Covington Tops ASCS Return To Pevely Bullring

PEVELY, Mo. – The American Sprint Car Series’ return to I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park Saturday night was worth all 30 years it took to get the national stars back to the high banks.

In the end, Matt Covington was the driver who tasted victory at the iconic Missouri oval, making the pass on Kyler Johnson in the final laps and holding on through a green-white-checkered finish to bag his third win of the season.

The first ASCS National Tour checkered flag at the venue since 1995 came with a $10,000 grand prize.

“It’s cool. The racetrack is awesome, and I hope we get to come back again,” Covington said.

After Johnson took the lead from Blake Hahn on lap eight, he began to open a gap on Covington, which reached slightly over a full second as they rode the high side through traffic around the third-mile track.

Covington made the pass on Hahn to take second on a lap-10 restart and, after another restart on lap 11, immediately began his hunt for Johnson and the race lead. With his right-rear tire against the cushion, Covington chased Johnson for the next 17 laps, waiting for a mistake to capitalize on.

“I don’t know what it was coming out of (turn) two, but the car would hoppy right there,” Covington said. “Honestly, what I felt like made me faster was when I slowed down a little bit. I didn’t attack the curb as hard. [Used] a little more brake [and] a little less throttle.

“It kept the car a little more settled, and I actually felt like I picked up speed by doing that.”

With three laps left, Covington got the opportunity he was looking for. Johnson’s pace abruptly slowed entering turn one as he attempted to get by the lapped traffic in front of him, and Covington immediately closed the gap.

“With lapped traffic there, it just kind of bit me,” Johnson said afterward. “We had two cars up top and then one kind of on the bottom. The one that was running the bottom went to the top, so I was going to slide him, and then he decided to go to the bottom.”

Down the backstretch and through turns three and four, the lead duo stayed nose-to-tail until Covington dove deep into turn one and slid up in front of Johnson to take the lead out of turn two.

“I knew [Johnson’s] car was really fast, but I knew that if I was going to get by him, we’d have a good shot in lapped traffic,” Covington said. “I got a lot more years of experience, and lapped traffic was where I thought I would excel, and it just worked out that way this time.

“I don’t think he did anything wrong. Sometimes, it’s just hard, and sometimes it’s better running second.”

The caution flag flew one lap later, restacking the field for a green-white-checkered finish and giving Johnson one chance to get back by Covington for the lead.

“I knew the top in (turns) one and two was going to get pretty rough; you had to be pretty technical up there,” Johnson said. “I saw [Garrett Benson] under me just the lap before that, so I knew he was going to be on the bottom. So, my only option was to try to stick the bottom out of [turn] two, and couldn’t quite get a good enough run to pull Matt. We could hang even, but we couldn’t quite clear him.”

Covington got a strong takeoff on the restart and drove away with his 22nd career ASCS victory.

“I tried to start early,” Covington said. “They tell us that we can start anywhere from (Turn) 3 to 4, and I started pretty early into [turn] three, and sometimes that catches a guy off guard. If your car’s good, you feel like you have that much more of a corner to stretch it out a little bit.”

Johnson held on for second place, tying his best career National Tour finish that he set at WaKeeney Speedway in August.

“Matt did a great job; congrats to him and their team. It definitely hurts to lose it with two to go, but we’ll get one here soon,” Johnson said.

Crossing the finish line third was leading rookie-of-the-year contender Benson, who ascended from seventh on the starting grid to collect his fourth third-place finish of the season and second podium in two nights.

“I want to win one of these really bad,” Benson said. “This is an awesome track, and definitely my favorite now. Each track we go to, I’m like, ‘That one’s my favorite.’ Well, this one tops them all. It’s the most demanding track, up on the wheel.”

Seth Bergman crossed the stripe in fourth, while polesitter Blake Hahn rounded out the top five.

The finish:

Feature (30 laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington [2]; 2. 45X-Kyler Johnson [4]; 3. 2B-Garrett Benson [7]; 4. 23-Seth Bergman [5]; 5. 52-Blake Hahn [1]; 6. 88R-Ryder Laplante [9]; 7. 6-Cody Gardner [13]; 8. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. [3]; 9. 36-Jason Martin [6]; 10. 2J-Zach Blurton [12]; 11. 10-Landon Britt [16]; 12. 16G-Austyn Gossel [8]; 13. 88-Terry Easum [11]; 14. 88C-Brogan Carder [18]; 15. 10K-Dewayne White [19]; 16. 19P-Brady Parmeley [22]; 17. 52D-Skyler Daly [21]; 18. 33-Alan Zoutte [24]; 19. 1JR-James Manley [20]; 20. 29-Emilio Hoover [14]; 21. 71-Brady Baker [15]; 22. 3-Derek Hagar [10]; 23. 3Z-Cole Vanderheiden [17]; 24. 16-Greg Merritt [23]; 25. 32D-Daryn Langford (DNS).