ELDON, Iowa — Riley Goodno broke into Sprint Invaders victory lane for the first time by topping Thursday night’s 20-lap feature atop the half-mile Eldon Raceway dirt oval.
After starting fifth, Goodno slid past early leader Bret Tripplett on a lap-six restart and led the rest of the way to secure the win aboard the Quality Traffic Control No. 22x J&J Sprint Car.
It wasn’t without some pressure though, as Tripplett fought back in the latter stages in traffic only to climb Goodno’s right rear and go for a wild ride in turn three with four laps remaining.
“I struggled to get past lapped cars,” Goodno explained. “I could never get to them at the right time and just drive by them.”
Goodno made his way to second by the firth round when previous second-runner Kaley Gharst spun getting into turn one and flipped, collecting Cam Martin.
Goodno made quick work of Tripplett on the restart and then survived traffic long enough before Tripplett tripped over a right rear to end his night.
Paul Nienhiser moved into second on the final restart, but Goodno was having none of it as he raced on to victory lane with Nienhiser settling for runner-up honors.
“It’s nothing to hang your head about, so we’ll take it,” Nienhiser said.
Cody Wehrle worked his way from 13th to round out the podium in third with Ryan Jamison and Devin Wignall rounding out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 22X-Riley Goodno[5]; 2. 50-Paul Nienhiser[6]; 3. 40C-Cody Wehrle[13]; 4. 51J-Ryan Jamison[4]; 5. 21-Devin Wignall[10]; 6. 35-Jamie Ball[11]; 7. 81-Tanner Gebhardt[12]; 8. 83A-Austin Miller[8]; 9. 11T-Dugan Thye[16]; 10. 4X-Chase Richards[7]; 11. 14-Aidan Zoutte[9]; 12. 16-Dustin Clark[15]; 13. 99-Bret Tripplett[1]; 14. 17-Steve Pumphrey[19]; 15. 7-Tyler Lee[17]; 16. 75-Glen Saville[18]; 17. 78-Kaley Gharst[3]; 18. 4-Cameron Martin[2]; 19. 11-Colton Fisher[14]; 20. 24-Terry McCarl[20]