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Eldora Speedway
Sweet Earns
Crown in 30th Kings Royal
ROSSBURG, Ohio. - July 13, 2013 - It was only a matter of time until
Brad Sweet tasted victory lane at Eldora Speedway in World of Outlaws
STP Sprint Car Series competition. However, no one would have guessed
it would have been in one of the most prestigious races anywhere in
dirt track racing, the Kings Royal.
Sweet, of Grass Valley, Calif., started outside of Brandon Wimmer for
the 30th running of the historic event and jumped out to an early lead
in the 40-lap, $50,000-to-win race in his Kasey Kahne Racing Ollie's
Bargain Outlets ride. A three-car battle that included Wimmer and Donny
Schatz prevented Sweet from running away.
On the final restart on lap 25, after a wreck involving Chad Kemenah
and Paul McMahan battling for the fifth position, Sweet struggled at
first to retake the lead as Schatz put the pressure on in his attempt
to become a three-time Kings Royal winner. By the 27th lap, though,
Sweet had fully cleared Schatz and with 13 more clean laps through
lapped traffic found himself crowned King.
"It's unbelievable to win the Kings Royal," said Sweet, who has
narrowly missed out on winning a World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series
event at Eldora several times, including Friday night when he finished
second. "It's still sinking in, but we've been fast here so I knew we
could do it. I can't thank my guys enough, Kasey Kahne Racing, Kasey
Kahne himself for giving me this opportunity, Ollie's Bargain Outlet,
my guys Dave, Eric, Rob and Willie. It was déjà vu on coming up to try
to get around Sammy Swindell again to lap him. I know Donny's going to
be good and the first time we restarted I chose the top and he had me
beat going into one and if he would've gone to the top it would've made
it a much closer race."
The night wasn't all smooth sailing for Sweet. The Ollie's Bargain
Outlet machine blew a motor in qualifying and saw Sweet start sixth in
the fifth heat race. In a show of incredible speed, Sweet was able to
work his way to the lead to earn the outside pole for the Kings Royal
feature event.
For the waning laps of the event it appeared that it would either be
Schatz and Sweet in the top two positions, but in the final three laps
Tim Kaeding made huge strides. After losing pace with both of the
leaders for several laps on lap 38 Kaeding made huge gains to catch
Schatz. The position would not be decided until the final lap. Kaeding
issued a hard slider to Schatz going into turn one, but slid up the
track losing time. It looked like all was lost for the San Jose,
Calif., native when he threw his Roth Enterprises-backed machine into
turn three and appeared to will the car to stick pulling even with
Schatz.
From there it was an even drag race to the checkered flag that Kaeding
won by a mere quarter of a second.
"We had a great race car all night, and we just wanted to see how
things fell in place," Kaeding said. "Brad was fast in open traffic,
but kind slowed up in traffic and gave Donny and I a chance to get a
run at him. We've had a rough couple of nights, but to come back and
finish second at the Kings Royal is awesome."
Schatz had to settle for third in the Tony Stewart Racing STP/Armor All
J&J.
"Brad was awfully quick up top and I didn't use up enough track trying
to get past him," said Schatz, of Fargo, N.D. "We weren't really
prepared to have a fuel stop (on lap 25 during the Kemenah and McMahan
red flag) so we weren't ready with shock changes and that stuff. I lost
a spot to Tim I was just hoping Brad would make a mistake with a lapped
car and I would be in a different groove but that didn't happen. You
know, second, third, it doesn't matter the only thing we came for was a
win and we didn't get it so we may as well finished 20th."
Tony Stewart finished better Saturday than he did Friday, but that
wasn't the whole story. Stewart made the feature through his heat race,
but did not find the finish he wanted. Stewart faced an early exit on
lap 16 after alleging contact with TSR teammate and former Kings Royal
champion, Steve Kinser. The contact led to Stewart flipping coming off
of the turn 4. Stewart would finish 23rd on the night and voiced his
displeasure over the PA system at his driver much to the fans' surprise.
