KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Brad Sweet and Kasey Kahne Racing enjoyed a bounce back evening Thursday at Knoxville Raceway.
Sweet suffered a concussion in a crash at Eldora Speedway in July and on Aug. 3 team owner Kasey Kahne parked his No. 9 sprint car and put himself and his crew in charge of Sweet’s No. 49.
Sweet responded on Thursday by setting the fastest qualifying lap of the night, winning the B main and racing from 21st to eighth in the feature.
The night’s work earned him the fourth starting spot for Saturday night’s $195,000-to-win main event.
Sweet, who won the Knoxville Nationals in 2018, failed to qualify for the main event last year.
“This is the kind of event that can make or break your year,” Sweet said. “Obviously, with the injury at Eldora and having to sit out, this is a really nice rebound. And then we kind of changed teams coming in here, the day before the Knoxville Nationals.
“There are a lot of moving parts, but I think KKR showed their resilience, and we pulled it off.
“I felt like tonight was a night that we needed for everybody at KKR — the morale and everything. Now, we come back Saturday and give it our all.”
Sweet believes there are a lot of contenders to win the 64th Knoxville Nationals.
“The Knoxville Nationals is wide open right now,” Sweet said. “Kyle (Larson) is coming from ninth is going to be the guy to beat because until somebody beats the best, he’s still the favorite.
“There are some good cars up there. Carson Macedo. Ryan Timms has been fast here. Logan Schuchart is no slouch here and then you have Rico and Sheldon coming behind us. Anybody in the top 10, we’re in there. It is nice to be in the conversation.
“It is nice to have a good starting position. We’ve had a few years where we haven’t been as good as we wanted to be at the Knoxville Nationals.”
