Strand races to hard charger at I-94, nearly scores top five at Buffalo River

By Spieker Promotions

PORTLAND, N.D. (June 9, 2021) – Jason Strand hit the road with the NLRA Late Models last weekend, making stops at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, I-94 Sure Step Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minn. and Buffalo River Speedway in Glyndon, Minn.

Friday night’s event was canceled due to rain, making Saturday’s King of Dirt event the first time Strand hit the track over the weekend.

Strand moved forward from the eighth starting position in his heat, but failing to scale after the checkers buried the driver of the No. E85 Millenium SRT in the 25th starting spot for the main event.

Strand steadily picked off positions as the green flag flew on the 30-lap main event. The rookie Late Model driver moved up 10 positions at the checkers to share the night’s hard charger award with Kevin Robertson.

The weekend wrapped up at the tight, semi-banked quarter-mile of Buffalo River Speedway on Sunday.

Starting fourth in his heat, Strand again moved forward and found himself in contention to pick up the win.

“I just had to be patient,” recalled Strand. “A few of those guys couldn’t hold it around the bottom like I could. It seemed like I could gain a lot of ground coming out of turn two, where they were tailed out. I got alongside Joey (Pederson) twice. We made a little bit of contact that last time going into turn three. It wasn’t anything major… we were just racing. But I got by him and was able to hold on for the win. That was really exciting. I never thought I’d be passing Joey Pederson to win a heat race. I’ve been watching him racing for years. It was a huge confidence booster.”

That put Strand in the fourth starting position for the 25-lapper. Strand ran inside the top five for the first 24 circuits but lost a position to four-time series champion Brad Seng on the final lap putting him sixth at the checkers.

“It was really fun to get back to Buffalo River. It seems like every time I go there I have good luck. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a tight little track or what, but I always seem to do well there and we did again on Sunday.”

This week, Strand will head back to River Cities Speedway on Friday night and make his first-ever trip to Greenbush Race Park on Saturday with the NLRA Late Models.

Thanks to all of the great sponsors that support E85 Racing!

North Dakota Corn Growers Association

North Dakota Corn Utilization Council

Sower Power Racing Engines

Hatton Co-op

Finley Motors, Inc.-Finley, ND

Precision Electric, Plumbing, and HVAC

Millenium Chassis

2021 Stats:

Late Model:

Races: 5

Wins: 0