PETERSEN MEDIA
A busy weekend of racing for Paul Nienhiser saw the Chapin, IL driver finally pick up first win of the season as he scored two wins and another second-place finish during a three-race stretch.
“It was a great weekend for us, and it was nice to finally get the monkey off of our back in 2022 and get a win,” Paul Nienhiser said. “We had a shot at the weekend sweep, but a little bad luck on Sunday night put us in just too deep of a hole to overcome in the feature event.”
Thursday night, Nienhiser was in action with the Sprint Invaders at Bloomfield Speedway as he was aboard the Scott Bonar backed No. 50 car. Picking up a heat race win, Nienhiser was Dash eligible where his second-place run lined him up on the front row of the feature event.
On a slick Bloomfield surface, Nienhiser jumped on the throttle when the green was displayed and made his money riding the rim around the speedway. Pounding the cushion, Nienhiser was very stout in the feature however kept traffic in mind as he began to approach in the race’s latter stages.
Seeing how the lapped cars were using the lower side of the speedway, Nienhiser would quickly learn that rubber started going down on the speedway. Getting down low himself, Nienhiser would fend off a couple of challenges from Chase Randall as he was able to keep his machine up front and race to his first win of the season.
Friday’s scheduled MOWA event succumbed to rain, so Nienhiser made a last-minute decision to go 305ci racing on Saturday night in Burlington, IA.
With heat races being lined up by points, Nienhiser lined the CAM2 Lubricants/Buffalo Wild Wings/Innovative Design backed No. 9x up in the fourth row of his heat with no points to his credit. On a very locked down racing surface, Nienhiser let his veteran savvy carry him to the front as he carved his way to a third-place finish and locked into the ‘A’.
Taking the green flag from the 10th starting position, Nienhiser again had his work cut out for himself. Mirroring his heat race effort, Nienhiser again had his elbows up and worked his way forward.
Racing into second late in the race, Nienhiser’s attention turned to race leader, Travis Pence, who is also a crew member on Scott Bonar’s No. 50 car. Taking the white flag in second, Nienhiser would turn in a near perfect lap that saw him make a crossover move on Pence coming to the checkered, giving him his second win of the season in a thrilling fashion.
Sunday night brought on more Sprint Invaders action as Nienhiser, and Bonar returned to action together. Lining up fourth in his heat race, a front-end failure led to a heat race DNF which put Nienhiser in the ninth row of the feature event.
From 17th, Nienhiser went to work on the tricky surface which was choppy, and slick but offered a top and bottom groove.
As the race came to life it was simply for Nienhiser, go where the others weren’t. Running like a man possessed, Nienhiser quickly worked through the field at will and utilized others mistakes to take over second.
Once in second, Chase Randall had already built up nearly a straight away lead and Nienhiser did not have much time to track him down. Doing all he could to cut into the lead, Nienhiser ran out of laps, and capped the weekend off with a second-place finish.
“We made some changes on the No. 50 car over last week, and I think that was crucial in us having the weekend we had,” Nienhiser said. “It was a really fun weekend and I have to thank all the sponsors that are associated with all of these cars for making it all possible.”
Nienhiser would like to thank CAM2 Lubricants, Buffalo Wild Wings, Innovative Design, Mason Sound, Bradshaw Custom Pumping, Signature Signs & Design, Sunstoppers Window Tinting, American Rental Center, Fierce Herbicide, Guse’s Pub & Eatery, Wessler Bros Agency, Willhite Mowing, T&K Tree Services, Engler Machine and Tool, FK Indy, Rider Racing Engines, Midland Performance, Simpson Race Products, Smith Titanium, and Premier Powder Coating for their continued support.
Nienhiser would also like to thank Midland Performance, Kinney Racing Engines, Rockstar Wraps, Heartland Trailer Manufacturing, Robert’s Tire Center, and Stronghurst Collision for their support of the No. 50 car.
BY THE NUMBERS: Races-13, Wins-2, Top 5’s-8, Top 10’s-10
ON TAP: Nienhiser has another big weekend on tap as he will be at Jacksonville Speedway on Friday night with MOWA and the 305ci division before following MOWA to Spoon River on Sunday.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay updated with Paul Nienhiser by following him on Twitter @Paul_Nienhiser or by clicking over to www.paulnienhiser.com.