Covert and Miller Score Wins at Hagerstown

By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – On a crisp, early autumn evening, Jason Covert and Barry Miller parked their rides into victory lane at Hagerstown Speedway on September 30.

 

Covert began the march to his Super Late Model victory at the Hub City oval for the first time in 2017 from the fifth spot on the starting grid. Pole sitter Roy Deese, Jr. led the first lap before he was overtaken by three-time winner Gary Stuhler.

 

Covert moved up to third by the third lap, and moved around Deese for second on the eighth lap. A caution flag unfurled the same lap for Jerry Bard, who had a flat right rear tire.

 

This setup the only restart of the feature, and Stuhler was able to hold off Covert for several laps. Stuhler was rolling through the middle to the top groove as Covert kept circling around the bottom.

 

On Lap 18, Covert went low under Stuhler coming off of turn 4 to take the lead. Covert hit traffic a lap later and put some distance between him and Stuhler until the traffic got thicker. With the white flag waving, Stuhler had caught Covert, but just didn’t have enough to reclaim the lead on the 25th lap at the checkered flag.

 

At the end of the race, Covert said: “At least tonight it was heads-up which it should be, and we made a (tire) choice right there and it took me a little bit to get going, and once I got going, I was pretty good.”

 

“I’ll tell you what, I just want to say what a race track it was compared to the last few years I was here….it had character tonight, and that’s what makes racing good. The couple times I’ve been here this year has been absolutely phenomenal.”, stated Covert.

 

Following Covert and Stuhler at the finish were Kyle Hardy, Brian Booze, and Kyle Lee.

 

Miller drove to his second Late Model Sportsman win of the season as part of the Mason-Dixon Shootout Series. The Three Springs, PA resident powered past Eric Irvin from outside the front row, and led all 20 laps in a flag-to-flag effort. An early restart and lapped traffic halfway through wasn’t enough to slow Miller down as he took the checkered flag.

 

In his winner’s interview, Miller said: “Yeah, I do lot of work myself, my daughter helps me a little bit; you know I live in the boonies and not anybody around to help, but it feels real good. It was a stout field of cars.”

 

Irvin finished second, while Justin Weaver, Derick Quade, and Ralph Morgan rounded out the top five.

 

Notes: The two-division show was completed in less than 2 ½ hours, and featured a full 24 car field in each division.

 

Trever Feathers qualified in his own No.20, but mechanical issues forced him to borrow a ride from Brad Omps. Feathers tagged the rear of the field in 24th place and drove the Omps No.5 to a very respectable 10th place finish.

 

Tyler Bare made his first career SLM start at Hagerstown, and recorded a solid sixth place finish in his debut. Bare is the son of Booper Bare, and grandson of Tommy Bare. The third generation Virginia racer has done quite well in Crate Late Models.

 

Feature Results

 

Super Late Models- 1. 72C-Jason Covert, 2. 55-Gary Stuhler, 3. 3V-Kyle Hardy, 4. B2-Brian Booze,  5. 2T-Kyle Lee,  6. 30B-Tyler Bare,  7. 24-Kenny Moreland, 8. 41-Andy Anderson, 9. 05-Roy Deese Jr., 10. 20-Trever Feathers, 11. 30-Allen Brannon, 12. 46-Marvin Winters, 13. 86-Scott Palmer, 14. 46E-Tyler Emory, 15. 81-Steve Axtell Jr, 16. 37-Brian Tavenner, 17. 45-Jamie Lathroum, 18. 94-Jason Miller, 19. 1MD-Jeremy Miller, 20. 21-Chad Myers, 21. 22R-Reese Masiello, 22. 11-Kirk Baker, 23. 26-Jerry Bard, 24. 14-Tyler Horst

 

Late Model Sportsman (Mason Dixon Shootout Series)- 1. 88-Barry Miller, 2. 87-Eric Irvin,  3. 2J-Justin Weaver, 4. 74-Derick Quade, 5. 44X-Ralph Morgan Jr., 6. 37-Paul Cursey Jr., 7. 92-Frankie Gordon, 8. 177-Brian Shuey, 9. 72D-Dale Murphy, 10. 62-Devin Frey, 11. D19-Dillan Stake, 12. 22-Eric Hohol, 13. 7-Kenneth Yoder, 14. 74F-Mike Franklin, 15. 115S-Shaun Miller, 16. 50-Jason Smith, 17. 16-Justin Dillman, 18. 72-Shaun Jones, 19. D34-Curtis Dunn, 20. 2-Andrew Yoder, 21. 3-Rick Lias, 22. 1S-Brandon Seibert, 23. 000-Matt Nailor (DNS) 13-Brad McGinnis