8/23/2016
Sam Hafertepe Jr
Sam Hafertepe Jr. – Big Rebound in Farmington!
Sam Hafertepe Jr. – Big Rebound in Farmington!
(Bill W) August 23, 2016 – After a tough Knoxville Nationals, Sam Hafertepe Jr. and the Keith Dobbs #15H team got what they needed, winning with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series at St. Francois County Raceway near Farmington, Missouri Saturday. The Sunnyvale, Texas driver followed that up with a fourth place run at the Missouri State Fair Speedway in Sedalia at Sunday’s “High Roller Classic”. With the ASCS National Series off this week, there is a distinct possibility you’ll see Sam at Superbowl Speedway in Greenville, Texas with the ASCS-Red River Region.
SFCR is definitely a different racetrack. “It was a pretty unique track,” says Sam. “I’ve never raced on a track that size in my life, and I haven’t raced on that slick a track in a long while. I think it caught a lot of people off guard. We were able to tune up really well for it though.”
Sam would win his heat after starting fourth. “We took the lead right off of turn two,” he says. “We kind of found the bottom and got by everyone. I didn’t really think it would be the place to be, but we tried it on the start, and it worked really well. Everyone kind of followed suit behind us.”
He drew a starting spot for the feature outside of row one. “The way the track was…I wouldn’t say it was tough to pass, because the guy who was second, came from tenth,” says Sam. “But it was slick enough that you had to have a good car to pass guys. We just kind of got out there.”
Sam cruised until a caution flew with two laps to go. “We were supposed to have three lapped cars between us and second place (Joey Montgomery),” he says. “I assumed they were in there. With that being the case, you don’t want to make any mistakes on a green, white, checker finish, and we paced ourselves. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, all three of those cars pulled off, so he was right on us there at the end. I got bumped in the rear in four coming for the white. I was thinking, ‘I can’t believe a lapped car would be bumping us.’ So I stepped it up a little bit the last lap and took the checkered. It kind of caught us off guard.”
Nonetheless, it was a welcome win. A good heat race followed in Sedalia on Sunday, where Sam started sixth. “(Brian) Brown kind of took off on the start of the heat there in front of us and drove around the front row,” he says. “I tried to follow him and do the same. That’s kind of what we did and we got through there to second. He is very good at Sedalia, so we felt pretty decent staying with him.”
He would draw the pole for the feature. “Brown took the lead coming off of two on the start,” says Sam. “We swapped the lead a couple times on the second lap and the caution came out. That put him back in the lead. He was going really well on the restarts. Once he found the top, he knew where he needed to be. It was just kind of follow the leader for 30 laps around the top.”
Sam would have some bad luck at the finish and ended up fourth. “We had a caution with two to go, and we started running out of fuel,” he says. “On the restart, that allowed (Josh) Baughman and Wayne (Johnson) to get by us before the finish. I was surprised no one else got buy us, so we’ll take fourth there.”
All in all, it was a great rebound from the Knoxville Nationals. “We had a good racecar all weekend on two completely different racetracks,” says Sam. “We were happy to be competitive at both. After Knoxville, it was good to come back last weekend and show what we’re really capable of. That was a boost to everyone’s morale.”
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Sam would like to thank Highway 79 Collision Center, the Sparks Family, Kiebler & Sons Lawn and Landscaping, Keizer Aluminum Wheels, Champion Oil, NAPA Auto Parts of Franklin and Sherwin Williams.
Sam in Victory Lane at St. Francois County Raceway (Terry Ford/ASCS Photo)
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Monroe, IA USA