MANDAN, N.D. (August 5, 2020) – For the third consecutive year, the Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints made an appearance at Dacotah Speedway’s Governor’s Cup this past weekend. Solid car counts were seen all weekend with 26 teams checked in on Friday and 27 on Saturday.
“It feels really good,” said Mullen of capturing the win on Friday night. “Especially after being so close all season long, it feels good to finally start getting some race wins.”
After falling back a few spots on the initial start, Mullen received a second chance as the first start was scrapped due to a caution. On the second attempt at a complete restart, Mullen quickly jumped up to the fifth position and cracked the top three by lap six. He then set his sights on second-place runner Bob Martin and leader Zach Omdahl.
Mullen moved past both of them on lap nine to take the lead. From there, Mullen checked out as he cruised to the win by over three seconds over Bob Martin and Austin Pierce.
Wade Nygaard and Omdahl rounded out the top five.
Blake Egeland and Jade Hastings led the field to the green flag for Saturday night’s main event. Egeland took the early lead with Hastings riding in second. Bob Martin moved from his fifth starting position to take second on lap two before moving past Egeland to take the point on lap three.
Following a restart with 15 laps to go, the Auto Finance Super Center teammates of Mullen and Nygaard engaged in a thrilling battle for the second spot. The two drivers traded several slide jobs at both ends of the speedway before Nygaard finally claimed the position with seven to go.
Two laps later, Nygaard spun in turn two amid lapped traffic to bring out the caution. Nygaard had to restart 15th, but rebounded to round out the top 10.
On the restart, Mullen gave Martin everything he had, but it wasn’t enough as Martin went on to claim his 26th career NOSA win.
“It was a great race. The car was really well set up,” said Martin after the race. “There was a lot of lapped traffic here tonight and I hit the lapped traffic just right. That was the biggest part. The car was so good. John Egeland, my crew chief, did all of the work on this car and I just drove it.
“I knew [Mullen] was close. I could hear him,” said Martin of the closing laps. “On the last restart, I chose the bottom and when I went up to the top, he came underneath me, but he got into some grease so I was able to continue by him, but I knew he was close and all the rest of the vultures were close by him.”
Nick Omdahl stole second from Mullen in the closing laps. After the checkers, however, Omdahl jumped a right rear tire on the front straightaway and flipped end over end before landing upside down near the turn one pit entrance.
Omdahl was okay, but his car was severely damaged.
Greg Nikitenko and Pierce rounded out the top five. Martin was the overall Governor's Cup champion.
Friday, July 31st:
Lap Leaders: Zach Omdahl (1-8), Brendan Mullen (9-25)
Hard Charger: Blake Egeland (+8)
RESULTS:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 11M-Brendan Mullen[8]; 2. 10TRB-Bob Martin[3]; 3. 2A-Austin Pierce[6]; 4. 9N-Wade Nygaard[7]; 5. 17-Zach Omdahl[2]; 6. 6N-Greg Nikitenko[12]; 7. 8H-Jade Hastings[9]; 8. 0-Nick Omdahl[10]; 9. 20A-Jordan Adams[1]; 10. 8B-Jack Croaker[5]; 11. 31-Shane Roemeling[13]; 12. 14T-Tim Estenson[4]; 13. 26-Blake Egeland[21]; 14. 14-Tom Egeland[18]; 15. 20L-Dusty Lawson[11]; 16. 23-Mike Nelson[15]; 17. 4-Colton Young[16]; 18. 10S-Josh Swangler[19]; 19. 69-Brandon Rekow[14]; 20. 2-Tee Young[20]; 21. 16-Ross Cummings[23]; 22. 3-Ryan Johnson[25]; 23. 18-Zach Hultstrand[24]; 24. 68-Clint Hudkins[22]; 25. 2K-Kevin Ingle[17]; 26. 67X-Justin Berg[26]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce[2]; 2. 20A-Jordan Adams[1]; 3. 8H-Jade Hastings[4]; 4. 8B-Jack Croaker[9]; 5. 69-Brandon Rekow[5]; 6. 4-Colton Young[3]; 7. (DNF) 26-Blake Egeland[6]; 8. (DNS) 67X-Justin Berg; 9. (DNS) 3-Ryan Johnson
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 14T-Tim Estenson[1]; 2. 9N-Wade Nygaard[6]; 3. 0-Nick Omdahl[4]; 4. 10TRB-Bob Martin[8]; 5. 6N-Greg Nikitenko[7]; 6. 2K-Kevin Ingle[2]; 7. 10S-Josh Swangler[5]; 8. 2-Tee Young[3]; 9. 18-Zach Hultstrand[9]
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 11M-Brendan Mullen[8]; 2. 17-Zach Omdahl[4]; 3. 20L-Dusty Lawson[6]; 4. 31-Shane Roemeling[5]; 5. 23-Mike Nelson[7]; 6. 14-Tom Egeland[1]; 7. 68-Clint Hudkins[3]; 8. 16-Ross Cummings[2]
Saturday, August 1st:
Lap Leaders: Blake Egeland (1-2), Bob Martin (3-25)
Hard Charger: Nick Omdahl (+10)
RESULTS:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 10TRB-Bob Martin[5]; 2. 0-Nick Omdahl[12]; 3. 11M-Brendan Mullen[4]; 4. 6N-Greg Nikitenko[7]; 5. 2A-Austin Pierce[3]; 6. 31-Shane Roemeling[8]; 7. 20A-Jordan Adams[11]; 8. 8H-Jade Hastings[2]; 9. 26-Blake Egeland[1]; 10. 9N-Wade Nygaard[6]; 11. 14T-Tim Estenson[14]; 12. 2K-Kevin Ingle[13]; 13. 8B-Jack Croaker[16]; 14. 17-Zach Omdahl[22]; 15. 20L-Dusty Lawson[10]; 16. 4-Colton Young[15]; 17. 19-Jack Berger[17]; 18. 10S-Josh Swangler[24]; 19. 23-Mike Nelson[18]; 20. 3-Ryan Johnson[25]; 21. 2-Tee Young[20]; 22. 69-Brandon Rekow[19]; 23. 18-Zach Hultstrand[21]; 24. 22-Brandon Palm[23]; 25. 16-Ross Cummings[27]; 26. (DNF) 14-Tom Egeland[9]; 27. (DNF) 68-Clint Hudkins[26]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 10TRB-Bob Martin[1]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings[6]; 3. 26-Blake Egeland[9]; 4. 20L-Dusty Lawson[5]; 5. 4-Colton Young[4]; 6. 2-Tee Young[3]; 7. 69-Brandon Rekow[8]; 8. 22-Brandon Palm[7]; 9. 16-Ross Cummings[2]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 9N-Wade Nygaard[1]; 2. 11M-Brendan Mullen[4]; 3. 14-Tom Egeland[2]; 4. 20A-Jordan Adams[5]; 5. 2K-Kevin Ingle[6]; 6. 14T-Tim Estenson[8]; 7. 17-Zach Omdahl[3]; 8. 18-Zach Hultstrand[9]; 9. 68-Clint Hudkins[7]
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 2A-Austin Pierce[2]; 2. 31-Shane Roemeling[1]; 3. 0-Nick Omdahl[4]; 4. 6N-Greg Nikitenko[7]; 5. 8B-Jack Croaker[3]; 6. 23-Mike Nelson[6]; 7. 19-Jack Berger[9]; 8. 10S-Josh Swangler[5]; 9. 3-Ryan Johnson[8]