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The 358 sprint cars also made their first appearance of the season at Lincoln Speedway over the weekend with 29 teams rolling through the gates to compete.  Much like the night before at Williams Grove, the field drew for starting spots in one of three heat races and the top six finishers would transfer directly to the main event.  On this night, however, only the top three finishers would make the redraw.

Hartlaub’s pill draw placed him 6th on the starting grid for his heat race.  His work was cut out for him to claim one of the coveted redraw spots.  He wasted no time getting to work, leaping into 4th by the end of the first circuit and charging into 3rd by the time the field completed lap three.  He held on to that spot to the finish to give himself and his team a guaranteed top-nine starting spot for the season’s first 20-lap A-main at the Pigeon Hills oval.

Once again, a little good fortune in the redraw put Hartlaub on the front row for the feature.  It would not be ‘a gimme’ as they say.  The likes of Herr, Hammaker, Ely, Fletcher and Owings would be all around him.

Hartlaub got a good start at the drop of the green but settled in behind veteran Frankie Herr until his found his rhythm.  Hartlaub used a strong launch off turn four to dive under Herr going into turn one to begin lap four.  He slid up in front of the No.70D and began to pull away.

Hartlaub diced his way through traffic, survived a restart and held his advantage throughout the 20-lap event, besting Herr by 2.039 seconds at the finish.

It was Hartlaub’s second career victory, both of which have come at Lincoln Speedway.  It is always special to win, and it was certainly a great way to kick off the season at the track, but for Hartlaub the best part of the memory will surely be having his daughter, just shy of three months old, in victory lane with him for the first time.

“When I get out front like that, I just try to calm myself down, hit my marks and be smooth.  It’s too easy to blow a corner, especially in lapped traffic.  I was getting through traffic pretty good early tonight and I didn’t want to see that yellow because I felt like I was putting cars between me and Frankie (Herr).“, Hartlaub commented.

“Confidence is huge.  I felt like after our run Friday, there was no reason I couldn’t compete for the win again tonight.”

The B-main would have to be Hartlaub’s path to the feature but maybe that wasn’t a bad thing.  Starting on the pole gave Hartlaub a chance to evaluate his car in clean air.  In the heat race, he was buried in traffic and wrestling a wing issue.

Hartlaub would not be challenged from his starting spot on the pole of the 8-lap last chance race.  He registered a 17.493 for his best lap of the event, which was quicker than any 358 sprint heat race winner’s best all afternoon.  He and his team had clearly made progress dialing in the Brewer Home Improvements, Moose Blocks, Smith Titanium, SRR Engines, Siegel Racing, T&N Solutions, Inch & Co. Real Estate, Bigham Appraisals, Pretzel Boy, HAAS Shocks, C.H. Folk & Son Feeds, Chop Designs, Herr Electric, Kody Hartlaub Racing No.95.

Taking the green in the 20-lap A-main from the 19th starting spot, Hartlaub found forward progress difficult as the track took rubber.  As the racing groove became narrower, Hartlaub navigated his way up to 14th by lap eleven.  At that point he made the decision to call it a day, pull in and save his equipment.  He was officially credited with a 24th place finish.

“Overall I am happy with the gains we made since testing Wednesday.  When we unloaded it was a completely different package than what we showed up with to test.  Just came down to being one of those tough days at the track from pill draw, to having a mechanical issue, to the difficult track surface.”, Hartlaub commented.

“I’m happy that all of that is behind us now and we can move on to Lincoln this week and really see where we are at.“