From Bryan Hulbert
Wheatland, MO — (September 27, 2014) — For the second night in a row, the fourth running of the Jesse Hockett / Daniel McMillin Memorial found a first time winner at the Lucas Oil Speedway as Derek Hagar grabbed the lead from Jeff Swindell in slower traffic for his second Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series National Tour victory of 2014.
“This means a lot,” commented Derek before taking a pause to gain his composure. “Me and Jesse were team mates the year that he passed away at Manzanita in the Silver Crown cars, and at Indianapolis at the mile. That was the only time I ever heard Jesse say he was scared of the racecar was at the Indy mile. I had to look at him twice like, ”Did you just say that Jesse?” He goes, ”Man, you guys are rolling these things into the corner. I’m used to throwing her in there, not driving her straight in wide open” but I know Jesse will always be with me, we were pretty good buds, and I’m glad this trophy is going in the house on the fireplace.”
Coming from fifth Hagar jumped to third on the start. Chasing Wayne Johnson in the opening laps for second, the pair exchanged slide jobs while tracking down Jeff Swindell before hooking bumpers on the exit of turn two; sending the No. 77 of Johnson into the wall and into the Pits. Johnson was unharmed and was scored twenty-second.
Single file to the green, Swindell and Hagar both worked topside with the pair finding traffic by Lap 18. Vacating the highline in traffic, the pair began working top and bottom. Saddled on the low line in turns one and two, Swindell sat trapped by traffic as the cushion cleared for Hagar. At the right place at the right time, Hagar stuck the cushion for the lead down the back straight-a-way on Lap 24.
“Sometimes it’s better to be sitting in the catbird seat watching the track change and being able to move around a little bit,” commented Swindell of the runner up finish. “I changed the car a little bit from last night. I was kind of halfway between where I was going to be later tonight until they did the re-work, so I kind of guessed at that and had a great car on the bottom in the beginning – we just got caught in traffic and it shut us down.”
Sam Hafertepe, Jr. claimed his second bronze finish in as many nights. Pleased with the overall weekend, Hafertepe was a little down on the finish, “We dropped way back, but we had a great racecar though. Congrats to Derek, he did a hell of a job but like I said, we just got moved back there at the beginning. We had a good enough car, I just used up my tires trying to get back through there but that’s how racing goes sometimes.”
After taking a provisional into Friday’s A-Feature, Tony Bruce, Jr. raced to a fourth place finish after starting seventh. Eighth starting Johnny Herrera completed the top five.
Jason Johnson crossed sixth with Brian Brown seventh. Tim Crawley ended his weekend in eighth with Jack Dover from eleventh, and Seth Bergman from seventeenth to complete the top ten.
A total of 50 drivers took part in the fourth annual Jesse Hockett / Daniel McMillin Memorial. Entries numbering 45 took part in Saturday’s program with five Heat Races going to Brian Brown, Miranda Arnold, Derek Hagar, Blake Hahn, and Evan Martin. A pair of B-Features went to Seth Bergman and Dusty Zomer.
Matt Covington used his final full-point provisional of the season to make the A-Feature.
Brad Loyet brought out the caution on Lap 27. Going to the work area, Loyet came back for a sixteenth place finish and a 62 point advantage over Jason Johnson. Johnny Herrera trails the runner-up spot by 10 points with Sam Hafertepe, Jr. and Jeff Swindell tied for fourth only 74 points back from Loyet.
The final point’s night for the Speedway Motors Warrior Region, Jonathan Cornell secured the 2014 title.
The Lucas Oil ASCS presented by MAVTV American Real competes next at the 41st Devil’s Bowl Winter Nationals on Friday, October 17 and Saturday, October 18. More information can be found at http://www.devilsbowl.com.
For continued updates on the Lucas Oil ASCS presented by MAVTV American Real, log onto http://www.ascsracing.com.
Race Results:
Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV American Real
Lucas Oil Speedway – Wheatland, Mo.
4th annual Hockett/McMillin Memorial
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Car Count: 45
Event Count: 50
SpeedMart Heat Races (8 laps): Winners plus the next 7 highest in Passing Points transfer to the A-Feature.
