Joey Scores Runner-up Finish at River Cities; Kelsi Passes 20 Cars at Devils Lake

​East Grand Forks, Minn. (August 13, 2024) - This week for Pederson Racing was highlighted by exceptional runs for Joey and Kelsi Pederson as Joey led most of Friday night's main event at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks and chalked up a runner-up finish. Saturday night saw Kelsi comeback from diversity early in the night during the Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint Nationals event at Devils Lake Speedway, finishing fourth after starting 24th.

All three Pederson's were in action Friday night at River Cities where Joey and Tucker finished third and fifth in their respective heat races with Kelsi finishing fourth in her heat event.

Joey started fourth and Tucker started tenth in the 20-lap Late Model main event. Joey ran second after the opening lap and moved to the inside of John Seng to battle door-to-door for the lead. Joey slid to the top in turn four on the third lap to take the lead and pulled away from the three-car battle for second which featured Seng, Shane Edginton, and Dustin Strand

Joey continued to lead over Strand just before the midway point. Joey abandoned the top at one point to keep the lead in lapped traffic, though this allowed Strand to sneak to the inside to try and take the lead on a few occasions. 

Joey was briefly three-wide with eight to go with Strand and Edginton when a caution cleared the track for Joey on the ensuing restart.

Joey continued to lead as the race resumed and coming off a turn four for the two to go signal, had about a five-car length lead over Strand before a caution set up a green-white-checkered finish.

Joey cut underneath a Strand slide job attempt coming out of turn four as the pair saw the white flag in the air. Strand went for another slide in turn two and protected the bottom of turns three and four to steal the wind from Joey at the end.

Joey finished second as Tucker fought hard all race long, slipping back to as low as 11th but fought back for an eighth-place finish.

After an 11th place finish for Kelsi on Friday night at River Cities, she completed the weekend for Pederson Racing with Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint Nationals events at Devils Lake Speedway on Saturday and Buffalo River Speedway on Sunday.

The beginning of her Saturday night was an inauspicious one as another car pushed up in front of her on the initial start of the heat race. Kelsi climbed over that car's right rear and was fortunate not to roll though damage was caused to the starter and sprocket area on the No. 93.

After the Pederson trio made repairs, Kelsi rolled off on the outside of the 12th row for the 25-lap main event. The race was marred by cautions, three of which were lengthy red flag periods. Kelsi improved six spots on a lap six restart and was already running in eighth at the time of the first red flag on the 11th lap.

Still running eighth at the time of the final red flag on lap 16, Kelsi continued her march through the field, passing Hayden Koehmstedt, Bryce Haugeberg, and early leader Chris Crowder to move into the top five.

In the closing laps, Kelsi then battled Josiah King for fourth, taking the spot with three laps remaining. Kelsi was closing in on both Matt and Kate Taves as the laps wound down, finishing the race in the fourth spot, a remarkable improvement of 20 positions and winning hard charger honors.

Kelsi finished sixth after starting eighth in her heat race Sunday night at Buffalo River and 13th in the 30-lap finale of Nationals weekend. Kelsi had just climbed into the top ten at the time of another lengthy red flag on lap 16 but remained in the top ten when the race resumed.

Kelsi fell short of a top ten in the closing laps, finishing 11th after losing tenth with four laps left.

Pederson Racing would like to thank all our sponsors:
R&R Farms 
Amy Dallum Photography 
North Dakota Eye Clinic 
Ad Monkeys 
Dahlstrom Motors Inc.
Markit County Grain LLC 
Trilogy Ag Group 
Pro Land Snow 
Bad Boy Mowers 
Southline Farms 
InVision Ag
Hilleshog Seed
Northern Valley Fertilizer 
Don & Darleen Votava
Phil Thompson & Associates
Turf Pros Fertilizing
Lloyd’s Lawn Care 
Big Jim’s Tire 
Channel Seed
B&E Meats 
HOPE Church 
Applied Hi-Performance Products
Energy Release Products
Eagles Dacotah Aerie 350
Dynamic Welding and Machine LLC 
SkyVu Drive-In
Mark Sinn “Sinner” 
Levi Babcock Construction 
Pit Light Solutions 
Wicked Wraps, Race Bodies and Fabrication ‘

2023 Stats (Joey):
Races: 19
Wins: 0
Top 5’s: 9
Top 10’s: 15

2023 Stats (Kelsi):
Races: 12
Wins: 1
Top 5’s: 9
Top 10’s: 9

2023 Stats (Tucker):
Races: 19
Wins: 1
Top 5’s: 4
Top 10’s: 10