Sam Hafertepe Jr. Wins at WaKeeney, Bags Ninth ASCS National Tour win of 2025
Photo by ASCS photo
WAKEENEY, Kans.—Neither the summer heat nor the American Sprint Car Series’ (ASCS) best regional racers could extinguish Sam Hafertepe Jr.’s hot streak Friday night.
The five-time Series champion from Sunnyvale, TX, garnered his ninth Feature win of the season — sixth in the past seven events — with the national 360 Sprint Car circuit, making the pass for the lead on polesitter Jake Bubak after the halfway point and holding off a final-lap challenge to bank his 86th career Series win and first-ever at WaKeeney Speedway.
A sample of Kansas and Colorado’s regional competition — multiple of whom compete with the ASCS Western Plains Region and ASCS Northern Plains Region — joined the roster for the co-sanctioned event and challenged the national Series regulars throughout the night. Bubak — a native of Arveda, CO — led the charge, turning the fastest lap in his Qualifying group, which ranked second overall behind only Hafertepe’s fastest lap.
When Bubak took the green flag from the pole of the Feature after a win in the Honest Abe Roofing Dash, Hafertepe advanced to the runner-up spot on the opening lap and began the chase at the head of the field.
“I just knew it was gonna be hard to do anything with him in open track,” Hafertepe said. “I knew it was gonna be a tough thing to do. Jake’s a really good racecar driver; he’s a really calculated racecar driver, so I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do anything with him early.”
The two drivers reached the tail of the field on Lap 8 and began working their way through lapped traffic; Bubak maintaining a formidable pace out front as the halfway point neared. But as soon as they crossed the midpoint of the race, Hafertepe made his bid for the lead.
As Bubak crossed the start/finish line to complete Lap 13, Hafertepe rode a wave of speed off Turn 4 and drove deep into Turn 1, pulling up alongside the No. 27B in Turn 2 and making the pass down the backstretch.
“We were better than him in (Turns) 3 and 4, so I got a really good run off of 4 and I thought ‘Man, if I can catch just some of the rubber off the exit, if I get beside him, maybe I can drag him off the corner,’” Hafertepe said. “I got beside him, we both got in the rubber off the exit of 2, and I just got a little better drive off of 2.”
“I thought I needed to conserve my tires, and I just slowed my pace down too far,” Bubak said. “Sam was able to charge and get by us. His pace was much quicker than mine.”
From there, it was all the No. 15H out front. Hafertepe grew his lead to nearly two seconds as he pushed his way through more lapped traffic in the final laps.
Bubak did not go away completely, however. With two laps left, he had trimmed his gap to Hafertepe down to one second, and then to slightly over 0.3 seconds as they took the white flag. With a burst of momentum down the frontstretch, Bubak drove hard into Turn 1 on the outside lane in an attempt to go around Hafertepe and steal the lead back but could not hold the line as Hafertepe drove off with the victory down the backstretch.
“I didn’t to open the bottom up for [Bubak] to dive in there,” Hafertepe said. “I knew we were getting slowed up with the lapped cars, but I didn’t want to press anything. If he was gonna win it, he was gonna have to earn it on the outside, and I knew that’d be probably pretty tough for him to do.”
“Once [Hafertepe] went by, I kinda maintained pace with him and still felt like I saved enough tire to give it one last shot there at the end, but as long as he stayed in the rubber, there was nothing I was gonna do to get by him,” Bubak said.
In the end, Bubak came across the finish line second in what appeared to be his first national ASCS podium of the season. However, he encountered a technical infraction post-race, coming up short of the 1,500-pound minimum weight requirement at the scales, therefore disqualifying him from the event.
That moved third-place finisher Kyler Johnson up into the runner-up position. The native of nearby Quinter, KS, held his spot up front the entire race and marked a new career-best finish for him with the national Series.
Arkansas native Brady Baker was promoted to third place, while Terry Easum and Matt Covington were officially credited with fourth and fifth-place finishes, respectively.
UP NEXT - The American Sprint Car Series next races El Paso County Raceway in Calhan, CO, on Saturday, Aug. 16. Tickets for the event will be sold at the track on race day.
