Coming into the weekend to face the national stars of the American Sprint Car Series, Whit Gastineau knew he had the means to beat the touring regulars.
In two nights of racing, he beat them twice.
The 41-year-old from Moore, OK, scored his first career Series victory at Salt City Speedway on Friday night, then turned around on Saturday and did it again, passing Brady Baker for the lead on Lap 10 and holding on for a clean sweep of the Series’ final race weekend of the season in Kansas.
As one of Oklahoma’s top regional/local talents, Gastineau races on only a part-time basis. But this weekend, he showed exactly what he and his team have been capable of all season long with the domination of their full-time opponents.
“There’s lots of times we didn’t have the car as good as we needed, but we’ve been good all year,” Gastineau said. “No matter what car we’ve been in — the 360, the two-barrel or the 305 — we’re fast every time we go out. We show up expecting to win, expecting to be top-five, for sure.”
On Friday, it was all Gastineau, leading every lap en route to the win. Saturday brought 18-year-old Rookie of the Year contender Brady Baker to the lead from the outside pole in the opening laps while polesitter Gastineau chased him around the half-mile oval.
The two caught the tail of the field as the race neared the halfway point, and when Baker slowed his pace, Gastineau closed the gap and looked for a way to get by. Carrying great speed down the backstretch, Gastineau drove deep into Turn 3 on Lap 10 and threw a slidejob on Baker to take the top spot.
“I didn’t know if I was gonna get to him or not,” Gastineau said. “I was just doing my best and trying different lines, just something different than he was. That’s when I found that top and I could tell it wasn’t bad.
“I just knew that I had to drive it harder into 3 than him and slide up in front of him and then go from there.”
Gastineau took command out front, but Baker did not immediately go away. The young Arkansas racer found the top lane to his liking, picked up more speed and went side-by-side with Gastineau on Lap 14. But the veteran held him off, using his speed and grip in the bottom lane to drive away from the challenge, off to his second career Series win.
Baker hung on for a second-place result, which tied his best career Series finish that he earned at Batesville Motor Speedway in June.
“I got to the early lead and I thought I was checked out, and I just got too patient with the lapped cars,” Baker said. “I was trying to run my own pace, not trying to get in their air. I didn’t know how close they were behind me, and then Whit got by me.
“We almost got door-to-door and then, going down the straightaway, I got in his dirty air and he pulled back away from me.”
Matt Covington completed the podium in the third position, collecting his eighth podium finish of the season.
“Our car was pretty good, I maybe got it a little too left-rear tight and I was fighting it a little bit, but so was Baker in front of me,” Covington said. “Our cars looked pretty similar. A pretty good run for those guys; a great weekend for Whit. A pretty good weekend for ourselves.”
Series points leader Sam Hafertepe Jr. crossed the stripe in fourth, while Kansas native Zach Blurton completed the top five, earning the Hard Charger honors in his drive from ninth up to fifth place.
UP NEXT
The American Sprint Car Series is back in action next Friday–Saturday, Oct. 17–18, at Tulsa Speedway in Tulsa, OK.
Tickets and parking 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 (20 Laps): 1. 2-Whit Gastineau[1]; 2. 71-Brady Baker[2]; 3. 95-Matt Covington[4]; 4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 5. 2J-Zach Blurton[9]; 6. 52-Blake Hahn[5]; 7. 2B-Garrett Benson[6]; 8. 12H-Elijah Gile[7]; 9. 16G-Austyn Gossel[8]; 10. 36-Jason Martin[12]; 11. 88-Terry Easum[11]; 12. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[14]; 13. 10-Landon Britt[15]; 14. 0BS-Jesse Pate[18]; 15. 45X-Kyler Johnson[13]; 16. 88K-Jordan Knight[16]; 17. 91X-Jeff Stasa[19]; 18. 12W-Dale Wester[20]; 19. (DNF) 88R-Ryder Laplante[17]; 20. (DNF) 3D-Jake Diehl[21]; 21. (DNF) 88C-Brogan Carder[10]
