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Knoxville Raceway’s Capitani Classic is All Brad Sweet!

Brad Sweet was simply dominant in winning the 7th Annual Weld Racing Capitani Classic presented by Great Southern Bank Sunday night at the Knoxville Raceway. The Grass Valley, California native went through an amazing gauntlet of seven match races to earn the pole of the main event and proceeded to lead all 25 laps aboard the Kasey Kahne Racing #49s, earning $5,000.

Sweet’s amazing run through the series of two-lap Pole Shootout match races came over Greg Hodnett, Shane Stewart, Terry McCarl, Brian Brown, Paul McMahan, Carson Macedo and finally, Josh Baughman. That earned him the pole position for the feature, and he led early over Baughman, McMahan, Macedo and McCarl.

Macedo, who has been strong all week, used the high side of three and four to shoot from foruth to second on lap two. While Sweet ran away from the field, McMahan garnered third with a pass of Baughman on lap seven. The leader was in lapped traffic by lap nine.

Eleven laps in, the ninth place car of Matt Juhl tumbled in turn two. He was o.k. The only slowdown of the event saw Sweet leading Macedo, McMahan, Brown and Baughman back to green. McMahan would jet to second, while there was plenty of movement back in the pack as well. Shane Stewart emerged from tenth to climb into the top five, and second B main winner, Kerry Madsen, who started 20th was soon in seventh.

Madsen would gain sixth with ten to go, while Macedo got back by McMahan for second. Brown would hustle into third on lap 17, as he too put McMahan behind him. Sweet built his lead until entering lapped traffic with five to go. It was no deterrent, as he would win by 2.3 seconds over Macedo, Brown, McMahan and Stewart. Hard-charger Madsen, Hodnett, McCarl, Chad Kemenah (from 16th) and Tim Shaffer rounded out the top ten. Lynton Jeffrey and Aaron Reutzel led their respective qualifying flights with quick time in the 67-car field. Shaffer, Brock Zearfoss, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Kemenah, Davey Heksin and Parker Price-Miller won heats. Jeffrey and Madsen claimed the B mains. Kyle Reinhardt was a flip victim in hot laps, and Rager Phillips tipped over in the first B main. Both were uninjured.

“I wish it was Saturday night,” joked Sweet in Victory Lane in reference to the upcoming Knoxville Nationals. “That’s what we came here to do, was to try a few things. We were really good in the A. There’s still room for improvement, but we did what we needed to do and got some notes. I think we’ll be in the hunt for sure. You just never know how close the second place car is, so you want to cover all your lines as best you can. I didn’t get through them as well as I wanted to. The racetrack was in great shape all night.”

“I can’t say enough about this (Jason Johnson Racing) #41 team,” said Macedo. “They’re giving me an awesome racecar, night in and night out. This whole family has been great to be around. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to drive this racecar. Brad was exceptionally good tonight. I really wanted to get a good restart there, but we stumbled a bit and Paul got around me. We had to work hard to get back by him.”

“It was a tough race really,” said Brown. “Track position was pretty key. It was pretty tough to pass at times. To come from fifth to third with the quality of cars…we’ll just take these podiums, add them up, and see where we end up next week. I’m proud of everyone on the team. They did a great job. I don’t know what we could have done to be any better. Brad was good all night long. Carson’s been strong too. We were fortunate to get by Terry, Paul and some good cars.”

The 58th Annual 5-hour ENERGY Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s General Stores begins Wednesday, August 8, and continues through Saturday, August 11. There are still tickets available for the biggest event in sprint car racing! For more information, visit www.KnoxvilleRaceway.com

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