Brent Sass is the first Kuskokwim 300 musher to reach the Tuluksak checkpoint in the 2018 Kuskokwim 300. He arrived at 11:16 p.m. on Friday and left immediately. Nenana racer Jessie Holmes pulled in four minutes later. Nine-time champion Jeff King arrived third into Tuluksak, followed by defending champion Pete Kaiser. Kaiser was fourth in, but left the checkpoint ahead of King, who spent about 10 minutes in the checkpoint and dropped a dog.
After finishing as runner up in the past two Kuskokwim 300 races, Sass left Bethel at the front of the pack with Ray Redington Jr. in search of his first title. Before the race he told KYUK that a successful race requires a very fast start.
"If you want to be competitive in this race at all, you need to put pedal to metal all the way on the first 100 miles and that sets you up. And it depends on how good your training is and how deep you are as to how fast you can go after that," said Sass.