ATWOOD, TN - May 26, 2014 (Chris Seelman photo) On Monday night, a Memorial Day visit to www.rockauto.com USCS Victory Lane victory became special for Marion, Arkansas’ Derek Hagar in more ways than one. Hagar, the defending United Sprint Car Series (USCS) presented by K&N Filters champion, charged from third on the starting grid around K&N poles starter and ten-time USCS champion Terry Gray on lap two of the 30-lap “Memorial Day Meltdown” at Clayhill Motorsports, never looked back while racing to victory despite two cautions, a green-white-checkered finish and repeated challenges from his longtime mentor and past USCS champion Marshall Skinner. The victory was Hagar’s third straight out of three USCS Sprint Speedweek 2014 events and his 26th career USCS feature win. This ironically moving him past Skinner and into sole possession of fourth place on theUnited Sprint Car Series all-time wins list.
“This...wow,” Hagar said in his stop in the www.rockauto.com USCS Victory Lane. “(Marshall) gave me a heck of a fight. He’s one of the few guys that can work that bottom groove the whole race like he did. We got real tight there near the end; I was actually really worried when that last caution came out. We got so tight as the run wore on I didn’t think we would have enough to hang on those last two laps. I was just glad it was Marshall we were racing. It’s perfect that it was him behind me tonight.”