Paducah International Raceway offers one of the most unique challenges on the American Sprint Car Series circuit. Friday night, Jason Martin became the latest to conquer its high-banked, high-speed confines with his third victory of the season.
Martin, the 2023 Series champion from Liberal, KS, grabbed the lead from polesitter Matt Covington on Lap 11 and never looked back, leading the final 15 laps of the main event to capture his 17th career Series checkered flag and first at the 3/8-mile Kentucky oval.
“I ran the top of (Turns) 1 and 2 as hard as you could possibly run it and never got out of the throttle,” Martin said. “If you did, you were gonna crash. This place is just demanding. It’s got such high banking, and the way you enter the corner, it seems like it [goes up] 20 feet going into Turn 1.
“It’s just a challenging racetrack. To win at these kinds of racetracks gives your team a lot of confidence and pride to be able to race at diverse tracks.”
Covington ruled the opening circuits of the 25-lap Feature, quickly opening up a gap over Martin and the rest of the field that grew as large as 2.4 seconds by Lap 5. However, the two-time Paducah winner’s right-rear tire soon began losing air, which slowed his pace enough to aid in Martin’s pursuit of the top spot.
Martin rapidly reeled-in the No. 95 on Lap 11 and made his move to the outside in Turn 3, driving around Covington and completing the pass for the lead out of Turn 4.
“I felt like we were running [Covington] down anyways; it was just a matter of being in traffic,” Martin said. “He was way faster in clean air, but once we got to traffic and had to move around, I felt like we had a pretty versatile car.
“It’s unfortunate for them; I hate to see them have a bad run. He’s always good here. If we could’ve beat him fair and square, that would’ve been what I wanted, but that’s just not how it plays out some nights.”
Covington’s tire went flat on the next lap, slowing him down and bringing out the yellow flag as he ducked into the work area to get it changed. Restarting from the tail of the field, he was able to drive back to a fourth-place finish.
Back out front, Martin led with authority, not once letting his competition get close enough to make a bid for the top spot as he led the rest of the distance to bank the $4,000 grand prize.
Austyn Gossel, of Fort Collins, CO, crossed the finish line second to bank his second runner-up finish of the season. He avoided an incident on a Lap 12 restart that collected several cars, including points leaders Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Blake Hahn, which moved him up multiple spots, and hung on in the final laps to match his best career Series finish.
“After the last five or six weeks we’ve had — it’s been hell, especially the last time we were out, we crashed three times in two nights — it feels really good to be back on the podium again,” Gossel said. “It’s unfortunate; those last three laps, we dropped a cylinder. I felt like I was catching them going into lapped traffic, and it just let go. I was praying for the white flag and the checkered flag because I wasn’t gonna make it much longer.”
Leading Brodix Rookie of the Year contender, Garrett Benson, of Concordia, MO, crossed the stripe third, banking his third podium finish of the season and getting retribution at the track after mechanical issues handed him a DNS during the Series’ first visit to Paducah in May.
“We had some gremlins last time we were here back in May, but I’m just happy to survive,” Benson said. “This is one of the most demanding, intimidating tracks I’ve ever been on. It’s not very big, but it’s got so much banking that you carry so much speed.
“Three laps-to-go, I about crashed it down in Turn 2 and was just hanging on there.”
Covington finished fourth while Kansas native Kyler Johnson rounded out the top five.
UP NEXT
The American Sprint Car Series is back in action Saturday, Sept. 20, at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park in Pevely, MO, racing for a $10,000 grand prize.
Tickets for the event will be sold at the track. If you can’t be there, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 36-Jason Martin[2]; 2. 16G-Austyn Gossel[5]; 3. 2B-Garrett Benson[7]; 4. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 5. 45X-Kyler Johnson[6]; 6. 2J-Zach Blurton[13]; 7. 10-Landon Britt[10]; 8. 88-Terry Easum[8]; 9. 88C-Brogan Carder[12]; 10. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 11. 52-Blake Hahn[9]; 12. 71-Brady Baker[4]; 13. 88R-Ryder Laplante[11]; 14. 33-Alan Zoutte[14]
