, and another caution on Lap 16 gave him the opportunity he needed to get by on the restart.

In the middle portion of the race, the Sharon fans were seemingly watching a replay of Friday’s race, as Pierce extended his advantage to upwards of two seconds at the halfway point. That was when Marlar started to do something few have done in the past four World of Outlaws races at Sharon – run down Pierce.

With 12 circuits remaining in the 50-lapper, the gap between the leaders shrunk to under a second. Four laps later, the No. 157 was all over the back bumper of the points leader with time running out to make a move.

Marlar initially tried the low lane in Turns 1 and 2 to get beside Pierce, but that wasn’t enough to complete the pass. Pierce then went to the bottom in Turns 3 and 4 to defend, leaving the cushion wide open for Marlar to rocket into the lead. With Pierce’s car fading and Marlar’s machine hitting its stride, the “Winfield Warrior” drove the final seven laps unchallenged on his way to his 18th World of Outlaws triumph.

Despite Marlar only having two weekends worth of experience at Sharon, the eastern Ohio facility has already cemented its spot on his list of favorites. A drive from last to 13th after going to a backup car on Friday is the only blemish on a record that otherwise includes four top fives in five starts.

“It’s just a racy track, I love going to places that are like that,” Marlar said. “When I came up that other time, I really didn’t have it dialed in, but I thought ‘dude, this track’s awesome.’ Last night, I thought the track was fun and it was a totally different thing. So obviously it can be good in a lot of different conditions. With the rain today, it was way faster obviously. It’s a fun track, I enjoy coming up here, and I like that kind of reddish-pink Pennsylvania, Ohio-type dirt, it’s fun.”

Pierce’s Sharon win streak came to an end at three with his runner-up result, a strong showing considering he was dealing with a broken right-rear wheel cover throughout the Feature.

“That one definitely got away, I kind of just had to ride the bottom,” Pierce said. “I was thinking about points. If it wasn’t for being a points race, I might have pushed the limit, but it just felt like the right-rear tire was about to fall off, so I didn’t want to keep going and turn a good run into a DNF.”

Erb held on to third for his fourth podium in seven races, bringing him within 20 points of the top five in the standings headed to his home state in two weeks.

“We’ll just keep running good here and hopefully we’ll get one pretty soon,” Erb said. “Just glad to be up front here running good. Shoutout to everybody here that worked on this track, pretty big rain earlier and they got it in a lot better shape than what I thought it was going to be.”

Tanner English brought the No. 96 home fourth for his third top five in his last four starts, while Brian Shirley backed up his podium finish on Friday with a fifth on Saturday.

RACE NOTES:

Nick Hoffman set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.

Bobby Pierce won the Simpson Quick Time Award.

Bobby Pierce won Real American Beer Heat 1.

Mike Marlar won STAKT Products Heat 2.

Dennis Erb Jr. won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.

Dustin Sorensen won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.

Ryan Gustin and Jared Miley won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.

Dennis Erb Jr. won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Ryan Gustin won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.

Bobby Pierce won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.

Tanner English was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.

Brian Shirley was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

Drake Troutman was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.

Ryan Gustin was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.

Max Blair was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.

Ethan Dotson was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.

Cody Overton was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

UP NEXT: One of the most historic and prestigious weekends in dirt Late Model racing lies ahead at Fairbury Speedway with the Prairie Dirt Classic, Friday-Saturday, July 25-26. For more event information, click here.

If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.

Feature (50 Laps): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[3]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 3. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[1]; 4. 96-Tanner English[5]; 5. 3S-Brian Shirley[8]; 6. 22*-Drake Troutman[9]; 7. 9M-Tim McCreadie[14]; 8. 19R-Ryan Gustin[17]; 9. 111-Max Blair[13]; 10. 74X-Ethan Dotson[7]; 11. 19-Dustin Sorensen[4]; 12. 2-Cody Overton[12]; 13. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[19]; 14. 1*-Chub Frank[11]; 15. 1Z-Logan Zarin[22]; 16. 49-Jake Timm[16]; 17. B1-Brent Larson[21]; 18. 9-Nick Hoffman[6]; 19. 99B-Boom Briggs[20]; 20. 10M-Jared Miley[18]; 21. 1C-Alex Ferree[15]; 22. 66-Justin Kann[10]; 23. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[23]; 24. J4-John Garvin Jr[24]