Hafertepe Jr. Closes in on Sixth Championship with Friday Tulsa Victory
Sixteen months ago, Sam Hafertepe Jr. had never turned a lap around Tulsa Speedway. Now, he’s already the first three-time 360 Sprint Car winner in the history of the track.
After winning two of the three American Sprint Car Series events held at the track in 2024, the Sunnyvale, TX native picked up where he left off with the opening night win at the Double Down in T-Town, his 11th of the season with the Series.
“This place, we always perform really well here,” Hafertepe said. “It’s a good racetrack for us, we have a lot of really good notes. Me and Sean [McClelland], we share a lot of information between each other, that’s probably why we ran 1-2 tonight.”
Hafertepe led the field to green in the 25-lap main event to the inside of McClelland, the ASCS Sooner Region points leader entering the weekend. The No. 15H rolled the bottom around Turns 1 and 2 to get the lead down the backstretch and looked to set sail from there.
A trio of early yellows kept him from doing so, and also made traffic a non-factor in the first half of the race. That wouldn’t be the case in the waning moments though, as Hafertepe caught the tail of the field and struggled to find a way around. That allowed McClelland to eliminate the 1.6-second margin Hafertepe built up in clean air.
McClelland then found himself in the same dilemma as Hafertepe with the cars in front of him – reeling them in was doable, but passing them was more of a challenge. With the laps winding down, McClelland tried and failed to find enough momentum to get around Hafertepe and could only watch him take the checkered flag.
“I knew who was behind me,” Hafertepe said regarding McClelland’s late charge in traffic. “That’s one thing that I didn’t have to worry about him putting the chrome horn to me or nothing like that. That actually kind of eased me a little bit to just hit my marks and just do what you’re supposed to do. It gets really hard, and you’ve got to be so patient to hit the bottom that slow. It just makes it really difficult to be that patient.”
That patience was rewarded with an expanded lead in the title chase that now sits at 166 points with three races remaining. Hafertepe doesn’t need to be the fastest car on the track the rest of the way to lock up his sixth Series championship – nevertheless, he has his sights set on wrapping things up with a bang.
“Hasn’t been the end to the season that we wanted, so it’s good to get a win tonight, hopefully we can go down to Creek County [Speedway] and win down there too,” Hafertepe said. “We want to finish strong. That’s what champions do, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
For McClelland, his second-place effort was his best National Tour result since his most recent win across town at Creek County in 2023.
“I get sick of following that 15H,” McClelland said. “He’s good, that’s why I rely on him to help me out. He’s my best friend. He don’t know it, but he resurrected my career about six years ago, and I can’t thank him enough for it.”
The last step on the podium was occupied by Terry Easum, who notched a new season-high finish after a sophomore National Tour season filled with plenty of trials and tribulations.
“We know we’re capable, it’s just getting me comfortable in the car,” Easum said. “I’m probably the biggest hold up in this car. I just need to keep getting better, and we will. We’ll stick it out, and keep at it until we get better to be on a podium more.”
Matt Covington came home fourth for his third top five in his last four Tulsa starts, while Elijah Gile finished a career-best fifth.
UP NEXT: The American Sprint Car Series wraps up the Double Down in T-Town at Tulsa Speedway with a $6,000-to-win program on Saturday, Oct. 18.
If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 2. 1-Sean McClelland[2]; 3. 88-Terry Easum[3]; 4. 95-Matt Covington[4]; 5. 12H-Elijah Gile[6]; 6. 88R-Ryder Laplante[9]; 7. 2B-Garrett Benson[5]; 8. 85-Kyle Bellm[10]; 9. 52-Blake Hahn[17]; 10. 36-Jason Martin[12]; 11. 8R-Ryker Pace[13]; 12. 938-Bradley Fezard[18]; 13. 7M-Chance Morton[16]; 14. 71-Brady Baker[23]; 15. 2J-Zach Blurton[7]; 16. 52H-Hayden Mabe[14]; 17. G6-Howard Moore[15]; 18. 15D-Andrew Deal[19]; 19. 45X-Kyler Johnson[22]; 20. 29-Emilio Hoover[20]; 21. 16G-Austyn Gossel[24]; 22. 7F-Joshua Tyre[21]; 23. 26M-Fred Mattox[8]; 24. 8M-Kade Morton[11]
