BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Five-time World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champion Brad Sweet may be leaving the tour for the fledgling High Limits series, but that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten how to get around the super-fast Volusia Speedway Park oval.
Always tough on the big half-mile, Sweet kicked off the sprint car portion of the DIRTcar Nationals Wednesday night with a convincing victory over Tyler Courtney and David Gravel.
Sweet’s dash victory put him on the pole for the 25-lap finale, with Courtney alongside, and officially he led the entire distance, though Courtney appeared about to take control when a yellow waved just as the leaders hit the frontstretch on lap 15.
Courtney had been driving alongside Sweet on the outside through turns three and four for a number of laps and that time finally appeared to have him put away only to have James McFadden’s Roth Motorsports mount slow to draw the race’s second caution.
“It’s hard to beat a five-time champion but I think that in one more lap I’d have cleared him,” offered a disappointed Courtney.
Sweet, however, disagreed, saying “He might have gotten me but I don’t think so. My car was really good and him getting to me just showed me that I needed to move around a little and change my line.”
Either way, when the green reappeared Sweet got a huge jump on his front row companion and hit turn one with a solid lead that he would maintain for the final 10 laps.
Behind him, Gravel tried his best to run down Courtney but to no avail as the leaders hit lapped traffic again with three to go and had to contend with that as well as battling each other.
“They messed us up when they dug up and watered the track just before the feature” declared Gravel, who started third and ran there the entire race. “We were ready for the track the way it was, then they worked it and made it too easy for the other guys to make good laps.”
While the top three finished where they started, behind them a few drivers made impressive charges forward. Logan Schuchart’s run was the most noteworthy, as he advanced from 14th to fifth, while Knoxville star Brian Brown moved from eighth to fourth on the strength of strong restarts.
Tenth-starting Donny Schatz barely missed a top five, settling for sixth.
Gio Scelzi was behind Schatz, with Bill Balog, Kasey Kahne and Anthony Macri rounding out the top 10.
Fan favorite Rico Abreau turned fast time only to struggle in the dash and feature, while Austin McCarl led the strong Last Chance qualifier field home.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 49-Brad Sweet[1]; 2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[2]; 3. 2-David Gravel[3]; 4. 21-Brian Brown[8]; 5. 1S-Logan Schuchart[14]; 6. 15-Donny Schatz[10]; 7. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[6]; 8. 17B-Bill Balog[4]; 9. 9-Kasey Kahne[16]; 10. 39M-Anthony Macri[9]; 11. 19-Brent Marks[12]; 12. 24-Rico Abreu[7]; 13. 13-Justin Peck[13]; 14. 41-Carson Macedo[25]; 15. 48-Danny Dietrich[22]; 16. 55-Chris Windom[15]; 17. 1A-Jacob Allen[11]; 18. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[24]; 19. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[17]; 20. 14-Corey Day[20]; 21. 7S-Landon Crawley[5]; 22. 26-Zeb Wise[23]; 23. 6-Bill Rose[26]; 24. 83-Michael Kofoid[19]; 25. 88-Austin McCarl[21]; 26. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[18]