NEW RICHMOND, Wis. — Two-time and defending World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champion Brad Sweet snagged his fourth consecutive victory at Cedar Lake Speedway on Friday night, doing so in spectacular fashion on the final lap.
Pouncing on the green-white-checkered restart, Sweet played Carson Macedo like a fiddle and slid by his fellow Californian to steal the win from the Jason Johnson Racing No. 41, which commanded the first 33 of 35 laps.
It’s his 69th career victory and the 11th of his dominant season, which extends his advantage in the point standings with a third-straight championship on the line for the Kasey Kahne Racing with Mike Curb No. 49.
“I thought we had a pretty equal car to be honest,” Sweet said of Macedo. “He did a great job in lap traffic and had us covered there. I knew there was a little moisture down low, so I was surprised to see he stayed up high on the restart. It was just a timing thing, I had to let him be ahead at the cone, but got as close as I could. I think he knew he spun the tires and went into protect mode, but I went into attack mode and it worked out.”
After racing through the first 33 laps, Macedo had survived several challenges from Sweet on restarts and throughout multiple stages of lapped traffic to prove his might as race leader. The polesitter was poised for a flag-to-flag score until top-five running Logan Schuchart and David Gravel suffered flat tires to bring out the caution.
On the restart with two-to-go, school was in session.
Macedo swung high, but Sweet stuck it low. The rules say you can’t pass before the cone at the start-finish line, and Sweet played by them, but he surely timed it perfect and got as close as possible to the back of the No. 41.
Shooting to the high side of turns one and two, Sweet built his momentum and charged his No. 49 down the backstretch with a full head of steam. Into turn three, he launched a slider and tip-toed to the cushion as he cleared Macedo out of turn four and saw the white flag waving.
Sweet handled his business on the 35th and final circuit, cruising away from Macedo and crossing the checkered flag with a .895-second victory.
His 11th victory of the season combined with Gravel’s misfortune means his points advantage has ballooned to 84 points over Gravel.
It’s Sweet’s fourth consecutive win at Cedar Lake, and his fifth win over the last seven races.
“Cedar Lake is always special to us,” Sweet spoke on his successes. “We love this race track and all of the fan sup here. We’ve got a good setup and this place just fits my driving style. There’s always multiple lanes to race on and that plays into my hand. Hopefully we can keep the streak alive tomorrow night.”
Macedo finished second.
“I feel bad for my team,” Macedo admitted. “I think we had the car to win. I feel like I was making good decisions up until that point. I just spun my tires on that restart and it killed us. I saw Brad peeled off and I tried to block, but he threw the slider and cleared me. It sucks, but we’ll come back and try to get that win tomorrow.”
Aaron Reutzel, Sheldon Haudenschild and Jason Sides rounded out the top five.
To see full results, turn to the next page.