ROSSBURG, Ohio — Brad Sweet and Rico Abreu each earned $12,000 preliminary night victories on the opening night of the Eldora Million Wednesday at Eldora Speedway.
Sweet won the opening 25-lap event aboard the Kasey Kahne Racing No. 49, while Abreu drove his familiar Abreu Racing No. 24 to an impressive score in the nightcap.
Meanwhile, Carson Macedo earned the most points in Eldora’s Every Lap Matters points system and will start Thursday’s first heat race from the pole.
Opening Race
Aaron Reutzel took the early lead in the opener, while Donny Schatz and Sweet chased. But a yellow flag when Austin Bishop slowed with a flat tire on lap 12 led to a double-file restart.
Sweet used the restart to his advantage and roared into the lead, with Kyle Larson briefly grabbing second.
Reutzel regained the runner-up spot a lap later and began chasing Sweet.
However, Sweet worked traffic to perfection during the closing laps to earn the victory in the unsanctioned event. It was his sixth career victory at Eldora.
Reutzel finished second, with Larson, Logan Schuchart and James McFadden rounded out the top five.
Schuchart was the fast qualifier for the first group of cars.
The Nightcap
Brian Brown was moved up a row when Shane Stewart pulled off with mechanical issues, and Brown grabbed the early lead in the 25-lap event. David Gravel and Abreu chased Brown through the early laps.
Abreu started his move to the front on lap nine, passing Gravel for second and running down Brown. Abreu ripped his Ricky Warner-prepared machine around Brown for the lead on lap 10.
While Abreu set a blistering pace, Macedo moved past Gravel and Brown to take second.
Macedo closed on Abreu during the closing laps but was unable to make a move for the lead.
Abreu picked up his eighth Eldora victory and his third in his last six starts at The Big E.
“It’s just gonna be a pace race pace that it’s gonna be touring in the beginning and it’s 50 laps, so a lot of sprint sar drivers aren’t used to something like that,” Abreu said in victory lane. “It just it takes a lot of patients to win these races and it takes a team like this mine to just put yourself in position and that’s all I asked for all week all year is just let’s just put ourselves in position to win one of these crown jewels.”
Macedo finished second, with Brown, Justin Peck and Buddy Kofoid rounding out the top five.
Danny Dietrich was the fast qualifier in Group B.
Macedo was the top point earner with 590, followed by Schuchart, Gravel, Sweet, Larson and Reutzel. All six of those drivers will start on the pole of a heat race on Thursday.
The Eldora Million concludes on Thursday with six heat races, two C Features, a B Feature and the 50-lap main event.
The finishes:
First Feature (25 Laps): 1. 49-Brad Sweet[3]; 2. 8-Aaron Reutzel[2]; 3. 57-Kyle Larson[6]; 4. 1s-Logan Schuchart[8]; 5. 83-James McFadden[10]; 6. 19-Brent Marks[22]; 7. 15-Donny Schatz[4]; 8. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[7]; 9. 26-Zeb Wise[24]; 10. 5-Spencer Bayston[15]; 11. 21H-Brady Bacon[16]; 12. 49x-Cale Thomas[5]; 13. 21T-Cole Macedo[19]; 14. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[14]; 15. W20-Greg Wilson[20]; 16. 52-Blake Hahn[11]; 17. 48-Danny Dietrich[21]; 18. 55T-McKenna Haase[1]; 19. 17B-Bill Balog[17]; 20. 55P-Daryn Pittman[23]; 21. 20G-Noah Gass[13]; 22. 35B-Austin Bishop[12]; 23. 7-Ian Madsen[9]; 24. 39-Hunter Schuerenberg[18]
Second Feature (25 Laps): 1. 24-Rico Abreu[2]; 2. 41-Carson Macedo[8]; 3. 2-David Gravel[7]; 4. 21-Brian Brown[3]; 5. 13-Justin Peck[5]; 6. 83jr-Michael Kofoid[9]; 7. 1a-Jacob Allen[6]; 8. 22-Cole Duncan[4]; 9. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[11]; 10. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[15]; 11. 9P-Parker Price-Miller[21]; 12. 5C-Dylan Cisney[10]; 13. 11-Cory Eliason[24]; 14. 25R-Jordan Ryan[13]; 15. 55-Kerry Madsen[22]; 16. 67-Justin Whittall[18]; 17. 4-Chris Windom[12]; 18. 81-Lee Jacobs[17]; 19. 25-Lachlan McHugh[23]; 20. 19P-Paige Polyak[19]; 21. 2MD-Conner Morrell[20]; 22. 23Z-Zane DeVault[14]; 23. 17AU-Jamie Veal[16]; 24. 71-Shane Stewart[1]