Brad Sweet and Donny Schatz paced the field to the green flag with a two-lap shootout on tap on Thursday night.
Zach Hampton had brought out a third caution on the evening at the quarter-mile Jacksonville Speedway that returned to the World of Outlaws schedule in 2021. ‘
“That was short track racing at its finest,” Sweet said on the frontstretch on the DirtVision broadcast. “It was action packed and I don’t think we had anything close to the best car, but you know, we survived… Obviously you never want to see the yellow coming to the checkered,”
Sweet – the two-time defending champion – was looking for his sixth win of the season while Schatz sat in his 15 car, trying once again to cross off that 300th World of Outlaws win crossed off on his list.
Sweet took the outside as Schatz slid under, and then pulled the over-under out on the other side of the bullring that brought as much action as any race this season.
It was the No. 49 NAPA car taking the trip to the front stretch to celebrate though, hitting his sixth checkered in 16 races on the tour’s season.
“I knew that all that dirt was sitting out there (in turn one),” Sweet said on DirtVision. “I knew if someone was pretty good behind me, they might find that middle groove. It didn’t surprise me when it was Donny.”
The Sweet win meant another race where Schatz didn’t capture that elusive milestone victory.
That, of course, could change over the next two nights as the tour rolls into a new half-mile at I-70 Motorsports Park as the No. 15 Tony Stewart Racing team is hitting their groove.
“You’ve got to crawl before you can walk,” Schatz said. “You’ve got to walk before you can run… You’ve got to take baby steps before you can do big things, and I feel like we’ve kind of had to have a reset and get back to square one.”
The 10-time champion is as low in the standings as some fans can remember, and that’s still well established in the top seven.
David Gravel didn’t threaten to win on the final start, but corralled his third-straight podium finish, coming off of a sweep of the weekend at Bristol.
That wasn’t all of the action over the night though.
For starters, Hampton had a lot of drivers making hand signals on Thursday, including Garet Williamson – who finished P23 after colliding with him.
yo @Zach_Hampton35 i really hope you get better at driving race cars, you cost a lot of people money tonight big guy
— Garet Williamson (@GaretWilliamson) April 30, 2021
Aaron Reutzel also got under the skin of Wayne Johnson following a flip of the 2C car that left a major divot in turns one and two.
That divot would later contribute to Carson Macedo getting into Kyle Larson from his position in the race lead with less than 10 laps to go. Macedo had gotten the lead but forced it too wide going out there after the finish line.
Sheldon Haudenschild salvaged a ninth-place finish after catching a flat right-rear from the lead during the second half of the race. It was just the latest mishap at a bullring that prevented Haudenschild from collecting another win.
At the end of the night, Sweet heads home with a 66-point lead in the standings over Gravel, as the series goes into four-straight nights of, ‘big track’ racing.
For now, the fans just got to enjoy a damn good showing of short-track, dirt racing.
“I felt really good all night,” Sweet said on DirtVision. “I feel like the track was great. I feel the energy from the fans. It’s really fun to be a World of Outlaws driver right now.”
World of Outlaws Sprint Cars Jacksonville Results
1. Brad Sweet
2. Donny Schatz
3. David Gravel
4. Carson Macedo
5. Rico Abreu
6. Jacob Allen
7. Tim Kaeding
8. Logan Schuchart
9. Sheldon Haudenschild
10. Aaron Reutzel
11. Kraig Kinser
12. Brock Zearfoss
13. James McFadden
14. Mason Daniel
15. Jason Sides
16. Zach Daum
17. Parker Price-Miller
18. Riley Goodno
19. Zach Hampton
20. Kyle Larson
21. Wayne Johnson
22. Josh Schneiderman
23. Garet Williamson
24. Robert Ballou
