POCOLA, Okla. — Sam Hafertepe Jr., isn’t exactly a stranger to victory lane at Tri-State Speedway after scoring an ASCS Regional win a handful of years ago atop the high-banked three-eighths-mile clay oval situated near the Oklahoma-Arkansas state line.
So it was only fitting that the Sunnyvale, Texas, racer made it a return to victory lane on Friday night as winged 410 sprint cars returned to the oval for the first time since 2010 with the opening night of the POWRi 410 Sprint Car series Salute to Service.
After starting outside the front row, Hafertepe chased down early leader Cory Eliason in lapped traffic at the midway point of the 25-lapper en route to a $5,000 payday aboard the Hill’s Racing Cigar Port/True North No. 15h.
“It came down to lapped traffic,” Hafertepe explained after his sixth overall win of the 2023 campaign and second in 410 action. “We got to a couple of cars and he opened the door.”
Following the race’s only caution after just one lap when current series points leader Ayrton Gennetten came to a stop, Eliason led the way in the early going with traffic coming into play after just a handful of laps.
Hafertepe kept pace and pounced when the opportunity presented itself exiting turn four at the midway point.
From there, Hafertepe kept his pursuers at bay over the remaining distance as the lead pack diced through traffic, taking the checkered flag with a 1.041-second advantage.
While Eliason settled for runner-up honors after starting from the pole, RSR stablemate Aaron Reutzel rallied from the 11th-starting position into the top five in short order and then battled past Noah Gass for the show position in the closing laps before running out of time to chase down the lead duo.
“We kind of got bogged down behind a couple of cars, but I felt like we had a car capable of winning,” Reutzel said.
Gass crossed the stripe fourth with Blake Hahn rounding out the top five.
After Eliason set the night’s fast time of 13.069 seconds in qualifying, Nienhiser, Roger Crockett and Joe B. Miller topped heat race action before Riley Goodno won the B Main.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[2]; 2. 8-Cory Eliason[1]; 3. 8X-Aaron Reutzel[11]; 4. 20G-Noah Gass[5]; 5. 52-Blake Hahn[7]; 6. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[8]; 7. 6Z-Zane DeVault[6]; 8. 1-Brenham Crouch[15]; 9. 22X-JJ Hickle[14]; 10. 95-Matt Covington[9]; 11. 51B-Joe B Miller[12]; 12. 50K-Kyle Bellm[21]; 13. 87J-Jace Park[16]; 14. 22-Riley Goodno[17]; 15. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[4]; 16. 37-Bryce Norris[19]; 17. G6-Cody Gardner[18]; 18. 88R-Ryder Laplante[22]; 19. 17GP-Cole Duncan[13]; 20. 79-Gage Montgomery[24]; 21. 7S-Landon Crawley[3]; 22. 11-Roger Crockett[10]; 23. 91-Riley Kreisel[20]; 24. 74-Xavier Doney[23]