6/14/2014
Sprint Source
Sweet Scores Victory at Mediacom Shootout at Knoxville Raceway
Sweet battled Lasoski and McCarl to take his fourth World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series win of the season
KNOXVILLE, Iowa — June 14, 2014 — Brad Sweet won his fourth World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series race of the season Saturday night, capturing the Mediacom Shootout at Knoxville Raceway after holding off challenges from Danny Lasoski and Terry McCarl. The win was the first Outlaws win for Sweet at the legendary half-mile track.
“It feels good. This is a dream come true,” Sweet said. “I’ve always wanted to win at Knoxville in a winged sprint car... It means something to beat these guys – 48 really strong cars here tonight.”
As the SureTest Supplies team looks to build momentum in the coming weeks, Sweet said the win was a good boost for his team which last won on April 5 at Calistoga Speedway.
“For us to get the monkey off our back,” Sweet said. “We’ve been strong at the beginning of the year and then we slumped a little bit, so it’s nice to get back in victory lane especially here at Knoxville. It’s awesome. I know we work really hard to run good at this race track... I could move around all over the place. I think I probably was running the top way too long. The car just felt so good I felt like I could move all over. Hats off to my guys.”
Sweet said he and his team now have good notes for Knoxville that they will bring back for upcoming races at the track.
The team’s previous wins this season came at Volusia Speedway Park, Tucson International Raceway and Calistoga. Sweet is sixth in the championship standings, 251 points out of the lead.
Sweet qualified sixth earlier in the night and benefitted from the six car inversion leading into the dash. After winning the dash, Sweet started on the front row with Lasoski. Shane Stewart and McCarl started in row two.
After the green flag flew, Sweet jumped past Lasoski for an early lead. Lasoski looked to reel in Sweet in the opening laps. Meanwhile, McCarl battled with Stewart for third place. After several attempts, as Stewart rode through the middle of turns three and four, McCarl, hugging the bottom of the track, slid past coming out of turn four, taking the position and making his charge forward.
In the coming laps, McCarl drove his Snow Plow Snow Pushers car past Lasoski and set his sights on Sweet.
“I got going good there and I thought we might have a shot at Brad,” McCarl said. “He kind of didn’t know the rubber was on the bottom and he was running up in the middle... We needed to get to him again before he found it.”
McCarl, a seven-time track champion at Knoxville and the current 410 points leader at the track, said it was tough to get around Sweet once he found the right line.
“Some of the things you’ve got to slow down a little bit and take what they give you,” McCarl said. “I knew Brad kind of got out on us at that point and [then we were] trying to keep Shane behind us.”
Stewart, who also found his way around Lasoski as the 25 lap A main wore on, finished in third.
“I honestly made too many mistakes,” Stewart said. “Terry actually found the rubber before I did and I probably should have moved down a little earlier than I did and just messed up. And then I thought I was going to have a pretty good run on him in the last corner and I missed the rubber in one and two and just killed my momentum.”
“Obviously a really good finish here. It’s hard to win here – it’s hard to finish on the podium. Any time that we can do that for the [Larson Marks Racing] guys and Go Pro it makes all their hard work and effort worth it to see their car run up front, so it’s special to me as well.”
In the race for the championship, Donny Schatz’s points lead was cut to six points. Daryn Pittman moved back into the second position after Joey Saldana was relegated to a 25th place finish. Saldana is now 45 points out of the lead while fourth place Paul McMahan is 52 points out of the lead.
The World of Outlaws STP Sprint cars return to the track next Friday and Saturday nights, June 20 and 21, at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D. and I-94 Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minn.
KNOXVILLE RACEWAY NOTES: This was Brad Sweet’s fourth win of the season and the seventh of his Outlaws career... Donny Schatz’s championship lead was cut to six points following Knoxville. Joey Saldana moved back to third place... Six was drawn as the dash inversion for the 16th time this season... Brian Brown won tonight’s ASE Hard Charger Award. He is the 21st different winner of the award this season.
SEASON WINNERS: Daryn Pittman – 7 (Thunderbowl Raceway on March 14, Calistoga Speedway on April 6, Devil’s Bowl Speedway on April 19, Williams Grove Speedway on May 16 and May 17, Orange County Fair Speedway, May 18 and New Egypt Speedway, May 20); Joey Saldana – 5 (Perris Auto Speedway on April 12, Salina Highbanks on April 25, The Dirt Track at Charlotte on May 23, I-80 Speedway on June 6 and Jackson Speedway on June 13); Donny Schatz – 5 (Volusia Speedway Park on Feb. 15, The Dirt Track at Las Vegas on March 6, Devil’s Bowl Speedway on April 19, Lawrenceburg Speedway on May 27 and I-96 Speedway on May 31); Brad Sweet – 4 (Volusia Speedway Park on Feb. 14, Tucson International Raceway on March 8, Calistoga Speedway on April 5 and Knoxville Raceway on June 14); David Gravel – 3 (Merced Speedway on March 28, Eldora Speedway on May 3, and Wilmot Raceway on May 9); Kerry Madsen – 3 (Stockton Dirt track on March 22, El Paso Speedway Park on April 15 and Lakeside Speedway on June 7); Paul McMahan – 2 (The Dirt Track at Las Vegas on March 5, Tri-State Speedway on May 10); Rico Abreu – 1 (Thunderbowl Raceway on March 15); Dale Blaney – 1 (Attica Raceway Park on May 30); Christopher Bell – 1 (Jacksonville Speedway on May 7); Cody Darrah – 1 (Kings Speedway on April 11); Steve Kinser – 1 (Volusia Speedway Park on Feb. 16);Stevie Smith – 1 (Lincoln Speedway on May 14); Shane Stewart – 1 (Eldora Speedway on May 2) ; Sammy Swindell – 1 (Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 on April 26).
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