When two of Oklahoma’s best battle for the lead with the American Sprint Car Series, one thing is for certain — it’s sure to make for a memorable race.
Sooner State racers Blake Hahn and Matt Covington put on an exciting fight for the top spot in the second of two Features contested Friday night at Lakeside Speedway, first in the opening laps and again as the checkered flag neared. In the end, Hahn prevailed, holding off multiple close pass attempts from Covington and holding strong on a green-white-checkered finish to earn his second Feature win of the season.
In the first main event of the single-day doubleheader, Hahn finished third to Sam Hafertepe Jr. and winner Covington, which set the stage for his breakthrough in the July 11 makeup Feature later on. The win marked his 24th career Series victory and second overall at the 4/10-mile oval. It was also his first trip to Victory Lane since the tour’s stop at Batesville Motor Speedway on June 21 — a span of 14 races.
“Any time you can win is great, and then to be able to pick up another podium in the same night is really stellar,” Hahn, of Sapulpa, OK, said. “We’re happy with it.”
From the pole, Hahn jumped to the lead on the opening circuit but quickly encountered a challenge from outside polesitter Covington, who threw a slidejob in Turns 3 and 4 to take the lead on Lap 2. Covington held strong out front with Hahn in tow, but behind both of them was a driver determined to get back to Victory Lane.
Hafertepe — a winner of nine Series races in 2025 but none in the last three weekends — had wound-up great speed around the top side of the track, and on Lap 11, hit the cushion in Turns 1 and 2 and drove around the outside of Hahn to take over second place. One lap later, he shot to the bottom of the track in 1 and 2, and as Covington slipped up the track in his push through lapped traffic, Hafertepe snuck by underneath to take the lead.
“I kinda messed around on the bottom a little bit on that restart and that’s when Sam got by me,” Hahn said. “I looked up and he was already by Covington. The racing was getting really good there before the caution came out, so I was ready to get going there.”
Hafertepe began to pull away from Hahn and Covington, but his time out front was short lived. On Lap 17, Hafertepe collided with the slower car of Daryn Langford on the backstretch and spun, inciting a caution period and sending the Hill’s Racing No. 15H to the tail of the lead-lap cars for the restart.
“For Sam, that’s terrible,” Hahn said. “Obviously, I wanted to race that one out. I felt like I had a good enough car to contend for the win.”
Hahn inherited the lead for the restart, and immediately, the battle was on for the top spot. Covington tried to slide Hahn twice through Turns 3 and 4, leaving only inches between their two cars each time, but Hahn was able to retain the lead with his high-side momentum.
“After that restart, it kinda gave him the opportunity to slide me into (Turn) 3,” Hahn said. “They were really close sliders; he definitely gave me some room, which I do appreciate. That’s one great thing that I love about racing with these guys with ASCS is we can race hard like that between me, Sam and Covington. We race super, super hard, but we don’t have to worry about somebody just keeps going across your nose. That was really fun.”
One final caution flag flew with two laps remaining, forcing a green-white-checkered finish, but Hahn held strong out front and cruised to the checkered flag with Covington in second.
“We’re not complaining; car was really good,” Covington, of Glenpool, OK, said. “I think Blake might have been just a little bit better there. I had a run on him and left him just enough room to squeeze his car through there and he did it. He took off well on that restart; that last restart, I didn’t take off quite as good. He earned it.”
Fellow Oklahoma native Hank Davis, piloting the Beaver Racing Team No. 11x, crossed the stripe in third to collect his first podium finish of the season with the national Series.
“To be honest, I think we might’ve just been a third-place car all night,” Davis said. “We just struggled on restarts. We could get going, but once you lose a little bit on restarts, it kinda screws your whole run up.”
Kansas native Kyler Johnson finished fourth after starting eighth on the grid, while Oklahoma racer Terry Easum finished fifth, garnering his second top-five run of the season.
UP NEXT
The American Sprint Car Series travels to 81 Speedway in Park City, KS, for a clash with the ASCS Sooner Region on Saturday, Sept. 6. Tickets for the event will be sold at the track on race day.
If you can’t be there, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)
7/11 Makeup Feature (25 Laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn[1]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[2]; 3. 11X-Hank Davis[3]; 4. 45X-Kyler Johnson[8]; 5. 88-Terry Easum[9]; 6. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[4]; 7. 3Z-Cole Vanderheiden[19]; 8. 36-Jason Martin[20]; 9. 2J-Zach Blurton[13]; 10. 2B-Garrett Benson[7]; 11. 10-Landon Britt[14]; 12. 73-Samuel Wagner[6]; 13. 88R-Ryder Laplante[17]; 14. 16G-Austyn Gossel[5]; 15. 88C-Brogan Carder[12]; 16. 7C-Chris Morgan[11]; 17. 3D-Jake Diehl[18]; 18. 32D-Daryn Langford[15]; 19. 99-Tony Rost[10]; 20. 71-Brady Baker[16]; 21. 4W-Jamie Ball; 22. 17W-Harli White; 23. 1X-Bryant Wiedeman