Wimmer held on to a fourth-place finish while crowd favorite and
Wooster, Ohio native, Jac Haudenschild wowed everybody by moving
through the field to capture fifth.
The World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series is back in action Tuesday
night at Lernerville Speedway for the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup
Twins as the Month of Money rolls on.
ELDORA SPEEDWAY NOTEBOOK
NOTES - Paul McMahan was the fastest qualifier around high-banked,
1/2-mile oval with a time of 13.132 seconds to earn five championship
points. Also earning points were Joey Saldana (4 points), Kerry Madsen
(3), Sheldon Haudenschild (2) and David Gravel (1). ... Dale Blaney,
Joey Saldana, Donny Schatz, Tim Kaeding, Brad Sweet and Brandon Wimmer
won heat races.
STILL THE KING - Steve Kinser continues to be the only driver in
history to qualify for each of the 30 Kings Royal A-mains. He's won the
event seven times, most recently in 2010.
World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; 30th Kings
Royal; Eldora Speedway; Rossburg, Ohio; July 13, 2013
A-Main - (40 Laps): 1. 49-Brad Sweet [2] ($50,000); 2. 83-Tim Kaeding
[3] ($12,500); 3. 15-Donny Schatz [4] ($7500); 4. 9W-Brandon Wimmer [1]
($5500); 5. 59-Jac Haudenschild [10] ($5500); 6. 11K-Kraig Kinser [11]
($3800); 7. 29-Kerry Madsen [9] ($3300); 8. 11-Steve Kinser [15]
($2800); 9. 6-David Gravel [19] ($2650); 10. 2-Dale Blaney [6] ($2550);
11. 83X-Tim Shaffer [8] ($2250); 12. 7-Craig Dollansky [20] ($2100);
13. 9-Daryn Pittman [16] ($2050); 14. 3G-Shane Stewart [23] ($2000);
15. 1-Sammy Swindell [21] ($1950); 16. W20-Greg Wilson [24] ($1900);
17. 21-Brian Brown [18] ($1850); 18. 51-Paul McMahan [13] ($1800); 19.
45-Danny Holtgraver [22] ($1750); 20. 63-Chad Kemenah [7] ($1700); 21.
24A-Rico Abreu [14] ($1650); 22. 71M-Joey Saldana [5] ($1625); 23.
14-Tony Stewart [12] ($1600); 24. 4-Cody Darrah [17] ($1550). Lap
leader: Brad Sweet, 1-40. KSE Hard Charger Award: 6-David Gravel [+10].
Qualifying: 1. 51-Paul McMahan, 13.132; 2. 71M-Joey Saldana, 13.210; 3.
29-Kerry Madsen, 13.279; 4. 59-Jac Haudenschild, 13.332; 5. 6-David
Gravel, 13.399; 6. 21-Brian Brown, 13.408; 7. 7-Craig Dollansky,
13.411; 8. 1-Sammy Swindell, 13.425; 9. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 13.435;
10. 9-Daryn Pittman, 13.436; 11. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 13.440; 12. 14-Tony
Stewart, 13.448; 13. 63-Chad Kemenah, 13.464; 14. 24A-Rico Abreu,
13.467; 15. 15-Donny Schatz, 13.484; 16. 11N-Randy Hannagan, 13.500;
17. 4-Cody Darrah, 13.524; 18. 9W-Brandon Wimmer, 13.534; 19. 2-Dale
Blaney, 13.563; 20. 83X-Tim Shaffer, 13.586; 21. 1S-Logan Schuchart,
13.606; 22. 83-Tim Kaeding, 13.615; 23. 2L-Ed Lynch Jr, 13.621; 24.
97-Dean Jacobs, 13.629; 25. 3G-Shane Stewart, 13.632; 26. 7S-Jason
Sides, 13.633; 27. 11-Steve Kinser, 13.638; 28. 45-Danny Holtgraver,
13.639; 29. 24H-Brian Sebetto, 13.657; 30. 82-Jason Solwold, 13.675;
31. W20-Greg Wilson, 13.676; 32. 55X-James McFadden, 13.693; 33.
6R-Bill Rose, 13.699; 34. 4S-Danny Smith, 13.717; 35. 49-Brad Sweet,
13.744; 36. 40-Caleb Helms, 13.776; 37. 33M-Sheldon Haudenschild,
13.859; 38. 1A-Jacob Allen, 13.964; 39. OO-Jim Nier, 14.029; 40.
