Points leader finds Sweet spot in World of Outlaws Silver Cup at Lernerville

Brad Sweet beat the field — and the weather — Tuesday night at Lernerville Speedway.

With lightning flashing in the distance, Sweet, the current World of Outlaws points leader and two-time defending series champion, took the lead from local favorite Sye Lynch on Lap 12 and cruised to a $25,000 payday at the 30th annual Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup.

Moments after the race ended, heavy rains fell.

Sweet twice won the World of Outlaws September race at Lernerville, the Commonwealth Clash, but it was his first Silver Cup triumph. He won the race by more than 5 seconds.

“I about gave it away when I almost slipped off the backstretch with five or six laps to go, but our car is really good right now,” Sweet said in Victory Lane. “The Napa Auto Parts car is really fast right now.”

Donny Schatz got by Aaron Reutzel with two laps to go to take second place. Reutzel finished third, David Gravel was fourth and James McFadden finished fifth. Christopher Bell, a NASCAR Cup Series driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, placed ninth.

Lynch, an Apollo native and the current Lernerville points leader, had a near-perfect night before the feature. He was the fastest in qualifying, won his heat and the dash to earn the pole for the feature. He swapped sliders with Sweet for several laps before Sweet made the eventual winning pass.

After Lynch lost the lead, he slipped through the field and ended up 15th.

“The night started really well,” Lynch said. “We hit the setup and wouldn’t change anything about how it started. But at the end of the night, the track did something different than what we originally expected.

“When you’re racing the best guys in the world, you can’t make a mistake on the setup. We tried something and went for a home run, and it ended up not working. We were here to win, but we just didn’t hit it right. We’ll come back and try again next time.”

Other local drivers who made the feature were Carl Bowser (14th), Bob Felmlee (18th), A.J. Flick (20th), Brandon Matus (23rd), Brent Matus (24th) and Michael Bauer (25th).

Bowser received a $1,500 bonus that was put together by Matt Aland and Bill Steinbach from the A-Main Podcast as the top local finisher. Lynch got a $300 bonus for being the second-best local.

The race was slowed by two accidents.

Bauer flipped off the banking between turns one and two on lap six to bring out the red flag. On lap 16, Sheldon Haudenschild slid off turn three to bring out a caution. Haudenschild rebounded to finish 10th.

There were 34 cars in attendance.

Lynch got the jump on the start on Bell to win the first heat. Gravel started on the outside pole and beat Donny Schatz into turn one and took home heat two. Sweet cruised to victory in heat three. Reutzel held off Carson Macedo to win the fourth heat. Jason Sides won the Last Chance Showdown.