PEDERSON BOYS GO FOUR-FOR-FIVE DURING WINNING WEEKEND

EAST GRAND FORKS, Minn. (August 8, 2023) - In a season full of highlights, Joey and Tucker Pederson combined for four wins in five starts last week with Joey scoring his first win of the season during Hall-of-Fame night at River Cities Speedway and Tucker picking up wins at the Sheyenne, Devils Lake, and Buffalo River Speedways.

Following a third place run in his heat race Friday night at River Cities, Joey started third in the 20-lap Late Model main event. Following a pair of cautions on the second lap, Joey moved from sixth to fourth running around the bottom of the quarter-mile Bullring in the No. 7P Shawn Horn Crary Real Estate / Dahlstrom Motors Rocket XR1, passing Dustin Strand and Brody Troftgruben on the fourth lap.

Joey then reeled in Greg Moore to move into third on the fifth lap, where he restarted the race following another pair of cautions on lap seven.

Re-starting on the outside of the double-file restart, Joey passed Tom Corcoran to take the second spot and began to track down Brandon Fuller for the race lead. Joey moved to Fuller's inside in turns three and four to take the lead at the conclusion of the seventh circuit.

Cautions with eight laps left, the six left saw Pederson continue to lead without many challenges, but the final two cautions with five, and then three laps remaining gave Dustin Strand two looks at the top spot in the final quarter of the race.

Though Strand shadowed the leader in the final laps, Joey was able to hold off the hard charging Strand to score his first win of the 2023 season.

“It feels pretty awesome,” Joey said in victory lane. “I was really getting down in the dumps this year with the season and struggling with the car. Really didn't change much from last year. [The car] just didn't work the same and we just kept changing stuff every week tonight again, more changes It responded tonight. So hopefully it's a sign of things to come.”

The win was Joey's 43rd Late Model win at River Cities Speedway, and his 63rd overall when adding his Super Stock wins to the overall total since his first win at Grand Forks Speedway on May 13, 1994.

Tucker Pederson's week of racing in the No. 27P North Dakota Eye Clinic / Amy Dallum Photography Kurshinsky Wissota Street Stock started last Tuesday night in Wisconsin at Rice Lake Speedway for the annual running of the Little Dream race. A stout field of 57 cars entered the race, which saw Tucker qualify for the 40-lap finale by winning his B Main. Tucker started on the inside of the tenth row and finished the night 19th.

Returning to the area on Thursday night, Tucker won his heat race at Sheyenne Speedway in Lisbon, ND from the fourth starting spot, and started fourth again in the 20-lap feature.

Tucker went three-wide at the start between Kasey Ussatis and Anthony Wendel and completed the opening lap in the third spot. Tucker went three-wide again, this time in between Trey Hess and Jonny Carter on the second lap.

Tucker lined up third on a second lap restart and went three-wide for the third time in the race, this time to the outside of Hess and Carter. Tucker fell back to fifth when Ussatis checked up at the top of turn two on the third lap.

Tucker proceeded to go three-wide for the fourth time, and the third with Hess and Carter at the exit of turn two, then went three-wide for the fifth time between Carter and Ussatis in turns three and four on the fourth lap to move back to third.

Going four-wide with Carter, Hess, and Ussatis in turn two on laps five and six, Tucker went three-wide on the exit of turn four between Ussatis and Carter at the end of the eighth lap to move up to second.

Tucker’s final pass of the race saw him run inside of Mike Mund down the back stretch, taking the lead in turn three on the ninth lap. Tucker pulled away from there for his first win at Lisbon in five starts there this season.

After finishing second in his heat on Friday night at River Cities Speedway, Tucker started third in the 20-lap main event. Tucker moved to the inside of James Meagher to take second on the opening lap.

While running the bottom of the ‘Bullring’, Tucker remained on the back bumper of leader Greg Jose until the leader slipped up in turn four on the third lap allowing Tucker to take the lead.

