By Jordan Delucia
WAKEENEY, KS (Aug. 13, 2025) — The second half of the American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) season begins this weekend with a trip to Kansas and Colorado this Friday–Saturday, Aug. 15–16, at WaKeeney Speedway and El Paso County Raceway.
The national 360 Sprint Car series stars will clash with the points chasers of the ASCS Western Plains Region and Northern Plains Region in both co-sanctioned events. The big, sweeping, 4/10-mile oval of WaKeeney Speedway in WaKeeney, KS, hosts on Friday for the first time since 2023, while El Paso County Raceway in Calhan, CO, welcomes the Series back on Saturday for the first time since 2017.
Both races will pay the standard Series purse of $4,000-to-win and $400-to-start, and award drivers points in all three championship standings.
Tickets for both races will be sold at the gate on race day. Fans who would like to secure their seats in advance for the El Paso event can do so at the link below.
If you can’t be at the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
EL PASO COUNTY TICKETS
Here are the drivers to watch and storylines to follow this weekend:
BACK AT IT — After over a week’s worth of racing in Knoxville, Sam Hafertepe Jr. gets back to racing as the American Sprint Car Series points leader this weekend.
Hafertepe contested five nights of racing at Knoxville Raceway in the past two weeks during the Xtream Powered by Mediacom 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank and NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s. The five-time Series champion finished both events in a B-Main but saw success in turning the fastest Qualifying lap in the 360 Nationals Thursday preliminary event and finishing sixth in Wednesday’s 410 Nationals preliminary Feature event.
Coming into Knoxville, Hafertepe was riding one of the best streaks of his career with the Series, having won each of the five previous Features consecutively — tying his own record for most wins in-a-row. This weekend, the Texan makes his first recorded appearance at WaKeeney and his first since 2017 at El Paso when he finished fourth with the national Series.
FAMILY MATTERS — Bryan Gossel will join son Austyn Gossel on the track this weekend as the two enjoy the one and only national Series event in their home state of Colorado Saturday at El Paso County.
Bryan, 48, of Windsor, CO, has been a Sprint Car racer in the Midwest for over 20 years combined on both dirt and asphalt, winning multiple times with various ASCS regional series. The national Series has seen him on four occasions in 2025 but not since May 31 at Dodge City Raceway Park, when he recorded his best finish of 16th. Bryan recorded his first career win at El Paso on May 3, topping an ASCS Western Plains regional event over Sammy Swindell and son Austyn.
Austyn, 25, of Fort Collins, CO, is halfway through his second full-time campaign with the national Series. In 12 starts this season, Austyn has compiled four top-five finishes including his best career finish of second, which came at Dodge City in May. He has never won a Winged Sprint Car event at El Paso but was victorious with the Elite Non-Wing Sprint Car Series at the track in 2023.
HOMECOMING — This Friday, Zach Blurton will race in front of his (almost) hometown crowd at WaKeeney Speedway, where he won his first career national ASCS Feature in 2022.
The 30-year-old, second-generation racer is a resident of the nearby town of Quinter, KS — only 20 minutes west of WaKeeney on Interstate 70. In addition to his national ASCS victory at WaKeeney, Blurton has also won six United Rebel Sprint Series events (URSS) events, one with the National Championship Racing Association (NCRA), and one with the Elite Non-Wing Series in 2022.
READ ALSO: Zach Blurton Recalls First ASCS Win at WaKeeney: ‘Just One of Those Things You’ll Never Forget’
This past May, Blurton notched his second career national Series victory in his home state at Salt City Speedway and currently sits eighth in the points standings with four top-10s in 14 starts.
BUBAK IS BACK — After qualifying for his second-straight 360 Nationals main event at Knoxville two weekends ago, Jake Bubak will return to the national Series roster for the third time this season at WaKeeney and El Paso.
The 30-year-old from Arveda, CO, notched a 10th-place finish in his preliminary Feature on Friday of the three-day event, leaving him to try and transfer into Saturday’s main event through the Smith Titanium Last Chance Showdown. He grabbed the fourth and final transfer spot in the closing laps of the race, which set him up for a 20th-place finish in the main event in a field of over 90 cars.
Before Knoxville, Bubak last competed with the Series at Dodge City in May, bagging a fifth-place result at the Kansas oval. His success at both tracks he’ll race this weekend speak for themselves — back-to-back national ASCS wins in 2022 and 2023 at WaKeeney, plus five career victories at El Paso County including two in a Midget and three in a 305 Sprint Car with URSS.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN WAY — The national ASCS stars are invading the homeland of the ASCS Northern Plains and Western Plains regions this weekend, led by Colorado natives Bryan Gossel and Adam Trimble.
Gossel is the current Western Plains Region points leader by 60 points over Trimble with two wins in Western Plains competition this year at El Paso County and I-76 Speedway in Fort Morgan, CO.
Trimble, 37, of Pueblo, CO, currently leads the Northern Plains Region standings by 215 points over South Dakota-native DJ Brink. Trimble has yet to win a national ASCS event in his career but has been a prominent force in Rocky Mountain State Sprint Car racing in the latter half of his career, with wins on dirt going back to the early 2010s. At El Paso, he’s collected four URSS wins, including his first in 2010, as well as all three ASCS Western Plains Region events held at the track last year.
THIS WEEKEND AT A GLANCE
WHEN AND WHERE
• Friday, Aug. 15 at WaKeeney Speedway in WaKeeney, KS
• Saturday, Aug. 16 at El Paso County Raceway in Calhan, CO
TRACK FACTS
• WaKeeney — 4/10-mile, semi-banked oval
• El Paso — 1/4-mile, D-shaped oval
• WaKeeney Track Record: 14.673 seconds set by Blake Hahn on July 1, 2023
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 (16/34 Races)
Sam Hafertepe Jr. (1789pts)
Blake Hahn 1616pts (–173)
Matt Covington 1587pts (–202)
Jason Martin 1516pts (–273)
Garrett Benson 1400pts (–389)
Brady Baker 1386pts (–403)
Austyn Gossel 1383pts (–406)
Zach Blurton 1367pts (–422)
Kyler Johnson 1364pts (–425)
Landon Britt 1335pts (–454)