KNOXVILLE, IA: Brad Sweet admitted Sunday night that he starts thinking about the Knoxville Nationals when the season starts in February.
It begins with taking notes and preparation … Thinking about what it takes to get his car faster and beating Donny Schatz, who is a Knoxville Raceway dominator and has won 10 of the last 12 Nationals championships.
Then comes the actual on-track tuning. That’s what Sweet was doing when he took the track for the Seventh annual Weld Racing Capitani Classic.
Sweet changed set-ups every time he touched the track at Knoxville Raceway Sunday night. But that didn’t stop the California driver from dominating the 25-lap Cappy and collecting a nice $5,000 payday.
“It’s my all-time passion in life to win this race,” Sweet said of the Nationals. “They are all big races … the Kings Royal, and we have been right there. But, this is the make-or-break race for us, and we are putting a lot of effort into it.
“So, I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself, and I’m doing everything I possibly can to beat the man. He is hard to beat.”
That man is, of course, Schatz. But, he wasn’t the only favorite who wasn’t in attendance for this “Tune-Up.”
So even though Sweet ran away in the closing stages of the Capitani, his mood toward his car’s performance, albeit confident, was a little tempered.
“You got to look at who you are racing,” Sweet said. “You take [David] Gravel, [Kyle] Larson, and [Donny] Schatz out of it, I run second to them in all of the big races.
“I came here with a lot of confidence to win this race. I didn’t think it was super important, but racing against Donny and Gravel night in and night out, these guys don’t necessarily have that experience.
Continued Sweet, “Brian Brown is one of the favorites to win the Nationals, but a lot of the other favorites weren’t here. So, you don’t really know how you stack up. You could win this race and still go to the Nationals and have bad luck or tank.”
Carson Macedo and Brown showed speed and finished second and third. But Sweet was the rabbit in clean air.
Sweet earned the right to start on the knob by defeating seven drivers, one after the other, in a King of the Hill-style Pole Shuffle.
It didn’t matter if Sweet started on the high or low side. He was a rocket and carried that over to the start of the A-Main, where he surged off the bottom and beat Josh Baughman out of Turn 2.
Macedo, who started third on the grid, slipped back to fourth on the opening lap. He found the top to his liking on the second circuit and ripped around Paul McMahan and Baughman to take the runner-up spot.
But Macedo wasn’t as quick as the leader. Sweet was pinned against the bottom of the speedway and opened up a sizable 2.373-second lead by Lap 5.
“I came here to get my car right for the Nationals, so we tried three different sets of bars and different shocks all night,” Sweet said. “That scramble, we kind of hit on something, so it was essential to winning the race, but it was really essential to giving us confidence moving forward.
“I think we missed it a little bit in the main event, but I think we know where we missed it. I don’t think you were coming from eighth tonight. The track was a little too fast, and there were too many good guys in that top eight.
“I figured you needed to be in the front two rows, maybe even three if your car was really good. But, the pole was the place to be for us.”
McMahan made things interesting at the front, blasting around Baughman for third on the cushion in Turns 1 and 2. He closed on Macedo, who was still 2.107-seconds behind Sweet as the frontrunners entered lapped traffic on Lap 8.
Brian Brown entered the picture on the 10th circuit, as he shot by Baughman for fourth on the high side of Turn 2. Meanwhile, Sweet started to labor a bit running with backmarkers, and Macedo was able to close within 1.236 seconds.
But Macedo never got the opportunity to put Sweet in a bad spot. Matt Juhl got upside down at the exit of Turn 2 on Lap 12, which put the leader back in clean air and gave him a significant advantage.
“I think the track was a little bit faster than I anticipated, and that’s why I say we missed it a little,” Sweet said. “I feel like we weren’t as good as we needed to be to get through lapped traffic.
“We were really good in clean air. My car started to, actually, get better later in the race, which is something you, obviously, want to happen. We have a good idea where to be. A lot of times, you think you are way off, but it’s just a little bit here, a little bit there.”
Sweet showed just how good his car was in the second half of the race. Within three laps of going back to green, the Kasey Kahne Racing ace had built an insurmountable 3.031-second lead.
But it wasn’t Macedo giving chase. At least not right away. McMahan took second on the Lap 12 restart, only to have Macedo take it back on the low side of Turn 2 on the 16th circuit.
“I need to be better at [running the bottom], especially come Saturday night,” Macedo said. “If we are lucky enough to put ourselves in a position up front, it will be a major key to be able to run the bottom.
“The 49, obviously, showed that tonight. He is one of the best down there. Brad was really good. Once I was able to get a run, I got by Paul McMahan and tried to move around a little bit. It didn’t seem like I was closing much, so I just got in line and practiced running the bottom to get better down there.”
Sweet opened up a 3.773-second lead with five to go and checked out for the easy win. Macedo was second, followed by Brown, McMahan, and eighth-place starter Shane Stewart.
“We got confidence, our car was good, and we can make speed,” Sweet said. “We had a good handling car and ran really well on the bottom tonight, which is essential to winning races here.
“I think we are in good shape. We will go race tomorrow [at Oskaloosa], and hopefully, fine tune those things and come back on our prelim night and try to get ourselves in position to win the Nationals.”
Feature Finish, 25 Laps: 1. Brad Sweet; 2. Carson Macedo; 3. Brian Brown; 4. Paul McMahan; 5. Shane Stewart; 6. Kerry Madsen; 7. Greg Hodnett; 8. Terry McCarl; 9. Chad Kemenah; 10. Tim Shaffer; 11. Giovanni Scelzi; 12. Kasey Kahne; 13. James McFadden; 14. Brock Zearfoss; 15. Parker Price-Miller; 16. Sammy Swindell; 17. Josh Baughman; 18. Lynton Jeffrey; 19. Davey Heskin; 20. Aaron Reutzel; 21. Sam Hafertepe Jr.; 22. Matt Juhl; 23. Clint Garner; 24. Dave Blaney.