Sweet Scores Top-Five Finish at Granite City
Brad Sweet and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Kasey Kahne Racing No. 49 team earned the quickest qualifying time and won their heat race Saturday night at Granite City Speedway before scoring a top-five finish in the feature. The previous night’s main World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series event at River Cities Speedway was rained out.
Sweet started off Friday night at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota, battling scorching, 100-plus-degree temperatures. The Kasey Kahne Racing (KKR) team was third fastest in qualifying, and with 25 cars in attendance, Sweet was scheduled to start first in the third Drydene heat race. Just after qualifying, Mother Nature had other ideas and rain started to fall, forcing the World of Outlaws to cancel the event.
The following night, the series traveled to Granite City Motor Park in Sauk Rapids, Minn. Sweet and the NAPA AUTO PARTS team picked up their third Slick Woody’s QuickTime award of the 2021 season, setting a lap time of 12.401 seconds. Sweet started on the pole position in heat one where he put together ten solid laps to win it and earn a spot in the Fast Pass Dash.
After drawing the three pill out of the NOS Energy Drink can, Sweet searched high and low for all eight laps of the Fast Pass Dash, resulting in a third place run. After a hard-fought battle for all 35 laps, the KKR No. 49 came home with a fifth- place finish, earning his 18th top-five finish of 2021.
“We had a decent night Saturday with a QuickTime and a heat race win,” Sweet said. “We were just a little off in the feature. I’m looking forward to getting back to Knoxville this coming weekend and seeing what we can do.”
Looking ahead to next weekend, the No. 49 NAPA AUTO PARTS team will be back at Knoxville Raceway for two nights of action. Sweet has seven career wins at Knoxville Raceway, including being named the Knoxville Nationals Champion in 2018.
Start / Finish:
Friday, June 4: rained out
Saturday, June 5: 3 / 5
Points Standing / Total: 1st / 3932 pts. (+56)
Next Race: June 11-12, Knoxville Raceway, Knoxville, IA
How to Watch or Listen: www.dirtvision.com
NAPA: @NAPARacing
Brad Sweet: @BradSweet49
Kasey Kahne Racing: @KKRdirt
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Kasey Kahne Racing (KKR), located in Mooresville, NC, was formed in 2005 and employs more than ten people dedicated to sprint car racing. The organization fields two entries in the High Limit Sprint Car Series; Brad Sweet (NAPA No. 49) and former NASCAR Cup Series driver Kasey Kahne (No. 9). Collectively, KKR has 7 World of Outlaws and High Limit Racing Championships (Daryn Pittman in '13 and Brad Sweet in '19, '20, '21, '22, '23 & ‘24). In addition, Eric Prutzman has won Crew Chief of the year 3x (’19,’23 & ’24). Since the team's inception, KKR has amassed over 290+ national dirt car wins.