Story By: SPENCE SMITHBACK / ASCS – SHEPHERD, MT – For the first time in three years, the American Sprint Car Series National Tour is back in Montana this weekend.
Big Sky Speedway, near Billings, will play host to the Harvey Ostermiller Memorial on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 23-24, featuring a $12,012-to-win/$612-to-start finale on Saturday. It’s the biggest paying Sprint Car event in the track’s history and second-largest Feature purse of the National Tour season behind the 360 Knoxville Nationals.
Friday’s event will pay $3,000 to win and $400 to start. The Sprint Cars will be joined on the racing program by WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds and INEX Legends both nights.
Tickets are available for purchase online in advance by clicking here, or at the track on race day.
Here are the top storylines entering the weekend:
BACK TO BIG SKY: The most recent Montana stop for the National Tour in 2021 came at Gallatin Speedway, so this weekend will mark the first Series races at Big Sky since 2019.
The National Tour’s history at the facility dates back to 2013 when Jason Johnson won the Series debut at Big Sky, followed by Jeff Swindell in 2014 and Johnny Herrera in 2015. The Series did not return to the track until a doubleheader weekend in 2019, when Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Blake Hahn split the victories.
If Hafertepe can collect his 10th National Tour win of the season this weekend, he would become the first repeat winner at Big Sky. He isn’t the only driver in the field who knows how to get it done in Billings though, as championship rival Seth Bergman swept a Frontier Region doubleheader in 2020.
Other drivers with past Big Sky experience to lean on include Matt Covington, who has a career-best of fourth in four National Tour starts, and Austyn Gossel, who will look to ride the momentum from back-to-back top 10s last weekend into the track where he finished seventh with the Frontier Region in May.
CHIPPING AWAY: Two months ago, Bergman was fresh off a Speedweek championship that included two wins and four podiums in four races, and the points leader by nearly 200 points looked like the overwhelming favorite for the title.
How things have changed.
Hafertepe’s runner-up effort at Batesville the next weekend kicked off a dream summer for the No. 15H team and a nightmare for the rest of the field. The Sunnyvale, TX driver has now won five-straight full-points races along with a prelim night triumph at the 360 Knoxville Nationals, and the gap is down to 83 points entering Montana.
His margin to Bergman would be much smaller if it weren’t for a streak of consistency out of the No. 23 camp. In full-points events, Bergman’s worst finish of the year is seventh, and he is 12-for-14 in top fives. However, with the run Hafertepe has been on as of late, returning to Victory Lane for the first time in two months may be the only way for Bergman to stop his lead from shrinking further.
WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?: In the first half of Zach Blurton’s rookie season on the National Tour, the No. 2J team had fallen short of Blurton’s own expectations with just two top 10s in 13 races. They were in desperate need of a turnaround, and they got just that last weekend.
Blurton put his years of 305 Sprint Car experience at Dodge City Raceway Park to good use and came home seventh, his best finish of the year to that point. One night later at Lincoln County Raceway, he put the field on notice by beating Hafertepe to win his Heat Race and then held onto third in the Feature for his first podium of the season.
He’ll look to keep the good times rolling this weekend at Big Sky, where he will be making his Sprint Car debut. However, with nearly three-quarters of the Series full-timers doing the same, the even playing field could provide an opportunity for Blurton to continue challenging for his second-career National Tour win.
WILD FRONTIER: The ASCS Frontier Region will be bringing a field of competitors with no lack of Big Sky experience, and they will all be looking to ensure the largest winner’s check on the Montana Sprint Car calendar doesn’t cross the state line.
Phil Dietz sits atop the Frontier Region standings after seven races and is riding a two-race win streak into the weekend, with his latest score coming at Big Sky on Aug. 3. Sitting 32 points behind Dietz in a tie for second are former Series champions Trever Kirkland and Kelly Miller, and while both are winless this season, they are both multi-time Frontier Region winners at Big Sky.
Big Sky has hosted the Frontier Region more than any other track in Series history dating back to the inaugural season in 2013, and the winner’s list includes many national Sprint Car stars. Drivers like Skylar Gee, J.J. Hickle, Jordon Mallett and Devon Borden have all made the trip to Billings and left with a trophy.