PADUCAH, Ky. — When the American Sprint Car Series National Tour rolls into a high-banked, lightning-fast race track, Hank Davis tends to find another gear.
The Labor Day weekend visit to Montana’s Electric City Speedway netted him the first two wins of his career with the series, and six weeks later, he picked up his third on Saturday night at Paducah Int’l Raceway.
“We were just really good all night,” Davis said. “There in qualifying, we just kind of had the car a little off or we would have probably swept the whole night. Car was just really good, just rolled around this place super well and got a win.”
The 21-year-old picked up the pole position after blowing by Matt Covington on the final lap of the dash and taking the checkers. However, his advantage didn’t last long come Feature time, as a poor start allowed Covington to drive away to the early lead on the outside while Sam Hafertepe Jr. squeezed by in Turns 1 and 2 and took second away.
Hafertepe wasn’t satisfied though, as he slid up in front of Covington exiting turn four on the opening lap before the No. 95 crossed him over and held onto the lead.
While Covington paced the field early, Davis went to the inside of Hafertepe on Lap 4 to move up to second. He instantly went to work on catching Covington, and once he did, he made the exact same move as Hafertepe tried earlier and got the same result: Covington sneaking back by to keep the top spot.
Davis wasn’t ready to give up, as he made a couple of slider attempts on Covington before finally getting one to stick in turn two at the midway point of the 25-lap Feature. Once he found clean air, the No. 2C was off to the races, quickly building a gap over his fellow red, white and black machine.
Just when it looked like Covington was in store for his first podium finish since Electric City on Aug. 31, the night turned sour when he slowed at the top of Turn 2 with a flat tire. What would have been a brief visit to the work area turned into a race-ending incident when Benton Speedway runner-up Sterling Cling ran into the back of the slowing car, severely damaging the left-rear corner of Covington’s car.
For the remainder of the race, Davis found himself working to hold off the same driver he got into a heated conversation with at the end of the Benton race 24 hours prior. Hafertepe dove to the inside on the restart following Covington’s incident, but by the time he slid back up the track Davis was already ahead. The slowing car of Gunner Ramey gave Hafertepe another chance, but he came up empty once again.
Seven laps later, Davis found himself working through slower traffic two seconds ahead of Hafertepe when Kyler Johnson slowed in Turn 2 to set up a three-lap dash to the finish. Davis once again nailed the restart, and three flawless laps later he crossed under the checkered flag to score the win in his Paducah debut.
“Sam slid me down there in (turns) one and two and I knew that I either had to get a good start or try to close the gap,” Davis said on the numerous challenges for the lead from the No. 15H that he fended off. “I didn’t know what to really do there. I don’t know, I plugged her to the top, she worked out and here we are.”
After winning nine of the first 17 races of the season, Hafertepe’s winless streak now sits at nine races, with his last victory coming at Lincoln County Raceway on Aug. 17. However, the runner-up result prevented further damage to his title chances following his late-race crash at Benton on Friday night.
“I wouldn’t say we’re lacking speed, we’ve just had a lot of bad little things happen to us lately. Like last night, getting wrecked, not even your doing, that doesn’t help situations. We’ve just had a little run of bad luck, and we’ll get out of that little funk.
“We had plenty of speed tonight, just starting fourth and [Davis] starts on the pole, it’s just hard to make up time when the track’s like this. I feel like if we would have ever got out to clean air, we would have been fine.”
After a disappointing ninth-place finish at Benton, Seth Bergman rebounded with a third-place run at Paducah for his ninth podium in the last 11 races. That incredible consistency puts him ahead of Hafertepe by 129 points with the finale at Creek County Speedway drawing closer.
“It’s such a tricky deal for me,” Bergman said. “All I’ve done for a long time is not race for points. I just wanted to go win races. Now, I find myself thinking quite differently. I want to win the race, but I also need to be smart. I’ve never been so happy to just podium out so much, just being consistent. I’m conflicted. There’s a dog in me that wants to win races, but there’s also a huge part of me now as I get older that thinks championships.”
The fourth spot went to Zach Blurton, who collected his first top five since Big Sky Speedway on Aug. 24, while Cling ended the race fifth for his second top five of the weekend.
Andrew Deal’s drive up from 16th to sixth earned him the night’s Hard Charger Award, his second in the last three races.
Feature Finish (25 Laps)
1. 2C-Hank Davis[1]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[4]; 3. 23-Seth Bergman[6]; 4. 2J-Zach Blurton[5]; 5. 34-Sterling Cling[7]; 6. 15D-Andrew Deal[16]; 7. 36-Jason Martin[8]; 8. 10-Landon Britt[12]; 9. 95-Matt Covington[2]; 10. 22-Riley Goodno[10]; 11. 21-Gunner Ramey[3]; 12. 51B-Joe B Miller[9]; 13. 41-Colton Hardy[11]; 14. 938-Bradley Fezard[14]; 15. 88-Terry Easum[17]; 16. 16G-Austyn Gossel[18]; 17. 99D-Tucker Daly[19]; 18. 52D-Skyler Daly[20]; 19. 7-Caleb Thompson[21]; 20. 45X-Kyler Johnson[13]; 21. 20I-Kelsey Ivy[15]; 22. 122-Lane Warner[22]