PARK CITY, Kan. — Standing in victory lane as Mother Nature made her presence known Saturday night, Jason Martin held off the last lap charge of Matt Covington for his fifth win of the season with the American Sprint Car Series and ninth of his career.
A turnaround from the start of the three-day run for Martin, who got tangled up at Creek County Speedway, Martin explained he’d been chasing the car ever since.
“Until Thursday, we’d been pretty good, just got tangled at Creek and it actually bent this car,” Martin said. “It’s taken me two nights to figure out what the hell was wrong with it. I just kept messing with it because we were absolutely horrible earlier. I think we were 17th out of 19 in Hot Laps. I was mad, so I just started changing stuff.”
The first time for Martin to top the National Tour at 81 Speedway, the No. 36 shot to the lead on the opening lap with a pass on Kyler Johnson through the third and fourth turns.
Into traffic by the fifth lap, the No. 36 was slowed trying to navigate the back markers, allowing Brandon Anderson, who made it to second on lap two, to close the gap. Getting the shot at the top spot, Anderson took advantage on lap eight.
A red flag on lap 12 as Jeremy Campbell, Forest Sutherland and Landon Britt tangled in the first turn, the restart would spell disaster for Anderson. With a massive puff of smoke at the end of the frontstretch, the engine let go for the second race in a row down the backstretch.
Advancing Martin back to the point, the No. 36 sped away several times as Matt Covington came up to chase. In traffic again with less than three laps to go, the white flag saw Covington close from over a second to only 0.198-seconds behind. Mounting a charge down the backstretch, it was not enough to deny Martin, who won by 0.297-seconds.
Johnson, third, was followed by Chris Morgan for his second career top-five finish with the American Sprint Car Series. Jordon Mallett completed the top five.
Feature Finish (25 Laps)
1. 36-Jason Martin[2]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[6]; 3. 45X-Kyler Johnson[1]; 4. 7C-Chris Morgan[7]; 5. 14-Jordon Mallett[9]; 6. 3-Howard Moore[11]; 7. 2-Chase Porter[12]; 8. 3X-Tanner Conn[13]; 9. 91D-Michael Day[10]; 10. 26M-Fred Mattox[3]; 11. 2J-Zach Blurton[18]; 12. 91-Jeff Stasa[14]; 13. 31M-Eric Matthews[19]; 14. 16S-Steven Shebester[16]; 15. 55B-Brandon Anderson[4]; 16. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[5]; 17. 10-Landon Britt[8]; 18. 85-Forrest Sutherland[15]; 19. 6-Christopher Townsend[17]