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Hafertepe Jr. Pounces on Opportunity to Earn Solid

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good however it’s even better to be lucky AND good as was this case this past weekend for Sam Hafertepe Jr. and The Plumbfast Racing Team as they travelled to I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, Arkansas to take on The Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour. The team caught a big break Friday night and then charged from 13th to 4th in the feature event before running up front most of the night Saturday and fading to 6th.

Friday night saw Sam continue his bad luck at the pill draw as he drew the 9th place starting spot in a stacked heat on a tacky, locked down race track.

“I saw Billy Alley’s press release the other week on Hoseheads and we’ve got him covered,” said Sam shaking his head. “Our last 3 draws have all been the last starting position in our heat, in fact, 6 of our 7 heat race draws this year have seen us draw the last starting spot in our heat!”

The start of the heat saw a pair of cars tangling resulting in a wild flip that moved Sam up to 7th. On the restart the steering box locked up on Sam and he spun off the backstretch. Fortunately for Sam Johnny Herrera and Gary Wright had gotten together with Herrera heading pit side.

“I heard them say over the radio that Herrera was headed to the pits so I told the track workers to fire me back off,” explained Sam. “I knew I could putt around for a lap and I thought 9th to 6th passing points would put me up front in a B Main.”

Hafertepe would catch a rather unexpected break however when the heat race winner’s front wing was found to be too far forward and would result in him being disqualified which gave Sam 9th to 5th passing points and locked him into the A Main.

“I had no idea,” said Sam. “Daryl, Dad and I were thrashing to change steering boxes and Tony Bruce came up and told us we were in. I thought we had to thrash to get ready for the B so it was a welcomed surprise.”

Sam lined up for the A Main from the 13th starting position and at the drop of the green flag couldn’t find any holes and fell back to 15th. Hafertepe searched around the track to find the fastest place for his Lone Star Speedway Maxim-Fisher and as a result was the first to find the rubber.

“I was sliding from the bottom to the top in turns 3 and 4 and I thought I felt something,” said Sam. “I went searching for the rubber again, found it and we took off.”

Hafertepe began tearing through the field and soon enough was on the back bumper of 5th place running Seth Bergman when a yellow flew on the speedway.

During a previous restart it had been deemed that Sam had passed Matt Covington before the cone and he was penalized 2 positions.

“I agreed with the call completely,” said Sam. “Covington hit the curb hard on the restart and bobbled bad. I didn’t really have a choice but to go under him or I’d have hit him. Obviously we weren’t trying to jump the restart or go against the spirit of the rules it was just one of those unfortunate things.”

Hafertepe was moved back behind Tony Bruce Jr. and Jason Johnson and his chances of reaching the top 4 and getting himself locked in for Saturday evening’s race looked slim.

“I thought we’d probably lost our shot at the invert,” said Sam. “Normally you can’t give guys like Jason Johnson an opportunity like that, especially on a rubber down race track.”

Fortunately Sam didn’t quit and soon worked his way back around Bruce before Johnson spun to put Hafertepe once again on the back bumper of Seth Bergman for 4th and the final lock in position with 5 laps remaining.

Hafertepe made short work of Bergman and immediately closed down on Wright for 3rd however “The Texan” would run a steady line and hold off the youngster as Sam settled for 4th.

The following evening Sam was locked into the feature and following the draw would line up for the main event in the 4th position.

Sam was able to get the jump on fellow second row start Shane Stewart at the drop of the green flag and immediately began pressuring Wright for 2nd. Twice Hafertepe was able to work his way under Wright only to have a red flag and yellow flag negate the moves.

“Those two stoppages were the race,” said Hafertepe. “The first time I showed Gary the bottom in turns 3 and 4 only to have it taken back. The next time I got under him in turns 1 and 2 only to have it taken back. At that point Gary left the top of the track and ran where I’d been running. Down there he was faster than us so I knew if we were going to win I was going to have to make it happen upstairs.”

Hafertepe pounded a treacherous cushion all feature long while the rest of the field made the bottom work.

“I probably stayed up there too long in all honesty,” said Sam following the race. “We came here to win though and if we wanted to do that tonight it was going to be on the top because Gary was just too good down low. So I tried for probably too long to make the top work when I probably should have given up on it, hit the bottom and settled for 2nd or 3rd.”

Sam held 3rd much of the race but during the final 15 laps Jeff Swindell, Shane Stewart, Jason Johnson and Tim Crawley all snuck by him on the bottom. On the final lap Hafertepe was able to work past early race leader Brad Bowden and into 6th.

“It really wasn’t the finish we wanted but we’ll take it,” said Sam. “If you look at the cars in front of us all of them are stout cars and all of them except for Crawley can boast Outlaw feature wins on their resume. To finish 6th in that race was no embarrassment, it just wasn’t what we came here to do.”

The team has now headed back to Sunnyvale to prepare for this weekend’s race against The World of Outlaws at The Salina High Banks in Oklahoma.

“That’s the plan anyway,” said Sam. “We keep saying we’re going to race here and we’re going to race there but it seems like the last few weekends Mother Nature has been dictating our schedule for us. We’d planned to run Attica two weeks ago and this past weekend we’d actually planned to run with The Outlaws in the Midwest but the weather just wouldn’t co-operate. One of the nice things about our schedule though is that because it is so flexible we are able to work around rain and find races.”

The race will be Sam’s final race before the team leaves Texas for several months of racing on the road.

“I’m really pleased with how we’ve run so far this year,” said Sam. “We’ve scored the most points out of anyone in the races we’ve run with The Lucas Oil National Tour and we’ve been really fast the last few nights we’ve raced with The Outlaws. I really feel like we’re on the verge of breaking through and getting that first Outlaw win. I know I say that a lot, but our results so far this year really seem to indicate that we’re running by far the best we’ve ever run night in night out.”

Sam would like to thank the following supporters: Plumbfast Mechanical, Lone Star Speedway, Keizer Aluminum Wheels, Pancho's Racing Products, Kear's Speed Shop, PPM Titanium Products, GPC Race Products, Butlerbuilt, Infinity Shocks, DMI, Finish Line Machining, Torco Racing Oils, Smiley's Racing Products, Brown and Miller Racing Solutions, Vortex Wings, AFCO Racing Shocks, Simpson Racing Products, Quick Sand Express Inc.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ADDED TO SAM'S PRESS RELEASE LIST PLEASE SEND A MESSAGE TO: sam15press@gmail.com

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