HARTFORD, Ohio — The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series championship battle is coming down to crunch time and Brad Sweet is thriving under the pressure.
With only 10 races remaining in the campaign ahead of Saturday’s stop at Sharon Speedway, Sweet chose a fine time to step up and deliver what was arguably his biggest statement of the year.
The Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts No. 49 team led all 35 laps in dominant fashion, running away with a 3.4-second margin of victory over Donny Schatz and Sheldon Haudenschild.
With his fifth victory of the season, Sweet leads David Gravel and Carson Macedo by 96 points as he chases his fourth consecutive series championship.
“First things first, hats off to my crew,” Sweet said after his 79th career World of Outlaws win. “They gave me a great race car tonight. I would’ve said you’re crazy if you told me I would win pounding the boards tonight, but here we are. That is more Sheldon’s style, but this NAPA #49 took off so well up there. We weren’t great in the Dash and rolled the dice before the Feature, and thankfully, it paid off. I’m glad I could get us back in Victory Lane. We’ve had a rough year in the win column, so this one feels extra good.”
Running in the second spot for the entirety of Saturday’s 35-lapper was Donny Schatz, who earned his sixth runner-up result of the year in his Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing, Ford Performance, Carquest Auto Parts No. 15.
“I don’t know that we were missing anything tonight,” Schatz said. “It was a great car, but Brad got up there first and I was too focused on trying to make the middle work to try and get him somehow. I really didn’t think it would go to the top like that. My guys put a new car together before yesterday and we’re off to a strong start with this one.”
Rounding out the podium was Sheldon Haudenschild in the Stenhouse Jr. / Marshall Racing, NOS Energy Drink No. 17.
“[Kyle] Ripper worked on it before we rolled out and we got better, but just didn’t have enough tonight,” Haudenschild said. “They moved those tires out quite a bit on this track and it made things a lot more difficult. You know the No. 15 and No. 49 are not going to make very many mistakes ahead of you. After the rough night we had yesterday, though, it feels great to rebound and put these guys back on the podium.”
The finish:
Feature (35 Laps):Â 1. 49-Brad Sweet [2][$10,000]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz [1][$6,000]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [5][$3,500]; 4. 2-David Gravel [4][$2,800]; 5. 83-James McFadden [3][$2,500]; 6. 1A-Jacob Allen [12][$2,300]; 7. 5-Spencer Bayston [6][$2,200]; 8. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [8][$2,100]; 9. 1S-Logan Schuchart [21][$2,050]; 10. 81-Lee Jacobs [16][$2,000]; 11. 10-Dave Blaney [11][$1,600]; 12. 11K-Kraig Kinser [15][$1,400]; 13. 10B-Dale Blaney [14][$1,200]; 14. 22-Brandon Spithaler [13][$1,100]; 15. 40-George Hobaugh [18][$1,050]; 16. 2F-AJ Flick [9][$1,000]; 17. 7S-Robbie Price [24][$1,000]; 18. 46-Michael Bauer [20][$1,000]; 19. 6-Bob Felmlee [23][$1,000]; 20. 1M-Landon Myers [22][$1,000]; 21. 20G-Noah Gass [10][$1,000]; 22. 41-Carson Macedo [7][$1,000]; 23. 29M-Logan McCandless [17][$1,000]; 24. 11-Carl Bowser [19][$1,000].
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