Justin Peck Wins in ASCS at Central Arizona
Photo by Serena Dalhamer
CASA GRANDE, Ariz.—Justin Peck’s excellence in American Sprint Car Series competition with Rudeen Racing cannot be understated.
Peck, 27, of Monrovia, IN, raced his way from third to the lead in 12 laps Saturday night at Central Arizona Raceway to claim victory on opening night of the inaugural Sonoran Clash. In doing so, he banked his fourth full-points paying Feature win with the Series in his last four such starts (excluding 360 Knoxville Nationals), going back to his sweep of all three season-opening events at Volusia Speedway Park in 2025.
For the national 410 Sprint Car standout, it was another dominant display of speed and skill in traffic over his 360 cubic-inch brethren.
From third on the starting grid, Peck held his position behind second place Colby Copeland through the first eight circuits around the 3/8-mile oval. When Copeland slipped high off Turn 4 on Lap 9, Peck was in position on the bottom to drive by in the open lane on the bottom and quickly set his sights on leader Matt Covington, who was over a second ahead in lapped traffic.
In only three laps, Peck erased the gap to the No. 95. Similar to Copeland, Covington slipped off the bottom lane at the exit of Turn 2 with Peck in his tracks. Peck had entered Turn 1 in the top lane and pointed the Rudeen Racing No. 26 back to the bottom off Turn 2, slipping underneath Covington as they raced down the backstretch.
Peck won the drag race to Turn 3 and took the lead away for good on Lap 12. A restart with 19 laps completed gave Covington one shot to get the lead back, but he was unsuccessful as Peck’s speed carried him to his fourth career American Sprint Car Series victory.
“I went in on the top, [Covington] went in on the bottom, the lapped car lifted really bad and he had to slide across the racetrack, so that let me carry momentum and cut across and get underneath of him,” Peck said. “It felt like we had really good pace there; going through traffic, I was just kinda picking them off one at a time. Was just trying to keep it in clean air and it worked out for us.”
Covington held on to finish second while six-time and defending Series champion Sam Hafertepe Jr. raced his way to claim the final podium spot from seventh on the starting grid. 2024 Rookie of the Year Hank Davis crossed in fourth after starting eighth, while 15-year-old Levi Hillier rounded-out the top five.
Hillier was the fastest of all 34 drivers in Qualifying with a lap of 13.924.
Heat Races were won by Sam Hafertepe Jr, Garen Linder, Colby Copeland and Justin Peck.
Covington won the Honest Abe Roofing Dash, while Whit Gastineau won the Smith Titanium Last Chance Showdown.
UP NEXT - The American Sprint Car Series concludes the first of two race weekends in the inaugural Sonoran Clash at Central Arizona Raceway on Sunday, Feb. 22. Hot Laps are scheduled for 4 p.m. MT.
Tickets will be sold at the track. If you can’t be there, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
ASCS NATIONAL TOUR (34 entries)
Saturday, February 21, 2026
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 26-Justin Peck[3]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[7]; 4. 17GP-Hank Davis[8]; 5. 26R-Levi Hillier[5]; 6. 23-Seth Bergman[9]; 7. 45X-Kyler Johnson[4]; 8. 15-Nick Parker[10]; 9. 34-Sterling Cling[14]; 10. 88N-DJ Netto[18]; 11. 11J-Wyatt Miller[12]; 12. 2-Whit Gastineau[17]; 13. 22-Garen Linder[6]; 14. 01-Carson McCarl[11]; 15. 7-Brock Zearfoss[19]; 16. 88R-Ryder Laplante[23]; 17. 17W-Elijah Gile[21]; 18. 31BW-Braxton Weger[16]; 19. 88-Terry Easum[24]; 20. 88C-Brogan Carder[25]; 21. 16G-Austyn Gossel[20]; 22. 2J-Zach Blurton[26]; 23. 12J-John Clark[22]; 24. 4-Tuesday Scearce[15]; 25. 2B-Garrett Benson[13]; 26. 7C-Colby Copeland[2]
Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps): 1. 2-Whit Gastineau[6]; 2. 88N-DJ Netto[1]; 3. 7-Brock Zearfoss[3]; 4. 16G-Austyn Gossel[2]; 5. 17W-Elijah Gile[4]; 6. 12J-John Clark[8]; 7. 23N-Skylar Gee[10]; 8. 88-Terry Easum[9]; 9. 2J-Zach Blurton[7]; 10. 29K-Levi Kuntz[12]; 11. 88R-Ryder Laplante[16]; 12. 8-Jake Helsel[5]; 13. 31-Kyle Beilman[15]; 14. 3-Cole Schroeder[11]; 15. 77X-Alex Hill[13]; 16. 42-Caleb Saiz[17]; 17. 88C-Brogan Carder[14]; 18. (DNS) 34S-Joshua Shipley
Dash (5 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 2. 7C-Colby Copeland[2]; 3. 26-Justin Peck[5]; 4. 45X-Kyler Johnson[3]; 5. 26R-Levi Hillier[7]; 6. 22-Garen Linder[4]; 7. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[6]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 2. 17GP-Hank Davis[2]; 3. 11J-Wyatt Miller[3]; 4. 26R-Levi Hillier[4]; 5. 88N-DJ Netto[5]; 6. 16G-Austyn Gossel[6]; 7. 88-Terry Easum[7]; 8. 88C-Brogan Carder[9]; 9. 88R-Ryder Laplante[8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 22-Garen Linder[1]; 2. 23-Seth Bergman[3]; 3. 45X-Kyler Johnson[4]; 4. 34-Sterling Cling[2]; 5. 7-Brock Zearfoss[6]; 6. 2-Whit Gastineau[7]; 7. 23N-Skylar Gee[8]; 8. 77X-Alex Hill[5]; 9. 42-Caleb Saiz[9]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7C-Colby Copeland[2]; 2. 01-Carson McCarl[3]; 3. 95-Matt Covington[4]; 4. 4-Tuesday Scearce[1]; 5. 17W-Elijah Gile[6]; 6. 2J-Zach Blurton[7]; 7. 29K-Levi Kuntz[8]; 8. 31-Kyle Beilman[5]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 26-Justin Peck[4]; 2. 15-Nick Parker[1]; 3. 2B-Garrett Benson[3]; 4. 31BW-Braxton Weger[2]; 5. 8-Jake Helsel[6]; 6. 12J-John Clark[7]; 7. 3-Cole Schroeder[5]; 8. (DNS) 34S-Joshua Shipley
Qualifying 1 (2 Laps): 1. 26R-Levi Hillier, 13.924[8]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 13.941[3]; 3. 17GP-Hank Davis, 13.974[6]; 4. 11J-Wyatt Miller, 14.040[9]; 5. 88N-DJ Netto, 14.078[5]; 6. 16G-Austyn Gossel, 14.251[2]; 7. 88-Terry Easum, 14.256[7]; 8. 88R-Ryder Laplante, 14.267[1]; 9. 88C-Brogan Carder, 14.527[4]
Qualifying 2 (2 Laps): 1. 45X-Kyler Johnson, 13.978[2]; 2. 22-Garen Linder, 14.202[1]; 3. 34-Sterling Cling, 14.225[8]; 4. 23-Seth Bergman, 14.236[9]; 5. 77X-Alex Hill, 14.321[4]; 6. 7-Brock Zearfoss, 14.334[5]; 7. 2-Whit Gastineau, 14.399[6]; 8. 23N-Skylar Gee, 14.408[3]; 9. 42-Caleb Saiz, 14.525[7]
Qualifying 3 (2 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington, 14.247[8]; 2. 4-Tuesday Scearce, 14.400[7]; 3. 7C-Colby Copeland, 14.487[6]; 4. 01-Carson McCarl, 14.604[1]; 5. 31-Kyle Beilman, 14.648[5]; 6. 17W-Elijah Gile, 14.694[4]; 7. 2J-Zach Blurton, 14.701[2]; 8. 29K-Levi Kuntz, 15.034[3]
Qualifying 4 (2 Laps): 1. 26-Justin Peck, 14.206[2]; 2. 15-Nick Parker, 14.468[5]; 3. 31BW-Braxton Weger, 14.607[1]; 4. 2B-Garrett Benson, 14.673[3]; 5. 3-Cole Schroeder, 14.751[7]; 6. 8-Jake Helsel, 14.760[8]; 7. 12J-John Clark, 14.771[6]; 8. (DNS) 34S-Joshua Shipley, 01:00.000
CURRENT ASCS NATIONAL TOUR STANDINGS
Points Updated: February 21, 2026
Pos. No. Driver Hometown Points Gap Starts Wins Top 5s Top 10s
1 15H Sam Hafertepe Sunnyvale, TX 257 4 0 2 3
2 95 Matt Covington Glenpool, OK 242 -15 4 0 1 1
3 16H Hank Davis Sand Springs, OK 228 -29 4 0 1 1
4 2 Whit Gastineau Moore, OK 221 -36 4 0 0 2
5 3Z Brock Zearfoss Jonestown, PA 218 -39 4 0 1 3
6 23 Seth Bergman Snohomish, WA 216 -41 3 0 0 1
7 45X Kyler Johnson Quinter, KS 211 -46 3 0 0 1
8 88R Ryder Laplante Calera, OK 198 -59 3 0 0 1
9 16G Austyn Gossel Fort Collins, CO 177 -80 3 0 0 0
10 88 Terry Easum Broken Arrow, OK 175 -82 2 0 0 0
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