MESQUITE, Texas — Ending his season on a high note, Roger Crockett battled through heavy lapped traffic to pick up his second consecutive victory in the Devil’s Bowl Winter Nationals.
“I was starting to wonder if I was going to go a year without winning a feature. That hasn’t happened to me since I first won a feature, so getting the win was a real relief,” said Crockett, who has won at least one feature every year since 1996.
His only win of the season with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network, Crockett led the opening nine circuits before losing the lead to Matt Covington. Chasing through traffic, both drivers moved lines around the Devil’s Bowl Speedway, with Roger finding the hub of the first and second turns.
Chasing down the No. 95 on lap 18, Crockett pulled even with Covington as they rolled to the back straightaway. Deep into the third and fourth turns, Crockett gained the lead.
“Our car was really good. We had something we kind of messed around with last night, and it didn’t work very well, but we the car rolling tonight and had one heck of a race with Matt [Covington]. Lapped traffic made things really interesting where I lost the lead, but thankfully was able to get it back,” stated Crockett.
Keeping close as the pair worked into more traffic, Sam Hafertepe Jr. closed the gap to begin battling with Covington for the runner-up spot. Able to keep the No. 15h at bay, attention turned again to Crockett as the trio battled among the backmarkers.
Finally, getting a breakthrough traffic, Crockett hit clean air and set sail by 1.307 seconds at the finish.
In second, Covington was chased by Hafertepe, who had Justin Sanders and Jack Dover battling close behind.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 11-Roger Crockett[2]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[5]; 4. 53-Jack Dover[14]; 5. 16A-Justin Sanders[3]; 6. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[9]; 7. 28-Scott Bogucki[7]; 8. 52-Blake Hahn[20]; 9. 1J-Danny Jennings[8]; 10. 8-Devon Borden[18]; 11. 74B-Jake Bubak[13]; 12. 4-Austin Mundie[4]; 13. 17W-Harli White[22]; 14. 45X-Johnny Herrera[21]; 15. 24D-Danny Sams III[16]; 16. 11X-John Carney II[19]; 17. 14-Jordon Mallett[11]; 18. 9-Chase Randall[17]; 19. 24-Garet Williamson[23]; 20. 20G-Jake Greider[15]; 21. (DNF) 88-Travis Reber[10]; 22. (DNF) 71W-Weston Gorham[12]; 23. (DNF) 17G-Channin Tankersley[6]; 24. (DNF) 77X-Alex Hill[24]