LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Saturday night at I-30 Speedway was one for the ages as Blake Hahn shot the gap between Tim Crawley and the wall off the final turn to win the Scrapp Fox Memorial.
“With about five to go, I could hear Tim working the outside of me, and under the caution, my crew was signaling that I needed to work the top, so I did, and actually let Tim [Crawley] get by me, and that ticked me off so when he started battling hard with J.J. [Hickle], I knew I had to get where they weren’t,” Hahn explained. “The top in one and two, you really had to be careful with, and three and four hadn’t really been that good all night, but that last lap, we were able to make it work. Anytime you can get by Crawley, especially here, you’ve done something.”
The Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Car Series race was a three-car fight as the field went back to green with four laps to run. Chasing J.J. Hickle into the first two turns, Crawley railed the top of the track. Going wheel to wheel with Hickle into the third turn, the No. 63 pushed off the bottom, giving Crawley room to turn down and take the point.
Going to the cushion in third, Hahn drove deep through turns one and two.
With momentum building as the trio hit the final two revolutions, Crawley protected the bottom with Hickle and Hahn battling for second. To the runner-up spot as the white flag waved, Hahn again buried the Smiley’s Racing Products No. 52 into the turn one and two cushion. Barreling down the backstretch with the Ronnie Pitts Motorsports No. 1x again going low to the final two turns, Hahn hit the top of the track.
Shooting to the wall of the final turn, Hahn buried the throttle and worked between Crawley and the wall to edge the wily veteran for the win by 0.151 seconds. Contact with Crawley’s right front as they hit the finish line broke the steering, but Crawley was able to get the car down the track as the field rolled by.
Greeting Hahn in victory lane, Crawley was smiling as he picked Hahn up in a bear hug and acted like the two were fighting; then shook hands with the crew before returning to his car.
“I drove my old ass off and did everything I thought I needed to do and go into position and did pretty much all of it I did on the outside. Why the hell I didn’t just run the top, I don’t know. But I would like to see a replay of that. I think I won it,” chuckled Crawley, who came from 11th to second.
From seventh, J.J. Hickle took over the lead on lap 11 after Derek Hagar and Michael Faccinto tangled racing for the top spot. Holding onto third, the Washington shoe continues to lead the overall Sprint Week standings.
Matt Covington rolled from 10th to fourth with Seth Bergman going 13th to fifth.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn[9]; 2. 1XX-Tim Crawley[11]; 3. 63-JJ Hickle[7]; 4. 95-Matt Covington[10]; 5. 23-Seth Bergman[13]; 6. 17W-Harli White[19]; 7. 9JR-Derek Hagar[2]; 8. 1X-Jake Bubak[4]; 9. 5H-Michael Faccinto[1]; 10. 33-Colton Heath[6]; 11. 22X-Riley Goodno[14]; 12. 2-Brad Bowden[8]; 13. J2-John Carney II[20]; 14. 44J-Jesse Love[18]; 15. 17B-Ryan Bickett[15]; 16. 63D-Trey Burke[12]; 17. 55B-Brandon Anderson[22]; 18. G6-Cody Gardner[17]; 19. 8Z-Zach Pringle[3]; 20. 3-Howard Moore[5]; 21. 9$-Kyle Clark[16]; 22. 9-Chase Randall[21]