RECAP: Strand scores $2,000 payday in fifth start of the season!
PORTLAND, N.D. (July 22, 2020) – On Saturday night, Jason Strand made his first start at Devils Lake Speedway since April 30th, 2015. By night’s end, Strand would take home the $2,000 check and the hardware to Portland.
“It was fun to get back to Devils Lake. The track has changed quite a bit. The infield tires have been moved down and the track feels a lot wider,” said Strand.
After driving from fourth to second in his heat, Strand started outside of row three for the 40-lap Midwest Modified main event.
“It was a helluva race. Everybody was slicing and dicing and it was pretty clean racing. I ran all over the track throughout the race. I was up on the top then went down to the bottom once I got to the lead. The top was coming back in at the end of the race, but luckily the laps ran out,” said Strand.
Strand moved into a podium position on lap 12, but wasn’t done there. After moving into second on lap 15, Strand set his sights on Brennon Weight for the lead. The driver of the North Dakota Corn Council Millenium Chassis took the point after a tight battle for the lead, but his work wasn’t done there.
A handful of the upper Midwest’s best Midwest Modified drivers gave Strand their best shot to take the lead in the waning laps on the fast and tacky one-third mile oval. Strand went on to take the win by just under a half-second over Matt Schow.
The win was Strand’s first since July 26, 2018 after taking last season off and running a partial schedule in 2018.
This week, Strand will return to Norman County Raceway on Thursday. Two weeks ago on his season debut at NCR, Strand collected a runner-up finish.
“Ada is still my favorite place to race,” said Strand. “It’s a different track to race at. You have to race there for quite a while to get the hang of it. I have a lot more confidence in racing there than anywhere else.”
On Friday, Strand will head back to the high-banked bullring of River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks. In three starts at River Cities so far this year, Strand has a best finish of second which came on July 3rd.
Thanks to all of the great sponsors that support E85 Racing!
North Dakota Corn Growers Association
North Dakota Corn Utilization Council
Precision Electric, Plumbing, and Hvac
2020 Stats:
Races: 5
Wins: 1
Top Fives: 3
Top Tens: 4
Photo by Speedway Shots