By Jordan Delucia
CRANDALL, TX (April 22, 2025) — The American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) National Tour makes its first and only trip to Texas this season for a two-night program at RPM Speedway this Friday–Saturday, April 25–26.
Two $4,000-to-win programs await the stars of the national 360 Sprint Car series this weekend, racing alongside the local Factory Stock, Limited Modified and USRA Modified classes.
This weekend will mark the third and fourth visits in National Tour history to the 1/4-mile dirt track. Last October, the Tour made its debut in a two-night program, which saw Seth Bergman win on Friday and Sam Hafertepe Jr. win Saturday’s main event.
Tickets for this weekend’s events will be sold at the track on race day. If you can’t be there, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
Here are the drivers to watch and storylines to follow:
HOME GAME — Sam Hafertepe Jr. begins his quest for ASCS National Tour Feature win No. 80 this weekend at a track 20 miles away from his home in Sunnyvale, TX.
The five-time Tour champion scored his 79th career Tour victory two weeks ago in Salina to tie the late Jason Johnson for second-most all-time. An 80th win would put him in sole control of No. 2 on the all-time list, trailing only four-time Tour champion Gary Wright, who amassed 128 Feature wins with the National Tour in his 20-plus-year career competing in ASCS-sanctioned events.
Opened in 2009, RPM Speedway has become Hafertepe’s closest race place, following the shuttering of Devil’s Bowl Speedway after the 2023 season. In five recorded starts at RPM, Hafertepe has posted three podium finishes, including two wins in ASCS competition, topping a Gulf South Region race in 2018 and winning on the second of a two-night event with the National Tour last October. The night before, Hafertepe led the opening 12 laps of the main event when a fire erupted underneath the hood of the Hill’s Racing No. 15H, retiring him for the remainder of the event.
SOLID START — Three races into Seth Bergman’s 2025 campaign and he’s already tallied three podium finishes.
The 37-year-old defending champion of the ASCS National Tour started his season in late March, posting back-to-back runner-up finishes in ASCS Sooner Region events at Creek County Speedway and Enid Speedway. He followed that with a third-straight second-place finish at the National Tour event in Salina two weekends ago behind only Hafertepe — his closest competition on the Tour throughout 2024 and another threat for the season points championship again this year.
Historically, Bergman has three known starts in a 360 Sprint Car at RPM, first posting a ninth-place run with the Gulf South Region in 2017. He returned to the track last October with the National Tour and won the opening round of the two-night event before mounting a 15th-to-seventh charge in the main event on Saturday.
SO CLOSE — Last October, Blake Hahn remained the car to beat throughout Saturday night’s main event at RPM but came up one spot short of victory. This weekend, he’s coming back to avenge what he lost.
Hahn, the two-time Tour champion from Sapulpa, OK, led the first 26 laps of that Feature before Hafertepe caught and passed him for the lead after a restart in the closing circuits. This remains his best finish in four main event starts at the track, also collecting a runner-up finish and zero finishes outside the top-10.
Hahn has also been strong recently, winning once with the ASCS Sooner Region in March and posting a fourth-place run with the National Tour at Salina.
LOOKING UP — After a fifth-place finish at Salina two weeks ago, Matt Covington is poised for another positive result this weekend at RPM where he’s had success.
The 34-year-old from Glenpool, OK, ran fourth on Friday and fifth on Saturday at last year’s doubleheader at RPM. Of his four recorded starts there, he’s never finished outside the top-10.
This weekend, he’s going for his second win of the season — following a United Sprint Car Series main event win at Hattiesburg Speedway in March — but his first with the National Tour since August of 2023.
BACK IN THE SADDLE — After a rough weekend at Salina for Brogan Carder and Carson Bolden, the two teenage racers are set to get back in the seat with ASCS this weekend at RPM.
Carder, the 14-year-old Rookie of the Year contender from Sioux Falls, SD, was forced to retire from the event early after a fire in the cockpit of his car erupted at the end of his Hot Laps session. According to a post from the team’s Facebook page, Carder suffered “second-degree burns on his pinky and ring finger and a small area on his knee” in the incident but has since recovered and is set to return to competition.
Later in the program, Bolden — a fellow 14-year-old racer from Quinlan, TX — was involved in a hard crash on the backstretch during the Last Chance Showdown, making contact with the outside wall and rolling over multiple times before coming to a stop at the edge of the infield. He and his team have since made repairs and have made their plans known to race again this weekend.
THIS WEEKEND AT A GLANCE
WHEN AND WHERE
Friday–Saturday, April 25–26 at RPM Speedway in Crandall, TX
TRACK FACTS
• 1/4-mile, semi-banked oval
• Track Record — 12.766 seconds set by Seth Bergman on October 25, 2024
ON THE INTERNET
X — @ASCSRacing
Instagram — @ascs_racing
Facebook — @AmericanSprintCarSeries
YouTube — @AmericanSprintCarSeries
DIRTVision — DIRTVision.com (Platinum annual FAST PASS for $299 or monthly FAST PASS for $39/month)
CURRENT CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (4/41 Races)
Sam Hafertepe Jr. (150pts)
Justin Peck (150pts)
Brian Brown 142pts (–8)
Seth Bergman 142pts (–8)
Cole Macedo 135pts (–15)
Sean McClelland 135pts (–15)
Blake Hahn 130pts (–20)
Emerson Axsom 130pts (–20)
Matt Covington 125pts (–25)
Austin McCarl 125pts (–25)