SALINA, Okla. — Oklahoma. Residence to the nation’s largest Micro Dash hotspot, the Chili Bowl Nationals, and the American Dash Automobile Collection.
This weekend, the nationwide 360 dash automobile stars are coming dwelling for a go to to one of many state’s quickest tracks and hardest regional competitors.
Salina Highbanks Speedway hosts the Collection for the fifteenth time in monitor historical past this Saturday, April 11, in a $4,000-to-win showdown with the ASCS Sooner Area. The three-eighths-mile, high-banked oval would be the battleground for the occasion, which serves because the Sooner Area season opener and the eighth factors race of the 12 months on the nationwide championship circuit.
The native B-Mod, Manufacturing facility Inventory and Pure Inventory lessons will even be in motion to assist. Tickets and pit passes shall be bought on the monitor on race day.
STILL SEARCHING
Six-time and defending Collection champion Sam Hafertepe Jr. comes into Salina as the present factors chief by 40 over Matt Covington, nonetheless in search of his first win of 2026.
Hafertepe, 40, of Sunnyvale, Texas, leads all drivers with 5 high fives and 6 top-10 finishes by way of the primary seven races of the season, however has but to achieve victory lane. He’s come shut thrice, touchdown on the rostrum in three of the 4 races contested within the inaugural Sonoran Conflict at Central Arizona in February.
Thankfully, Hafertepe has been robust within the Hill’s Racing Workforce No. 15h at Salina, as he comes into the monitor because the defending race winner after topping Seth Bergman and Sean McClelland there one 12 months in the past, matching the opposite win he scored in 2014.
KING OF THE SOONERS
Racing alongside Hafertepe shall be one other six-time and defending champion of the ASCS Sooner Area in Sean McClelland.
The 51-year-old Tulsa native will open his 360 dash automobile season at Salina after clinching his most up-to-date Sooner Area championship in November, making him the championship-winningest driver in Area historical past.
Thus far in 2026, McClelland has made two dash automobile begins, each at Creek County Speedway, with each the 410 and 305 cubic-inch engines underneath the hood.
One 12 months in the past, McClelland gave the nationwide Collection regulars a problem at Salina, beginning fourth on the grid and ending third to Bergman and Hafertepe. Historical past is on his aspect on the monitor as properly, with 5 profession top-five finishes recorded in OCRS 305 dash automobile motion and one win.
CONTENDER
Seven races into the season, Matt Covington sits solely 40 factors behind Hafertepe for the factors lead and stays Hafertepe’s greatest competitors for the nationwide championship.
Covington, 36, of Glenpool, Okla., is the one collection championship chaser who has been to ASCS victory lane thus far this 12 months, taking the checkered flag on the second evening of motion at Central Arizona. That evening, he took management of the factors lead however relinquished it to Hafertepe after the 2 races the next weekend.
Traditionally, Covington has but to see to the success at Salina like a few of his rivals with solely two top-five finishes in eight profession begins, however these two standout runs had been his two most up-to-date. He drove seventh-to-fourth with the nationwide tour in 2023 earlier than a Tenth-to-fifth run there one 12 months in the past.
BOUNCING BACK
After beginning the season in Florida and not using a single top-10 end, Seth Bergman has climbed again right into a groove of consistency as of late, coming into Salina driving a streak of four-straight top-10 finishes.
Bergman, the 2024 collection champion from Snohomish, Wash., opened his 2026 marketing campaign with finishes of fifteenth and twenty first within the two of three options he began at Volusia Speedway Park in January.
However Central Arizona was a turnaround with four-straight top-10 outcomes, together with a finest fourth place within the finale on March 1.
This development upward appears good to proceed this weekend, contemplating the runner-up end he scored on the monitor one 12 months in the past.
OKLAHOMA’S FINEST
Whit Gastineau is at the moment driving one of many greatest waves of success in his profession and is poised to proceed it this Saturday.
The 41-year-old from Moore, Okla., is at the moment sitting sixth within the collection factors standings with 4 top-10 finishes over the primary seven races. Although his plans to chase the ASCS nationwide schedule stay fluid at this level, he’s proven his worthiness to compete in opposition to the full-time stars after bagging two function wins in October 2025 and qualifying for all three essential occasions at Volusia with two top-10 outcomes.
He’s seen success at Salina as properly, posting two OCRS 305 wins, 13 high fives and 16 high 10s in 23 profession begins. One 12 months in the past, Gastineau earned a third-place spot on the beginning grid earlier than a late-race incident minimize his race quick.
