Wade Nygaard’s Runner-up at Cedar Lake Highlights Strong Weekend!
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (July 11th, 2017) – Wade Nygaard and the Auto Finance Super Center team had another busy weekend of racing, which as usual began Friday night at River Cities Speedway. On Saturday, the team threw their 360 motor in and competed with the UMSS Sprints at Cedar Lake Speedway where Nygaard contended for the win before coming home in second.
“That was one of the more fun races of the summer so far,” recalled Nygaard of the feature at Cedar Lake. “Battling back and forth for the lead was super fun. It seemed like (Derrik Lusk) and I had the same speed. It just came down to who could get through lapped traffic first.”
Nygaard began Saturday night by picking up his fifth heat race win of the season and charged from seventh to second in the challenge race.
That lined him up on the pole for the 25-lap main event.
Nygaard settled into second in the early going as Ryan Bowers paced the field. Around the midway point, Nygaard was shuffled back to fourth on a restart, but the Grand Forks, N.D. driver muscled his way back into the top three before challenging for the lead.
With nine to go, Nygaard drove around the outside of Derrik Lusk in turn four to take second before completing a slidejob on Bowers for the lead in turn one. Lusk followed Nygaard into second.
With seven to go, Nygaard and Lusk found themselves caught up in a thrilling battle for the lead where they traded slidejobs lap after lap while encountering lapped traffic.
With four to go, Nygaard completed another slider on Lusk to regain the lead, but the caution flew as he did so, negating the pass and putting him back to second.
On the restart Lusk drove away from the field, which forced Nygaard to settle for second, but the team was still pleased with that result.
On Friday night, the Nygaard Motorsports crew had two NOSA features on the docket, one of which included a make-up from the June 9th rainout.
In the first feature, Nygaard came home with a solid third place run. He followed that up later in the night with a fourth place effort.
“Friday was the night of the yellow flag blues,” joked Nygaard. “We had a really good car both features, but it seemed like every time I got by somebody the caution would come out.”
In the second feature, a late-race restart slipped Nygaard back to eighth, but he was able to fight his way back into the top five to finish fourth.
“With NOSA’s double-file restarts, they can either make or break your night,” he said. “I wish the yellows would have fallen in our favor a little more, but all in all we’re still pretty happy.”
Upcoming Events:
July 14th: River Cities Speedway – Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints
July 16th: Red River Valley Speedway – Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints
Season Stats:
Races: 20
Wins: 3
Top Fives: 16
Top Tens: 16
Heat Wins: 5
