PONTOON BEACH, Ill. — Returning to victory lane with the Morrow Brothers Ford MOWA Sprint Car Series, Paul Nienhiser moved himself within striking distance of becoming the all-time wins leader in the series Friday night, trailing Jerrod Hull by just three victories.
Starting outside the front row, Nienhiser blasted into turn one to take the lead from Joe B. Miller on the opening lap and powered ahead of the field at Tri-City Speedway.
A lap-two caution flag for Kameron Key brought race to a halt. Two more cautions slowed the field prior to lap five.
Leading the field back to green, Nienhiser jumped out front and had a commanding lead over the field by lap 12.
As he worked through lapped traffic, second-running Miller was able to close the gap between Nienhiser and himself, ultimately sliding past Nienhiser’s No. 9x machine.
Miller’s No. 51 machine maneuvered high and low through the lapped traffic ahead of Nienhiser, who was being pressured by Carson McCarl in third.
But McCarl spun in the fourth turn of the speedway with less than five laps to go, bringing out the final caution flag of the event.
Miller led the field to green for the final restart and upon entering turn one, had company in the form of Nienhiser. Nienhiser pulled alongside Miller and motored away.
After that, Nienhiser scored his first MOWA sprints win of 2020, followed by Ryan Bunton.
Parker Price-Miller, Daison Pursley and Korey Weyant completed the top five.
The finish:
1 – Paul Nienhiser 9X (2), 2 – Ryan Bunton 6R (11), 3 – Parker Price Miller 96 (9), 4 – Daison Pursley 67k (17), 5 – Korey Weyant 99W (10), 6 – Jordan Goldesberry 65 (8), 7 – Terry Babb 47 (6), 8 – Dustin Barks 22 (18), 9 – Carson McCarl 27 (5), 10 – Mitchell Davis 3d (4), 11 – Brinton Marvel 21 (1), 12 – Jason Keith 28 (7), 13 – Brayton Lynch 29X (16), 14 – Jeff Asher 56 (19), 15 – Cory Bruns 42 (13), 16 – Joe B Miller 51B (3), 17 – Steve Short 8S (12), 18 – Jeremy Standridge 10S (20), 19 – Austin ODell 3 (21), 20 – Kameron Key 21X (14), 21 – Jeff Swindell 44 (15).