Hafertepe Grabs Runner-Up Finish In ASCS Opener At Devil’s Bowl

Story By: BRYAN HULBERT / HILL’S RACING – MESQUITE, TX – Starting his bid for a third consecutive championship with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by Sawblade.com this past weekend, Sam Hafertepe, Jr. raced to a second place finish in the rain-shortened Devil’s Bowl Spring Nationals in the Hill’s Racing Team No. 15h.

“You know, even with the testing we did the week before, at the Devil’s Bowl, you don’t really get to run on the racing surface per se,” stated Hafertepe who has not had the chance to really test his ASCS car as much as his 410cid program so far this season. “We’re really still trying to feel things out and see what the cars need so it was good to get a whole race night in and run second when I feel like we were struggling all night long so I was happy with the finish and knowing how much better we can be.”

Drawing the back of the night’s third Heat Race, the Sunnyvale, Texas driver moved to a fourth-place finish to secure his starting spot in Friday’s 25-lap A-Feature event. Just shy of the redraw, Sam took the green from the ninth starting spot.

Getting the front of the field later in the race, restarts were key in Sam’s ability to move forward.

“The track was really follow the leader around the cushion and when that happens, a lot of guys will try to do more than what’s there and that really opened up the window for us so I don’t think I did anything really spectacular expect run my line and realize that if a person is going to slide someone in front of you, you’re going to run up on them so I just waited for those opportunities. I just feel like I’ve raced that track so much in my career that I know where it’s going to go so I just maintained and tried to capitalize on people’s mistakes. We were off in the feature, and I kind of know what we need to do to fix the problems so I feel good going into these next few weeks that we’re going to be where we need to be very soon.”

Taking in as many laps as possible to further test his Heidbreder Foundation No. 15h, Sam is slated to be in action at the Air Capital Shootout at 81-Speedway in Park City, Kan. on Friday, March 30 and Saturday, March 31 before making his return to the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track on April 6 and 7.