Sam Hafertepe Jr. Dominates ASCS Debut at Windy Hollow for Fourth-Straight Win
Four American Sprint Car Series victories in-a-row for Sam Hafertepe Jr., and there are no signs of slowing down.
The 39-year-old, five-time Series champion from Sunnyvale, TX, dominated the national Series debut at Windy Hollow Speedway Friday night, leading all 25 laps around the 3/8-mile oval to bank his fourth consecutive Feature win and 84th of his career over runner-up Matt Covington and third-place Jason Martin.
As he crossed underneath the checkered flag, Hafertepe had amassed a lead of over five seconds in the caution-free race.
“Obviously, if I had known we were that far ahead, I probably wouldn’t have pressed the issue,” Hafertepe said of his pace. “All-in-all, to win any race by five seconds is a feat in itself. We definitely had more on the table to give. Coming back, I feel like we could’ve been a lot better with the racecar.”
His fourth win in the last four races also counts as his seventh Series win of 2025 and his sixth in the last seven contested events. He’s also looking at a bit of historical significance should his streak continue — a fifth-straight win would tie the record he and Gary Wright share for the most consecutive national Series victories, which Wright established in 2005 and Hafertepe tied in 2017.
“I feel like we’ve had the best car all these nights that we’ve won, but we’re also getting gifted the front row of these Features too, and that definitely makes it a lot easier,” Hafertepe said.
Despite the big lead by the checkered flag, Hafertepe said he still felt pressure to keep his torrid pace on every lap.
“I really thought we weren’t as good as we were; I just never felt that great,” Hafertepe said. “Late in the race, I felt like we were fading, and I was expecting a guy to come at any second and pass us.”
Winged Sprint Cars have only seldom graced Windy Hollow’s confines in the track’s 55-year history. But Hafertepe said his veteran experience and wisdom gained in his 20-plus-year career gave him the edge over his competition.
“We’ve raced a lot of different racetracks, and we’ve seen, maybe not raced here, but we’ve seen places similar to this,” Hafertepe said. “Whenever you have the ability to race at all these different places I’ve raced through the years, it gives you somewhat of an advantage at some point in the night. Maybe not all night long, but at some point in the night, it makes your transition throughout the night a little easier than everybody else’s.”
Covington chased Hafertepe through traffic throughout the event but ultimately came up one spot short. He raced side-by-side with Hafertepe on the opening lap, but Hafertepe had more speed in the higher groove and was able to get around Covington for the lead, leading to a high-speed chase through slower traffic that placed the No. 95 runner-up in the end.
“I knew that Sam was gonna be really fast, and if I let him get out front, I was gonna be hard-pressed to get around him,” Covington said. “I think he was better than we were and he may have drove it back around us anyway if we would’ve got out front.”
2023 Series champion Jason Martin crossed in third to complete the podium, while Arizona racer Sterling Cling finished fourth and Colorado native Austyn Gossel rounded out the top five.
Hafertepe turned the fastest lap in WEDG High Performance Karts Hot Laps (12.518 sec.) and was also the Quick Time Award winner with a lap of 12.657 in Qualifying.
Heat Races were won by Cling, Gossel and Covington.
Covington was victor of the Honest Abe Roofing Dash.
UP NEXT
The American Sprint Car Series next races Benton Speedway in Benton, MO, on Saturday, July 26. Tickets for the event will be sold at the track. If you can’t be there to watch in person, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS (view all results)
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[2]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 3. 36-Jason Martin[6]; 4. 34-Sterling Cling[4]; 5. 16G-Austyn Gossel[3]; 6. 97-Scotty Milan[5]; 7. 52-Blake Hahn[8]; 8. 51B-Joe B Miller[9]; 9. 2B-Garrett Benson[12]; 10. 2J-Zach Blurton[7]; 11. 71-Brady Baker[16]; 12. 5D-Zach Daum[10]; 13. 2-Chase Porter[13]; 14. 10-Landon Britt[17]; 15. 88-Terry Easum[15]; 16. 88R-Ryder Laplante[14]; 17. 88C-Brogan Carder[11]; 18. 45X-Kyler Johnson[18]
