Jade Hastings celebrates his first win of 2020 with a wing dance in RydellCars.com Victory Lane. Photo by Adrienne Spieker.
By Mike Spieker
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (June 30, 2020) – Austin Pierce came into Friday’s event at River Cities Speedway undefeated in feature action at the Bullring – a perfect three for three. River Cities Speedway upped the anty for the other Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA drivers, offering a $300 bounty if Pierce could be beaten. Throughout the course of the night, sponsors and fans alike chipped in to make a $1,575 bounty by the time the green flag waved for the Sprint Car feature.
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (June 30, 2020) – Austin Pierce came into Friday’s event at River Cities Speedway undefeated in feature action at the Bullring – a perfect three for three. River Cities Speedway upped the anty for the other Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA drivers, offering a $300 bounty if Pierce could be beaten. Throughout the course of the night, sponsors and fans alike chipped in to make a $1,575 bounty by the time the green flag waved for the Sprint Car feature.
Twenty-one cars made up the starting grid for the 25-lap main event. Jade Hastings jumped out to the early lead from the pole position over 10-time NOSA champion, Wade Nygaard. Nick Ranten and Austin Pierce worked their way into second and third, respectively, early on.
At the midway point of the race, Ranten reeled in Hastings and placed a bid for the lead. Ranten tried to drive to the inside of Hastings for several laps. He was successful on lap 12, but Hastings was able to quickly crossover and regain the point.
With eight to go, Hastings found himself in heavy lapped traffic, with both Ranten and Pierce looming close by.
A caution with five to go gave Hastings an open track but put Ranten and Pierce right behind him. On the restart, Hastings jumped out to a three-car length lead while Chris Ranten drove around both his younger brother, Nick, and Pierce. The chase was on for Chris Ranten to catch Hastings, but he ran out of time as Hastings went on to score his eighth career NOSA win.
“I knew I was pretty fast at the beginning. Whenever you can get around the bottom well here, you’ve got a really good race car,” said Hastings after the race. “I was running the bottom until I got to lapped traffic and that made me change my line. (The car) was working good on the top, but the bottom was definitely the preferred line. Nick Ranten showed me that on about lap 10. Him and I had a really good battle there. Luckily I was able to get the lead back right before that yellow, otherwise, I would have been lining up second on the restart and I don’t think I would have won the race.”
The win for Hastings breaks a tie with Donny Schatz and puts him in a tie with Nick Omdahl for 13th on the all-time NOSA wins list.
Lap Leaders: Jade Hastings (1-25)
Hard Charger: Jordan Graham (+7)
RZS Enterprises Quick Time: Chris Ranten
RESULTS:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 8H-Jade Hastings[1]; 2. 27-Chris Ranten[5]; 3. 2A-Austin Pierce[3]; 4. 55-Nick Ranten[4]; 5. 20A-Jordan Adams[6]; 6. 0-Nick Omdahl[9]; 7. 11M-Brendan Mullen[7]; 8. 31-Shane Roemeling[8]; 9. 99-Jordan Graham[16]; 10. 9N-Wade Nygaard[2]; 11. 14T-Tim Estenson[12]; 12. 14-Tom Egeland[13]; 13. 8B-Jack Croaker[10]; 14. 26-Blake Egeland[11]; 15. 17-Zach Omdahl[17]; 16. 41T-Travis Strandell[15]; 17. 4-Colton Young[14]; 18. 10S-Josh Swangler[18]; 19. (DNS) 10TRB-Bob Martin; 20. (DNS) 13T-Ty Hanten; 21. (DNS) 2-Tee Young
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9N-Wade Nygaard[5]; 2. 27-Chris Ranten[6]; 3. 14-Tom Egeland[2]; 4. 8B-Jack Croaker[4]; 5. 26-Blake Egeland[3]; 6. 10S-Josh Swangler[7]; 7. (DNS) 13T-Ty Hanten
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 55-Nick Ranten[4]; 2. 31-Shane Roemeling[2]; 3. 11M-Brendan Mullen[5]; 4. 14T-Tim Estenson[3]; 5. 17-Zach Omdahl[7]; 6. (DNF) 10TRB-Bob Martin[6]; 7. (DNF) 2-Tee Young[1]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 8H-Jade Hastings[4]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce[6]; 3. 20A-Jordan Adams[3]; 4. 0-Nick Omdahl[5]; 5. 99-Jordan Graham[7]; 6. 4-Colton Young[2]; 7. (DNF) 41T-Travis Strandell[1]
At the midway point of the race, Ranten reeled in Hastings and placed a bid for the lead. Ranten tried to drive to the inside of Hastings for several laps. He was successful on lap 12, but Hastings was able to quickly crossover and regain the point.
