LAS VEGAS – Lane Nobles’s 6-year-old son, River Knox, made sure to give his dad a pep talk before he headed out to Las Vegas for the 2021 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals.

“Dad, you go and win,” said River, who stayed home with his grandparents so he could go trick-or-treating as a ninja on Halloween. “I know you can do it. And then come back and get me, and then you can go win the World Finals as well.”

Nobles did not want to let his son down. He will happily be boarding his 5 a.m. flight to Texas Monday morning to pick up River and bring him back to Las Vegas for the 2021 PBR World Finals; his ninth-place finish at the Velocity Tour Finals was enough to earn him one of the five Wild Card berths available.

The 30-year-old will be competing at his first PBR World Finals Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena after receiving a Wild Card berth for being the highest-ranked Velocity Tour rider who was not already qualified for the World Finals.

Lane finished the Velocity Tour season ninth in the PBR development tour’s final standings, and all eight riders ahead of him already had qualified for the World Finals through the world standings.

“I’ve dreamed of this since I was a kid playing in the backyard,” Nobles said. “Now that it’s become a reality, I want every second to count.”

Also earning wild card berths to the World Finals via the VT standings were Grayson Cole, Leonardo Lima and Dalton Rudman. Alvaro Aguilar Alvarez was also awarded the international wild card berth seeing as 2021 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Champion Adriano Salgado qualified for the World Finals through the world standings.

All five riders will be competing at their very first PBR World Finals this week.

Nobles went 1-for-3 at the Velocity Tour Finals, riding Dazed & Confused for 86.5 points in Round 1 on Saturday night.

The West, Texas, bull rider had excitement in his voice on Sunday as he knew he had a strong chance of qualifying for his first career PBR World Finals.

“Man, it’s like a ball of fire. I don’t know,” Nobles said. “I love riding bulls, so when you’re doing your job and you’re staying on them, it builds up. It’s almost like a rage. You feel like you can’t be stopped, and shoot, there ain’t many people that can do it, so I get pumped up about it—and being able to have a shot to make the Finals, that adds a little bit to it.

“I knew that there was a good possibility. I’ve almost tried to keep a one-track focus, knowing that you’ve still got to stay on them to be able to get there. So, I hadn’t tried to think about it too much and let it play in there, because I didn’t want to believe it’s so close and then just overdo something or think that it’s already there. You’ve got to finish doing what you were doing.”

Nobles was in contention for the $50,000 Velocity Tour championship and nearly pulled through in the championship round before Redginator bucked him off in 7.12 seconds.

The buckoff, though, did not cost him a chance at riding at T-Mobile Arena, and now Nobles, who hadn’t competed in the PBR full time since 2014, can turn his focus to making his World Finals debut on Wednesday night.

Round 1 airs exclusively on CBS Sports Network at 10 p.m. ET.

“Everybody in here, it’s anybody’s ballgame,” Nobles concluded. “Everybody here is really good. I’ve said it before. When you show up here, everybody is in contention for anything. Everybody here knows their job, and they know how to do it well. So, to be sitting back here with the Top 40 guys in the world and be one of them, it’s a pretty amazing feeling, and I’m pretty blessed about it, and to go ahead and punch my ticket and knock the door down, that is awesome. That’s what we wanted to do.”

Professional Bull Riders - PENDLETON WHISKY VELOCITY TOUR FINALS
Las Vegas, NV, 2021 - Event Leaders (Round 1-Round 2-Round 3-Event Aggregate-Event Points)
1. Boudreaux Campbell, 90-0-89-179.00-83 Points.
2. Adriano Salgado, 88.5-0-90-178.50-60 Points.
3. Daylon Swearingen, 89.5-86.5-0-176.00-42 Points.
4. Ezekiel Mitchell, 86-0-88-174.00-30 Points.
5. Kaique Pacheco, 85-82-0-167.00-17 Points.
6. Mauricio Gulla Moreira, 84-81-0-165.00-11 Points.
7. Eduardo Aparecido, 0-89.5-0-89.50-20 Points.
8. Andrew Alvidrez, 0-87.5-0-87.50-8 Points.
9. Lane Nobles, 86-0-0-86.00-3 Points.
(tie). Ednei Caminhas, 86-0-0-86.00-3 Points.
11. Fernando Henrique Novais, 85.5-0-0-85.50-1 Points.
(tie). Carlos Garcia, 0-85.5-0-85.50-3.5 Points.
(tie). Thor Hoefer II, 0-85.5-0-85.50-3.5 Points.
14. Austin Richardson, 85-0-0-85.00
15. Junior Patrik Souza, 0-84.5-0-84.50-2 Points.
16. Keyshawn Whitehorse, 83-0-0-83.00
(tie). Eli Vastbinder, 83-0-0-83.00
18. Cody Jesus, 82.5-0-0-82.50
(tie). Hunter Ball, 82.5-0-0-82.50
20. Marcelo Procopio Pereira, 82-0-0-82.00
21. Dalton Rudman, 81-0-0-81.00
22. Manoelito de Souza Junior, 0-80-0-80.00
23. Ramon de Lima, 51-0-0-51.00
João Ricardo Vieira, 0-0-0-0.00
Silvano Alves, 0-0-0-0.00
Conner Halverson, 0-0-0-0.00
Cody Nance, 0-0-0-0.00
Thiago Salgado, 0-0-0-0.00
Lucas Divino, 0-0-0-0.00
J.T. Moore, 0-0-0-0.00
Cody Casper, 0-0-0-0.00
Grayson Cole, 0-0-0-0.00
Marcos Gloria, 0-0-0-0.00
Alvaro Aguilar Alvarez, 0-0-0-0.00
Leonardo Lima, 0-0-0-0.00
Cole Skender, 0-0-0-0.00
Kyle Jones, 0-0-0-0.00
Davi Henrique de Lima, 0-0-0-0.00
Lucas Fideles Souza, 0-0-0-0.00
Alex Cardozo, 0-0-0-0.00
Bob Mitchell, 0-0-0-0.00
Quentin Vaught, 0-0-0-0.00
Venn Johns, 0-0-0-0.00
Gage Gay, 0-0-0-0.00
Jory Markiss, 0-0-0-0.00
Austin Beaty, 0-0-0-0.00
Josh Frost, 0-0-0-0.00

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

Photo courtesy of Andre Silva/Bull Stock Media