PONTOON BEACH, Ill. — Garrett Aiken earned his first POWRi Lucas Oil Wingless Auto Racing Sprint League victory Friday night as the series made its only appearance of the season at Tri-City Speedway.

With Paul Nienhiser and Joe B. Miller making up the front row for the 25-lap main event, competition would be fierce and all over the track with sometimes three and four wide battles for nearly every position.

Nienhiser and Miller would battle back and forth for most of the race with neither driver giving up their preferred line of racing. Riley Kreisel would make his presence felt by trying to find a way around the top two lap after lap with Mitch Wissmiller and Mario Clouser  all within striking distance as the laps started to dwindle.

Mid-Race caution flags would bunch the field back together at the halfway mark as Garrett Aiken would fly to front. Using a low-to-high line to perfection Aiken would effortlessly pick off other frontrunners on his march to the top spot. Gaining the lead with less than ten laps left Aiken would not be stopped in his quest to his first POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint League victory.

“After the caution half-way through the feature I knew the car was fast and had to pick my moment in one and two” Aiken said. “It really came down to angling the corner just right, if you got to high you would scrub speed so I started to approaching at more of a diamond and the car was a rocket after that.”

One-time leader Nienhiser would finish in a close second place by less than half a second, with lap traffic proving to be tricky to navigate for the frontrunners. Miller would round out the podium finishers by showing speed all night and remaining in the hunt for the front the entire event.

Riley Kreisel continued to add to his championship season by placing a solid fourth as Mitch Wissmiller placed fifth and a tight battle up front.

The finish:

Feature (25 Laps) 1. 32-Garrett Aiken[5]; 2. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[1]; 3. 97-Joe B Miller[2]; 4. 91-Riley Kreisel[4]; 5. 29-Mitch Wissmiller[6]; 6. 99-Korey Weyant[16]; 7. 6-Mario Clouser[3]; 8. 4-Brad Greenup[8]; 9. 88-Terry Babb[9]; 10. 01-Justin Standridge[10]; 11. 27-Steve Thomas[7]; 12. 2-Jason Billups[12]; 13. 7S-Wade Seiler[14]; 14. 82-Vinny Ward[13]; 15. 90-Patrick Budde[15]; 16. 52F-Logan Faucon[17]; 17. 70-Pete Palazzolo[11]; 18. (DNS) 24-Landon Simon