WHEATLAND, Missouri (September 22, 2018) – Sam Hafertepe said his flag-to-flag victory at Saturday night’s 8th annual Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway might have looked flawless.
“I wouldn’t say it was perfect,” Hafertepe said in victory lane. “But when you have a car that good, you can do whatever you want.”
Hafertepe led all 30 laps to earn the $30,000 victory and pad his Lucas Oil ASCS Winged Sprint championship lead, winning by a comfortable margin over runner-up Scott Bogucki and third-place Seth Bergman in front of a big crowd.
It was a repeat win at the crown-jewel event for Hafertepe, of Sunnyvalle, Texas and his sixth win on the national tour series this season.
The co-headliner also saw a wire-to-wire winner as Kyle Cummings captured the POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint win, named for two well-known standouts in the sprint-car world. Jesse Hockett, a driving star, died in a shop accident in 2010 and Daniel McMillin, his cousin and crew chief, died in an auto accident in 2006.
Hafertepe called the second straight Hockett-McMillin triumph “unbelievable” and “a huge win for us.”
“It just gets me more focused on going into next year,” Hafertepe said. “Grabbing a little bigger points lead with four races left, that makes us feel good, too.”
Hafertepe said he was disappointed with a fifth-place run in Friday’s feature and really with his results overall of late, despite leading the ASCS points chase.
“I just said, ‘Man, we’re thinking too hard. Let’s go back to what we know.’ ”
It worked, as Hafertepe got the jump on outside front-row starter Wayne Johnson as the race got going after three aborted attempts.
Before lap one was complete, Brian Bell took a wild ride as his car flipped into the wall between turns three and four. The Tennessee driver emerged uninjured.
There were two more attempts to get the race going that failed, as Jonathan Cornell spun in turn two to bring out a yellow. Then, Mike Goodman flipped in turn four to bring out the second red flag before a lap was complete. Goodman walked away without injury.
“It’s unfortunate we had that many restarts, but we came out on top and that’s what matters,” Hafertepe said. “There’s nothing like winning this race and the names that are on it. It means a lot to us.”
Bogucki worked his way into second with 10 laps to go, but couldn’t muster a run at the winner.
“Sam, by the time we got into second, he was long gone,” Bogucki said. “All I could see was a bunch of lapped cars. I just rode around there the best I could, trying to stay out of trouble. We had a great car.”
Cummings wire POWRi WAR field: Kyle Cummins of Princeton, Indiana, scored a dominating victory in the POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprints feature, leading all 30 laps to earn $3,077.
Cummins withstood a challenge on a restart following a lap-17 red flag to earn the win. He remains in contention for the $20,000 Bell Helmet Challenge, having won two of the first three legs of the series of races. A win at Fairbury on Oct. 6 would mean $20,000.
Cummins said the lengthy drive from Indiana – after watching the first night of the Hockett-McMillin Memorial on LucasOilRacing.TV – was worth it. The victory was his third on the POWRi War Series.
“The facility, Lucas Oil, it’s unbelievable,” Cummins said. “The first night, I watched for home and we came here and I was hoping it wouldn’t get super slick like that. The top is where I wanted to run, but the bottom was so good.
“We spent a lot of time working on this thing and it was a pretty good drive to get out there.”
Wyatt Burks finished second with Colton Cottle third and Landon Simon fourth.
“We were just too tight,” said Burks, who moved into second with five laps to go. “The front ankle got bent a little earlier in the race.”
The race got off to a rough start as Mitchell Davis and Danny Smith, starting deep in the field, tangled in turn one after the green to bring out a caution and force a complete restart.
Cummins quickly asserted himself when the race got going, opening a straightaway-margin lead five laps in.
Matt Moore took a wild ride, tumbling end over end down the front straightaway on lap six to bring out the red flag. Moore, who was running seventh at the time, climbed from the car under his own power.
As Cummins drew away, Simon and Kreisel battled it out for second with Cottle close behind at the midway point.
Kreisel, the 18-year-old series points leader, fell out of contention on lap 17 when he got out of shape in turn two, got up on his right-side wheels and hit the wall.
Simon pressured Cummins after the race returned to green, but was unable to get past. Cottle soon moved into second, but not before Cummings again opened up a two-second lead and set sail as the remainder of the race went green.