With eight to go, Hastings found himself in heavy lapped traffic, with both Ranten and Pierce looming close by.
A caution with five to go gave Hastings an open track but put Ranten and Pierce right behind him. On the restart, Hastings jumped out to a three-car length lead while Chris Ranten drove around both his younger brother, Nick, and Pierce. The chase was on for Chris Ranten to catch Hastings, but he ran out of time as Hastings went on to score his eighth career NOSA win.
“I knew I was pretty fast at the beginning. Whenever you can get around the bottom well here, you’ve got a really good race car,” said Hastings after the race. “I was running the bottom until I got to lapped traffic and that made me change my line. (The car) was working good on the top, but the bottom was definitely the preferred line. Nick Ranten showed me that on about lap 10. Him and I had a really good battle there. Luckily I was able to get the lead back right before that yellow, otherwise, I would have been lining up second on the restart and I don’t think I would have won the race.”
The win for Hastings breaks a tie with Donny Schatz and puts him in a tie with Nick Omdahl for 13th on the all-time NOSA wins list.
Lap Leaders: Jade Hastings (1-25)
Hard Charger: Jordan Graham (+7)
RZS Enterprises Quick Time: Chris Ranten
RESULTS:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 8H-Jade Hastings[1]; 2. 27-Chris Ranten[5]; 3. 2A-Austin Pierce[3]; 4. 55-Nick Ranten[4]; 5. 20A-Jordan Adams[6]; 6. 0-Nick Omdahl[9]; 7. 11M-Brendan Mullen[7]; 8. 31-Shane Roemeling[8]; 9. 99-Jordan Graham[16]; 10. 9N-Wade Nygaard[2]; 11. 14T-Tim Estenson[12]; 12. 14-Tom Egeland[13]; 13. 8B-Jack Croaker[10]; 14. 26-Blake Egeland[11]; 15. 17-Zach Omdahl[17]; 16. 41T-Travis Strandell[15]; 17. 4-Colton Young[14]; 18. 10S-Josh Swangler[18]; 19. (DNS) 10TRB-Bob Martin; 20. (DNS) 13T-Ty Hanten; 21. (DNS) 2-Tee Young
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9N-Wade Nygaard[5]; 2. 27-Chris Ranten[6]; 3. 14-Tom Egeland[2]; 4. 8B-Jack Croaker[4]; 5. 26-Blake Egeland[3]; 6. 10S-Josh Swangler[7]; 7. (DNS) 13T-Ty Hanten
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 55-Nick Ranten[4]; 2. 31-Shane Roemeling[2]; 3. 11M-Brendan Mullen[5]; 4. 14T-Tim Estenson[3]; 5. 17-Zach Omdahl[7]; 6. (DNF) 10TRB-Bob Martin[6]; 7. (DNF) 2-Tee Young[1]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 8H-Jade Hastings[4]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce[6]; 3. 20A-Jordan Adams[3]; 4. 0-Nick Omdahl[5]; 5. 99-Jordan Graham[7]; 6. 4-Colton Young[2]; 7. (DNF) 41T-Travis Strandell[1]
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