INDEPENDENCE, Iowa — Winning for the fifth time in nine events on the 2024 schedule, it can be said Paul Nienhiser is having a dominant season with the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders.
However, on Tuesday night at the Independence Motor Speedway, Nienhiser en route to victory lane was anything but easy despite starting from the outside of the front row in the 25- lap main event.
Polesitter Colton Fisher would battle Nienhiser wheel-to-wheel down the backstretch on the opening lap before sliding up in front of the series point leader to snare the race lead. And then the third-starting Ryan Bunton would soon power under Nienhiser to move to second before taking up the chase on the leader.
As the top two closed in on the back of the field on lap 10, Bunton was able to pull even with the rim riding Fisher in turn four only to have Colton ward him off and that same scenario would play out again on lap 11 with Fisher now having to deal with the soon to be lapped cars as well as the challenge from Bunton.
As Colton scored what would have been lap thirteen, he would drop his right rear wheel off the lip of the banked front stretch and that would then steer him off the track and into a wild spin that would see him get on his side before slamming into the guardrail outside of turn one.
Bunton assumed the lead for the restart with the hope of getting his first career victory with the Sprint Invaders despite the fact that he is the defending series champion after finishing in the top ten of every event on the schedule in 2023.
With Bunton entering the turns low and then exiting toward the top, Nienhiser would now pound the cushion on both ends bringing him ever closer to the leader as the laps counted down. With just six laps remaining, that high side momentum would pay off as Nienhiser sailed around Bunton for the lead.
Lapped traffic came into play again in the closing laps and when the leader made contact with the rear bumper of Tanner Gebhardt entering turn three while coming to the white flag, it would send Gebhardt for a spin with the caution setting up a two-lap shootout.
Tasker Phillips had just taken second away from Bunton before the caution so he would make a run at the leader in turn one on the restart only to see Nienhiser drive away for the win and to have Bunton slip by him on the outside to regain second at the checkers.
Terry McCarl, who had won each of the two previous appearances of the Sprint Invaders here at Independence, made a nice run from 11th to fourth, while two-time series champion Cody Wehrle filled out the top five.