There was no shortage of chaos behind him, but Keelan Harvick largely stayed ahead of all of it to claim his first career ASA STARS victory on Wednesday at Owosso Speedway in Michigan.
Harvick, the 14-year-old son of 2014 Cup Series champion Kevin, claimed the rain-delayed pole earlier in the evening. He dominated the first stage and even managed the loss of track position on strategy in the second.
Ultimately, the winning pass around Kyle Steckly and Penn Sauter came after a restart with 90 laps to go. The KHI backed Rackley WAR No. 62 went unchallenged the rest of the way.
“My guys worked really hard to get me here and I wanted to bring it home for them,” Harvick said in Victory lane as captured on the TrackTV broadcast.
His father was in attendance and expressed pride too.
“We’ve run the high groove a lot (in CARS Tour) West this year with pushing the groove up and he did a really good job of recognizing that in practice, and then it changed the whole complexion of qualifying,” said the elder Harvick. “I usually stand back and these guys do a great job of telling him what he needs to do.”
Steckly led most of the laps in the second stage, winning that segment, before losing the lead with 90 to go. Still, he hung with Harvick and joined Wilson Motorsports teammate Jade Avedisian as the only three drivers on the lead lap by the end.
“I think we were pretty equal. The restart there with (Penn Sauter) staying out worked better for him and he was able to get ahead of us. We were able to stay with him for a bit on new tires and just got too tight behind him,” Steckley said. “I think track position was really important. We were wanting to hold off until the end, and then we just lost the track position.”
As for the chaos, it began nine laps after the start with Bubba Pollard suffering a mechanical issues that then collected Isaac Kitzmiller, Chase Pinsonneault and Bryce Miller.
On Lap 110, Derek Thorn got off the groove and the ensuing crash collected Tristan Mckee and Derek Kraus
And while Avedisian and Carson Brown finished third and fourth, they were involved in this incident with 173 to go.
Avedisian conceded a mistake.
“I was just trying to get up to the second lane or I would have gotten freight trained on the bottom, and I just messed up,” said Avedisian.
Brown was a lap down by the end but that the car was even remotely competitive was a testament to the work on Anthony Campi and Preston Peltier.
That’s to say nothing of an overheating issue later in the race that led to an intentional spin and resulting two lap penalty.
“This car probably shouldn’t have finished this race, and the motor probably shouldn’t have finished either, so a big thank you to Robbie White,” Brown said. “This car should have blown up, but it didn’t, thanks to a very good engine builder. Hopefully we can get it fixed up for the next one.”
Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.
