Pederson Edges Strand for River Cities Win

Joey Pederson scored his second Performance Auto WISSOTA Late Model win Friday at the Bullring. Pederson led all but one of the 20 laps during the main event, but he had his hands full with multiple contenders throughout the duration of the race. ​

In the early going, Bill Mooney appeared to have the faster car and put pressure on Pederson for the lead. Around the halfway point, Mooney had a run on Pederson in turns one and two, but he ran out of real estate exiting the corner and got into the back of Pederson. As a result, Pederson spun around, bringing out the caution, which was charged to Mooney. 

On the restart, Pederson jumped out to the lead once again, but he was soon challenged by defending WISSOTA Late Model national champion, Dustin Strand. Strand momentarily took the lead with five to go, but Pederson fought back to regain the point. 

The two veteran drivers then went head to head for the remainder of the event. With the white flag in the air, Strand tried to make something happen on the low side of the speedway. He hit the moisture on the bottom of turns three and four and pulled even with Pederson, but Pederson had the momentum up top. At the Valley Sunrise Properties Flagstand, Pederson edged out Strand by a mere one-tenth of a second. 

Travis Robertson scored a career-best third place finish, as Zach Naastad and Shane Edginton rounded out the top five.