WON ONE: Sam Hafertepe Jr. Claims 89th American Sprint Car Series Victory in The Big One Opener at Belleville
Sam Hafertepe Jr. is back in his groove again.
The American Sprint Car Series points leader ended his wait to Victory Lane with a dominating performance on the opening night of The Big One at Belleville High Banks for his first win of the 2026 season.
Hafertepe put his No. 15H Maxim Chassis at the top of the leaderboard throughout Friday, leading the way in Hot Laps, setting a new track record in Qualifying, then won the Honest Abe Roofing Dash to start on the Pole Position for the night’s Feature.
When the green flag dropped, Hafertepe darted to the lead over Matt Covington by keeping his car through the middle lane of Turn 1, then slid up the track out of Turn 2 to get clear as Garrett Benson used the open space on the cushion of the 1/2-mile to take the runner-up spot over Covington.
The Sunnyvale, TX driver orchestrated the pace of the Feature by stretching the lead by 0.5 seconds per lap to reach a one-second lead over Benson through the first quarter of the 20-lap Feature.
When Hafertepe reached the halfway point, he amassed a 2.6-second gap as lap traffic began to interrupt his leading momentum. Benson began to reel in the leader back in his direction, then lost ground on Hafertepe once more as he found clean air after overtaking the lapped cars.
Reaching a 3.5-second lead by the sight of the twin checkered flags, Hafertepe claimed his 89th career ASCS National Tour triumph and stretched the points lead to 37 markers over Covington exiting the night.
“It was a really good race car,” Hafertepe said. “We kind of tried a little bit in the Heat race, and probably wasn’t what we needed. Then, we tried a little more in the Dash, then made some more changes for the Feature, and got our car feeling like it was here last year.
“We’re on, man. I’ve had interviews about it, going ‘You haven’t won a race and all this.’ I mean, I won one now. So, it was inevitable. I didn’t know if it was gonna happen tonight, tomorrow, whenever, but it was gonna happen.”
Benson finished the night in second, and Covington completed the podium for his third appearance in the last four Series races. Jake Bubak finished fourth, and Seth Bergman rounded out the top five.
Recap Notes:
Quick Time Award: Sam Hafertepe Jr. (15.030 sec.)
Heat Race Winners: Matt Covington, Seth Bergman, Garrett Benson
Honest Abe Roofing Dash Winner: Sam Hafertepe Jr.
Hard Charger Award: Whit Gastineau (+5)
Up Next: The American Sprint Car Series will return on Saturday night for The Big One finale at Belleville High Banks on June 27.
Where can you watch every lap of the American Sprint Car Series? Live on DIRTVision.
RESULTS: Feature (20 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 2. 27B-Garrett Benson[4]; 3. 95-Matt Covington[2]; 4. 9-Jake Bubak[8]; 5. 23-Seth Bergman[3]; 6. 1X-Bryant Wiedeman[5]; 7. 2-Whit Gastineau[12]; 8. 14-Joey Danley[6]; 9. 88-Terry Easum[9]; 10. 2J-Zach Blurton[7]; 11. 88R-Ryder Laplante[16]; 12. 45X-Kyler Johnson[10]; 13. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[11]; 14. 68-Taylor Milton[13]; 15. 63-Jack Thomas[14]; 16. 16G-Austyn Gossel[17]; 17. 88C-Brogan Carder[18]; 18. 3-Cole Schroeder[19]; 19. 70K-Henry Rogers[20]; 20. 88J-Jeremy Huish[15]
