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Hagar Uses Late-Race Pass to Secure First Triumph of Season to Open USCS Speedweek

(Photo Courtesy of USCS)

Inside Line Promotions – BYRAM, Miss. (May 26, 2015) – Derek Hagar can breathe after reaching the Winner’s Circle for the first time this season last Saturday at Jackson Motor Speedway.

“We were kind of down on ourselves because we hadn’t picked up a win this year,” he said. “We also haven’t been able to race very often because of the weather. When we have we’ve shown a fast car everywhere we’ve gone, we just haven’t had the luck. I think it was a big stress reliever for the whole team. It’s always hard to get that first win, but once you do it seems like it makes it easier to win again.”

Hagar kicked off the USCS Mid South Speedweek event by advancing from eighth to fourth place in a heat race. That put him eighth in overall points and started him on the outside of the fourth row for the main event.

“I got up to third pretty early and was chasing (Tim) Crawley and (Johnny) Herrera,” he said. “Something happened between Crawley and someone else so that put me up to second. I was following Herrera around trying to figure out which line was better. I tried a couple of slide jobs on restarts, but it didn’t work.

“I started finding a little bit of rubber coming off turns two and four. There were a couple of times I could have showed him my nose, but with a veteran like that I didn’t want to play my cards too early. We had a restart with about three or four laps to go and the dust settled on the track so the rubber wasn’t there for a lap or two. He pulled away a bit, but got into the wall in turns one and two and it broke his momentum. I pulled up beside him coming off turn two and finished the pass going down the back straightaway.”

Hagar took the lead with less than two laps remaining and held on for the triumph, which was a big boost following how the weekend started the previous night with the ASCS Red River Region at Timberline Speedway in Corley, Texas.

After powering from eighth to third place in a heat race, which locked him into the feature redraw, Hagar pulled the highest number during the random draw to start the main event on the outside of the fourth row.

“I was up to third in about five laps and they had a red flag,” he said. “Another driver didn’t know it was red and he ran over me and flattened my right rear tire. I couldn’t get it out of gear and I rolled past the wreck. He hit me so hard it knocked the right side pin out of the wing tree. We went to the work area to fix the car and when I got back on the track they disqualified me for rolling past the wreck. We had a good car. I think we could have contended for the win.”

Hagar was credited with a 20th-place result.

He is scheduled to finish the USCS Mid South Speedweek, which lost Sunday’s race at Greenville Speedway in Greenville, Miss., to rain, this Thursday at Talladega Short Track in Talladega, Ala., Friday at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss., and Saturday at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Ark.

“No more chasing (ASCS National Tour) points,” he said. “We’re just going to go back to a schedule like the last couple of years and have fun doing what we’re doing.”

QUICK RESULTS –

May 22 – Timberline Speedway in Corley, Texas – Heat race: 3 (8); Feature: 20 (8).

May 23 – Jackson Motor Speedway in Byram, Miss. – Heat race: 4 (8); Feature: 1 (8).

SEASON STATS –

9 races, 1 win, 2 top fives, 3 top 10s, 3 top 15s, 6 top 20s

UP NEXT –

Thursday at Talladega Short Track in Talladega, Ala., Friday at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss., and Saturday at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Ark., for the USCS Mid South Speedweek

MEDIA LINKS –

Website: http://www.DerekHagarRacing.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HagarDerek

LIVE COVERAGE –

To keep up to speed with Hagar at every Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour event, visit http://www.RacinBoys.com for free, live audio. Additionally, RacinBoys will provide live Pay-Per-View video at select races.

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Xtreme Race Graphics

Located in Marion, Ark., Xtreme Race Graphics creates custom graphics, banners and wraps. For more information, visit http://www.XtremeRaceGraphics.com.

“Dustin is a real good artist,” Hagar said. “He has a real good imagination. If you want the car to look the best, I’d recommend Xtreme Race Graphics.”

Hagar would also like to thank Dynotech Performance, J&J Auto Racing, FSR Radiators, Fragola Performance Systems, ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems, Hinchman Racewear, FK Rod Ends, R.E. Enterprises, Ti64 and B&D Towing for their continued support.

INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –

Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.

To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.

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