Derek Hagar reached double digits wins for the sixth time in his career thanks to his 10 th victory of the season last Saturday at Riverside International Speedway.
Hagar advanced from fourth to second place in a heat race and he placed fifth in the dash to line up on the inside of the third row in the USCS Series A Main at the dirt track in West Memphis, Ark.
“I didn’t feel we had the winning race car; we just didn’t want to lose,” he said. “We had a red with about eight laps to go. I was trying to figure out what to do to make more speed to go from third to first. I made some adjustments to my driving style and a wing adjustment to my car to get to second on the restart and then slide for the lead into turn three. We led the rest of the race from there.
“It was a good one. We were fighting some issues. This car is totally different than we were used to running so some of the things we normally do I wasn’t comfortable in this car. We still have some work to get me to the comfort I had in the other car.”
Hagar was running a new car after a crash during his previous start snapped a nine-race winning streak to start the season as well as badly damaged his primary sprint car.
“It means a lot to get to double digit wins,” he said. “That’s hard to do, especially today as everybody has good equipment and everybody is fast. To be able to get 10 wins in 11 starts is pretty special. Hopefully we can keep adding to that win total and this year will finish as our winningest year.”
The victory also marked his seventh in a row with the USCS Series.
Hagar’s weekend concluded on Sunday at Magnolia Motor Speedway, where he won a heat race and finished fifth in the shortened dash.
“We started second and won the heat race,” he said. “The track was going away pretty good. I drew the six to start the dash sixth and got up to fifth on the first lap. I was trying to search to find the fastest lane. The caution came out and it started raining so they called that race complete where we were running. We had an hour or hour and a half rain delay. We were the second feature so all they had once we got going back to racing was a modified heat race and a four banger feature. The track stayed juiced up and made it hard to pass. Once it started slicking off I was able to get to third. We had several late-race cautions. On the last restart I was able to get by Gavin Boschele and beat him to the line for second on the last lap.”
QUICK RESULTS –
July 1 – Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Ark. – Heat race: 2 (4); Dash: 5 (5); Feature: 1 (5).
July 2 – Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss. – Heat race: 1 (2); Dash: 5 (6); Feature: 2 (5).
SEASON STATS –
12 races, 10 wins, 11 top fives, 11 top 10s, 11 top 15s, 12 top 20s
UP NEXT –
TBD
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