Mullen Scores Career-Best Podium Run At River Cities
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (July 8, 2020) – Just two weeks removed from a hard charger performance at River Cities in which Brendan Mullen improved sixteen spots to finish sixth, he had his best performance at the Grand Forks Bullring.
After putting down a solid fourth best qualifying lap, Mullen lined up fifth in his heat. But shortly after the field hit the chalk line to begin the race, Mullen was collected in a three car pileup, ending his heat race.
Mullen’s crew made repairs, and rolled off eleventh in the evening’s main event. Much like his teammate Wade Nygaard, Mullen made a lot of progress early on into the 25 lap race, improving to sixth by lap nine.
As one of the only cars that was making the top of the three-tenths mile River Cities oval work to his advantage, Mullen went from sixth to third on lap ten.
Mullen moved past Shane Roemeling to take the final spot on the podium with ten circuits remaining. On the final lap, Mullen made one last charge at scoring his first career NOSA feature victory, but the attempts fell just short, ending third as the checkered flag flew.
Mullen commented on his career-best performance post race, saying, “I’m really satisfied, but really frustrated at the same time. I feel like we’re on to something, and we’re getting better every week. But I feel like that was my race to win, and it just didn’t work out.”
On his decision to abandon the bottom, Mullen said, “I figured, I haven’t really seen anyone try the top. So after a restart, I tried it, and passed two cars in one corner, and I didn’t go back down there the rest of the race.”
Mullen completed his weekend with another trip to the I-90 Speedway in Hartford, SD. Mullen again was one of the only cars using the top of the three-eights mile oval, and ended the race in the eighth position.
This week, after another run at River Cities, Mullen will head west to the Devils Lake Speedway near Crary, ND with the NOSA Sprints. Devils Lake is a welcome sight on the schedule for Mullen, as he scored his first career Sprint Car feature win at the Speedway with the CAOSS Sprints last August.
Latest Results:
July 3rd: River Cities Speedway
Time Trials: 4th
Heat: DNF
Feature: 3rd (11th)
July 4th: I-90 Speedway
Heat: 4th (started 3rd)
Feature: 8th (5th)
Up Next:
July 10: River Cities Speedway – NOSA Sprints
July 11: Devils Lake Speedway – NOSA Sprints
Brendan and the entire Mullen Motorsports team would like to thank all their sponsors for their support!
Bosh Enterprises
Forks Finest Auto Body
2020 Stats:
Races: 12
Wins: 0
Heat Wins: 3
Top Fives: 2
Top Tens: 8
Photo by Speedway Shots