By Jordan Delucia
CALHAN, CO (Aug. 16, 2025) — After nearly a full calendar year of efforts, Jason Martin has finally made his return to American Sprint Car Series Victory Lane.
Eleven months. Three-hundred thirty-six days. Twenty-six Series events. The 2023 Series champion from Liberal, KS, pushed his way through the dry spell and broke through to Victory Lane — for the first time since Sept. 14, 2024 — Saturday night at El Paso County Raceway, leading all 25 laps of the main event to collect his 15th career Series victory and first in the state of Colorado.
“It’s one of those things I was taught a long time ago and I’ve learned over the years — you just keep working at it,” Martin said. “We haven’t had a winning season, but with Sam [Hafertepe] winning all the races and being as good as he is, to run second or in the top five, I feel like we’re pretty good.”
The 43-year-old Sprint Car veteran was relieved to end his weekend on a high note after a rough start on the road Friday afternoon, when he encountered issues with his transporter on the drive out to WaKeeney Speedway.
“It just blew an alternator belt, and we pulled over and went to change it and fix it, and it wouldn’t start,” Martin said. “Come to find out, after over an hour of messing around with it, it was the starter. So, then we had to find a starter, had to crawl underneath the truck and change it on the side of the highway, and it’s 105 degrees.”
In the midsummer heat and frustration, Martin and his lone crew member Chase Richards were able to make repairs and get to the track in time to race and continue their march through the national schedule. Their perseverance rewarded them with a win only 24 hours later — a big step in their efforts to cut into the points deficit to leader Sam Hafertepe Jr.
“I think once these racetracks kinda slow down here in the summer where everything’s getting slick, I think we’re gonna be right there racing with them where it’s not hammer-down motor tracks,” Martin said. “I’m looking forward to the next two weeks in Montana.”
A big key in Martin’s drive to victory Saturday was the initial start. Lining up to the outside of Hafertepe on the front row, Martin won the race into Turn 1 and beat Hafertepe to the bottom lane, sealing the pass and driving away with the lead down the backstretch.
“I knew the racetrack was gonna be on the bottom in (Turns) 1 and 2, and the top in 3 and 4, I just didn’t know how far it was gonna go up on the top,” Martin said. “Somebody was gonna have to slide you pretty hard to get past you, so I knew I had to win that start.”
From that point, never did Martin let his opponents get close enough to make a formidable challenge for the lead, even in surviving the plethora of restarts from numerous caution periods and a red flag situation on Lap 19.
“When you have [so many] different restarts, you can’t restart differently that many times, so I just kept trying to change it up,” Martin said. “Thankfully, our car was good enough that I could overcome if I made a mistake here or a little bit there.”
Fellow Kansas native Bryant Wiedeman slipped into the runner-up spot on the opening lap and chased Martin relentlessly throughout the race but was unable to get close enough to make a bid for the lead. Still, the 20-year-old held the Ochs Racing No. 1x in the runner-up spot through the checkered flag, garnering his best career Series finish.
“I thought I could get [Martin] down the backstretch; I felt like that was my best opportunity,” Wiedeman said. “He kinda pinched off his entry into (Turn) 1 a little bit more than I was. I was kinda opening up and floating the bottom a little bit longer before sliding up to the grip strip at the exit of 2.
“We were pretty even in 3 and 4 with him the whole race, and I felt like I’d have better 1s and 2s when I’d hit it. But after that red, he just found something in Turn 4 where he was kinda doing what I was doing — he was kinda cutting off of Turns 3 and 4. He’d kinda back it into Turn 3 a little bit harder and then get a little bit of a diamond maneuver.”
Another Kansas native, Kyler Johnson, crossed the finish line in third place to bank his second podium finish in two nights. The 21-year-old came away with a runner-up finish after Friday’s main event at WaKeeney and backed it up with a third-place run Saturday.
Matt Covington crossed the stripe in fourth, followed by Hafertepe who completed the top five.
UP NEXT
The American Sprint Car Series resumes competition next Friday–Saturday night, Aug. 22–23 at Big Sky Speedway in Billings, MT, for the annual running of the Harvey Ostermiller Memorial — paying $15,012 to Saturday’s Feature winner.
Tickets for the event are on sale now at the link below and will also be available at the track on race day. If you can’t be there in person, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
BIG SKY TICKETS
FEATURE RESULTS
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 36-Jason Martin[2]; 2. 1X-Bryant Wiedeman[4]; 3. 45X-Kyler Johnson[3]; 4. 95-Matt Covington[6]; 5. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 6. 52-Blake Hahn[7]; 7. 27B-Jake Bubak[5]; 8. 2B-Garrett Benson[9]; 9. 16G-Austyn Gossel[8]; 10. 71-Brady Baker[17]; 11. 88C-Brogan Carder[11]; 12. 5D-Adam Trimble[16]; 13. 88R-Ryder Laplante[14]; 14. 2J-Zach Blurton[12]; 15. 10-Landon Britt[15]; 16. 88-Terry Easum[18]; 17. 6G-Bryan Gossel[10]; 18. 45-Bradley Cox[13]; 19. 75-Nick Nichols[22]; 20. 92-Coby Pearce[20]; 21. 24B-Johnny Boos[21]; 22. 74-Zack Merritt[19]