PARK CITY, Kan. — Rain caused a three-hour delay for the American Sprint Car Series on Saturday night at 81 Speedway, before Jason Martin rolled back into victory lane at the three-eights-mile oval.
“First of all, thank you to all these people who sat it out in that rain. It was pretty cool to look out while it was still raining and see people sitting in the stands. Kudos to you guys. The fans are what pay our bills, and hopefully, you all enjoyed it,” Martin said. “Also, to the staff. They could have just checked out and said, we’re done, but instead, it was an awesome race track.”
Leading from start to finish, the start was crucial to Martin’s success. Taking the green to the right of the front row, Jason and Covington swapped lines into the first turn, with the No. 36 able to escape with the lead.
Gone in clean air, traffic brought Covington into the mix, and at one point, the top four were nose to tail.
Rubbing up on Martin’s left rear trying to shoot the bottom off the fourth turn as Jason worked a slower car on lap 12, Matt was able to calm the right side tires of the No. 95 back to the racing surface and missed taking the point by 0.098-seconds.
Slowed thrice by a caution during the 25-lap affair, the final one came on lap 19.
With first and second unchanged, Martin would roll away by 1.064-seconds at the checkered flag. Covington in second, the race behind him saw several shifts through the last six laps. Jordon Mallett grabbed third away from Jake Bubak while Howard Moore snuck into the top five.
Getting shuffled back to eighth at one point, Brandon Anderson made it back to sixth, with Don Droud, Jr. slipping back on the final restart from fifth to seventh. Making up seven positions for the night KSE Hard Charger Award, Christopher Townsend crossed the finish line eighth, followed by Tim Estenson ninth and Whit Gastineau in 10th.
Feature Results (25 Laps)
1. 36-Jason Martin[2]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 3. 14-Jordon Mallett[4]; 4. 1X-Jake Bubak[3]; 5. 3-Howard Moore[10]; 6. 55B-Brandon Anderson[7]; 7. 1M-Don Droud Jr[5]; 8. 6-Christopher Townsend[15]; 9. 14T-Tim Estenson[9]; 10. 2W-Whit Gastineau[11]; 11. 45X-Kyler Johnson[12]; 12. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[18]; 13. 10-Landon Britt[6]; 14. 9$-Kyle Clark[19]; 15. 2-Chase Porter[8]; 16. 7C-Chris Morgan[23]; 17. 31-Casey Wills[22]; 18. 31M-Eric Matthews[16]; 19. 10X-Jordan Knight[17]; 20. 97-Kevin Cummings[20]; 21. 23K-Mike Kleymann[24]; 22. 26M-Fred Mattox[14]; 23. 12-Jeffrey Newell[13]; 24. 13-Elijah Gile[21]