Story By: SPENCE SMITHBACK / ASCS – CONCORD, NC – The American Sprint Car Series National Tour kicks off three-straight weeks of racing this weekend with two stops in America’s heartland.
The weekend begins on Friday, Aug. 16, with the second stop of the year at Dodge City Raceway Park. Then, on Saturday, Aug. 17, teams will make the five-hour trip north to Nebraska’s Lincoln County Raceway, where the Series will compete for the first time in more than a quarter-century.
Both nights will include a standard $4,000-to-win/$400-to-start Feature. The National Tour will be joined by NOW600 Micro Sprints at Dodge City, while the Lincoln County itinerary will include Modifieds, Sport Mods, Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks, Compacts and Warriors.
Tickets to both events will be available at the track on race day.
Here are the top storylines entering the weekend:
BACK FOR MORE: If the second visit of the year to Dodge City is anything like the first, fans will be in for a treat on Friday night.
Back in June, Matt Covington was on his way to his first National Tour win of the season until a collision with a slower car brought an early end to his night. That opened the door for Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Jason Martin to battle it out for the top spot, with Hafertepe emerging victorious to claim his first of seven Series wins so far in 2024.
Covington returned to Dodge City five weeks later in search of redemption, and he got just that by topping an ASCS Western Plains Region event on July 6. The field that night included fellow National Tour competitor Kyler Johnson, who will be looking to use those extra Dodge City laps to his advantage on Friday to score his first top five on the National Tour since Red Dirt Raceway on May 10.
Martin’s runner-up result in June is still his best finish of the season, as the reigning champion will continue his search for his maiden trip to Victory Lane in 2024 this weekend. Dodge City could be just the place, as he finished first or second in his last three visits to the facility.
Another car to keep an eye on will be the No. 2J of Zach Blurton, who will be returning to the site of his first of two top 10s with the Series this season. The Rookie of the Year contender has made dozens of 305 Sprint Car starts at Dodge City, including seven wins with the United Rebel Sprint Series since 2013.
LINING UP LINCOLN: On Aug. 7, 1998, Terry Gray parked his Sprint Car in Lincoln County Victory Lane to claim the 22nd win of his National Tour career. However, his 9,507-day run as the most recent Series winner at the track will come to an end on Saturday night when someone new adds their name to the list of North Platte victors.
With many drivers in the field having zero Lincoln County experience, those who have competed there could have the upper hand come race day. Three of Blurton’s URSS wins have come at Lincoln County in 2016, 2022 and 2023, and he finished on the podium on two other occasions. Martin also won in North Platte with the URSS in 2019, while Austyn Gossel finished fourth there in ASCS Elite Non-Wing action in 2021.
On the other hand, Saturday’s race could be a wild card in the championship fight, as none of the top five in points have ever suited up at the ½-mile Nebraska dirt track.
GAINING GROUND: If Seth Bergman’s Sprint Car had a rearview mirror, the “objects in mirror may be closer than they appear” reminder would be referring to the black-and-red No. 15H.
Hafertepe has a win percentage of 50% thus far in the 2024 season, but a slow start to the season combined with a crash at Arrowhead Speedway and engine trouble at Tri-State Speedway put the Sunnyvale, TX native 99 points behind leader Bergman, who has racked up four wins and 10 top fives in 13 Feature starts.
Hafertepe ended Speedweek with a 201-point gap to Bergman in the standings, but a second-place finish at Batesville followed by four-straight wins has cut that deficit in half. While his latest triumph on his prelim night at the 360 Knoxville Nationals only paid show-up points, it still shifted the momentum firmly in Hafertepe’s favor entering Dodge City, where he won in June.
Meanwhile, Bergman finished sixth earlier this season in his first National Tour start at Dodge City in 12 years. With that recent experience under his belt, the driver of the No. 23 will be looking to put it in the top five for the first time at Dodge City and rebuild his lead in the title chase.
THE LONG HAUL: Six races in three weeks is nothing out of the ordinary for a high-level Sprint Car team, but rarely does one of those stretches take them as far from home as many teams will be over the next few weeks.
Competitors will put 275 miles on the odometer between Dodge City and Lincoln County, and from there, it’s nearly 700 miles through the Rocky Mountains to Big Sky Speedway near Billings, MT, where the Series will contest the Harvey Ostermiller Memorial, Aug. 23-24.
The Series will then venture 200 miles north to Electric City Speedway, where the trip will wrap up with the Montana Roundup on Labor Day weekend, Aug. 30-31.
WHEN AND WHERE:
Friday, Aug. 16 at Dodge City Raceway Park in Dodge City, KS
Saturday, Aug. 17 at Lincoln County Raceway in North Platte, NE
AROUND THE TURN:
The American Sprint Car Series National Tour will make its return to Montana next weekend, Aug. 23-24, at Big Sky Speedway in Shepherd, MT for the Harvey Ostermiller Memorial, which will conclude with a $12,012-to-win Feature on Saturday night.