It was a Sweet weekend in Beaver Dam

Brad Sweet spent years watching 10-time World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champion Donny Schatz drive away from him and dominate races.

The roles reversed Saturday night at Beaver Dam Raceway.

“The Big Cat” turned the 1/3-mile track into his personal playground for the weekend. He thrilled fans with a last-lap pass on Sheldon Haudenschild to win Friday night and then dominated the 40-lap feature on Saturday to sweep the weekend and take home $16,000 in winnings between the two nights. He led the final 30 laps, lapped up to 10th place and beat Schatz to the line by close to two seconds.

“You don’t know how many times I’d lead a race until 25 to 30 laps in and he’d (Schatz) go driving by me,” Sweet said after getting a congratulatory handshake from Schatz. “I wouldn’t call him a mentor because he didn’t tell me his secrets, but years and years of studying him is why we’re standing here. I feel like we got a little bit of an edge right now. He’s going to push his team and we’re going to push our team. It’s going to be a heck of a battle this year.”

Sweet’s teammate and car owner Kasey Kahne had one of his best performances of the year, stealing the lead from pole-sitter Shane Stewart on the opening lap and holding it for the next 10. After Sweet passed him for the lead on Lap 11 and stayed in the top five for the majority of race before fading to ninth.

With the lead in hand, Sweet was untouchable in his Kasey Kahne Racing NAPA Auto Parts No. 49. His closest competitor was second-place Logan Schuchart, whom he gapped by 3.5 seconds before a caution with eight laps to go.

On the restart, Schuchart stayed in tow with Sweet before jumping the cushion in turn four and hitting the wall. Schatz then moved into the runner-up spot to take his turn at Sweet.

On the final restart with three laps to go, Sweet spun his tires exiting turn four. Knowing Schatz would attack, Sweet stayed low down the front stretch to deny Schatz a lane underneath him.

When they got to turn one, Sweet went high and Schatz dove low, edging his nose ahead of Sweet. However, Sweet had the better momentum off the corner and launched ahead of Schatz.

Sweet was then on cruise control with what he called his best car of the year and claimed his fourth win this season and third win in a row at Beaver Dam.

“We’re just here to win races,” said Sweet of Grass Valley, Calif. “When we’re standing here (in Victory Lane) we’re doing our job. I know everybody is working hard on our race team to get better. As the car gets better, we’re going to keep clicking these wins off. We were better tonight than we were last night. Eric (Prutzman, crew chief) keeps fine tuning on this thing. It really came to life about halfway through the race. I was just cruising really. When I get cars like that, it makes my job easy.”

Schatz’s second-place finish was his fourth top-five in a row with his Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing team. While he’d rather be one spot better, he acknowledged that some nights he’s just going to finish second, especially when competing against Sweet.

“They’ve had a good target to chance for a while,” said Schatz of Fargo, N.D. “It’s time to move that bar again… It is what it is. This is a humbling sport. It’s a humbling game. We’re not hanging our heads. Some nights you’re going to run second. There’s a lot of nights you’re going to run second to that (No. 49 KKR) car. We just keep digging. That’s what it takes. There’s not been a lot of racing this year. At least we’re getting back going and glad to see people in the stands. That makes this all worth it.”

David Gravel rounded out the podium. Haudenschild had an impressive run from 16th to fourth — earning the KSE Racing Hard Charger award. Shane Stewart finished fifth, his fifth top-five finish in a row, moving him to fourth in points.

With Schuchart finishing 21st, Sweet reclaimed the points lead — now 28 points ahead of Schatz, who also moved past Schuchart into second. Schuchart fell to third, 36 points behind Sweet.
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