EVENT PREVIEW: Norman County Raceway
ADA, Minn. (June 20, 2017) – This Thursday night the Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprint Cars invade Norman County Raceway for the 12th time in series history. Last year, Austin Pierce picked up a thrilling victory over the late Cory Mack.
After spinning on lap five, Mack was sent to the tail of the field, but he didn’t stay back there long. Mack cracked the top five in the closing laps before moving into second and setting his sights on Pierce for the lead. On the final lap, Mack threw an incredible slide job on Pierce in turns three and four to briefly take the lead.
Pierce countered with a crossover move to drive back by Mack coming to the checkers to take the win by the narrowest of margins.
For Pierce, that marked his first win of 2016 and set his season back on track.
“I’m hoping we can repeat at Norman County Raceway on Thursday. It’s really the only half-mile track we go to all year so I’m really looking forward to it,” said Pierce.
Despite running at the unique high-banked Ada oval just once a year, Pierce says they prepare the same way as they do every other race.
“We’ll open up our notes and see what we did there last year,” he said. “If there are any big changes with the track surface for moisture, dryness, or rubber, we’ll make the adjustments throughout the night. The track usually widens out towards the second half of the feature, which makes it pretty racy.”
Pierce brings in a slim two-point lead over 2015 NCR winner, Casey Mack, atop the Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprint standings. Young guns, Jordan Adams, who is fresh off a win at Jamestown Speedway, Jade Hastings and Trent Stengl round out the top five in points.
Thursday’s event is sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings and the Norman County Fair.
Racing starts at 7pm.
NOSA Notebook:
Previous Norman County Raceway Winners:
1996: Wade Nygaard
1997: Wade Nygaard (2)
1998: Brad Pake
1999: Wade Nygaard
2000: Brad Pake
2001: Loren Langerud
2002: Flood
2003: Mark Dobmeier
2004: Mark Dobmeier
2005: Scott McDonald
2007: Lou Kennedy Jr.
2013: Donny Schatz
2014: Lee Grosz
2015: Casey Mack
2016: Austin Pierce