PORT ROYAL, Pa. — Leading into the night, social media was a stir as a quote from Brad Sweet circulated.
“It’s really fun to go into Pennsylvania…take their money and talk a little smack,” said Sweet. He backed up that statement on Thursday night by picking up the win and securing himself a starting spot in Saturday’s 57th annual Tuscarora 50.
Sweet rolled off in the fifth starting spot, while Anthony Macri and Rico Abreu would be the pair on the front row.
Aberu and Macri would trade sliders over the opening two laps, but Macri would bang the boards a bit too hard off of turn two giving Aberu a bit of a gap to lead the next handful of laps.
Macri would battle with Sweet with 16 laps remaining for the runner-up position, but Sweet would pull off the pass in turn one, take the slider line away in turn three, and set his sights on Rico Abreu for the lead.
Rico would continue to lead into the waning laps of the race and in lapped traffic, “The Big Cat” of Brad Sweet would begin to close the gap and look to make his move.
With eight laps remaining, Sweet would slide in front of Abreu for the lead and attempt to run away and hide in the slower traffic.
With two laps to go and slower traffic in front of Sweet, Aberu was able to close the gap to just under five-tenths of a second, but wasn’t able to fully reel him in.
Sweet claimed his first victory at Port Royal Speedway since 2015 and his first win with Kubota High Limit Racing since May 16.
The win was also worth an extra $5,000 with it being split with the Durst Dice Roll fan of the night Brock Fisher from Huntingdon, Pa.
Abreu and Macri completed the podium.
In 305 sprint car competition, Drew Young utilized a late-race restart to get by Ken Duke Jr. and pick up his second career win at Port Royal Speedway.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 49-Brad Sweet[5]; 2. 24-Rico Abreu[2]; 3. 39M-Anthony Macri[1]; 4. 69K-Logan Wagner[8]; 5. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[3]; 6. 13-Justin Peck[6]; 7. 9P-Parker Price Miller[12]; 8. 88-Sye Lynch[10]; 9. 21-Brian Brown[4]; 10. 67-Justin Whittall[15]; 11. 5-Spencer Bayston[9]; 12. 19-Brent Marks[25]; 13. 12H-Blane Heimbach[16]; 14. 14-Corey Day[14]; 15. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[11]; 16. 48-Danny Dietrich[21]; 17. 1Z-Chase Dietz[18]; 18. 9-Kasey Kahne[13]; 19. 55W-Mike Wagner[24]; 20. 39-Kody Hartlaub[17]; 21. 87-Aaron Reutzel[23]; 22. 55-Chris Windom[20]; 23. 83-James McFadden[19]; 24. 26-Zeb Wise[27]; 25. 35-Austin Bishop[22]; 26. 23-Devon Borden[28]; 27. 47K-Kody Lehman[26]; 28. 1A-Jacob Allen[7]