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Brian Brown[2]; 2. 53-Jack Dover[4]; 3. 23-Seth Bergman[3]; 4. 82-Dusty Zomer[6]; 5. 17WX-Jonathan Cornell[9]; 6. 33-Austin Alumbaugh[8]; 7. 1M-Danny Lasoski[5]; 8. 34-Corey Nelson[7]; 9. 99-Andrew Turley[1]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 5M-Miranda Arnold[2]; 2. 94-Jeff Swindell[8]; 3. 75-Tyler Blank[5]; 4. 3H-Brandon Hanks[7]; 5. 76-Jay Russell[6]; 6. 24-Lanny Carpenter[3]; 7. (DNF) 88X-J Kinder[1]; 8. (DNF) 14S-Jarrod Schneiderman[4]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 9JR-Derek Hagar[3]; 2. 18-Tony Bruce Jr[5]; 3. 14-Randy Martin[1]; 4. 17-Josh Baughman[2]; 5. 72X-Josh Fisher[4]; 6. 04-Brad Graham[6]; 7. (DNF) 1-Sean McClelland[8]; 8. (DNF) 95-Matt Covington[7]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn[1]; 2. 41-Jason Johnson[8]; 3. 9M-Taylor Walton[2]; 4. 16-Anthony Nicholson[4]; 5. 86-Kyle Bellm[5]; 6. 81A-Chris Morgan[7]; 7. (DNF) 27-Danny Thoman[3]; 8. (DNF) 3Z-Zach Davis[6]
Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Evan Martin[1]; 2. 11-Roger Crockett[3]; 3. 05-Brad Loyet[5]; 4. 93-Dustin Morgan[7]; 5. 17W-Harli White[6]; 6. 2A-Randy Hibbs[8]; 7. 85-Cody Forshee[4]; 8. 20K-Kevin Ulmer[2]
Smiley’s Racing Products B-Features (12 Laps): Top 3 advance to the A-Feature.
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman[3]; 2. 17WX-Jonathan Cornell[2]; 3. 16-Anthony Nicholson[5]; 4. 3H-Brandon Hanks[1]; 5. 14-Randy Martin[4]; 6. 2A-Randy Hibbs[7]; 7. 17W-Harli White[6]; 8. 34-Corey Nelson[12]; 9. 24-Lanny Carpenter[10]; 10. 20K-Kevin Ulmer[14]; 11. (DNF) 85-Cody Forshee[11]; DNS 81A-Chris Morgan; DNS 04-Brad Graham; DNS 88X-J Kinder; DNS 3Z-Zach Davis
B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 82-Dusty Zomer[2]; 2. 93-Dustin Morgan[1]; 3. 9M-Taylor Walton[3]; 4. 76-Jay Russell[5]; 5. 1M-Danny Lasoski[10]; 6. 72X-Josh Fisher[4]; 7. 86-Kyle Bellm[7]; 8. 17-Josh Baughman[8]; 9. 33-Austin Alumbaugh[6]; 10. 99-Andrew Turley[14]; 11. 27-Danny Thoman[11]; DNS 1-Sean McClelland; DNS 95-Matt Covington; DNS 14S-Jarrod Schneiderman
Protect the Harvest A-Feature (30 Laps):
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 9JR-Derek Hagar[5]; 2. 94-Jeff Swindell[3]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[2]; 4. 18-Tony Bruce Jr[7]; 5. 45X-Johnny Herrera[8]; 6. 41-Jason Johnson[4]; 7. 21-Brian Brown[9]; 8. 88-Tim Crawley[6]; 9. 53-Jack Dover[11]; 10. 23-Seth Bergman[17]; 11. 11-Roger Crockett[14]; 12. 4-Evan Martin[13]; 13. 93-Dustin Morgan[20]; 14. 16-Anthony Nicholson[21]; 15. 82-Dusty Zomer[18]; 16. 05-Brad Loyet[16]; 17. 17WX-Jonathan Cornell[19]; 18. 52-Blake Hahn[12]; 19. 95-Matt Covington[23]; 20. 75-Tyler Blank[15]; 21. 5M-Miranda Arnold[10]; 22. (DNF) 77X-Wayne Johnson[1]; 23. (DNF) 9M-Taylor Walton[22]
Lap Leader(s): Jeff Swindell 1-23; Derek Hagar 24-30
KSE Hard Charger: Seth Bergman +7
FSR High Point: Jeff Swindell
CSI Rebound: Matt Covington
Provisional(s): Matt Covington (BP2)