BENTON, Mo. — Seth Bergman could not have predicted the order of events that led him to his first American Sprint Car Series victory of 2026.
The Snohomish, Wash., driver steadily worked up the ladder through 30 laps at Benton Speedway to leave Friday night with a $4,000 payday and a closer gap to the series points lead.
Beginning on the opening lap, Carson Short flipped in Turn 4 and knocked down the catch fence. Once work was completed, Sam Hafertepe Jr. powered around Matt Covington to take the lead.
At the helm, Hafertepe used the cushion to keep his distance from Covington as Bergman moved around Jordon Mallett and Howard Moore to take his No. 23 into the podium on Lap 2.
On Lap 9, Covington lost control of his car and slid near the wall in Turn 3. Though he kept forward momentum, he dropped to fifth place – giving Bergman second place.
When lapped traffic affected Hafertepe’s line around the cushion, he resorted to taking the bottom lane, then sliding up the corner to keep a one-car distance from Bergman.
On Lap 17, Blake Hahn drifted into the Turn 3 wall, which added more catchfence removal. When the restart ensued, Hafertepe withstood an attempt from Bergman to steal the lead by keeping his No. 15h on the high side of the three-eighths-mile track.
Hafertepe’s chances for victory came to a sudden stop on Lap 25 when he made contact with Whit Gastineau when he attempted to lap him, sending him spinning into the infield.
Bergman capitalized on Hafertepe’s woes by inheriting the lead and commanding the final five laps for his 27th series victory. The win moved him up to third in the standings, 65 points away from Hafertepe for the lead.
“I feel like sometimes that’s the way these things work out,” Bergman said. “You can be the best car and win, or you can be an OK car like us and circumstantially put yourself in position. They say all the time that you have to put yourself in position, and tonight we did.
“We were in position, I don’t think we were the best car, I think we were creeping on it there, and get ourselves closer to Sam. I felt like it was gonna be a race in traffic, and it was. Unfortunately, he got taken out in traffic, but that’s the tough part about tracks like this; it takes a lot out of a race car driver.”
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman[5]; 2. 3A-Jordon Mallett[2]; 3. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 4. 9JR-Derek Hagar[10]; 5. 40-Howard Moore[4]; 6. 47-Dale Howard[8]; 7. 51B-Joe B Miller[17]; 8. 3-Cole Schroeder[13]; 9. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 10. 10-Landon Britt[9]; 11. 938-Bradley Fezard[19]; 12. 2B-Garrett Benson[11]; 13. 29R-Corey Ray[20]; 14. 88C-Brogan Carder[15]; 15. 16G-Austyn Gossel[14]; 16. 2-Whit Gastineau[24]; 17. 10M-Morgan Turpen Havener[18]; 18. 52-Blake Hahn[7]; 19. 79-Gage Montgomery[16]; 20. G6-Jake Jones[21]; 21. 7-Paul Solomon[6]; 22. 28-Keith Ainsworth[22]; 23. 21-Carson Short[12]; 24. 45X-Kyler Johnson[23]
