ELDON, Mo. — Dominant one week ago in Michigan, Sam Hafertepe Jr. carried that momentum into Missouri for his third win in as many races with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network coming at Lake Ozark Speedway on Saturday night.
“Hats off to my guys. They did a hell of a job tonight, just like they’ve been doing all year long. That’s three in a row and we’re going to keep on going. Lock-in cars or not, we’re going to try to get it done tomorrow night,” said Hafertepe, who has taken command of the National Tour point standings by 14 markers.
Hafertepe drew the fourth starting spot for the 25-lap affair. Chasing John Carney II and Evan Martin on the first lap, the caution flew working lap two as John Schulz, Alex Hill, and Austin Alumbaugh all came to a rest in the second turn.
Throwing a deep slide in the restart, Hafertepe took the battle three deep off the fourth turn to grab the lead on the second lap.
Pulling a considerable lead on the field, Hafertepe began finding slower traffic as the race progressed past lap 10. Running top shelf around the Lake Ozark Speedway, Hafertepe’s lead started going the other way with every passing turn as the Danny Sander Construction No. J2 of John Carney II worked patiently around the hub of the Speedway.
Closing the gap to mere car lengths, Carney tried for the lead on lap 13, but without enough pull off the fourth turn, showed Hafertepe the line and allowed the No. 15h to transition off the cushion just before the caution lights clicked on for Bryan Grimes.
Green for another lap, the yellow flag flew as Matt Covington made contact with Roger Crockett racing for third; spinning the No. 95 down the back straightaway.
Overtaken by Roger Crockett on the restart with a middle groove pass in the first and second turn, Carney slipped to third as the Route 66 Chevrolet of Tulsa No. 11 worked on keeping pace with Hafertepe. Hafertepe again built a comfortable advantage only to have a caution dash his momentum while working lap 23.
Red for Matt Covington on the restart, the field took the green for the final time with a three-lap dash seeing Hafertepe win by 2.647 seconds.
“It’s tough to know where to be,” Hafertepe said. “I felt really good on the top in three and four and that’s really where I wanted to stay, but I didn’t want open the lane with three to go with those guys causing the cautions and reds at the end. It really gets you guessing.”
Roger Crockett held on for second with the race for third going three-wide off the final turn with John Carney II taking the spot by 0.166 seconds with a high side pass on Miles Paulus, who was the night’s hard charger coming from 17th to fourth, and Evan Martin to complete the top five.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [4]; 2. 11-Roger Crockett, [3]; 3. J2-John Carney II, [1]; 4. 21-Miles Paulus, [17]; 5. 4-Evan Martin, [2]; 6. 5-Kory Bales, [15]; 7. 22-Sean McClelland, [10]; 8. 35M-Jonathan Cornell, [8]; 9. 78-Kaley Gharst, [9]; 10. 14-Jordon Mallett, [13]; 11. 28-Scott Bogucki, [14]; 12. 2X-Tucker Doughty, [6]; 13. 14M-Randy Martin, [18]; 14. 52-Blake Hahn, [19]; 15. 5J-Jamie Ball, [23]; 16. 0-Steven Russell, [25]; 17. 17W-Harli White, [11]; 18. 21P-Robbie Price, [24]; 19. 37H-Nicholas Howard, [22]; 20. (DNF) 95-Matt Covington, [5]; 21. (DNF) 6-Bryan Grimes, [7]; 22. (DNF) 9-Paul Nienhiser, [21]; 23. (DNF) 99-John Schulz, [12]; 24. (DNF) 77X-Alex Hill, [16]; 25. (DNF) 33-Austin Alumbaugh, [20]