GRAND FORKS, N.D. (September 9, 2022) – The Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints were back in action at River Cities Speedway on Friday night for the Wayne Anderson Cup finale during the John Seitz Memorial.
Sixteen cars took the green flag for the 30-lap, $1,750-to-win feature with Austin Pierce leading the opening lap over Mark Dobmeier and Shane Roemeling. Dobmeier wasted no time making his way into the lead from the fourth starting position as he took the point on the low side of turns one and two on lap two.
Dobmeier opened up a 1.5 second lead over Pierce by lap 10. It was another second back to Brendan Mullen in third.
Mullen worked his way around Pierce amid lapped traffic to take over second.
The yellow came out with eight to go for Jade Hastings who slowed down the backstretch while running fourth.
On the ensuing restart, Dobmeier and Mullen made contact on the front stretch, which sent Dobmeier flipping into turn one. Dobmeier went end-over-end five times before coming to rest. It was the first rollover for Dobmeier since his wreck at Cedar Lake Speedway in 2020, but he climbed out of his Buffalo Wild Wings No. 13 uninjured.
Pierce crossed under Mullen to lead coming to the white. The two ran side by side in turns one and two before Mullen cleared for the lead down the back stretch.
Mullen came around to take the win by four car lengths. The win was Mullen’s second of the season and first of the year at River Cities.
“We haven’t been here since the first race of last season,” said Mullen of his drought at River Cities. “I really feel bad about that. I thought I had something for Mark there at the end, but you had to deprive the crowd of a good show like that and obviously taking out someone that I really respect a lot. Proud to get the win, but not proud how it happened.”
Pierce was crowned the 2022 Wayne Anderson Cup champion.
“We were close to winning this last year, so we’re glad to get it done this year,” said Pierce. “We wrecked two cars in the last two weeks, then we had to sit out a week due to a concussion, so to come back and finish second was a great comeback and I can’t thank my crew enough for that.”
Hard Charger: Blake Egeland (+11)
RESULTS:
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 11M-Brendan Mullen[6]; 2. 2A-Austin Pierce[1]; 3. 20A-Jordan Adams[9]; 4. 26-Blake Egeland[15]; 5. 14-Tom Egeland[10]; 6. 8-Jack Croaker[8]; 7. 31-Shane Roemeling[2]; 8. 41-Travis Strandell[11]; 9. 17-Zach Omdahl[14]; 10. 99-Jordan Graham[13]; 11. 5-Gage Pulkrabek[12]; 12. (DNF) 0-Nick Omdahl[7]; 13. (DNF) 13JT-Mark Dobmeier[4]; 14. (DNF) 8H-Jade Hastings[3]; 15. (DNF) 9N-Wade Nygaard[5]; 16. (DNS) 14T-Tim Estenson
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 8-Jack Croaker[2]; 2. 8H-Jade Hastings[4]; 3. 9N-Wade Nygaard[3]; 4. 0-Nick Omdahl[5]; 5. 20A-Jordan Adams[6]; 6. 41-Travis Strandell[7]; 7. 5-Gage Pulkrabek[8]; 8. (DNF) 26-Blake Egeland[1]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 13JT-Mark Dobmeier[2]; 2. 11M-Brendan Mullen[3]; 3. 31-Shane Roemeling[5]; 4. 2A-Austin Pierce[4]; 5. 14-Tom Egeland[6]; 6. 17-Zach Omdahl[1]; 7. 99-Jordan Graham[7]; 8. (DNS) 14T-Tim Estenson