CASA GRANDE, Ariz. — Justin Peck’s excellence in American Sprint Car Series competition with Rudeen Racing cannot be understated.
Peck, 27, raced his way from third to the lead in 12 laps Saturday night at Central Arizona Raceway to claim victory on opening night of the inaugural Sonoran Clash.
In doing so, he banked his fourth full-points paying feature win with the Series in his last four such starts (excluding 360 Knoxville Nationals), going back to his sweep of all three season-opening events at Volusia Speedway Park in 2025.
For the national 410 sprint car standout, it was another dominant display of speed and skill in traffic over his 360 cubic-inch brethren.
From third on the starting grid, Peck held his position behind second place Colby Copeland through the first eight circuits around the three-eighths-mile oval. When Copeland slipped high off Turn 4 on Lap 9, Peck was in position on the bottom to drive by in the open lane on the bottom and quickly set his sights on leader Matt Covington, who was over a second ahead in lapped traffic.
In only three laps, Peck erased the gap to the No. 95. Similar to Copeland, Covington slipped off the bottom lane at the exit of Turn 2 with Peck in his tracks. Peck had entered Turn 1 in the top lane and pointed the Rudeen Racing No. 26 back to the bottom off Turn 2, slipping underneath Covington as they raced down the backstretch.
Peck won the drag race to Turn 3 and took the lead away for good on Lap 12. A restart with 19 laps completed gave Covington one shot to get the lead back, but he was unsuccessful as Peck’s speed carried him to his fourth career American Sprint Car Series victory.
“I went in on the top, [Covington] went in on the bottom, the lapped car lifted really bad and he had to slide across the racetrack, so that let me carry momentum and cut across and get underneath of him,” Peck said. “It felt like we had really good pace there; going through traffic, I was just kinda picking them off one at a time. Was just trying to keep it in clean air and it worked out for us.”
Covington held on to finish second while six-time and defending champion Sam Hafertepe Jr. raced his way to claim the final podium spot from seventh on the starting grid. 2024 Rookie of the Year Hank Davis crossed in fourth after starting eighth, while 15-year-old Levi Hillier rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 26-Justin Peck[3]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[7]; 4. 17GP-Hank Davis[8]; 5. 26R-Levi Hillier[5]; 6. 23-Seth Bergman[9]; 7. 45X-Kyler Johnson[4]; 8. 15-Nick Parker[10]; 9. 34-Sterling Cling[14]; 10. 88N-DJ Netto[18]; 11. 11J-Wyatt Miller[12]; 12. 2-Whit Gastineau[17]; 13. 22-Garen Linder[6]; 14. 01-Carson McCarl[11]; 15. 7-Brock Zearfoss[19]; 16. 88R-Ryder Laplante[23]; 17. 17W-Elijah Gile[21]; 18. 31BW-Braxton Weger[16]; 19. 88-Terry Easum[24]; 20. 88C-Brogan Carder[25]; 21. 16G-Austyn Gossel[20]; 22. 2J-Zach Blurton[26]; 23. 12J-John Clark[22]; 24. 4-Tuesday Scearce[15]; 25. 2B-Garrett Benson[13]; 26. 7C-Colby Copeland[2]
