BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Sprint cars have hit the race track once again and Justin Peck and Rudeen Racing were the first to taste victory Thursday night at Volusia Speedway Park.
The newly formed driver–team pairing kicked off their new partnership in dominant fashion, winning the American Sprint Car Series National Tour season opener — as part of the 54th edition of the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals, leading all 25 laps of the feature to collect the $3,000 grand prize.
Though Rudeen first had Peck driving the team car at the conclusion of 2024, Peck expressed great confidence in he and the team’s capability so early on into their partnership.
“I knew we had speed in the 410 ranks, and I think we just had enough confidence knowing that if we just stick on the program we’re doing and keep building our notebook together that we were gonna be pretty fast,” Peck said. “Thankfully, we were right, and we came here with a lot of speed right out of the box. We had to tweak on it a little bit here and there to gain that little bit extra it takes to win races like this.”
After turning the fastest qualifying lap in his group, a fourth-to-first drive to win the third heat and a runner-up effort in the dash, Peck took the lead from the outside pole on the opening lap of the feature and never lost focus. The 27-year-old from Monrovia, Ind., held off 20-year-old Emerson Axsom and five-time ASCS National Tour champion Sam Hafertepe Jr. for all 25 laps on the fast half-mile.
“I had a good enough race car there; I probably would’ve been okay even if the track did change,” Peck said. “Even in that condition, I could run in the dirty stuff, I could run in the slick, I could kinda run through the grip. All-in-all, my car was pretty good.”
Though he was never considerably challenged for the lead, Peck was forced to deal with pressure from Axsom on multiple restarts and in his drives through lapped traffic.
“It’s such a big, fast track, and the 360 stuff doesn’t have as much [horsepower] as a 410 would, so when you get your momentum broken, it’s so hard to get it back together,” Peck said. “Me being up front, I’m full-bore, wide open, ready to rip, and those guys that are mid-pack toward the back are all racing each other and all breaking momentum all the time. Then I get to them, and I have to break my momentum, and it just allows everybody coming behind you to be right up on you right away.”
“I felt like the only chance I had at [Peck] was in traffic,” Axsom said. “It was honestly a little bit nerve-wracking myself because the traffic guys were so off the pace, I didn’t want to put myself in a bad spot and wreck myself or wreck him. So, I was trying to be patient in traffic. I figured one of the runs would go long enough that I could get a run, and I think I was just a little bit too patient.”
Axsom started fourth on the grid and made the pass for second on the opening lap. He chased Peck closely for all 25 laps but was unable to get close enough to make a move for the top spot and settled for runner-up.
“It made it tough to get around Justin there without a little bit of traffic,” Axsom said. “And every time we did get to traffic, the yellow got brought out.”
From sixth on the starting grid, Hafertepe passed his way to third in the opening two circuits but chased Axsom and Peck until the checkered flag.
“I was really happy with our race car; this is the first time we’ve been on a Triple X racecar,” Hafertepe said. “We just switched a lot of things from last year to this year. Wings, cars, and to come out the first night and to have the speed we had initially is great.
“Honestly, there were times in the Feature I thought we were gonna be able to have a chance to win the race if lapped traffic would’ve played out for us, but the cautions came, and that’s part of the game sometimes.”
Austin McCarl earned the race’s Hard Charger honor in his drive from 14th on the grid to finish fifth.
Axsom earned Quick Time honors for his best qualifying lap of 14.165 seconds.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 26-Justin Peck[2]; 2. 27A-Emerson Axsom[4]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[6]; 4. 20-Brady Bacon[5]; 5. 88M-Austin McCarl[14]; 6. 21-Brian Brown[10]; 7. 2C-Cole Macedo[11]; 8. 51T-Scotty Thiel[8]; 9. 95-Matt Covington[9]; 10. 48D-Danny Dietrich[19]; 11. 52-Blake Hahn[7]; 12. 44-Chris Martin[16]; 13. 36-Jason Martin[12]; 14. 13P-Daison Pursley[18]; 15. 4P-Chase Moran[17]; 16. 6G-Bryan Gossel[13]; 17. 63-Josh Weller[20]; 18. UK97-Ryan Harrison[23]; 19. 4-Cameron Martin[15]; 20. 6S-Tyler Clem[21]; 21. 0-Glenn Styres[22]; 22. 16H-Hank Davis[1]; 23. 7-Jordan Thomas[3]; 24. 2-Whit Gastineau[24]
