By Jordan Delucia
TEXARKANA, AR (June 7, 2025) — It took almost everything Sam Hafertepe Jr. had in him to defeat familiar American Sprint Car Series foes Blake Hahn and Matt Covington Saturday night at Texarkana 67 Speedway.
A slidejob with Covington here. A crossover on Hahn there. Three-wide gap-shooting in traffic. Contact with lapped cars. Even a restart in the final laps. The five-time Series champion went through an entire gauntlet of obstacles en route to his third win of the season with the Series and 81st of his career.
“We had probably one of the most exciting races I’ve ever been in in my life tonight,” Hafertepe said. “Just a testament to when these guys prep a racetrack as good as (track owner and three-time Series champion) Tim Crawley did tonight, that’s the product you’ll get.”
The three-way battle for the lead commenced when Hahn threw the first slidejob on polesitter Covington — who had led since the drop of the green — in Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 14. Covington denied the two-time Series champion with a crossover move out of Turn 4 to regain the top spot. But this only played into the favor of Hafertepe, who was trailing by only a single car length, waiting for his opportunity to make a move.
“I saw when Blake got to him, and I’m like, ‘Alright, he’s probably about to make the attempt,'” Hafertepe said. “So then I got on it pretty close and you could see I closed him in. Then I knew, ‘Now, whenever the opening is my turn.'”
And then, he did. Hafertepe dove to the bottom in Turns 1 and 2 and put a slidejob on both Covington and Hahn to take the lead, but only for a moment as Covington came back with another crossover move out of Turn 2 to regain the lead again.
From there, the three leaders waged an all-out slidejob–crossover war. Hahn by Hafertepe on Lap 17. Hafertepe by Hahn on Lap 18, then Hahn with a slidejob on both. Hafertepe with a return slider on Hahn and Covington on Lap 19.
By the time Hafertepe had put the final slidejob on Hahn on Lap 21, going three-wide in the middle with a lapped car in Turn 3, the three drivers had swapped the lead a total of 10 times in eight laps — three times between Hafertepe and Hahn alone.
“[Hahn] did everything right, I just felt like we hit the clean air at the right time, and I think that got us out front,” Hafertepe said. “But it’s badass to race with a guy like that and never hit. We didn’t hit each other the whole time.
“It’s pretty awesome to win a race like that when it’s that exciting. Took me a minute to catch my breath after that one. That’s one of the ones where I don’t even know if cardio would help you on something like that.”
Hahn put up an entertaining fight with Hafertepe, and despite one final chance at him on the final restart on Lap 27, he could not catch Hafertepe and ultimately settled for second, notching his second podium finish of the season with the Series.
“I think Sam’s car was better toward the end of the race, I think mine was better toward the middle, and Covington was good toward the beginning,” Hahn said. “It’s just one of those deals where the guy with the best car won. Anytime we can finish on the podium is a great night, but we’re ready to get that first win.”
Despite leading the opening 18 circuits, Covington was not able to withstand the speed of Hafertepe and Hahn in the end and was forced to settle for third.
“From the driver’s seat, it felt like the right-rear (tire) was just too plugged-in,” Covington said. “I wasn’t as smooth behind the wheel in the last half of the race as I was in the first half. It seemed like Sam and Blake’s cars were a little bit more maneuverable.”
Though he had hoped for a better result after a great start to the main event, Covington was proud to have shared the track with his opponents and put on a clean battle for the win with some familiar foes.
“Me and Sam and Blake have raced together for a long time now, and that’s how it’s supposed to be,” Covington said. “Any time we get a track that’s racey with a top and a bottom, that should be what we see.”
Arkansas native Brady Baker earned the race’s Hard Charger honors in his drive from 17th on the starting grid up to a seventh-place finish.
Covington topped Qualifying and set a new track record with his lap of 13.154 seconds.
Heat Races were won by Jordon Mallett (Heat 1), Seth Bergman (Heat 2) and Blake Hahn (Heat 3).
The Honest Abe Roofing Dash was won by Covington.
The Smith Titanium Last Chance Showdown was won by Harli White.
UP NEXT
The American Sprint Car Series returns to action next Friday and Saturday night, June 13–14, at Creek County Speedway and Tri-State (OK) Speedway. Tickets for both events will be sold at the gate on race day.
