Bergman Clinches Speedweek Championship with Tri-State Victory
The list of ASCS Speedweek champions includes many of the all-time greats of Sprint Car racing such as Terry Gray, Jason Johnson, Sammy Swindell, and now Seth Bergman.
The now 21-time American Sprint Car Series National Tour winner survived a chaotic Feature Saturday night at Tri-State Speedway to secure his second win in as many nights and the miniseries title.
“It can’t get any better than that,” Bergman said. “We had a solid week, two second-place finishes and two wins, so it’s hard to beat that.”
Hank Davis was the night’s polesitter following his first Dash win of 2024, but his time out front didn’t last long. Second-place starter Jason Martin looked to his inside in Turn 1 on the opening lap and completed the pass exiting the corner.
Martin built a half-straightaway advantage by the end of the first circuit, but the spinning car of Daryn Langford erased it on Lap 4. When the race restarted, the field only completed half a lap before Bryan Gossel went into the catchfence in Turn 2 to bring out the first red flag of the night.
When fence repairs were complete, Davis made the same move in Turn 1 that Martin made on him on the initial start to grab the lead back. Martin slid his way back past Davis in Turn 3, but the battle slowed both of them down and allowed the third-place car of Matt Covington to join the fight.
With the top three under a blanket, Davis dove to the bottom in Turn 1 but washed back up the track, resulting in contact with Martin and a subsequent pileup that eliminated all three leaders from contention.
That handed the lead to Bergman, who led the rest of the way. A pair of cautions involving Michael Day and Landon Britt gave the field their chance at the No. 23 car, but their efforts came up fruitless.
“It’s hard to win these races,” Bergman said. “When your most formidable competitors fall out like that, sure, it makes for a few less challenges.”
The most notable absence in the main event was that of Sam Hafertepe Jr., who scratched following his Heat Race due to engine issues.
Runner-up Jordon Mallett was able to counter Bergman’s preferred top groove by hugging the inside wall to get within striking distance on multiple occasions in the second half of the race, but the No. 55B was unable to wrestle the lead away.
“If I would have made one mistake there on the curb or something, Mallett was probably good enough on the bottom that he could have got me,” Bergman said. “There’s some depth and talent in this field, it keeps you pretty honest.”
Although Mallett fell just short of his second National Tour win, his first podium finish of 2024 was enough to prove that the Brandon Anderson Motorsports team can be legitimate contenders come Feature time.
“We were all firing on all cylinders tonight,” Mallett said. “Seems like we’ve been able to time in quick, heat race good, put ourselves in good spots, and then we’ve lacked something in the Feature. Tonight we were finally able to get in the right direction.”
The misfortune for several of the leaders opened the door for some of the underdogs to collect strong finishes, and Kyle Clark took full advantage of that opportunity with a third-place run.
“I run pretty good at this racetrack, and we had the car dialed in,” said the former Oil Capital Racing Series winner at Tri-State. “Happy with what we got, and hopefully we can do it again next time.”
Whit Gastineau was also on the list of part-timers who found success, as his fourth-place result was just one spot short of his career-best with the Series.
Rounding out the top five was Rookie of the Year contender Andrew Deal, who made an incredible 21st-to-fifth run to pick up the Hard Charger Award.
UP NEXT: The Series returns to action next Saturday for its first visit to Batesville Motor Speedway since 2022. Tickets will be available at the track on race day, while DIRTVision will provide live coverage for those unable to make it to the track.
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman[4]; 2. 55B-Jordon Mallett[8]; 3. 9S-Kyle Clark[7]; 4. 2W-Whit Gastineau[5]; 5. 15D-Andrew Deal[21]; 6. 22M-Rees Moran[12]; 7. 95-Matt Covington[3]; 8. 45X-Kyler Johnson[16]; 9. 938-Bradley Fezard[9]; 10. 26M-Fred Mattox[11]; 11. 31-Casey Wills[23]; 12. 2J-Zach Blurton[10]; 13. 91-Michael Day[14]; 14. 16G-Austyn Gossel[17]; 15. 5H-Harli White[20]; 16. 42-Caleb Saiz[19]; 17. 88-Terry Easum[22]; 18. 30-Joseph Miller[18]; 19. 32D-Daryn Langford[24]; 20. 10-Landon Britt[13]; 21. 36-Jason Martin[2]; 22. 2C-Hank Davis[1]; 23. 6G-Bryan Gossel[15]; 24. (DNS) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr
Cover image by David Smith Jr.
