A piece of history was made Friday night: For the first time in the history of the American Sprint Car Series, a driver has opened the season with three consecutive wins. 

Texas native Sam Hafertepe Jr. won Tony Stewart's Texas Sprint Car Nationals at the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track (TMS) for his third win of 2017--and all of those early-season wins have come in his home state.

Hafertepe grabbed both ends of a two-night show at Devil's Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas, on March 17-18. 

This was also his third career victory at TMS, tying Hafertepe with Jason Johnson for the most all-time wins at the track.

"My third win here, I feel like we're getting pretty comfortable," Hafertepe said. "I tried to make it an exciting race, and I think we did coming from 13th."

Hafertepe's climb from 13th to Victory Lane made him Friday's CP-Carrillo Hard Charger of the Night.

He may have made it exciting, but Hafertepe did not keep fans in suspense for long. Riding the rail, he was up to fifth by lap three. He restarted third on lap five following a caution for Blake Hahn, who flipped without injury. 

After passing Wayne Johnson on lap 10 of 25, Hafertepe never looked back and held a 4.852-second advantage at the checkers.

Johnson held on to finish second with Aaron Reutzel, Danny Jennings, and Dustin Morgan rounding out the top five. 
 
Johnny Herrera held onto his second-place position in the points despite having a disappointing outing. He had to advance to the Feature through one of two B-Mains. That caused Herrera to start 19th. He climbed to only 13th.

Herrera is not the only driver to have some difficulty this season. Hafertepe's points lead is enhanced by the fact that he is the only racer with three top 10s in the first three races. 

Coming off a win in a USCS race this past week, Tony Stewart grabbed a top 10 after starting 16th.

Other noteworthy visiting stars were Danny Lasoski, who finished eighth, and Sammy Swindell in 21st.

Results