SC&M: Was there a possibility of Keith Kunz hiring you on for 2008? Was that a decision to make at all, whether to go with Keith or with Kasey? Because both of those teams could possibly get you to NASCAR at that point.
SWEET: Yeah, so Keith‘s deal is just a different business model than Kasey Kahne Racing at that point. KKR was just looking to hire a driver. Keith, his business model‘s always been you bring the money to the table and he takes his talent, with his mechanical ability, him and Pete (Willoughby) provide you an unbelievable race team. So, we weren‘t in the position to be able to kind of pay for it.
Luckily, we helped Keith elevate his program a little bit where he actually had guys knocking on his door to do their program, and then I got my ride. So, actually, there was no decision making at all, no hard decisions there for me. And I think me and Keith had a lot of respect for each other and kind of both helped each other at that point.
SC&M: When you got with Kasey, you guys clicked right away, and from that point on your career took off. Among your wins were the 2008 Belleville Midget Nationals, the sprint feature at the 2008 4-Crown at Eldora, the 2009 4-Crown midget feature. You started racing in the NASCAR Truck division in 2009 and the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2010.
You won the Short Track Nationals in 2010. In 2013 you won the Kings Royal (Sweet won it again in 2019). Yet, it always seemed that you didn‘t get the respect that a guy winning those big races and competing in NASCAR divisions would normally get.
For example, when you subbed for Joey Saldana at the 2011 Knoxville Nationals (Saldana was injured in a crash during the Kings Royal at Eldora), it seemed like people wrote you off, even though you went on to put the car on the front row and finished eighth in the Saturday show. Why do you feel that was the case?
SWEET: Yeah, I don‘t know. It‘s a good question. I think some of it is, you know, in the winged sprint car side I‘ve found that everyone judges you off of — you could be very consistent but you need to win the big races, is what really sets you apart and gets you that kind of respect level.
As far as the midget stuff, I felt at that time we were doing really good and I think I had a little bit of momentum on my side for the NASCAR stuff. We got some breaks because of those results with the midgets. But yeah, I agree with you. I would say that we flew under the radar a lot. I don‘t have a great answer of why. But I feel like at this point in my career I‘m finally kind of getting that respect that we deserve.
Ya know, we put the time in; I definitely grinded it out, and we‘re getting the results that we put the time in to get. I‘ve won a lot of big races. I think probably people would be very surprised to hear of all the different races that we‘ve won, the Trophy Cup and the Short Track Nationals, and Belleville, the Knoxville Midget Nationals.
There‘s not too many races at this point that I‘ve raced — you know, big events — that I haven‘t won, which is pretty cool to me, pretty special. So, obviously, the Chili Bowl is on that list of races, there‘s the National Open at Williams Grove, a Gold Cup at Chico because that‘s near and dear to my heart; you know I grew up racing there. But, there‘s not a ton, so I‘m pretty proud of what we‘ve been able to accomplish.
This Q&A will be continued in ‘A Q&A With The Big Cat, Part II’ on Tuesday.