For the second time this year, Jason Martin is back in Victory Lane with the American Sprint Car Series.
The 2023 Series champion from Liberal, KS, topped fellow two-time Series champion Blake Hahn Friday night at Electric City Speedway, losing the lead 19 laps in on a restart before taking it back four circuits later and leading the field back to the checkered flag to bank his 16th career Series win on opening night of the Montana Roundup.
Following a victory in the Honest Abe Roofing Dash, Hahn lined up on the pole to lead the field to the green flag in the Feature. To his outside lined up Martin, who got the better takeoff out of Turn 4 on the start of the race and took the lead going into Turn 1.
For the first 19 laps, Martin controlled the race with authority. Hahn took a look to Martin’s inside on the first two restarts of the race but was unable to get close enough to make the pass. Then came a restart on Lap 20.
Hahn got a strong takeoff out of Turn 4 and charged into Turn 1 with momentum, diving low and sliding up in front of Martin in Turn 2 to take the lead. He protected the bottom lane in Turns 3 and 4 to impede any return fire from Martin, who immediately got back on the top side around the 3/8-mile and began winding-up momentum.
“It didn’t surprise me; that’s the name of the game now — the way you’ve gotta race, you’ve gotta slide somebody to pass them,” Martin said. “I knew when I spun the tires, I probably should’ve went to the bottom, but I hadn’t been to the bottom yet, so I knew that I better just gamble my cards and see what the top had and see if I could slide him back.”
“I was actually kind of surprised with the restart we got that I was able to slide Jason like that; it all kinda just fell in my lap pretty quickly there,” Hahn said.
It took only four laps before Martin caught Hahn’s rear bumper, and on Lap 23, he made a bid to retake the lead, powering around the outside of Hahn’s No. 52 in Turns 1–2 to regain the top spot.
“I felt like at that time, the track was kinda migrating back to the bottom,” Hahn said. “So, I got by [Martin] and I went back to the bottom and left the top open for him and he just ripped back around me.”
“I just had to get up on the wheel and make good laps around the top and get rolling again,” Martin said.
From there, Martin took off and left Hahn in his wake as he cruised to his first career victory at Electric City while Hahn settled for second — his sixth podium finish of the season.
Garrett Benson completed the podium with a third-place finish. The 15-year-old Rookie of the Year contender from Concordia, MO, chased Matt Covington throughout the 30-lap event, and on the final lap, made the pass to take the third spot coming to the checkered flag, collecting his second career Series podium finish.
“I kinda showed Matt the nose, and he changed up his line down (in Turns 1–2), and that just allowed me to have a good run on the top, and I was able to get him at the checkered,” Benson said. “I didn’t know it was the checkered. I looked up and I saw (the flagman) waving the flag, and that felt good.”
Covington settled for fourth while Kansas native Zach Blurton completed the top five.
UP NEXT
The American Sprint Car Series is back in action at Electric City Speedway for the finale of the Montana Roundup on Saturday, Aug. 30. Tickets 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)
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 36-Jason Martin[2]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[1]; 3. 2B-Garrett Benson[5]; 4. 95-Matt Covington[4]; 5. 2J-Zach Blurton[7]; 6. 2JR-Kelly Miller[11]; 7. 17W-Ryder McCutcheon[10]; 8. 45X-Kyler Johnson[9]; 9. 71-Brady Baker[20]; 10. 28-Joe Perry[17]; 11. 88C-Brogan Carder[15]; 12. 88R-Ryder Laplante[3]; 13. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[8]; 14. 4L-Lane Taylor[16]; 15. 16G-Austyn Gossel[18]; 16. 12H-Elijah Gile[13]; 17. 10-Landon Britt[21]; 18. 24M-Ian Myers[6]; 19. 88-Terry Easum[14]; 20. 10B-Brody Anderson[22]; 21. 00-Kory Wermling[23]; 22. 23-Seth Bergman[12]; 23. 37-Trever Kirkland[19]
