SHERIDAN, Wyo. — Jett Barnes did not have trouble finding victory lane with the American Sprint Car Series.
In his third career start with the National Tour, the 15-year-old wheeled the Jason Meyers Racing No. 14 around Wyoming’s Sheridan Speedway for the first time, earning a $4,000 score to close the opening weekend of Frontier Speedweek.
Starting from the front row of the 25-lap feature with polesitter Matt Covington, Barnes used his position on the outside line to get the jump on Covington through the first set of corners on the opening lap for the lead.
As Barnes established his dominance on the cushion through the feature’s first quarter, Covington and the field of 360 sprint cars followed in tow around the outside line as the Visalia, Calif., driver expanded to a one-second lead until the first wave of lap traffic helped Covington reel the teenager back in his sights.
While Barnes felt rising pressure from Covington for the lead, Garrett Benson joined the fight by reaching the back bumper of the No. 95 sprint car as the two began to exchange racing lines, attempting to power over the other for the position.
With Covington and Benson fighting for the runner-up position at the halfway point, it helped Barnes expand to a 4.9-second lead in clean air until the final wave of lapped cars arrived in the final eight laps.
After Covington held off Benson for second place, he charged back to Barnes, closing to within 2.5 seconds until the sole caution of the feature flew on the final lap for Saturday podium finisher Cole Schroeder.
For the green-white-checkered run to the finish, Barnes kept his No. 14 glued to the cushion as Covington trailed in hot pursuit. Reaching a near two-second lead at the waving of the twin checkered flags, Barnes celebrated being the second-youngest feature winner in National Tour history at 15 years, three months, and three days old.
“Tonight, I honestly didn’t expect this,” Barnes said. “It’s pretty big, and you really got to use your wing a lot to get around there. It was technical getting through lap traffic. I think these tracks are awesome, and I honestly enjoyed them a lot.”
Covington drove to a second-place finish as Benson took third. Sam Hafertepe Jr. finished in fourth, and Brogan Carder took the final place in the top five for his highest result of the 2026 season.
Leaving the opening weekend of Frontier Speedweek, the points at the top shifted once more as Covington retook the points lead by six markers over Hafertepe. 2024 champion Seth Bergman is 55 points back after finishing the Sunday battle in 10th place.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 14-Jett Barnes[2]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 3. 2B-Garrett Benson[3]; 4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[7]; 5. 88C-Brogan Carder[4]; 6. 88R-Ryder Laplante[5]; 7. 45X-Kyler Johnson[6]; 8. 16G-Austyn Gossel[12]; 9. 2J-Zach Blurton[16]; 10. 23-Seth Bergman[11]; 11. 88-Terry Easum[9]; 12. 81-Kelly Miller[13]; 13. 8M-Kade Morton[14]; 14. 7F-Decklyn Fleming[15]; 15. 14B-Blayne Brink[20]; 16. 0J-Damon McCune[19]; 17. 17F-Paxton Fleming[17]; 18. 511-Josh Broadbent[21]; 19. 3-Cole Schroeder[8]; 20. 38B-Bryan Brown[22]; 21. 12H-Rich Bailey[18]; 22. 24M-Ian Myers[10]
