It was looking like just another Brad Sweet summer.
The defending World of Outlaws Sprint Car Champion had won back-to-back Feature events during the Independence Day Spectacular at Cedar Lake.
He had gone on a massive run – as usual for Sweet as the weather gets hotter outside – winning five out of 11 races in five weeks. The Kasey Kahne Racing team was firing on all cylinders.
But, this weekend was a nightmare.
Sweet started off with a spot on the podium at 34 Raceway on Friday night, but on Saturday in Wilmot he blew the oil filter off of his engine, finishing 19th and retiring from the race early.
On Sunday in Terre Haute, he faced a plethora of issues, needing a new axel in the 49 car and blowing a right rear tire. It again forced him out of the race and back to a 22nd place finish.
The pair of poor results tightened up the points monumentally.
While Sweet was held back, Logan Schuchart showed some of the same progress that he displayed during the restart from the pandemic.
After a 10th-place result in Burlington, Schuchart blasted to a podium at Wilmot where he started 11th.
He followed it up on Sunday putting on a clinic during restarts and earning his fifth win of the year in the series.
The results put Schuchart up to 52 points back of Sweet – or about 26 spots on the race track – and just six points behind Donny Schatz who put on a show of his own this weekend.
Schatz earned a second-place finish at Burlington on Friday at the expense of Kerry Madsen while trying to chase down Parker Price-Miller. He followed it up with a fourth-place finish Saturday.
On Sunday, he showed a glimpse of his old self, though.
The 10-time World of Outlaws champion started in 23rd – dead last – before utilizing a high amount of cautions to work his way to the top of the pack.
If it wasn’t for how lights out Schuchart was all night, Schatz probably would have had a win at Terre Haute.
This has had a ripple effect all the way through the points, too. Carson Macedo, Daryn Pittman and Sheldon Haudenschild have all moved up in terms of points separating themselves with the leader.
And if you look right behind that group another storyline sticks out.
David Gravel – Saturday’s winner – has raced up to just 188 points back of Sweet.
That’s exceptional because he missed a night of racing in February while he was running in the ARCA Menards Series event at Daytona, costing him 90 show-up points and whatever he might have earned with it.
It’s not extreme to say that he would be second right now had he raced that night at Volusia, but obviously no one saw a pandemic putting a screw in the season schedule.
While the points race is heating up, Sweet’s season isn’t on fire yet. He can turn it around at any time.
But with the way the schedule has gone so far and the question marks that will lie ahead, every race counts that much more.
The next being this week as the Outlaws take on Attica Raceway Park for the annual Brad Doty Classic. It’s one of the premier events on the schedule each season for the tour, and it promises to have a lot of strong drivers fighting for a trophy on Tuesday.
| World of Outlaws Sprint Cars Standings | ||||
| Position | Driver | Points | Behind | |
| 1 | Brad Sweet | 2932 | -0 | |
| 2 | Logan Schuchart | 2888 | -44 | |
| 3 | Donny Schatz | 2880 | -52 | |
| 4 | Carson Macedo | 2844 | -88 | |
| 5 | S. Haudenschild | 2818 | -114 | |
| 6 | Daryn Pittman | 2794 | -138 | |
| 7 | David Gravel | 2744 | -188 | |
| 8 | Parker Price-Miller | 2592 | -340 | |
| 9 | Jacob Allen | 2534 | -398 | |
| 10 | Kerry Madsen | 2488 | -444 | |