8th annual Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial
Saturday’s results
Lucas Oil ASCS Winged Sprints
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [2]; 2. 28-Scott Bogucki, [6]; 3. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [1]; 4. 23-Seth Bergman, [12]; 5. 86-Tony Bruce Jr, [4]; 6. 95-Matt Covington, [5]; 7. 47X-Dylan Westbrook, [8]; 8. 45X-Johnny Herrera, [3]; 9. 52-Blake Hahn, [23]; 10. 21X-Carson Short, [10]; 11. 75-Tyler Blank, [17]; 12. 9JR-Derek Hagar, [7]; 13. J2-John Carney II, [9]; 14. 81-Jack Dover, [11]; 15. 99-Skylar Gee, [24]; 16. 44-Chris Martin, [16]; 17. 17W-Harli White, [19]; 18. 8-Alex Sewell, [21]; 19. 37H-Nick Howard, [22]; 20. 28C-Jonathan Cornell, [15]; 21. 91T-Tyler Thomas, [20]; 22. 9X-Jake Bubak, [13]; 23. 21-Miles Paulus, [25]; 24. 23B-Brian Bell, [14]; 25. 11G-Mike Goodman, [18]
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 75-Tyler Blank, [2]; 2. 91T-Tyler Thomas, [4]; 3. 3S-Sammy Swindell, [3]; 4. 22M-Sean McClelland, [1]; 5. 05-Paul Nienhiser, [7]; 6. 52-Blake Hahn, [13]; 7. 29-Tanner Berryhill, [5]; 8. 51B-Joe B. Miller, [8]; 9. 77X-Alex Hill, [10]; 10. 85-Forrest Sutherland, [11]; 11. 4-Evan Martin, [6]; 12. (DNF) 27-Danny Thoman, [9]; 13. (DNF) 93-Taylor Walton, [12]
B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 11G-Mike Goodman, [2]; 2. 8-Alex Sewell, [3]; 3. 33M-Mason Daniel, [6]; 4. 03-Stu Snyder, [8]; 5. 76-Jay Russell, [5]; 6. 99-Skylar Gee, [4]; 7. 44S-Jared Sewell, [11]; 8. (DNF) 99X-Dalton Stevens, [10]; 9. (DNF) 36-Jason Martin, [1]; 10. (DNF) 47-Dale Howard, [7]; 11. (DNF) 5X-Tyson Hall, [9]; (DNS) 88-Travis Reber,
B Feature 3 (12 Laps): 1. 17W-Harli White, [1]; 2. 37H-Nick Howard, [2]; 3. 1-Travis Rilat, [3]; 4. 6A-Aidan Roosevans, [4]; 5. 5J-Jamie Ball, [5]; 6. 8M-Kade Morton, [7]; 7. 49B-Ben Brown, [6]; 8. 14K-Kyle Bellm, [11]; 9. 3-Ayrton Gennetten, [8]; 10. 08-Cannon McIntosh, [9]; 11. 5G-Dave Glennon, [10]; 12. (DNF) 21-Miles Paulus, [12]
LCQ 1 (10 Laps): 1. J2-John Carney II, [4]; 2. 9X-Jake Bubak, [1]; 3. 22M-Sean McClelland, [3]; 4. 11G-Mike Goodman, [8]; 5. 1-Travis Rilat, [5]; 6. 29-Tanner Berryhill, [11]; 7. 33M-Mason Daniel, [10]; 8. 8M-Kade Morton, [6]; 9. 27-Danny Thoman, [12]; 10. (DNF) 99X-Dalton Stevens, [9]; 11. (DNF) 14K-Kyle Bellm, [2]; 12. (DNF) 21-Miles Paulus, [7]; (DNS) 22S-Slater Helt,
LCQ 2 (10 Laps): 1. 21X-Carson Short, [2]; 2. 23B-Brian Bell, [4]; 3. 36-Jason Martin, [3]; 4. 37H-Nick Howard, [5]; 5. 52-Blake Hahn, [1]; 6. 76-Jay Russell, [6]; 7. 49B-Ben Brown, [7]; 8. 4-Evan Martin, [8]; 9. 5X-Tyson Hall, [9]; 10. 5G-Dave Glennon, [10]; (DNS) 11-Roger Crockett, ; (DNS) 24L-Lanny Carpenter, ; (DNS) 14-Randy Martin,
LCQ 3 (10 Laps): 1. 81-Jack Dover, [2]; 2. 28C-Jonathan Cornell, [3]; 3. 17W-Harli White, [6]; 4. 3S-Sammy Swindell, [5]; 5. 99-Skylar Gee, [1]; 6. 5J-Jamie Ball, [4]; 7. 05-Paul Nienhiser, [8]; 8. 03-Stu Snyder, [9]; 9. 08-Cannon McIntosh, [10]; 10. 85-Forrest Sutherland, [11]; 11. 77X-Alex Hill, [7]; 12. (DNF) 93-Taylor Walton, [12]
LCQ 4 (10 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman, [2]; 2. 44-Chris Martin, [3]; 3. 75-Tyler Blank, [4]; 4. 8-Alex Sewell, [6]; 5. 6A-Aidan Roosevans, [8]; 6. 91T-Tyler Thomas, [9]; 7. 47-Dale Howard, [7]; 8. 3-Ayrton Gennetten, [5]; 9. 51B-Joe B. Miller, [1]; 10. 44S-Jared Sewell, [10]; 11. (DNF) 88-Travis Reber, [11]; (DNS) 22-Dustin Barks.
POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprints
A Feature: 1, Kyle Cummings. 2, Wyatt Burks. 3, Colten Cottle. 4, Landon Simon. 5, Anthony Nicholson. 6, Chris Phillips. 7, Brandon Mattox. 8, Thomas Meseraull. 9, Clinton Boyles. 10, Zach Daum. 11, Mario Clauser. 12, Andrew Deal. 13, Ty Hulsey. 14, Tyler Thomas. 15, Terry Richards. 16, Chad Goff. 17, Paul White. 18, Chris Parkinson. 19, Wesley Smith. 20, Riley Kreisel. 21, Slater Helt. 22, Mitchell Davis. 23, Matt Moore. 24, Korey Weyant. 25, Danny Smith. 26, Kyle Clark. 27, Quinton Benson.
B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 91-Tyler Thomas, [1]; 2. 56-Mitchell Davis, [18]; 3. 28-Brandon Mattox, [13]; 4. 99-Korey Weyant, [6]; 5. 15D-Andrew Deal, [4]; 6. 65-Chris Parkinson, [2]; 7. 7M-Chance Morton, [14]; 8. 22S-Slater Helt, [3]; 9. 54-Trey Gropp, [16]; 10. 77-Jack Wagner, [17]; 11. 21-Ryan Kitchen, [10]; 12. 37-Brian Beebe, [8]; 13. 24C-Craig Carroll, [9]; 14. 30-Ryan Kent, [12]; 15. 13-Brad Ryan, [19]; 16. 65B-Quinton Benson, [5]; 17. 77K-Katlynn Leer, [7]; 18. 49B-Ben Brown, [20]; 19. 20-Steve Thomas, [15]; 20. 1-Mitch Wissmiller, [11]
B Feature 2 (15 laps): 1, Zach Daum. 2, Thomas Meseruall. 3, Danny Smith. 4, Chad Goff. 5, Clinton Boyles, 6, Wesley Smith. 7, Joe B. Miller. 8, Zach Clark. 9, Rob Caho. 10, Samuel Wagner. 11, Dylan Kadous. 12, Paul White. 13, Wade Seiler, 14, Taylor Peterson. 15, Warren Johnson. 16, Chase Porter. 17, Vinny Ward. 18, David Stephenson. 19, Casey Baker. 20, Casey Wills
C Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 77-Jack Wagner, [7]; 2. 56-Mitchell Davis, [15]; 3. 13-Brad Ryan, [2]; 4. 49B-Ben Brown, [13]; 5. 6M-Christian Moore, [4]; 6. 41-Brad Wyatt, [10]; 7. 51-Mitchell Moore, [5]; 8. 2H-Luke Howard, [3]; 9. 48-Craig Oakes, [16]; 10. 13W-Grant Wresche, [9]; 11. 36-Kevin Reed, [6]; 12. 7R-JD Black, [14]; 13. 101-Chuck McGillivray, [1]; 14. 67-Jonathan Hughes, [8]; 15. 99E-Bailey Elliott, [11]; 16. 4-Braydon Cromwell, [12]; 17. 4F-Chad Frewaldt, [17]
C Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 73-Samuel Wagner, [3]; 2. 31M-Joe B. Miller, [14]; 3. 22P-Chase Porter, [8]; 4. 82-Vinny Ward, [5]; 5. 73S-Lane Stone, [4]; 6. 59D-Keith Bolton, [12]; 7. 82C-Christie Thomason, [10]; 8. 52-J.D. Fry, [9]; 9. 22X-Mike Mueller, [2]; 10. 27S-Tom Sires, [7]; 11. 75-Broc Elliott, [17]; 12. 97-Kevin Cummings, [15]; 13. 11-Frank Rodgers, [11]; 14. 21C-Chris Desselle, [6]; 15. 36E-Blake Edwards, [13]; 16. 20G-Noah Gass, [1]; 17. 21X-Carson Short, [16]
Next up at Lucas Oil Speedway: The 5th annual Street Stock Big Buck 50 Presented by Whitetail Trophy Hunt – with the ULMA Late Models also in action – is set for Oct. 3-5. Opening night will see the Big O Tires Street Stocks with an open practice session from 6-9 p.m. followed by Street Stock qualifying to set Friday’s heat race lineups as drivers work their way toward the $10,000 to win main event to be held on Saturday.
For ticket information on all events at Lucas Oil Speedway in 2018, contact Admission Director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-5984 or by email at nichole@LucasOilSpeedway.com. Fans also can go online to purchase tickets for any event on the 2018 schedule.
CONTACT:
Danny Lorton
Lucas Oil Speedway General Manager
Office: (417) 282-5984