JACKSONVILLE, Ill. — Just three months ago, Paul Nienhiser’s season came to an abrupt halt. The Chapin, Illinois driver suffered back injuries in a crash that left him sidelined.
After being cleared by medical professionals, the driver of the No. 9x car, returned to the driver’s seat and picked up where he left off.
In two local shows, Nienhiser finished second and seventh, along with a second-place finish with the Sprint Invaders in between. Nienhiser never once showed that the apparent back injury would slow him down. Entering Friday’s event, Nienhiser, a two-time feature winner with the series, was poised to add one more win to the total for the year.
After starting second in his heat race, Nienhiser took the lead from polesitter Mario Clouser and never once looked back as he dominated the 10-lap affair enroute to victory, earning himself a spot in the evening’s redraw, where the number two pill was pulled, giving him a front row seat for the 25-Lap A-Main.
Nienhiser started alongside polesitter Will Armitage and jumped to the early lead. In familiar fashion, Nienhiser put his #9X machine on the top side of the racing surface and set sail as he never faced serious contention from fellow competitors en route to victory in the Ron Milton Race of Champions. Navigating lapped traffic through the course of the race only helped Nienhiser, as well as Armitage who had to fend off a challenge from Mario Clouser and Joe B. Miller. Contact with a lapped car caused Clouser to lose his front wing which affected the handling of his car in the closing laps.
Nienhiser’s 32nd overall career win with MOWA was his 13th visit to victory lane at Jacksonville. It was his second win in the Ron Milton Race of Champions after earning a victory during Night One of the 2024 Race of Champions weekend at Jacksonville Speedway.
Will Armitage fell one spot to finish second while eighth-starting Joe B. Miller moved forward to claim third. Zach Daum, was Friday’s hard charger, advancing 10 spots to finish fourth from 14th and Mario Clouser crossed under the checkers in fifth.
The season-long championship points battle came down to the final checkered flag, when reigning champion Will Armitage was declared as the back-to-back champion, besting Mario Clouser by 25 points.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[2]; 2. 7A-Will Armitage[1]; 3. 51B-Joe B Miller[8]; 4. 99-Zach Daum[14]; 5. 6-Mario Clouser[5]; 6. 79-Gage Montgomery[7]; 7. 47-Korey Weyant[16]; 8. 37-Bryce Norris[4]; 9. 3N-Jake Neuman[10]; 10. 01-Justin Standridge[12]; 11. 87-Reed Whitney[3]; 12. 10S-Jeremy Standridge[19]; 13. 90-Patrick Budde[17]; 14. 51-Cole Tinsley[18]; 15. 99W-Jarrett Weyant[21]; 16. 70-Eric Shelton[20]; 17. 29-Brayton Lynch[22]; 18. 5H-Colton Fisher[9]; 19. 1JR-Steven Russell[15]; 20. 31-Joey Moughan[6]; 21. B8-John Barnard[11]; 22. 83-Aaron Andruskevitch[13]
