OSBORN, Mo. — Holding off an onslaught of challenges through traffic, Matt Covington rolled into victory lane at U.S. 36 Raceway with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network.
“It got pretty hairy in traffic. Even showing the right rear to a few guys, they weren’t going to give an inch, so I felt like I had to earn everything,” Covington said. “A few times, Garet could have easily forced me off the top of the backstretch, but he left me room, and I appreciate that. A few guys wouldn’t do that, but that’s what a clean racer does. He did me right and raced me.”
The win is Covington’s first at U.S. 36 Raceway and 12th overall in National Tour competition while moving him to within 18 points of the championship point’s lead.
Rolling to the green from the pole position, Covington would fall to second on the start as Garet Williamson took command from the right of the front row. Setting a torrid pace into traffic on lap five, the slower cars allowed Covington to close and finally overtake the Mid-Mo Equipment No. 24 on lap eight.
Getting some breathing room over Williamson, the gap was short-lived as traffic brought Williamson, J.J. Hickle and eventually Blake Hahn into the mix.
Three-wide on lap 17, Williamson held the runner-up spot. Taking a shot at the lead, Covington used slower cars as picks, with Hickle and Hahn both looking for a path to the lead. Working Lap 19, the leaders raced into the third and fourth turns only to be greeted by a pair of flipped cars. Scrambling to avoid, Hickle was not able to avoid and ended up going for a ride.
Back to green, the A-Rock Material No. 95 rolled into traffic just as red lights came on again for Jason Martin, who had been running fourth.
Setting up a green-white-checkered finish, Covington dashed to a 0.940-second advantage at the checkered flag. Posting his best career finish in National Tour competition, Williamson held on for second over Hahn, who climbed through the field from the 12th starting spot.
Posting her first career top-five finish, Canada’s Alex Hill made up three positions to finish fourth, with Brandon Anderson in fifth.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 2. 24-Garet Williamson[2]; 3. 52-Blake Hahn[12]; 4. 77X-Alex Hill[7]; 5. 55B-Brandon Anderson[6]; 6. 14-Joey Danley[14]; 7. 98P-Miles Paulus[11]; 8. 63-JJ Hickle[5]; 9. 95T-Trevor Grossenbacher[3]; 10. 76-Jay Russell[8]; 11. 17B-Ryan Bickett[9]; 12. 22S-Slater Helt[23]; 13. 2-Chase Porter[15]; 14. 11C-Colton Fisher[21]; 15. 92J-JR Topper[17]; 16. 82-Jason Martin[4]; 17. (DNF) 47X-Dylan Westbrook[13]; 18. (DNF) 11-Austin O’Neal[18]; 19. (DNF) 21-Gunner Ramey[10]; 20. (DNF) 88-Travis Reber[19]; 21. (DNF) 91-Adam Gullion[16]; 22. (DNF) 3Z-Zach Davis[22]; 23. (DNS) 28-Scott Bogucki; 24. (DNS) 19-Colby Thornhill