PARAGON, Ind. — A.J. Hopkins was in the right place at the right time to capture the Paragon Speedway sprint car season opener for the second year in a row on Tuesday night.
The non-winged 410 sprint car event, held in conjunction with the opening round of USAC’s Indiana Midget Week, saw Ethan Barrow lead most of the 25-lap main event before disaster struck late.
Barrow led the first 16 laps uncontested and had pulled away from Hopkins and third-running Kevin Thomas Jr. following a lap-seven restart, after Jarett Andretti rolled his No. 18 sprint car.
However, both Hopkins and Thomas ran Barrow down and made the battle up front a three-horse race in the second half.
Thomas made a deep slide job attempt in turn one, trying to move from third to first with nine laps left, but came up short on his momentum and slid up into the side of Barrow’s car — sending it flipping wildly as Hopkins snuck through to assume the race lead.
That took Barrow out of contention for the win, while Thomas was parked for his role in the incident.
From there, Hopkins drove away over the closing stages to take a 2.280-second victory over C.J. Leary, the defending AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car Series champion.
Thomas Meseraull crossed third, followed by Scotty Weir and Keith Martin.
Nick Bilbee, Sterling Cling, Travis Berryhill, Max Guilford and Charles Davis Jr. filled out the top 10.
Kyle Larson won the headlining national midget feature over Tanner Thorson.
The finish:
1. A.J. Hopkins, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Scotty Weir, 5. Keith Martin, 6. Nick Bilbee, 7. Sterling Cling, 8. Travis Berryhill, 9. Max Guilford, 10. Charles Davis Jr., 11. Jesse Vermillion, 12. Brandon Mattox, 13. Ricky Lewis, 14. Matt Westfall, 15. Lee Underwood, 16. Ethan Barrow, 17. Ben Knight, 18. Jarett Andretti, 19. Jordan Kinser, 20. Josh Cunningham, 21. Kevin Thomas Jr.