Brad Mueller Wins 45th Slinger Nationals After Morrissey DQ

It was already a great day at the office for three-time Slinger Speedway champion Brad Mueller when he came across the line second in Tuesday’s 45th-annual Slinger Nationals.

At the time, it marked his third runner-up finish at the Nationals and first in two decades. But things were about to get even better.

A few hours later, just after 2 a.m. local time, Mueller received news that he said floored him. Provisional winner Andrew Morrissey was disqualified in post-race tech, giving the win to Mueller in his 29th attempt at the Slinger Nationals.

“I’ve been dreaming of winning this race,” Muller told Racing America. “I hate that it happened like this, but a rule’s a [expletive] rule. These guys work so hard on this stuff, so [expletive] hard. It’s unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. Oh my God, I can’t believe it.”

Morrissey led the final 68 laps, taking the lead from 2023 Snowball Derby winner Derek Thorn. Mueller spun on lap six in a multi-car pile up, but big adjustments at the lap 99 break helped him move through the field.

“We were pretty tight in the first half,” Mueller said. “We threw some stagger at it and put some sway bar in it. I said I just need to be able to roll the bottom. I can get these guys off the bottom and that’s what happened and it worked. It stayed under me the whole race.”

Mueller didn’t qualify well, having to run the last chance qualifier to lock himself into the race. But the veteran wasn’t worried, sensing what his night would look like before taking the green flag.

“I told the guys, here’s what our Nationals are going to be,” Mueller said. “I use to get fast time every week. Lately, I can’t qualify to save my keister. I told the guys, ‘We’re going to come out of the B-Main and finish in the top-five.'”

Despite battling illness throughout the day, Thorn showed pace and led at intermission before putting on scuffed tires for the second half. In the end, the change made all the difference. Thorn struggled with grip on his way to a second place finish.

“The first 100 laps went really well,” Thorn said. “I had a feeling we were going to be in bad shape for the last 100 laps with the tires. We scuffed them in practice and they did not have any good speed or feel with them at all.”

Derek Kraus finished third after dominating the first 50 laps. Steve Apel overcame a mechanical problem and a six-lap deficit to take fourth, with RJ Braun rounding out the top-five.

Morrissey’s disqualification was his second of the day. His qualifying time that would have been fastest had previously been thrown out after his care came in under weight.

“It was just a mistake,” Morrissey said. “The fuel didn’t get completely full and we came up two pounds too light. It is what it is. The tech staff did their job and it is what it is. I knew we had a good car and usually there’s a lot of attrition, so I knew if we just hung in there that the car was good and it’d be good.”

Morrissey managed to finish fourth in the last chance qualifier, putting him 20th at the start of the feature. A crash at lap six collected several front runners — including defending Nationals champion Ty Majeski, Gio Ruggiero and Alex Prunty — giving Morrissey better track position and improved odds.

Kraus led the field through a tumultuous opening stretch that saw five cautions in the first 27 laps. Morrissey took the lead on lap 57 before Thorn nudged him out of line to take over the top spot on lap 90.

Thorn’s worn tires led to a slip up on lap 132, opening the door for Morrissey to snag the lead. After two more cautions with 55 laps to go whittled the field down to 12 cars, Morrissey’s No. 39 managed to pull away over a lengthy green flag run to the finish.

Cup Series regular Ryan Preece, running for Kevin Harvick Incorporated, overcame issues in his first Slinger Nationals to work his way from the rear into the top-10 before a five-car crash on a lap 145 restart ended his night. Preece finished 15th.

Preece made contact with the outside wall to trigger the lap six crash that effectively ended the nights of Prunty (21st), Majeski (22nd), Rich Bickle (24th) and Ruggerio (25th).

Polesitter Grant Griesbach and 2021 Nationals champion Luke Fenhaus were among those who fell victim to mechanical failures. Griesbach was relegated to 17th, with Fenhaus three spots back in 20th.