If you can’t make it to either track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[6]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[4]; 3. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 4. 23-Seth Bergman[3]; 5. 40-Howard Moore[7]; 6. 3-Derek Hagar[13]; 7. 71-Brady Baker[17]; 8. 14-Jordon Mallett[5]; 9. 10-Landon Britt[12]; 10. 36-Jason Martin[11]; 11. 91X-Chase Howard[20]; 12. 6-Cody Gardner[15]; 13. 2J-Zach Blurton[14]; 14. 16G-Austyn Gossel[10]; 15. 45X-Kyler Johnson[18]; 16. 17-Hayden Brinkley[19]; 17. 88-Terry Easum[21]; 18. 23J-Junior Jenkins[22]; 19. 88R-Ryder Laplante[9]; 20. 17W-Harli White[16]; 21. 30-Joseph Miller[8]; 22. 2B-Garrett Benson[2]
Last Chance Showdown (10 Laps): 1. 17W-Harli White[2]; 2. 71-Brady Baker[1]; 3. 45X-Kyler Johnson[3]; 4. 17-Hayden Brinkley[4]; 5. 91X-Chase Howard[10]; 6. 88-Terry Easum[5]; 7. 23J-Junior Jenkins[8]; 8. 30X-Larry Bratti[7]; 9. 88C-Brogan Carder[9]; 10. (DNS) 2BB-Brett Becker; 11. (DNS) 9-Josh McCord; 12. (DNS) 91-Michael Day
Dash (5 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 2. 2B-Garrett Benson[2]; 3. 23-Seth Bergman[3]; 4. 52-Blake Hahn[4]; 5. 14-Jordon Mallett[5]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 14-Jordon Mallett[4]; 2. 30-Joseph Miller[1]; 3. 88R-Ryder Laplante[2]; 4. 16G-Austyn Gossel[6]; 5. 2J-Zach Blurton[3]; 6. 17-Hayden Brinkley[5]; 7. 88-Terry Easum[7]; 8. 30X-Larry Bratti[8]; 9. (DNS) 9-Josh McCord
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman[1]; 2. 40-Howard Moore[3]; 3. 2B-Garrett Benson[4]; 4. 36-Jason Martin[2]; 5. 3-Derek Hagar[6]; 6. 71-Brady Baker[5]; 7. 17W-Harli White[7]; 8. 23J-Junior Jenkins[9]; 9. 91X-Chase Howard[8]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 3. 95-Matt Covington[4]; 4. 10-Landon Britt[3]; 5. 6-Cody Gardner[6]; 6. 45X-Kyler Johnson[5]; 7. 2BB-Brett Becker[7]; 8. (DNS) 88C-Brogan Carder; 9. (DNS) 91-Michael Day
Qualifying 1 (2 Laps): 1. 14-Jordon Mallett, 00:13.641[2]; 2. 30-Joseph Miller, 00:13.683[3]; 3. 88R-Ryder Laplante, 00:13.769[5]; 4. 2J-Zach Blurton, 00:13.810[4]; 5. 17-Hayden Brinkley, 00:13.892[7]; 6. 16G-Austyn Gossel, 00:13.961[8]; 7. 88-Terry Easum, 00:14.027[9]; 8. 30X-Larry Bratti, 00:14.482[6]; 9. (DNS) 9-Josh McCord
Qualifying 2 (2 Laps): 1. 2B-Garrett Benson, 00:13.321[5]; 2. 23-Seth Bergman, 00:13.436[9]; 3. 36-Jason Martin, 00:13.485[2]; 4. 40-Howard Moore, 00:13.548[4]; 5. 71-Brady Baker, 00:13.557[3]; 6. 3-Derek Hagar, 00:13.662[1]; 7. 17W-Harli White, 00:13.756[7]; 8. 91X-Chase Howard, 00:13.904[6]; 9. 23J-Junior Jenkins, 00:14.713[8]
Qualifying 3 (2 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington, 00:13.154[1]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 00:13.251[7]; 3. 52-Blake Hahn, 00:13.385[6]; 4. 10-Landon Britt, 00:13.619[3]; 5. 45X-Kyler Johnson, 00:13.797[4]; 6. 6-Cody Gardner, 00:13.812[8]; 7. 2BB-Brett Becker, 00:14.188[2]; 8. (DNS) 88C-Brogan Carder; 9. (DNS) 91-Michael Day
Hot Laps: 1. 17W-Harli White, 00:13.618[16]; 2. 95-Matt Covington, 00:13.651[19]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 00:13.670[25]; 4. 2B-Garrett Benson, 00:13.699[14]; 5. 45X-Kyler Johnson, 00:13.725[22]; 6. 36-Jason Martin, 00:13.764[11]; 7. 10-Landon Britt, 00:13.953[21]; 8. 40-Howard Moore, 00:14.038[13]; 9. 52-Blake Hahn, 00:14.071[24]; 10. 6-Cody Gardner, 00:14.074[26]; 11. 91-Michael Day, 00:14.102[27]; 12. 3-Derek Hagar, 00:14.107[10]; 13. 23-Seth Bergman, 00:14.117[18]; 14. 91X-Chase Howard, 00:14.265[15]; 15. 2BB-Brett Becker, 00:14.329[20]; 16. 88C-Brogan Carder, 00:14.332[23]; 17. 2J-Zach Blurton, 00:14.345[4]; 18. 14-Jordon Mallett, 00:14.363[2]; 19. 88-Terry Easum, 00:14.449[9]; 20. 71-Brady Baker, 00:14.479[12]; 21. 88R-Ryder Laplante, 00:14.706[5]; 22. 30X-Larry Bratti, 00:15.022[6]; 23. 17-Hayden Brinkley, 00:15.053[7]; 24. 30-Joseph Miller, 00:15.089[3]; 25. 23J-Junior Jenkins, 00:15.973[17]; 26. (DNS) 9-Josh McCord; 27. (DNS) 16G-Austyn Gossel