Sweet Wins at Southern Oklahoma, First Since February

Brad Sweet competing in the High Limit Hustle at Southern Oklahoma Speedway (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)

ARDMORE, Okla. — Just three days after racing at Red Dirt Raceway, the High Limit Racing Sprint Car Series headed to Southern Oklahoma Speedway to compete in the High Limit Hustle.

After the Hot Lap sessions, so the cars could get warmed up, qualifying started. The standing track record was a 13.109 second lap was made by Aaron Reutzel on June 11, 2020. That record was broken twice during the course of the qualifying session. The first time was by Cory Eliason who pulled off a 13.033 second lap, and the second time was by Spencer Bayston with a 13.010 second lap. Bayston now holds the track record.

The two speediest drivers of the night were determined to be on the front row for the 30-lap main event after all the preliminary racing was over. Eliason and Bayston led the 24 car field to the start/finish line and as soon as the green flag dropped the race began.

Immediately, Brad Sweet jumped into the second place position, but was quickly fighting to maintain the spot with Eliason while trying to take over first from Bayston.

Eliason had enough after a couple laps and slid up in front of him coming off of four. Sweet allowed Eliason to bask in the glory down the front stretch, but got him back as soon as they entered Turn 1.

On Lap 5, the first caution of the night came out with Chris Windom spinning out. This gave everyone the advantage they were looking for, especially Sweet. And Sweet took advantage of that as he rocketed past Bayston for the lead on the restart. To no avail, Bayston tried to pass Sweet for the lead. But now, a new face had entered the top three’s group chat: Rico Abreu.

With 22 laps left in the race, Corey Day passed Kasey Kahne for sixth and then passed Brent Marks, as well. Tyler Courtney followed in Day’s footsteps as he shot up to Marks and eventually passed him on Lap 10.

The yellow flag waved for the second time that night due to Ryan Timms spinning out. Once again, this caution gave the drivers a bit of a leg up against their competitors. One of these drivers was Day. Day rocketed up to fourth, then third and looked like he was going to make his way to the lead, when Timms spun out once again, bringing out the third caution of the night.

The restart wasn’t in Day’s favor as he started fading quickly. Courtney passed him and Eliason for third and had his sights on Bayston. But Day’s night wasn’t completely over yet, as Day passed Eliason with a slide job in Turn 4 with 19 laps left in the race.

Courtney passed Bayston for second and Day was putting all his effort into getting that third-place spot. As they battled through the turns and straightaways, Day finally took Bayston but made two crucial mistakes that cost him the position. 

Try as he might, Day just couldn’t catch a break as Abreu soared up to him and passed him on the inside. The two battled it out for fourth. 

Corey Day, James McFadden and Chris Windom competing in the High Limit Hustle at Southern Oklahoma Speedway (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)

Just as Day was going to make another move on Abreu, Marks passed him. Marks then set his sights on Abreu, but couldn’t pass the 24. Meanwhile, the leader had caught up to lap traffic. 

Now fighting for fifth instead of fourth, Day and Abreu went at it again. Day tried to pass him every which way, but couldn’t find that sweet groove that would shoot him past. Day finally got by him on Lap 24 by love-tapping Abreu into the wall. Luckily, Abreu was able to straighten his car out again and keep going.

As the race neared the end, Courtney was beginning to reel in Sweet. Just as he was about to make a move though, Brenham Crouch spun off the track going into Turn 2, bringing out the caution and adding an extra lap to the race.

On the restart, Courtney tried but just couldn’t get Sweet. On a last gasp attempt by Bayston, him and “Sunshine” almost wrecked, but luckily did not. As they crossed the line it was scored Sweet, Courtney, Bayston, Marks and Day as the top five. It also started raining as soon as the checkered flag waved.

“We’ve just been working on the car,” said Sweet on his win. “We’ve been qualifying good but making bad decisions, but we made good decisions tonight. Thank you to all the fans for coming out. Experience breeds patience and it doesn’t matter how you do it [win], but I’m happy we got [it].”