KNOXVILLE, Iowa — A night off from the World of Outlaws paid off for Brad Sweet, as he garnered his seventh career feature win at the Knoxville Raceway Saturday night.
The win, aboard the Kasey Kahne Racing with Mike Curb No. 49s was worth $5,000.
Gio Scelzi was a rocket from his pole position in the 25-lap 410 main event early on. Spencer Bayston, Brad Sweet, Brian Brown and Carson Macedo were in tow. Macedo quicly moved into fourth, while Bayston pressured the leader. On lap four, there was a dead heat for the lead between Scelzi and Bayston, before the former pulled back in front.
On lap six, Sweet was able to get by Bayston for second, and set his sights on the leader. Beginning lap seven, he shot by Scelzi for the lead, but Gio spun in turn two, and had to restart at the tail. Aaron Reutzel also surrendered his top ten run and headed to the work area. He would restart at the tail and work his way back up to sixth at the checkers.
With 19 laps to go, Sweet led Bayston, Brown, Macedo and James McFadden back to green. Brown, who won two features here a week ago, moved into second, while Macedo found his way by Bayston in great racing for the third spot.
At that point, seventh running Justin Henderson and Rico Abreu made contact. The result was a flat left rear tire for Henderson, and another restart at the tail.
Sweet took off on the restart and was back in lapped traffic with ten to go. With five laps to go, Tasker Phillips had a left-front tire go flat as he spun in turn four. It would prove to be the last caution.
Sweet pulled away for the win. Macedo moved into second on the final restart, while McFadden took third from Brown with three to go. Abreu ended fifth.
“This was some stiff competition,” said Sweet. “We were just focused on getting this car feeling better at Knoxville. I think we actually hit on something that was pretty good there. We were way better than we’ve been. I’m happy leaving here. It was definitely worth the trip over. The race track was great…great crowd, great weather. It was a fun Saturday night race. We just got to go out and have some fun.”
Jamie Ball made a mid-race pass of last week’s feature winner, Ryan Giles, to claim his eighth career win here in the 360 class. Devin Wignall led all 15 laps to take the Pro Sprints presented by Pace Performance feature.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. Brad Sweet (4); 2. Carson Macedo (7); 3. James McFadden (6); 4. Brian Brown (2); 5. Rico Abreu (9); 6. Aaron Reutzel (10); 7. Spencer Bayston (3); 8. Austin McCarl (15); 9. Davey Heskin (8); 10. Parker Price-Miller (12); 11. Ayrton Gennetten (5); 12. Gio Scelzi (1); 13. Carson McCarl (16); 14. Terry McCarl (24, alt.); 15. Sawyer Phillips (19); 16. Justin Henderson (11); 17. Matt Juhl (13); 18. Josh Schneiderman (20); 19. Chris Martin (21); 20. Bobby Mincer (22); 21. Ryan Roberts (23); 22. Presley Truedson (17); 23. Tasker Phillips (18); 24. AJ Moeller (14)