PARK CITY, Kan. — Seth Bergman’s hard work has put him at the heart of the American Sprint Car Series championship fight in 2026.
The Snohomish, Wash., racer collected his second win of the season in the Salute to Service Sprint Car Showdown through a competitive 25 laps around 81 Speedway.
Starting the Feature from the front row, Bergman and polesitter Whit Gastineau raced side-by-side through the opening lap until Gastineau gained clearance of Bergman by using the high line of the three-eighths-mile track.
Through the first nine laps, Bergman played second fiddle to Gastineau while Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Matt Covington joined the battle for the top spot as lap traffic began to play a factor.
On Lap 10, Bergman made his move for the lead by peeling to the bottom lane into Turn 1 while Gastineau ran the cushion. The two drivers stayed even across the backstretch until Bergman pulled out in front of Gastineau off of Turn 4 to secure the top spot.
As Bergman shifted his No. 23 Maxim Chassis to the cushion, Hafertepe pulled ahead of Gastineau on Lap 14 to secure second place as Gastineau played defense on Covington to keep his podium position.
While Hafertepe kept Bergman within his eyesight, he was unable to reach the 2024 Series champion as the traffic forced him to deviate from his racing line to chase down the leader.
Bergman never relinquished the lead as he drove to his 28th career ASCS National Tour triumph. The win placed him in a tie with 2003 series champ Travis Rilat for ninth on the all-time wins list.
“You gotta go, you gotta set a pace,” Bergman said. “We had a really good night. We’ve yet to unload, and being good out of the box. Because then you’re chasing all night. But tonight, we unloaded really good, and we were able to fine-tune on this hot rod all night. We used the dash as a little bit of a learning experience and gave us some really good direction for the feature.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am with this team and race car. That was hands down the best race car I’ve had in a long time, and it’s not by chance. What’s so satisfying is that it’s something we’ve been working really, really hard at, and we’ve gotten our butts kicked a lot. It’s very humbling; you gotta grind through when you’re not good. And tonight, we were exceptional.”
Hafertepe finished the night with a runner-up result to retain the Series lead by 22 points over Covington and 23 points away from Bergman.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman[2]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[5]; 3. 2-Whit Gastineau[1]; 4. 63-Jack Thomas[8]; 5. 95-Matt Covington[3]; 6. 1X-Bryant Wiedeman[6]; 7. 88R-Ryder Laplante[11]; 8. 88C-Brogan Carder[9]; 9. 45X-Kyler Johnson[13]; 10. 3-Cole Schroeder[10]; 11. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[4]; 12. 16S-Steven Shebester[12]; 13. 88-Terry Easum[7]; 14. 52H-Hayden Mabe[21]; 15. 938-Bradley Fezard[14]; 16. 88K-Jordan Knight[15]; 17. 12W-Dale Wester[17]; 18. 31-Casey Wills[19]; 19. 16G-Austyn Gossel[22]; 20. 70K-Henry Rogers[24]; 21. 65-Kohl Ricke[20]; 22. 88J-Jeremy Huish[18]; 23. 911-Ty Williams[16]; 24. (DNS) 68-Taylor Milton