Tucker continued to lead, though Jose remained within five car lengths through the halfway point. A caution with four laps remaining gave national point leader Braden Brauer another shot at the victory.

Brauer moved to Tucker's outside, taking the lead with three to go and continuing on to for the victory with Tucker finishing second.

On Saturday, Tucker won his heat race from the outside of the front row to start the night at Devils Lake Speedway. Starting sixth in the third 20-lap main event of the weekend, Tucker went four-wide with Kyle Anderson, Adam Dehne and Seth Klostreich.

Running the bottom of the track, Tucker and Anderson pulled even with leader Kasey Ussatis on the exit of four with Tucker running third at the end of the opening lap. Coming four-wide again off of turn four on the second lap with Anderson, Klostreich and Ussatis, Tucker fell back to fourth.

Going three-wide on the outside of Trey Hess and Kyle Anderson in turn three on the fourth lap, Tucker moved up to third and then moved under Kasey Ussatis in turns three and four on the following lap in a bid for second.

Tucker remained third and avoided disaster on the ninth lap as Ussatis got loose in front of him in turn two. Tucker made contact with the right rear quarter of the car but continued on and lined up second on the restart.

Remaining second until the final caution with nine circuits remaining saw Tucker briefly fall back to fourth. With six to go, Tucker moved back to the bottom of the racetrack with five to go.

It was the lead duo of Klostreich and Anderson running around the high side, allowing Tucker to take the lead running three wide as part of the lead trio coming off of turn four with three to go.

Tucker led the final three laps for his second win of the weekend and fourth at the Devils Lake this season.

Tucker wrapped up his week at Buffalo River Speedway in Glyndon, MN, winning his heat race and starting on the outside of the front row in the final 20-lap main event of the weekend.

Tucker took the lead at the start and led through the halfway point as Justin Vogel and Braden Brauer battled door-to-door within a car length of the lead each lap.

Tucker crossed over a slide job attempt by Justin Vogel on lap 14 to retain the lead and held off another passing attempt by Vogel on lap later to remain the leader.

Another late caution with three laps to go gave Brauer another shot to steal another win. Brauer took the lead off the bottom of turn two as the pair came to take the white flag. With national points at a premium this late in the year, Tucker slid under Brauer in turn four to take the win in the final corner of the race.

The win Sunday was Tucker's fourth at Buffalo River during the 2023 campaign, and his three wins over the weekend saw his overall win total grow to 18 on the season.

A look at the national point battle sees Tucker still in second place, but the three victories helped him pull to within 70 points of Braden Brauer for the top spot.

This week will see Tucker's national point battle coincide with sister Kelsi Pederson running the Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint nationals which start Thursday night at Devils Lake. All three Pederson drivers will be in action on Friday night at River Cities for the fifth time this season.

Pederson Racing would like to thank all our sponsors:
Shawn Horn - Crary Real Estate 
R&R Farms
Amy Dallum Photography
North Dakota Eye Clinic
Olson Underground, inc.
Ad Monkeys
Dahlstrom Motors Inc.
Markit County Grain LLC
Trilogy Ag Group 
Pro Land/Snow
Bad Boy Mowers
Southline Farms
InVision Ag 
Hilleshog
Northern Valley Fertilizer
Don & Darleen Votava
Phil Thompson & Associates
Turf Pros
Big Jim's Tire
Channel Seed  
B & E Meats
HOPE Church
Applied Hi-Performance Products
Eagles Dakotah Aerie 350
Energy Release Products
Dynamic Welding and Machine LLC. 
Bruce Hart Repair & Fabrication
Roxbury Racing Transmissions
Zeuli Race Engines
SkyVu Drive-In
Mark Sinn “Sinner”


2023 Stats (Joey):
Races: 12
Wins: 1
Top 5’s: 7
Top 10’s: 9

2023 Stats (Kelsi):
Races: 12
Wins: 4
Top 5’s: 8
Top 10’s: 12

2023 Stats (Tucker):
Races: 46
Wins: 18
Top 5’s: 36
Top 10’s: 40