October 5, 2024 – Friday night’s victory was like deja vu for Joe B. Miller; it was his third straight Morrow Brothers Ford MOWA Sprint Car Series victory in the Ron Milton Race of Champions.
Sterling Cling and Joel Myers Jr led the field to the green flag with Cling getting the position at the start. As the two entered into turn three, Myers slid across in front of Cling to overtake the point and began to pull away. Behind Myers, action picked up as Brayton Lynch muscled past Sterling Cling for the second position, while RIley Goodno and Gage Montgomery battled for fourth and fifth.
Joe B. Miller, who started seventh, sat back and watched it all unfold in front of him, as he made a two-for-one move on lap ten to make his way into the top five. Joel Myers began to work lapped traffic by the midway point, as 21st-starting Paul Nienhiser was doing everything in his power to move forward and made his way to 11th by lap 17. The battle for third turned into a three car battle, where Gage Montgomery, Sterling Cling and Joe B. Miller traded sliders around the ¼-mile oval. Miller worked his way up to third when a yellow slowed the field as Gage Montgomery spun at the bottom of turn two with seven laps remaining. A nearly five-second lead for Joel Myers was erased as the field stacked back up before returning to green.
At the restart, Myers jumped out at the point, while Brayton Lynch was beginning to get challenged by Joe B. Miller, who moved his way past Lynch’s on the 21st lap and immediately set his sights on the leader. Myers continued to lead as the laps began to wind down. Catching the wall atop turn two on lap 23, Myers’ was able to regain composure and navigated around the top shelf of the speedway, once again with lapped traffic directly in front of him.
Myers’ entry to turn four as he approached the white flag, saw his #19 machine enter high and lose momentum and Joe B. Miller was right there to capitalize. Miller pulled alongside Myers down the back stretch and slid between two lapped cars as the top two raced back to the checkers. Miller narrowly edged ahead of Myers, who made contact with Austin Archdale and John Barnard, resulting in Archdale violently flipping past the flagstand as the checkered flew, immediately following by a red flag, thus ending the 25-lap affair.
After clearing the accident scene, Joe B. Miller made his way to victory lane and was greeted with applause from the fans and family members of the late Ron Milton. Friday’s event was MIller’s sixth-career victory. Joel Myers Jr and Brayton Lynch rounded out the podium.
While fans were focused on Miller’s victory lane, another driver who was just as jubilant, was Will Armitage, who was crowned the 2024 Morrow Brothers Ford MOWA Sprint Car Series Champion, after a season-long battle with Ryan Bunton. Entering Saturday’s finale, Armitage trailed by three points. Bunton’s bid came up short as the driver of the #6B machine retired early in B-Main action and wasn’t able to transfer into the A-Main.
The finish:
- 51B- Joe B. Miller, 2. 19H-Joel Myers Jr, 3. 29-Brayton Lynch, 4. 34-Sterling Cling, 5. 22-Riley Goodno, 6. 9X-Paul Nienhiser, 7. 21W-Korey Weyant, 8. 6-Mario Clouser, 9. 3N-Jake Neuman, 10. 5H-Joey Moughan, 11. 21-Gunner Ramey, 12. 7A-Will Armitage, 13. 1JR-Steven Russell, 14. 52F-Logan Facuon, 15. 50K-Thomas Meseraull, 16. 31-Kameron Key, 17. 79-Gage Montgomery, 18. B8-John Barnard, 19. 28K-Korbin Keith, 20. 1-Trevin Littleton, 21. 2A-Austin Archdale, 22. 14N-Kevin Newton, 23. 4-Chase Richards, 24. 20G-Noah Gass