Mullen collects Governor’s Cup win, nearly sweeps weekend
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (August 5, 2021) – Brendan Mullen returned to victory lane over the weekend with the Buffalo Wild Wings NOSA Sprints. Mullen won Friday night’s Governor’s Cup feature at Dacotah Speedway in Mandan, N.D. for his second consecutive NOSA win.
Mullen swept the night as he won his heat race and led 23 of the 25 laps in the main event, topping NOSA veterans Mark Dobmeier and his teammate Wade Nygaard.
“I thought we had gotten a really good start and built a comfortable lead. We were moving through some lapped cars and I kind of got held up. I could hear (Greg Nikitenko) coming behind me so I knew I needed to get moving. I ended up overshooting the corner and didn’t get by either of the lapped cars so Nikitenko got by me,” recalled Mullen of losing the lead on lap eight of the feature.
“I dug a little bit the next couple of laps and got a run on him down the front stretch to slide by him in turn one. I was able to get back by him and never looked back.”
Mullen looked poised for a repeat on Saturday night’s Governor’s Cup finale.
The driver of the Native Nations Cannabis / C L Linfoot No. 11M started on the pole for the feature and just like the previous night, drove away from the rest of the pack.
Late in the going, however, Mullen found himself mired in heavy traffic which allowed Mark Dobmeier to close in.
Dobmeier threw a slide job on Mullen in turn two on the final lap, but Mullen countered with a slider of his own in three and four to momentarily regain the lead.
In a wheel-to-wheel drag race to the checkered flag, Dobmeier edged out Mullen by a mere 0.044 seconds, equating to a half car length.
The two podium finishes for Mullen brought him to within 24 points of Nygaard for the series point lead.
The weekend wasn’t over yet for Mullen Motorsports. The crew drove six hours overnight to Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D. for Sunday’s $10,000-to-win event. Brendan capped off the weekend with a strong seventh place run in the main event.
This weekend, Mullen will return to his home track, River Cities Speedway, on Friday night before heading to Buffalo River Speedway with the NOSA Sprints on Sunday.
Thanks to all of our sponsors for their continued support!
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2021 Stats:
Races: 38
Wins: 5
Top Fives: 15
Top Tens: 24
