Hafertepe Jr Uses Final Lap Pass to Win at Gallatin

From Matt Skipper

GALLATIN, MT (September 4, 2026) — — All Sam Hafertepe Jr. needed to win at Gallatin Speedway was one corner.

The American Sprint Car Series kicked off the final leg of Frontier Speedweek with a 25-lap Feature that was worth the wait for race fans in the National Tour’s first race at the track since 2021.

The reigning Series champion started the night in sixth while Kyler Johnson and Matt Covington set the front row. Johnson and Covington held the front two spots through the first two turns, then both drivers slipped off the bottom of Turns 3-4 while Seth Bergman and Hafertepe stayed glued to pass Covington for podium positioning.
On the next lap, Bergman muscled around Johnson for the lead while Hafertepe stayed in third place behind Johnson.

As Bergman and Johnson’s pace around the bottom became affected by lap traffic, Hafertepe drifted his Hill’s Racing No. 15H towards the middle lane to rebuild momentum. He began creeping closer to Johnson for the runner-up spot through the bottom, then made his move at the halfway mark. Hafertepe got below Johnson off the exit of Turn 2, then outgassed him across the backstretch to secure second place on Lap 14.

Bergman’s struggles became Hafertepe’s gains through the final five laps as the Oklahoma Chillers-sponsored No. 23 was stuck to the bottom with a lapped car directly in front. The Sunnyvale, TX native cut the distance to 0.4 seconds with four laps remaining and kept his car in the middle lane.

As the white flag waved, Bergman continued attempting to make an opening around the lapped car while Hafertepe reached his right-rear tire down the backstretch. While Bergman ran to the middle as Hafertepe drifted higher into Turns 3-4, Hafertepe’s pace in the higher groove overwhelmed Bergman and Hafertepe drove to his fifth victory of the 2026 campaign by a 0.198-second margin.

“That was awesome,” Hafertepe said. “There is nobody I’d like to race beside more than Seth out here. He probably could have shoved it in there as hard as I did. But he didn’t do it. He tried, and we got a lot of respect for each other.

“He was a sitting duck, just trying to navigate the lapped cars, and you’re the leader out front. It’s hard to know where to be; I’ve been that guy that’s got passed at the end too. Hats off to him for a hell of a race, and hats off to my guys.”

Bergman took a heartbreaking runner-up finish, and Johnson made up the night’s podium. Covington finished fourth, and Cole Schroeder picked up fifth for his second top five of the swing.

With Hafertepe’s win and Covington’s fourth, the Texan retook the points lead by a 14-point margin with seven races left in the 2026 ASCS National Tour campaign.

ASCS National Tour
Frontier Speedway
Gallatin, Montana
Friday, September 4, 2026

Qualifying Flight A (2 Laps)
1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 11.174[1]
2. 2B-Garrett Benson, 11.228[7]
3. 23-Seth Bergman, 11.313[3]
4. 88C-Brogan Carder, 11.395[6]
5. 24M-Ian Myers, 11.606[5]
6. 8M-Kade Morton, 11.629[4]
7. 511-Josh Broadbent, 12.486[2]

Qualifying Flight B (2 Laps)
1. 95-Matt Covington, 11.217[5]
2. 16G-Austyn Gossel, 11.390[4]
3. 81-Kelly Miller, 11.528[1]
4. 37-Trever Kirkland, 11.673[7]
5. 23N-Rich Bailey, 11.707[2]
6. 97-Sheldon Bender, 11.795[6]
7. 38B-Bryan Brown, 12.334[3]

Qualifying Flight C (2 Laps)
1. 3-Cole Schroeder, 11.289[2]
2. 45X-Kyler Johnson, 11.361[4]
3. 88R-Ryder Laplante, 11.371[6]
4. 88-Terry Easum, 11.496[5]
5. 23H-Jake Helsel, 11.522[3]
6. 0J-Damon McCune, 11.759[1]

Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 23-Seth Bergman[2]
2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[4]
3. 2B-Garrett Benson[1]
4. 88C-Brogan Carder[3]
5. 8M-Kade Morton[6]
6. 24M-Ian Myers[5]
7. 511-Josh Broadbent[7]

Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 16G-Austyn Gossel[1]
2. 95-Matt Covington[4]
3. 37-Trever Kirkland[3]
4. 81-Kelly Miller[2]
5. 23N-Rich Bailey[5]
6. 38B-Bryan Brown[7]
7. 97-Sheldon Bender[6]

Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 45X-Kyler Johnson[1]
2. 3-Cole Schroeder[4]
3. 88R-Ryder Laplante[2]
4. 23H-Jake Helsel[5]
5. 88-Terry Easum[3]
6. 0J-Damon McCune[6]

Dash (5 Laps)
1. 45X-Kyler Johnson[1]
2. 95-Matt Covington[3]
3. 23-Seth Bergman[4]
4. 16G-Austyn Gossel[2]
5. 3-Cole Schroeder[6]
6. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[5]

Feature (25 Laps)
1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[6]
2. 23-Seth Bergman[3]
3. 45X-Kyler Johnson[1]
4. 95-Matt Covington[2]
5. 3-Cole Schroeder[5]
6. 88R-Ryder Laplante[8]
7. 2B-Garrett Benson[7]
8. 88C-Brogan Carder[10]
9. 81-Kelly Miller[12]
10. 16G-Austyn Gossel[4]
11. 97-Sheldon Bender[19]
12. 37-Trever Kirkland[9]
13. 23N-Rich Bailey[15]
14. 511-Josh Broadbent[20]
15. 23H-Jake Helsel[11]
16. 24M-Ian Myers[16]
17. 88-Terry Easum[13]
18. 8M-Kade Morton[14]
19. 0J-Damon McCune[17]
20. 38B-Bryan Brown[18]