Dalton Sargeant at 9:30 pm ET on Monday, March 30, 2015. Photo – Getty Images
Dalton Sargeant is our guest on Fan4Racing Fan2Fan NASCAR & Race Talk on Monday, March 30, 2015 at 9:30 pm ET. K&N West Series Director, Kip Childress is our guest at 8:40 pm ET. During the LIVE broadcast, call 714-202-9918 with any questions or comments.
After finishing second in the K&N East season opener at New Smyrna in February, 17-year-old Dalton Sargeant is still smiling today after winning the K&N West season opener the NAPA Auto Parts 150 at Kern County Raceway on Saturday night.
In addition to his runner-up finish at New Smyrna, Sargeant also finished second in the 2014 Snowball Derby at Five-Flags Speedway in December and came home with a third place finish from the SRL Winter Showdown at Kern County Raceway last month. So, coming home to Boca Raton, FL with the trophy this weekend is just that much sweeter.
David Mayhew dominated the event Saturday night until lap 103 when Sargeant took the lead and held off Mayhew on two late restarts on his way to the checkered flag.
“It was a long race, so we really just wanted to keep the tires under it, that was the important thing,” said Sargeant. “We knew we had to be good on the long run and it definitely paid off, falling back in the beginning and having a hard charge toward the end.”
After Nicole Behar hit the turn 3 wall on lap 144, the race went to caution, then red flagged setting up the green-white-checkered finish. Going green on lap 147, another caution came out, because of fluid from another car, extending the race to 160 laps.
“He definitely was laying back in the first half or made some awesome changes a the break,” Mayhew said. “We were pushing really hard there (at the end). I gave him everything have short of wrecking him, I was leaning on him in the corner and all the way through.”
“He had an awesome car and held his composure great and did an awesome job there at the end. We just came up a little bit short again. He had a really solid car.”
Sargeant qualified first at 18.011-seconds and led he first 18 laps, before Mayhew ran high with a strong run in turns one and two, powering to the lead. Mayhew distanced his car from the field until the lap 76 half-way break, allowing teams to make minor adjustments.
On lap 102, Sargeant went low in turn 3 muscling his way past Mayhew by the start of lap 103.
Sargeant’s Jefferson Pitts’ teammates, Noah Gragson and Gracin Raz, finished third and sixth, while last year’s Rookie of the Year winner, James Bickford finished fourth, and Chris Eggleston rounded out the top-five. Jonathan White, Brett Thompson, Christian McGhee and Alex Schutte complete the top-ten finishers.
Watch the K&N West NAPA Auto Parts 150 broadcast on NBCSN on Friday, April 3rd at 6:30 pm ET.
This weekend, Sargeant returns to the K&N East race at Greenville Pickens on April 4th.
The K&N West will return to the track at Irwindale on April 11..