2M-Dallas Hewitt, 14.221; 41. 60-Kory Crabtree, 14.228; 42. 96AU-Bruce
White, 14.905.
Heat 1 - (8 Laps - Top 3 finishers transfer to the A-feature): 1.
2-Dale Blaney [1]; 2. 63-Chad Kemenah [2]; 3. 51-Paul McMahan [4]; 4.
7-Craig Dollansky [3]; 5. W20-Greg Wilson [6]; 6. 3G-Shane Stewart [5];
7. 33M-Sheldon Haudenschild [7].
Heat 2 - (8 Laps - Top 3 finishers transfer to the A-feature): 1.
71M-Joey Saldana [4]; 2. 83X-Tim Shaffer [1]; 3. 24A-Rico Abreu [2]; 4.
1-Sammy Swindell [3]; 5. 55X-James McFadden [6]; 6. 7S-Jason Sides [5];
7. 1A-Jacob Allen [7].
Heat 3 - (8 Laps - Top 3 finishers transfer to the A-feature): 1.
15-Donny Schatz [2]; 2. 29-Kerry Madsen [4]; 3. 11-Steve Kinser [5]; 4.
15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr [3]; 5. 1S-Logan Schuchart [1]; 6. 6R-Bill Rose
[6]; 7. OO-Jim Nier [7].
Heat 4 - (8 Laps - Top 3 finishers transfer to the A-feature): 1.
83-Tim Kaeding [1]; 2. 59-Jac Haudenschild [4]; 3. 9-Daryn Pittman [3];
4. 45-Danny Holtgraver [5]; 5. 11N-Randy Hannagan [2]; 6. 2M-Dallas
Hewitt [7]; 7. 4S-Danny Smith [6].
Heat 5 - (8 Laps - Top 3 finishers transfer to the A-feature): 1.
49-Brad Sweet [6]; 2. 11K-Kraig Kinser [3]; 3. 4-Cody Darrah [2]; 4.
6-David Gravel [4]; 5. 24H-Brian Sebetto [5]; 6. 2L-Ed Lynch Jr [1]; 7.
60-Kory Crabtree [7].
Heat 6 - (8 Laps - Top 3 finishers transfer to the A-feature): 1.
9W-Brandon Wimmer [2]; 2. 14-Tony Stewart [3]; 3. 21-Brian Brown [4];
4. 97-Dean Jacobs [1]; 5. 82-Jason Solwold [5]; 6. 40-Caleb Helms [6].
Last Chance Showdown - (12 Laps - Top 4 finishers transfer to the
A-feature): 1. 1-Sammy Swindell [2]; 2. 45-Danny Holtgraver [4]; 3.
3G-Shane Stewart [7]; 4. W20-Greg Wilson [1]; 5. 11N-Randy Hannagan
[10] ($500); 6. 55X-James McFadden [8] ($450); 7. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr
[3] ($400); 8. 24H-Brian Sebetto [5] ($350); 9. 82-Jason Solwold [12]
($300); 10. 97-Dean Jacobs [6] ($250); 11. 2L-Ed Lynch Jr [11] ($200);
12. 7S-Jason Sides [13] ($200); 13. 1S-Logan Schuchart [9] ($200); 14.
40-Caleb Helms [17] ($200); 15. 2M-Dallas Hewitt [15] ($200); 16.
1A-Jacob Allen [18] ($200); 17. 6R-Bill Rose [14] ($200); 18. 60-Kory
Crabtree [16] ($200); 19. 4S-Danny Smith [20] ($200); 20. OO-Jim Nier
[19] ($200); 21. 96AU-Bruce White [22] ($200); 22. 33M-Sheldon
Haudenschild [21] ($200).
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