KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Brad Sweet notched his eighth career win at the Knoxville Raceway on Friday night at the opener for the Premier Chevy Dealers NOS Energy Drink World of Outlaws event.
It was the Grass Valley, California driver’s first triumph at the Sprint Car Capital since June of 2019 and earned him $12,000. Sweet’s win came aboard the Paul Silva No. 94 sprint car.
It was Sweet’s 93rd World of Outlaws victory.
Sweet, who started on the pole of the non-stop 25-lap main event took the early lead over JJ Hickle, Justin Henderson, David Gravel and Ryan Timms.
Gravel found serious momentum on the high side of one and two on lap two and roared by both Henderson and Hickle into the second spot.
On lap four, Timms used the high side by Henderson to gain fourth. Shortly after, Brent Marks moved into the top five.
Sweet entered lapped traffic on the ninth circuit, with Gravel in pursuit. Two laps later, Timms took the high side around Hickle to gain third. He began stalking Gravel in traffic, but lost momentum a bit with 10 laps to go. Marks took fourth from Hickle with three to go.
Sweet pulled away in the late stages to win by over two seconds. Timms closed late on Gravel but settled .042 of a second behind him in third. Marks was fourth and Hickle fifth.
The car count of 65 was one short of a non-Knoxville Nationals one day WoO record for car count (66 in 1979).
Hickle and Gravel set quick time in their respective qualifying groups.
“It felt difficult (in traffic),” said Sweet. “The bottom lane was just faster. Lapped cars were hard. I was nervous coming here, because the team works so hard. Kyle’s (Larson) had so much success here and I didn’t want to be the weak link. I’m just really happy to get them a win. Paul just continues to make the car better. It was a great first night, but we’ve got a long way to go. I felt at the end, the car was getting away from me a little bit. I just needed to calm myself down. I haven’t really been in that situation in a while. I’m pretty excited tonight.”
“The preferred lane was on the bottom, and that’s why the lapped cars were down there,” said Gravel. “It was just hard to clear guys. Brad was searching around there. When he had clean air, he missed the bottom a bunch. It was tricky. It was a fast pace, and it was easy to miss it. I just didn’t get around lapped cars good enough. When I got close, I had a bad lap. It was a new car that we shook down, and we’re happy with the result. We obviously want to win, but these other guys are really good here, and that’s what makes it fun.”
“I would say the bottom was the preferred line for the first three-quarters of the race,” said Timms. “Down there in three and four, it was definitely the bottom. It was tricky coming off of two on the bottom. You really had to ‘whoa’ it up and make sure you didn’t miss it. I’m happy with it. The start (wasn’t good), and if I would have had a better start, I would have had a chance. Our car felt so good out there.”
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 94-Brad Sweet[1]; 2. 2-David Gravel[6]; 3. 10-Ryan Timms[4]; 4. 19-Brent Marks[7]; 5. 2M-JJ Hickle[3]; 6. 87-Aaron Reutzel[8]; 7. 11-Justin Henderson[2]; 8. 83-Michael Kofoid[9]; 9. 15-Donny Schatz[12]; 10. 27-Emerson Axsom[5]; 11. 1S-Logan Schuchart[10]; 12. 41-Carson Macedo[11]; 13. 28-Jace Park[13]; 14. 24A-Rico Abreu[17]; 15. 7S-Chris Windom[18]; 16. 26-Justin Peck[14]; 17. 88-Austin McCarl[23]; 18. 18-Sheldon Haudenschild[25]; 19. 23-Garet Williamson[21]; 20. 2C-Cole Macedo[15]; 21. 21-Brian Brown[20]; 22. 88T-Tanner Thorson[22]; 23. 13-Tanner Holmes[19]; 24. 6-Kasey Jedrzejek[24]; 25. (DNF) 5-Brenham Crouch[16]
