Matt Covington Victorious in Sonoran Clash Night 2 at Central Arizona Raceway
If there’s a fast top line around a dirt track, Matt Covington is sure to find it and use it to get to the front.
Covington, 36, of Glenpool, OK, blasted around the 3/8-mile oval of Central Arizona Raceway Sunday night en route to victory on night #2 of the American Sprint Car Series’ inaugural Sonoran Clash, making the pass on Kyler Johnson for the lead in the closing laps — reminiscent of their battle at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park last September, which ended in similar fashion.
“I feel bad for those guys; those guys are my friends, and I’ve stole two from him,” Covington said. “They’re doing so good, and [Johnson’s] gonna get there, it’s just traffic — you get it with experience. I didn’t do a very good job of it last night.”
Saturday night’s winner Justin Peck took command of the race early from the pole, jumping out to a 2.5-second lead over Johnson in traffic. That was until the caution flag was thrown 14 laps in, erasing Peck’s deficit and restacking the field on his bumper for the restart. Or so it seemed.
As the lights on the pace truck went out and the field prepared to resume racing, Peck ducked into the infield with a flat right-front tire, surrendering the lead to Johnson with Whit Gastineau and Covington right on his heels.
On the restart, Johnson took off strong and built up a sizable lead as Covington got by Gastineau down the backstretch on Lap 18. Seven laps later, Covington had erased his gap of over 1.5 seconds to Johnson and drove into Turn 3 with great speed on the top side. Rounding the fourth corner with Johnson committed to the bottom lane, Covington zoomed past Johnson into the lead as he crossed the start/finish line to complete Lap 25.
Now with the top spot, Covington paraded the field around the final five circuits without challenge en route to the $6,000 payday and the 23rd Series victory of his career.
“I really can’t believe we won this thing tonight,” Covington said. “The car was great.”
“I feel like we’ve really got things figured out right now. We’ve been off. We kinda got our butts kicked at Volusia — it’s a different track, a tough track. But we got a good rebound, and the rest of the year is looking up for us.”
Johnson held on to finish second while 15-year-old Levi Hillier banked his first career national Sprint Car series podium with a third-place run.
Johnson was the fastest car of all 34 entrants in Qualifying with a lap time of 14.03
Heat Races were won by Nick Parker, Matt Covington, Hank Davis and Ryder Laplante.
The Honest Abe Roofing Dash was won by Justin Peck, and the Smith Titanium Last Chance Showdown was won by Sterling Cling.
UP NEXT
The American Sprint Car Series is back in action at Central Arizona Raceway, Sat–Sun, Feb. 28–March 1, for the finale of the Sonoran Clash.
Tickets for the event will be sold at the gate. If you can’t attend, stream live on DIRTVision.
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington[6]; 2. 45X-Kyler Johnson[2]; 3. 26R-Levi Hillier[4]; 4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[19]; 5. 7-Brock Zearfoss[11]; 6. 88R-Ryder Laplante[7]; 7. 2-Whit Gastineau[5]; 8. 88N-DJ Netto[15]; 9. 15-Nick Parker[8]; 10. 23-Seth Bergman[9]; 11. 7C-Colby Copeland[16]; 12. 31BW-Braxton Weger[14]; 13. 11J-Wyatt Miller[12]; 14. 88C-Brogan Carder[24]; 15. 2J-Zach Blurton[10]; 16. 2B-Garrett Benson[22]; 17. 88-Terry Easum[23]; 18. 23N-Skylar Gee[18]; 19. 77X-Alex Hill[13]; 20. 16G-Austyn Gossel[20]; 21. 26-Justin Peck[1]; 22. 34-Sterling Cling[17]; 23. 17GP-Hank Davis[3]; 24. 22-Garen Linder[21]
