Cameron Martin admits the last time he raced Sam Hafertepe Jr. for the win, he let it get away. But on Sunday night at Eagle Raceway, he was not about to let it happen again.
The 21-year-old from Ankeny, IA, got the best of the five-time national champion in a back-and-forth battle, retaking the lead with 15 laps remaining and holding Hafertepe off the rest of the distance to score his first career American Sprint Car Series Feature win in the second running of the Stewart Alley Memorial.
“This is super cool, especially to do it here at Eagle,” Martin said. “This is probably one of the best racetracks in the world right now. I can’t say thank you enough to Skylar (Prochaska, crew chief) and dad and everyone who helps me. I’ll never forget this moment.”
One year prior, Martin had qualified for the inaugural special event against a deep field but was taken out of contention in a crash on the opening lap. Fast forward to 2025 and he’s in Victory Lane in only his 15th career national Series start. Martin also becomes the 175th different winner with the Series and the eighth different driver to win a Series race at the Nebraska venue.
While Hafertepe got the jump at the drop of the green flag, Martin began plotting his plan of attack. He took his first opportunity, zooming past Hafertepe on the top side around the 1/3-mile oval after a restart on Lap 9.
“I just said ‘Man, I’m just gonna fall in on the top and run behind [Martin],’” Hafertepe said after falling back to second. “He’s a young guy, he’s gasser, and sometimes those guys make mistakes. And I thought, ‘Well, I’ll try my luck and see if he makes a mistake,’ and he just didn’t make any.”
Though Martin remained strong on the top side through the first half of the race, Hafertepe showed speed as well, reeling-in Martin and throwing a slidejob for the lead in Turns 3–4 on Lap 17.
“I was probably running it a little harder than I should’ve, but I really wanted that win,” Martin said. “I made the mistake of not running as hard as I should’ve last night and Sam pulled away from me. I wasn’t going to let that happen again.”
Hafertepe continued his march around the bottom lane while Martin got back on the top side; right-rear tire pinned to the cushion. He began charging up the momentum, and on Lap 20 raced around the outside of Hafertepe to retake the top spot in Turns 1–2.
“I could hear (Martin) pressuring me on the top sometimes, but I knew if I hit my line good, we were okay down there,” Hafertepe said. “I think one time, going into (Turn) 1, it was like all-of-a-sudden the bottom just went away in one lap, it felt like. And that’s when he got by me.”
The race stayed under green for the next seven laps while Martin began to open a gap on the field in lapped traffic. That advantage was erased when the yellow flag was thrown on Lap 28, and again on Lap 30, forcing Martin to defend the lead on the restarts.
“I felt really good when we were running through lapped traffic,” Martin said. “I kinda figured I had a pretty sizable lead, but I was just getting really comfortable, and the caution came out, so I just had to put my head down.
“I saw Skylar on the fence giving me the thumbs-up, so I knew I was gonna have to drive the hardest six laps of my life there at the end to hold Sam. JJ was super-fast, and I think Austin McCarl was back there, too. Those three guys are some of the best Sprint Car drivers in the world right now.”
In the end, Hafertepe was unable to reel-in Martin after the final restart. The Sunnyvale, TX-native settled for second and his third podium finish in the last four Series events.
“(Martin) has been fast all year, and he’s not just a 360 guy — he made the 410 Knoxville Nationals and ran 13th,” Hafertepe said. “He’s got a bright future, a really good family, and he’s a good kid. His dad, him and his brother are all really good people. I kinda like to see good people do good things. Not too mad that I got beat by him tonight; we’ll take our second and go on.”
Washington native JJ Hickle crossed the finish line third after winning a competitive battle for position with Austin McCarl in the closing laps. McCarl finished fourth while fellow Knoxville Raceway regular Riley Goodno rounded-out the top-five.
UP NEXT
The Series now takes a weekend off before resuming competition Sept. 19–20 at Paducah International Raceway and I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park.
Tickets for both events will be sold at the track on race day. If you can’t be there, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view all results)
Feature (35 Laps): 1. 4M-Cameron Martin[1]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 3. 63-JJ Hickle[2]; 4. 88W-Austin McCarl[5]; 5. 22-Riley Goodno[7]; 6. 23-Seth Bergman[16]; 7. 95-Matt Covington[25]; 8. 2B-Garrett Benson[12]; 9. 11-Roger Crockett[10]; 10. 36-Jason Martin[26]; 11. 44-Chris Martin[24]; 12. 11A-Billy Alley[11]; 13. 40-Clint Garner[9]; 14. 1-Sean McClelland[15]; 15. 2J-Zach Blurton[14]; 16. 938-Bradley Fezard[22]; 17. 17B-Ryan Bickett[17]; 18. 99-Tony Rost[21]; 19. 23M-Lance Moss[23]; 20. 5-Ryder McCutcheon[4]; 21. 27-Carson McCarl[8]; 22. 27B-Jake Bubak[18]; 23. 6-Cody Gardner[19]; 24. 6K-Dustin Selvage[20]; 25. 55-Chase Brown[27]; 26. 52-Blake Hahn[6]; 27. 47-Brant O’Banion[13]
