Sam in Victory Lane at Smoky Mountain Speedway (ASCS Photo)
(Bill W) August 21, 2017 – Sam Hafertepe Jr. and the Keith Dobbs #15H team picked up their second win in as many weeks with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series, as they were victorious at the Smoky Mountain Speedway near Maryville, Tennessee. The Sunnyvale, Texas native kept his lead in the point standings as the series next heads to Jackson Motorplex in Minnesota this Friday and Saturday night.
The series first checked into Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas Thursday. Sam started fifth in the heat. “We were actually good in the heat,” he says. “We got tangled up there with a guy at the start. We had to go to the back. We restarted eighth, and we were able to get all the way back up to second. We had a restart at the end, and I couldn’t hold onto second. We ended up getting passed. Fifth to third wasn’t enough points for the redraw.”
He started the feature inside row six. “The way the track looked…it was getting better and better every time we hit it,” says Sam. “It was so wet early that it was coming in. I was scared to tighten the car up, so we left it alone after the heat. We hit the track in the feature and it got really slick. We weren’t prepared for that. We just maintained in the feature. We ended where we started, which was 11th. I didn’t drive a very good race on top of having not the best racecar. We just moved on to the next one.”
The next one was Saturday, and a new track for Sam. “I’d never seen it before,” he says of Smoky Mountain Speedway. “I had thought it was a lot smaller. They were advertising it as a half-mile, but it wasn’t that big. It was a really big 3/8. There were tight corners and some banking. It had a Williams Grove type shape with some banking.”
He would draw well for his heat. “We were really good right away,” says Sam. “We were good in hot laps. We won the heat going away. We ran the fastest lap of the night in the heat. We were happy with the racecar.”
The redraw would see another good redraw for Sam…the pole. “We made a few changes for the feature, but nothing crazy,” he says. “I knew by the way the place raced, that you had to get out front quick. Luckily, we drew the pole, and Wayne (Johnson) drew the outside. It was a drag race to turn one, and he had an edge on us and chopped us a bit heading into one. I knew we would have to wait for lapped traffic to make something happen.”
He continued his pursuit of Wayne. “We had a really good car,” says Sam. “A lot of guys were dependent on the top early, but we could really go anywhere. We were able to wait for lapped traffic, and Wayne was struggling a little bit. We were able to get around them better than most guys. We used that do our advantage. Wayne got bottled up behind a lapped car and we were able to get by. From there, we started putting lapped cars between us and the guys behind us.”
Sam had to withstand one final restart. “Wayne flipped and we had a restart,” he says. “He got tangled with a lapped car. We were supposed to have two lapped cars between us and second, and they elected not to go in. I knew I’d really have to hit my marks. We were able to do that. We caught lapped traffic again late, and they closed on us a bit, but we were able to get the win.”
The team is looking forward to Jackson. “We’re going to have some great competition up there,” says Sam. “It should be good for us. It’s another big track, and we’ve been strong on those. We were good there last year. We had a shot to win on Saturday night, and I messed up late. We feel good going in there.”
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Sam would like to thank Highway 79 Collision Center, the Sparks Family, Kiebler & Sons Lawn and Landscaping, Keizer Aluminum Wheels, Champion Oil, NAPA Auto Parts of Franklin and Sherwin Williams, FK Rod Ends, 21R Youth Racing League, Huggins Cams, CP Carrillo, Callie’s, Vortex Wings, Simpson Racing Products, Kinsler Injection, Barnes Oil Systems, DMI, Fisher Racing Engines, Moose Blocks, J&J Auto Racing, KSE, Smiley’s Racing Products, Hoosier Tire, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions.
Photo: Sam in Victory Lane at Smoky Mountain Speedway (ASCS Photo)
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