 by Don Martin STLRacing.com
Last weekend Federated Auto Parts I-55 Raceway had the World of Outlaws sprint cars in town at Pevely, Missouri and it was an all NAPA Know How weekend. Brad Sweet aboard the Kasey Kahne Racing #49 Napa Sprint car taking home the win both nights.  Both nights had 40 lap features on the bad fast 1/3 mile high banked oval.  The first night Sweet had to come from the ninth starting position to win so you knew he would definitely be the man to beat Saturday when he started on the pole.
The pair of wins for Sweet make it five for the season and four in a row against some stellar competition.  Brad is the back to back series champion and doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.  The team has won five of the first 11 races on the 83 races schedule.  Logan Schuchart made a comment, that KKR Racing #49 is on a roll right now, and in order to beat him, his team needs to start qualifying better and can’t afford to spot him 5 rows on the race track.    Logan sits second in the points and talk about a kid that just gets it, he is good with his fans and it shows in the stands.  He is getting more and more popular, his apparel can be seen all over these dirt track joints.
Pevely always seems provide some of the most exciting racing on the circuit and most of the drivers including David Gravel who drives the Big Game Motorsports #2 will tell you that.  Track is just so fast and tight which just makes it nerve racking for the drivers but game on for the fans.
Its obvious Bloomington, Indiana driver Kraig Kinser has found something, the team really struggled beginning of the year and last weekend Kraig finished second on Friday and backed it up with another top ten finish Saturday.
Only two drivers outside of Sweet managed to run in the top five both nights Logan Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild.   Logan came home third on Friday and fourth on Saturday in his Drydene Performance 1S Triple X Chassis and currently sits second in the point standings. Sheldon aboard the NOS Energy Stenhouse/Marshall machine finished fourth on Friday and second on Saturday and currently sits third in the point standings.
Carson Macedo, Gio Scelzi, and James McFadden each had a top five over the weekend as well. Gio really needed it, the #18 Aspen Air has been struggling of late.
Two drivers that need to be mentioned as well is David Gravel of Watertown, Connecticut and Donny Schatz of Fargo, North Dakota.  Gravel sits fourth in the point standings after the weekend.  Gravel qualified poorly on Friday the team bounced back to a top ten finish and the team than was quick time on Saturday but struggled in the feature, they did manage two top ten finishes.   Schatz on the other hand was fast on Friday but dropped out of the race with mechanical issues, and Saturday night the team just did not look good.  Donny sits currently 6th in the points, and has not won a race yet this year in the Carquest #15 Tony Stewart Ford Motorsports J&J entry.
Rico Abreu ran his first World of Outlaws event of 2021 and looked very strong on Friday taking home 6th and his teammate Jason Sides picked up his first top ten of the season Saturday night.
The Outlaws will be back in action next week as the tour heads to Indiana for a couple of stops. Kokomo on Friday and Haubstadt on Saturday.  Two very popular tracks on the circuit and are very unique little bullrings.
In closing, again the fan support of the World of Outlaws is outstanding the both nights were packed and the events were done on time and the track prep both nights was exceptional.   The tour will be back in August for the Iron Man which features a 55-lap main event paying $25,000 to win, the POWRI Midgets will be on the card as well.
I will be at Haubstadt next Saturday evening to see another epic battle ¼ mile paper clip.