If you can’t be there, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
ASCS NATIONAL TOUR RESULTS
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 2. 45X-Kyler Johnson[2]; 3. 71-Brady Baker[5]; 4. 88-Terry Easum[11]; 5. 95-Matt Covington[13]; 6. 2J-Zach Blurton[9]; 7. 36-Jason Martin[12]; 8. 52-Blake Hahn[6]; 9. 1X-Bryant Wiedeman[10]; 10. 10-Landon Britt[15]; 11. 88C-Brogan Carder[21]; 12. 88K-Jordan Knight[17]; 13. 16G-Austyn Gossel[7]; 14. 88R-Ryder Laplante[16]; 15. 6G-Bryan Gossel[19]; 16. 2B-Garrett Benson[4]; 17. 91-Jeff Stasa[23]; 18. 72-Ray Seemann[22]; 19. 74-Zack Merritt[24]; 20. 77-Cole MacEwen[18]; 21. 5D-Adam Trimble[14]; 22. 71T-Christopher Townsend[20]; 23. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[8]; 24. (DQ) 27B-Jake Bubak[1]
Dash (5 Laps): 1. 27B-Jake Bubak[2]; 2. 45X-Kyler Johnson[1]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 4. 2B-Garrett Benson[5]; 5. 71-Brady Baker[4]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2B-Garrett Benson[1]; 2. 16G-Austyn Gossel[2]; 3. 71-Brady Baker[4]; 4. 36-Jason Martin[8]; 5. 10-Landon Britt[5]; 6. 77-Cole MacEwen[6]; 7. 71T-Christopher Townsend[3]; 8. 74-Zack Merritt[7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 45X-Kyler Johnson[1]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 3. 27B-Jake Bubak[4]; 4. 1X-Bryant Wiedeman[3]; 5. 95-Matt Covington[6]; 6. 88R-Ryder Laplante[7]; 7. 6G-Bryan Gossel[5]; 8. 72-Ray Seemann[8]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[4]; 2. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[1]; 3. 2J-Zach Blurton[2]; 4. 88-Terry Easum[6]; 5. 5D-Adam Trimble[7]; 6. 88K-Jordan Knight[3]; 7. 88C-Brogan Carder[5]; 8. 91-Jeff Stasa[8]
Qualifying 1 (2 Laps): 1. 71-Brady Baker, 00:15.214[4]; 2. 2B-Garrett Benson, 00:15.217[7]; 3. 16G-Austyn Gossel, 00:15.322[3]; 4. 71T-Christopher Townsend, 00:15.395[2]; 5. 10-Landon Britt, 00:15.718[1]; 6. 77-Cole MacEwen, 00:16.158[5]; 7. 74-Zack Merritt, 00:16.167[8]; 8. (DNS) 36-Jason Martin
Qualifying 2 (2 Laps): 1. 27B-Jake Bubak, 00:14.965[3]; 2. 45X-Kyler Johnson, 00:15.044[4]; 3. 52-Blake Hahn, 00:15.063[1]; 4. 1X-Bryant Wiedeman, 00:15.251[8]; 5. 6G-Bryan Gossel, 00:15.256[7]; 6. 95-Matt Covington, 00:15.267[2]; 7. 88R-Ryder Laplante, 00:15.364[6]; 8. 72-Ray Seemann, 00:15.579[5]
Qualifying 3 (2 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 00:14.924[4]; 2. 10C-Jeremy Campbell, 00:15.326[6]; 3. 2J-Zach Blurton, 00:15.431[5]; 4. 88K-Jordan Knight, 00:15.548[7]; 5. 88C-Brogan Carder, 00:15.603[8]; 6. 88-Terry Easum, 00:15.610[3]; 7. 5D-Adam Trimble, 00:15.680[1]; 8. 91-Jeff Stasa, 00:15.784[2]
Hot Laps: 1. 95-Matt Covington, 00:15.026[10]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 00:15.056[20]; 3. 45X-Kyler Johnson, 00:15.158[12]; 4. 52-Blake Hahn, 00:15.186[9]; 5. 6G-Bryan Gossel, 00:15.228[15]; 6. 1X-Bryant Wiedeman, 00:15.312[16]; 7. 16G-Austyn Gossel, 00:15.398[3]; 8. 71-Brady Baker, 00:15.422[4]; 9. 10C-Jeremy Campbell, 00:15.426[22]; 10. 88C-Brogan Carder, 00:15.579[24]; 11. 88-Terry Easum, 00:15.582[19]; 12. 88R-Ryder Laplante, 00:15.607[14]; 13. 5D-Adam Trimble, 00:15.608[17]; 14. 2B-Garrett Benson, 00:15.615[7]; 15. 88K-Jordan Knight, 00:15.630[23]; 16. 2J-Zach Blurton, 00:15.653[21]; 17. 72-Ray Seemann, 00:15.736[13]; 18. 91-Jeff Stasa, 00:15.756[18]; 19. 10-Landon Britt, 00:15.906[1]; 20. 74-Zack Merritt, 00:16.105[8]; 21. 71T-Christopher Townsend, 00:16.228[2]; 22. 77-Cole MacEwen, 00:16.540[5]; 23. 27B-Jake Bubak, 00:15.137[11]; 24. (DNS) 36-Jason Martin
