PADUCAH, Ky. — For 624 days, Matt Covington waited his turn to be a winner again with the American Sprint Car Series National Tour.
A drought of 47 Tour races contested without a win, completely shut out of Victory Lane since his last checkered flag in August 2023.
At last, the waiting is over.
The 13-year Tour regular from Glenpool, Okla., broke through Saturday night in the Tour’s return to Paducah Int’l Raceway — where he won in the Tour’s first appearance in 2018 — leading all 30 laps of the main event to end the dry spell and collect his 20th career checkered flag with the National Tour.
“I’d be lying to you if I said it didn’t bother me a little bit,” Covington said. “It’s good to get that off our shoulders early in the season.”
The win marked his second career victory at the high-banked, three-eighths-mile oval and his 20th with the Tour overall, moving him into a tie with Sammy Swindell and Johnny Herrera for 14th place on the all-time wins list.
He also becomes the first driver in National Tour history to win more than once in the state of Kentucky.
After turning the fastest lap time in his qualifying group, winning his Heat Race and the Honest Abe Roofing Dash to earn the pole starting spot for the feature, Covington took off at the drop of the green flag, leaving past Tour champions Blake Hahn and Sam Hafertepe Jr. in his wake as he worked his way through the first third of the race.
The next 10 laps were filled with multiple yellow and red-flag periods — one for Aaron Rixmann and another for Kyler Johnson, who were involved in rollover incidents in Turns 3–4 — which forced Covington to be strong on several restarts.
“Out motor was taking off strong, and I felt like we had good speed, and the track was so fast,” Covington said. “I’d have to really mess up, I felt like, for them to get around me. So, if anything, I didn’t mind the cautions and the reds.”
Hafertepe crossed the finish line second after running the entire race inside the top-five. From fifth on the starting grid, he worked his way to third inside the first 10 laps, chasing Hahn around until Hahn’s right-rear tire came off in Turn 3 on Lap 18, putting him directly behind Covington for the following restart.
All of which he did with a tire going soft.
“Probably right around halfway, I felt like we cut that right-rear tire down just battling,” Hafertepe said. “Those cautions and reds, we had a pretty slow leak, and then I felt like it got worse and worse as the race went on.”
In the closing laps, Hafertepe made every effort to keep the car straight and brought home a runner-up finish, which officially sets him as the new Tour points leader.
“Out in clean air, I don’t think anybody had anything for Covington,” Hafertepe said. “We were battling a few guys just because of the right-rear being low on us on the restarts. But I felt like once we got some speed up and I got some air pressure built back up, we could hang in there pretty good. And actually, I felt like we had a shot at Covington right before that last caution came out.”
Jason Martin completed the podium with a third-place finish after starting eighth. Harli White bagged the fourth spot, marking her best finish with the Tour since her first career victory in July 2020.
Despite the incident losing his right-rear tire, Hahn was able to drive all the way back through the field in the remaining 12 laps after coming out of the work area to finish fifth.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[5]; 3. 36-Jason Martin[8]; 4. 17W-Harli White[10]; 5. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 6. 10-Landon Britt[14]; 7. 21-Joey Moughan[9]; 8. 14-Jordon Mallett[18]; 9. 71-Brady Baker[13]; 10. 938-Bradley Fezard[6]; 11. 88C-Brogan Carder[11]; 12. 16G-Austyn Gossel[7]; 13. 23-Seth Bergman[4]; 14. 2J-Zach Blurton[19]; 15. 88-Terry Easum[17]; 16. 45X-Kyler Johnson[3]; 17. 31-Casey Wills[12]; 18. 3A-Aaron Rixmann[15]; 19. 2B-Garrett Benson[16]
