TEXARKANA, Ark. — Landing his seventh career victory with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network Friday night at Texarkana 67 Speedway, Derek Hagar led all but one lap.
Garet Williamson jumped to the lead on the initial start, but a caution for Dylan Postier set up Hagar for his shot at the lead. Williamson went to the high line, and left the bottom open for Hagar’s No. 9jr to shoot around.
“I knew [Garet] Williamson was either going to try and float the middle or go straight to the top after seeing what Matt Covington did on the first start,” said Hagar. “I had a really good run on that second start, so I just stayed tucked to his left rear, and as soon as he committed to the top, I just stuck the bottom and tried to keep my momentum up.”
Hagar built his advantage through the opening laps as Williamson and Covington fought for the runner-up spot, catching lap traffic on lap nine. Williamson used traffic to his advantage, closing the gap and darting under Hagar to lead lap 11, but Hagar slipped back by on the backstretch.
“I could tell lapped traffic was getting the same speed as I was after I moved up and started trying the top, and before I could get back down, Williamson passed me, and we raced pretty tight through three and four,” Hagar said. “I was able to stay with him, and luckily he missed the entry just enough in one I was able to get back by him.”
Unchallenged from there, Derek pulled away by 2.248-seconds. Matching his best career finish with ASCS, Williamson held on for second while Tim Crawley was third. Blake Hahn made up two spots to take fourth, with Covington ending up fifth.
The Finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 9JR-Derek Hagar[3]; 2. 24-Garet Williamson[1]; 3. 1X-Tim Crawley[4]; 4. 52-Blake Hahn[6]; 5. 95-Matt Covington[2]; 6. 55B-Brandon Anderson[7]; 7. 45X-Kyler Johnson[8]; 8. 6-Dustin Gates[10]; 9. 36-Jason Martin[21]; 10. 2C-Wayne Johnson[9]; 11. 1S-Joey Schmidt[12]; 12. 71-Bradyn Baker[15]; 13. 33C-Casey Carter[22]; 14. 85-Josh McCord[13]; 15. 21K-Kevin Hinkle[24]; 16. 187-Landon Crawley[11]; 17. 17B-Ryan Bickett[25]; 18. 2H-Tommy Hall[17]; 19. 30-Joseph Miller[18]; 20. 10-Landon Britt[5]; 21. 45-Mark Huddleston[16]; 22. 12H-Tony Bruce Jr[19]; 23. 10P-Dylan Postier[14]; 24. 5-Richard Reynolds[26]; 25. 2-Dylan Opdahl[20]; 26. 0-Eric Baldaccini[23]