{"id":8186,"date":"2020-05-06T17:01:19","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T21:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonmotorsport.com\/?p=8186"},"modified":"2020-05-06T17:01:19","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T21:01:19","slug":"sweet-resumes-title-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2020\/05\/06\/sweet-resumes-title-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad Sweet Resumes Title Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brad Sweet <\/strong>was on the top of the sprint car world after winning the 2019 World of Outlaws championship.<\/p>\n

He continued his run by winning Speedweeks in Volusia<\/p>\n

For as stacked as a team as they have, paired with a more-than-solid sponsor and fast race car, they haven\u2019t been on the track since then, like many World of Outlaws teams.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t want the success to go to waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of an unfortunate situation that we\u2019ve had to miss so many races (when we have) such a great race team and a great sponsor,\u201d Sweet said. \u201cWe were really primed and ready to go for this year. We\u2019re looking forward to getting out there and hopefully, when we do, they\u2019re still chasing us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brad Sweet Resumes Title Defense at Knoxville<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sweet and his Kasey Kahne Racing crew will return to the track on Friday for the World of Outlaws Invitational Presented by McKay Group with Nationwide Insurance at Knoxville Raceway (Hot laps start at 6:30 p.m. CT on DirtVision<\/strong><\/a>).<\/p>\n

There, they look to keep whatever momentum they can going.<\/p>\n

Obviously, that\u2019s easier said than done. The full-time Outlaws teams that race the series\u2019 schedule exclusively haven\u2019t been on the track since February 9.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s basically been three full months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d Sweet said. \u201cIt\u2019s a business for us and when we\u2019re not racing, I\u2019m not making money and the team\u2019s not making money. We want to get back to racing and provide that content for the fans whether that be in-person or on DirtVision. We\u2019re just doing our best.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World of Outlaws are working to put a stop to that, and the versatility of its drivers and teams to move on short notice will pay dividends on an everchanging schedule.<\/p>\n

The race on Friday was confirmed just nine days in advance, at least to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s something that we\u2019re used to,\u201d Sweet said. \u201cWe travel a lot as a series. We\u2019ll get around the country a lot at a lot of different dirt tracks. It works well, the fact that we can adapt to that type of stuff, and it\u2019s probably why we\u2019re one of the first things getting going, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

What better place to return to than Knoxville Raceway, too.<\/p>\n

Sweet loves the idea of bringing the series back to the home of the Knoxville Nationals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great place, obviously \u2013 it makes total sense,\u201d Sweet said. \u201cIt\u2019s the sprint car capital of the world. I think that community understands sprint car racing more than any community that we go to, so I think they know it\u2019s important that we\u2019re back racing. It\u2019s neat that everyone is coming together to try to pull this off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event will kick off a 16-race announced schedule between the World of Outlaws\u2019 Sprint Car and Late Model tours that stretches to Mid-June.<\/p>\n

Some races will be allowed to have limited fans, but Friday night will feature empty seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the no fans thing stinks, but it\u2019s just a baby step that needs to be taken to hopefully put us in a position where sooner or later we can have the fans,\u201d Sweet said.<\/p>\n

Some big names are on the announced, 48-driver entry list<\/strong> <\/a>including NASCAR stars Kasey Kahne <\/strong>and Kyle Larson <\/strong>as well as drivers like Aaron Reutzel <\/strong>and Rico Abreu <\/strong>playing the role of an invader.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just more competition that Sweet wants to eat up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there\u2019s only one race going on across the whole country, you\u2019re going to have a lot of talent there,\u201d Sweet said. \u201cObviously, our NAPA Auto Parts car has been really fast this year so we\u2019re excited to get out and race \u2013 whether it\u2019s against everybody or at this point, we\u2019d take a field of 10.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, Sweet and the No. 49 KKR team can and will face off against anybody \u2013 and that\u2019s just what Friday is about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to race.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brad Sweet was on the top of the sprint car world after winning the 2019 World of Outlaws championship. He continued his run by winning Speedweeks in Volusia For as stacked as a team as they have, paired with a more-than-solid sponsor and fast race car, they haven\u2019t been on the track since then, like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":8187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[603,1016,957,1385,1114],"class_list":["post-8186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dirt","category-more-racing","tag-brad-sweet","tag-kasey-kahne-racing","tag-knoxville-raceway","tag-napa-auto-parts","tag-world-of-outlaws-sprint-cars"],"modified_by":"Connor Ferguson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}