Brad Sweet called his victory in Saturday’s World of Outlaws World Finals “a walk-off homer” at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
Sweet celebrated his fifth consecutive World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars championship in spectacular fashion, after he passed race leader Rico Abreu with two laps to go and held on for his 11th win of the year and his first at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
While the bottom groove earned Sweet another trophy, he opted for the high road when he was met with mixed reactions from the crowd.
“I guess I finally made it, now that I’m getting booed,” Sweet said. “When you get cheers and boos, that means you’ve made it, I guess. I’m just happy to be here in front of this large crowd. I’m happy we were able to get our NAPA Auto Parts car in Victory Lane. We’ve been trying here for a long time.
“With the points, you’re always so conservative but tonight, I was able to be conservative on the bottom. I just kind of snuck by Rico there at the end and held him off coming to the checkered.”
Sweet won by 0.759 seconds over Abreu, with Logan Schuchart, Brent Marks and Tyler Courtney rounding out the top five.
Abreu, Marks, Courtney and Sweet scored heat race victories.
“Super” Matt Sheppard punctuated his Super DIRTcar Big-Block Modifieds championship in style, winning Saturday’s season-ending feature by 0.92 seconds over Jimmy Phelps and Mat Williamson – Sheppard’s chief rivals throughout the year.
Mike Mahaney and Max McLaughlin completed the top five.
“To win this Saturday-night finale in front of this huge crowd, that caps everything off in style,” Sheppard said. “I don’t think I’ve done that since 2016. … You always feel good in clean air here. I was kind of watching the lapped traffic in front of me and watching the lap counter. We got into (traffic) pretty heavily there at the end, and I was really happy to see that checkered flag fall. Two out of three (World Finals wins) ain’t bad. We’ll take it.”
Sheppard, Williamson, Tim Fuller and Anthony Perrego won heats.
Ricky Thornton Jr. scored his second World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models win in as many nights on Saturday. Thornton beat Mike Marlar to the checkered flag by 1.121 seconds after he took the lead at the race’s halfway point.
Chris Madden finished third with Dale McDowell fourth and Garrett Smith fifth.
“I had a really good start and got to sixth or fifth right away,” Thornton said. “I saw the top was working pretty good and I figured if I was going to have a shot to win it, I was going to have to (run the top line). A pretty awesome night. An awesome weekend, really.”
Madden, McDowell, Marlar, Smith, Cade Dillard and Daulton Wilson claimed heat wins.
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