The Big Cat Goes Back-To-Back; Sweet Takes 2 of 3 in Oklahoma

Brad Sweet celebrating his win at Salinas Highbanks Speedway (Photo: Kasey Kahne Racing Media)

PRYOR, Okla. — The High Limit Racing sprint car series stayed in Oklahoma for their Saturday night race, heading to Salinas Highbanks Speedway.

James McFadden and Brad Sweet led the field to green and as they exited Turn 2 McFadden was in the lead. Sweet was not going to give up that easily though, as he tried to pull a slide job on McFadden going into Turn 4 but was unsuccessful.

On Lap 6, McFadden had caught up to traffic going into the second turn. Sweet saw this as an opportunity to put some more effort into the race and sped up to go side-by-side with McFadden for the lead. On the next lap though, McFadden went down low and opened up the top side for Sweet, who just sailed right on by McFadden for first without a second thought.

McFadden, now in second, had a new face he had to deal with as Rico Abreu was looking for the spot that McFadden was in. McFadden knew Abreu was there and so he put in a little extra effort to try to pass Sweet for the lead on the low side. This didn’t work out as planned for McFadden, as he got crossed by Abreu in the fourth turn. McFadden drove down in front of Abreu on the low side though, so he didn’t lose second.

As the top three contenders crossed the start/finish line, McFadden slid up in front of Sweet for first and held it throughout the first two turns. Sweet did not like that at all and sent McFadden completely off the racetrack in Turn 3 by giving him a love-tap. McFadden bounced a couple times on the track and on the last bounce went high enough and he completely cleared the banking of the turn and dropped off. He flipped down the side of the track and landed in the cow pasture on the other side of the track with his wing barely hanging on.  After he got out of the car, he slowly walked over to the side of the hill and sat down with all his gear on. Clearly, McFadden was not too happy.

On the restart Sweet rocketed out to the lead, but Abreu and Marks were right there. As more space separated Abreu from Sweet, Marks and Abreu battled it out for second. Marks held it momentarily as they came off of Turn 2, but Abreu took it back from him. They raced side-by-side down the front chute and went three-wide with Sweet throughout Turns 1 and 2. Marks slid in front of Abreu as they exited the second turn, taking over second.

Marks held second for the duration of the back straight and the third turn before Abreu passed him again. Not only did Abreu pass Marks, but he got very close to Sweet. Crossing the line, Abreu and Marks went low while Sweet went high. Down the straightaway though, Sweet was way ahead of the two. As they entered Turn 3, each driver took their own lane with Sweet on the high side, Abreu in the middle and Marks on the bottom. Marks passed Abreu as they exited by sliding up in front of him and was scored second on Lap 12.

Rico Abreu competing at Salinas Highbanks Speedway (Photo: Abreu Racing Media)

For the second time during the night, a car passed over the banking of the track and landed on the ground on the other side. Brenham Crouch had something break as he entered Turn 1 and just could not steer his car to go left. Instead, he just drove over the banking on the track, bringing out the red flag once again.

On the single file restart, Marks kept up with Sweet as they headed into Turn 1. Abreu could not keep up with Marks as he ran the high side and this would cost him the third position as Brian Brown overtook him by running the bottom. Brown’s third-place would be short-lived though as Abreu took the high side once again and zipped past him coming out of four.

On Lap 22, Tyler Courtney was rocketing around the racetrack, passing everybody he possibly could. He had come up from 20th to finally land in the top five. “Sunshine” had his sights honed in on Zeb Wise who was running fourth and got that fourth place position on the back stretch. Wise did not like that too much and crossed back in front of Courtney to reclaim his spot.

On the last lap, it appeared that Sweet was going to win the race without any problems besides having to weave through traffic. But Chase Randall changed that when his car broke going into Turn 1 and he slowed, bringing out the caution.

This restart gave Marks the advantage he was looking for the whole night and he took the high side as Sweet took the bottom. Marks closed the space between them and going into Turn 3 they swapped lanes. Marks tried his hardest to pull a slider on Sweet but came up short. Sweet and Marks ended up finishing first and second, respectively.

High Limit Racing travels to Riverside International Speedway in Arkansas on Tuesday for their second “Midweek Money Series” event.