Derek Hagar isn’t sure what else he has to prove, especially at Magnolia Motor Speedway.
The Marion, Arkansas native uses each week he races on the United Sprint Car Series as an audition for a step up to a bigger opportunity, potentially a full-time ride on the World of Outlaws sprint car series.
Hagar added another appealing performance to his resume Friday, registering his fifth feature win at Magnolia since 2013.
“That’s what we’re in it for – to make a dollar and put our name out there,” Hagar said. “I don’t know how much better it can get when you outrun Sammy Swindell and Tony Stewart.”
Hagar’s run was dominant Friday, as he led 17 laps after sliding past three-time World of Outlaws champion Sammy Swindell off turn 2 on lap 13. Hagar registered his eighth-straight podium finish at Magnolia, and he did it by being incredibly aggressive, moving from the bottom to the top of the track to dodge significantly slower lap-traffic, sometimes as much as four seconds slower than the lead pack.
“Once we got by [Swindell], I had to make aggressive moves in lap traffic,” Hagar said. “You can’t hesitate when you get into lap traffic, especially when you got Sammy Swindell and Tony Stewart behind you. They’ve been doing this stuff a long time, and that’s a lot of wins and championships stacked up behind you.”
Swindell finished second just a day after winning at Talladega Short Track. Stewart, who won the USCS Frostbuster 150 in March at Magnolia. Brandon Hanks and Morgan Turpen finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Hagar said the disparity between fast and slow cars Friday was the result of many drivers having more experience on smaller tracks around the Memphis area. Motors, too, are a premium, and the heat races and early-feature race surface showed “who had a good motor and who didn’t.”
Fortunately for Hagar, his DynoTech motor – the only one in his shop at the moment – held up.
“This motor has 40 nights on it, and we usually refresh them after 15 or 18,” Hagar said. “It’s the only motor we got, so we can’t afford for it to be down right now.”
Swindell lamented the “roadblocks” of lap-traffic he encountered throughout the race, his first ever at Magnolia.
“I know we were the fastest car out there, but we kept running up on those packs of cars,” Swindell said. “It might have been more than half the field that was slower. Like I was telling my guys, our car was set up to run the race track, and traffic was so much slower that those guys could screw up and kind of squirt off … they were all over the place. It made it hard on me because my car was built on momentum.”
Swindell was later involved in a post-race kerfuffle with Ronny Howard, who finished 21st. Swindell and Howard locked up and went to the ground in victory lane and had to be separated USCS officials, Lowndes County Sheriff’s deputies and members of their respective teams.
“One guy got mad … he slid up into me,” Swindell said. “He should have saw me. It’s a guy that was probably five laps down. But he’s a grandstander, so he comes down and tells me he’s gonna kick my ass.
“There’s a lot of good people here, but that guy’s always causing problems.”
In other race action, Klint Byars cruised to a win in the Durrence Layne Late Model feature. Byars led the entire race and held off a late charge from Evan Ellis, eventually taking a two-second lead to the checkered flag. Byars made his 2018 debut at Magnolia last week and finished second to Ellis, who has won six total features there this season. Friday, Byars became just the second driver to finish ahead of Ellis at Magnolia in 2018.
Marcus Minga, Brad Berry and Chase Washington rounded out the top 5.
Cody Chism won the Factory Stocks feature, his second straight at the track. Levi Aldridge, Logan Lux, Allen Crawford and Bryan Phillips rounded out the top 5.
Chace Pennington won the Durrence Layne Sportsman feature. Tony Shelton, Zach Combs, Toby Ratcliff and Chuck Thorne rounded out the top 5.
Neil Baggett won the Street Stocks feature. Lee Ray, Spencer Hughes, Bryan Fortner and Colby Brandon rounded out the top 5.
In the USCS Mini Sprints, Alex Lyles won the USCS Mini Sprints feature. Trynt Lloyd, Michael Hall, Bobby Zaiontz and Bob Trapino rounded out the top 5.
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