CASA GRANDE, Ariz. — If there’s a quick high line round a mud observe, Matt Covington is bound to search out it and use it to get to the entrance.
Covington, 36, of Glenpool, Okla., blasted across the three-eighths-mile oval of Central Arizona Raceway Sunday night time en path to victory on night time No. 2 of the American Dash Automotive Collection’ inaugural Sonoran Conflict, making the cross on Kyler Johnson for the lead within the closing laps — paying homage to their battle at I-55 Federated Auto Components Raceway Park final September, which resulted in comparable vogue.
“I really feel unhealthy for these guys; these guys are my buddies, and I’ve stole two from him,” Covington stated. “They’re doing so good, and [Johnson’s] gonna get there, it’s simply visitors — you get it with expertise. I didn’t do an excellent job of it final night time.”
Saturday night time’s winner Justin Peck took command of the race early from the pole, leaping out to a 2.5-second lead over Johnson in visitors. That was till the warning flag was thrown 14 laps in, erasing Peck’s deficit and restacking the sector on his bumper for the restart. Or so it appeared.
Because the lights on the tempo truck went out and the sector ready to renew racing, Peck ducked into the infield with a flat right-front tire, surrendering the result in Johnson with Whit Gastineau and Covington proper on his heels.
On the restart, Johnson took off robust and constructed up a large lead as Covington acquired by Gastineau down the backstretch on Lap 18. Seven laps later, Covington had erased his hole of over 1.5 seconds to Johnson and drove into Flip 3 with nice pace on the highest aspect.
Rounding the fourth nook with Johnson dedicated to the underside lane, Covington zoomed previous Johnson into the lead as he crossed the beginning/end line to finish Lap 25.
Now with the highest spot, Covington paraded the sector across the last 5 circuits with out problem en path to the $6,000 payday and the twenty third sequence victory.
“I actually can’t consider we gained this factor tonight,” Covington stated. “The automotive was nice.”
“I really feel like we’ve actually acquired issues discovered proper now. We’ve been off. We kinda acquired our butts kicked at Volusia — it’s a distinct observe, a tricky observe. However we acquired an excellent rebound, and the remainder of the 12 months is wanting up for us.”
Johnson held on to complete second whereas 15-year-old Levi Hillier banked his first nationwide dash automotive sequence podium with a third-place run.
Johnson was the quickest automotive of all 34 entrants in qualifying with a lap time of 14.032.
The end:
Characteristic (30 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington[6]; 2. 45X-Kyler Johnson[2]; 3. 26R-Levi Hillier[4]; 4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[19]; 5. 7-Brock Zearfoss[11]; 6. 88R-Ryder Laplante[7]; 7. 2-Whit Gastineau[5]; 8. 88N-DJ Netto[15]; 9. 15-Nick Parker[8]; 10. 23-Seth Bergman[9]; 11. 7C-Colby Copeland[16]; 12. 31BW-Braxton Weger[14]; 13. 11J-Wyatt Miller[12]; 14. 88C-Brogan Carder[24]; 15. 2J-Zach Blurton[10]; 16. 2B-Garrett Benson[22]; 17. 88-Terry Easum[23]; 18. 23N-Skylar Gee[18]; 19. 77X-Alex Hill[13]; 20. 16G-Austyn Gossel[20]; 21. 26-Justin Peck[1]; 22. 34-Sterling Cling[17]; 23. 17GP-Hank Davis[3]; 24. 22-Garen Linder[21]
