Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic – and I know you’re tired of reading that – the World of Outlaws Sprint Car series hasn’t seen as many three-day race weekends as the series is accustomed to.
If anything, the rain has stuck away for the most part. Knock on Wood.
That’ll change this weekend as the series will go to three different race tracks in three days and fourth on Tuesday, the first of the stretch coming at Burlington, Iowa’s 34 Raceway.
The track, which hasn’t hosted a World of Outlaws event since 2015, has benefited this season since the pandemic shutdowns ended.
They’ll host the Outlaws Friday night, the All Star Circuit of Champions later this month, and saw the USAC Non-Wing Sprint Cars come to town a few weeks ago.
When the series takes the green flag on Friday, all eyes will be on defending tour champion Brad Sweet.
The driver of the No. 49 NAPA Auto Parts car was as dominant as ever during the fourth of July weekend, winning both Outlaws features including the Saturday night show on national television.
The pair of wins brought Sweet up to seven as it seems he’s starting to heat up during the summer months for the second straight year.
The streak of top five finishes and big victories helped him beat Donny Schatz out for the championship a season ago.
Schatz, meanwhile, still has not seen the high-standard results that he has been accustomed to over the past years that saw him win championships.
He’s fallen behind Logan Schuchart in the points standings after the 1S capitalized early on with some momentum out of the pandemic break.
Standing right behind them is a former World of Outlaws rookie of the year in Carson Macedo who took the Kyle Larson Racing No. 2 car to victory lane at Tri-State a couple of weekends ago.
All four will be large threats to win on Friday night. We’ll have to wait and see though how qualifying shakes out when it all fires up at Burlington.
| World of Outlaws Sprint Cars Standings | ||||
| Position | Driver | Points | Behind | |
| 1 | Brad Sweet | 2570 | -0 | |
| 2 | Logan Schuchart | 2456 | -114 | |
| 3 | Donny Schatz | 2454 | -116 | |
| 4 | Carson Macedo | 2428 | -142 | |
| 5 | Sheldon Haudenschild | 2410 | -160 | |
| 6 | Daryn Pittman | 2374 | -196 | |
| 7 | David Gravel | 2322 | -248 | |
| 8 | Kerry Madsen | 2268 | -302 | |
| 9 | Parker Price-Miller | 2196 | -374 | |
| 10 | Jacob Allen | 2138 | -432 | |