Don’t tempt Tyler Wade and Trey Yates with a good time, and absolutely don’t dangle $28,913.70 out in front of them.

About $100,000 back from world standings leaders Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira and down two steers in the average race, Wade and Yates drew a good steer in Round 7 and made quick work of him to get the go-round win with a 3.9-second run and their second go-round check of the week.

Play-By-Play

“I knew that steer was straight with his head up and had big horns,” Wade, 30, of Terrell, Texas, said. “I waved it off one earlier this week with small horns, and it was kind of devastating. I honestly just knew he was good and honest and he handled good, and that’s important here.”

“The video we had seen, he was straight like TWade said and he was sharp,” Yates, 27, added. “He maybe wasn’t as sharp as he was the first time, but TWade hit the barrier so good that he got him on a short rope he could still get him legal and we could still get a good finish.”

The good finish, according to Wade, wasn’t a given, and he certainly needed Yates’ help to pull it together.

“It’s really hard for a horse to handle the steer and find a way to finish at the same time,” Wade explained. “You don’t have the momentum from just pushing up like you would at a jackpot. Here, there needs to be a little delay in the corner so your heeler can catch up because we’re literally both nodding and going at the same time, and I’m going to be a couple coils away and that means my heeler is too. Honestly, when you mash the corner like that so he can catch up, there’s not enough room to open him up to face and get that momentum. You’re honestly stuck in neutral hoping he brings his hips around. Some nights, the timing is a really good face. Luckily, tonight, Trey heeled him so fast and got tight that it helped me get around but I think I cost us two or three tenths when I did that.”

In just a split second, Yates was able to assess what he had to do when he saw Wade’s horse in the corner of his eye.

“I could kind of see he wasn’t getting the ideal finish, but if he’d have went to face he could cost us giving that steers head back. When I seen it and didn’t see the flag drop right away, I was trying to get back and get the rope tight as fast as I could.”

The run moved them to fifth in the average with a 26.6 on five head.

Horsepower

In one of the NFR’s most predictable teams of horsepower, Wade again rode Espuela Bro, the 15-year-old California-bred gelding he calls Spur by Blue Light Ike out of the Thoroughbred mare Brio Victress. Yates stayed on Dude, his 16-year-old gelding Romancing The Chics by Chic Please out of Lillys Starlight.

World Standings Race

Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira survived another tough slip up, with Driggers having figure-eighted the nose of his steer, fishing it off in dramatic fashion. Nogueira roped two feet as soon as he got the chance, stopping the clock in 18.4 seconds. In doing so, they moved up to second in the average, putting them in a spot for a potential $60,159.36 a man. If all things ended after Round 7, holding all variables the same, They’d have $334,645 with average earnings calculated in, and average leaders Tanner Tomlinson and Patrick Smith would be second with $271,963.50 a man.

Full Results Round 7