CURRENT NHRA NATIONAL TOUR STANDINGS
Points Updated: August 15, 2025
Pos # Competitor Hometown Points Gap Wins Top 5 Top 10 Features
1 15H Sam Hafertepe Jr Sunnyvale, TX 1939 - 9 13 15 16
2 52 Blake Hahn Sapulpa, OK 1732 -207 1 8 12 17
3 95 Matt Covington Glenpool, OK 1712 -227 1 9 13 17
4 36 Jason Martin Liberal, KS 1635 -304 0 6 9 16
5 71 Brady Baker Alexander, AR 1521 -418 0 2 7 13
6 45X Kyler Johnson Quinter, KS 1506 -433 0 3 5 13
7 2B Garrett Benson Concordia, MO 1498 -441 0 1 7 13
8 2J Zach Blurton Quinter, KS 1489 -450 1 1 5 15
9 16G Austyn Gossel Fort Collins, CO 1487 -452 0 4 4 13
10 10 Landon Britt Memphis, TN 1445 -494 0 0 5 13
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Cruisers
A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 79-Weston Kraus[3]; 2. 2-Colby Hagans[1]; 3. 01-Dakota Bliss[4]; 4. 10 32-Dylan Pfeifer[2]; 5. 29A-Anna Kraus[6]; 6. 9-Shaun Woods[5]; 7. (DNS) 317Z-Travis Phillips
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Colby Hagans[5]; 2. 79-Weston Kraus[4]; 3. 01-Dakota Bliss[2]; 4. 9-Shaun Woods[3]; 5. 10 32-Dylan Pfeifer[6]; 6. 29A-Anna Kraus[1]; 7. (DNF) 317Z-Travis Phillips[7]
Solutions North Bank Stock Cars
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 250-Tathan Burkhart[4]; 2. 34H-Doug Holzmeister[6]; 3. 3Z-Trey Zorn[10]; 4. 49-Drew Miller[2]; 5. 16Z-Jeremy Zorn[8]; 6. (DNF) 54P-Kyle Pfeifer[1]; 7. (DNF) 7-Bobby Eubanks[5]; 8. (DNF) 25X-Troy Burkhart[3]; 9. (DNF) 54D-Dylan Sherfick[7]; 10. (DNS) 1C-Cody Ghumm
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Bobby Eubanks[1]; 2. 250-Tathan Burkhart[4]; 3. 16Z-Jeremy Zorn[2]; 4. 54D-Dylan Sherfick[3]; 5. 1C-Cody Ghumm[5]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 34H-Doug Holzmeister[1]; 2. 54P-Kyle Pfeifer[4]; 3. 3Z-Trey Zorn[3]; 4. 25X-Troy Burkhart[5]; 5. 49-Drew Miller[2]
Ghumm's Autos Hobby Stocks
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 88-Morgan Olmstead[2]; 2. 98Z-Zach Olmstead[10]; 3. 31-Dylan Bell[9]; 4. 37-Bingston Rogers[4]; 5. 48H-Carson Hageman[3]; 6. T21-Ted Trumbo[5]; 7. 8J-Levi Jones[6]; 8. 58-Bret Conness[12]; 9. 66N-Nicholas Sherfick[1]; 10. 14-David Kraus[7]; 11. 32B-Levi Lippelmann co[8]; 12. 37X-Cash Tubbs[11]; 13. 37XJ-Austin Janousek[14]; 14. 49-Aiden Miller[13]; 15. M69-Anna Minks[15]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 98Z-Zach Olmstead[1]; 2. 32B-Levi Lippelmann co[7]; 3. 8J-Levi Jones[6]; 4. 48H-Carson Hageman[3]; 5. 14-David Kraus[5]; 6. 37X-Cash Tubbs[2]; 7. 49-Aiden Miller[4]; 8. M69-Anna Minks[8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 31-Dylan Bell[3]; 2. 88-Morgan Olmstead[4]; 3. 66N-Nicholas Sherfick[1]; 4. 37-Bingston Rogers[6]; 5. T21-Ted Trumbo[2]; 6. 58-Bret Conness[7]; 7. 37XJ-Austin Janousek[5]
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