CONCORD, N.C. — For the third year in a row the battle for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series title has come down to Brad Sweet and David Gravel.
Sweet entered World Finals weekend at The Dirt Track at Charlotte with a 50-point advantage with three features remaining. Gravel claimed his 12th series victory of the season on Thursday, while Sweet finished fourth. As a result, Sweet leads by 42 points entering Friday night.
While Gravel has 12 wins on the season, Sweet has won 10 times. Sweet has wrapped up all four of his titles during the World Finals and is looking for his fifth straight championship, while Gravel has never won the title.
But the advantage at the four-tenths-mile track goes to Gravel, who earned his sixth victory here on Thursday, while Sweet is winless, with a pair of second-place finishes to his credit.
“We qualified well for tomorrow night, so hopefully we race well in the heat race and get ourselves in the dash and win another race,” Gravel told SPEED SPORT on Thursday night. “That’s all we can control. If we win all three races, it should be closer. I don’t know how close it will be but all it takes is one little thing and we’ll be right there.”
Sweet was critical of his driving on Thursday.
“You have to be a little bit better, you have to make good decisions and tonight we just messed up a little bit too much,” he said.
• The two NOS Energy Drink sponsored sprint cars went in different directions Thursday night.
Sheldon Haudenschild was the fast qualifier, won the dash and started on the pole aboard the Stenhouse Marshall Racing No. 17 and dropped back to finish 11th, while Tyler Courtney drove the Clauson Marshall Racing No. 7bc from eighth on the grid to finish fifth.
• Ten-time series champion Donny Schatz recovered from a poor qualifying effort, won the B main and passed 11 cars in the feature to finish 10th. Schatz won twice during last year’s World Finals.
• All three Shark Racing drivers (Logan Schuchart, Jacob Allen and Tanner Holmes) made the feature on Thursday night. Schuchart was the best finisher in eighth.
• The World of Outlaws sprint cars ran heat races without any hot laps on Thursday night and the track conditions were not ideal.
Zeb Wise and Austin McCarl experienced wild flips during the first two heat races. Wise was transported to a local hospital and McCarl was examined in the ambulance and released.
Wise, the 2023 All Star Circuit of Champions titlist, returned to the track later in the evening and updated fans on social media.
“Thank you all for the kind words and messages,” the 20-year-old Indiana native wrote. “If I haven’t replied yet don’t take it personal, I have a lot of messages. Haha. Little banged up, but walking on my two feet is about all I can ask for after that. Thankful for Charlotte’s safety crew and all my safety equipment.”
• Thursday’s World of Outlaws feature was the 64th at The Dirt Track at Charlotte since it opened in 2000.
• James McFadden raced from 26th to finish sixth on Thursday night after taking a provisional to start the main event.
• Riley Goodno won the C main and Donny Schatz topped the night’s B main.
• Zane DeVault flipped in the B main.
Grace Woelbing contributed to this report.