Brad Sweet Unstoppable Friday At Merced Speedway With American Sprint Car Series

Story By: BRYAN HULBERT / ASCS – MERCED, CA – Earning the right of the front row for Friday’s SawBlade.com A-Feature at Merced Speedway, Brad Sweet clawed his way to the lead and never looked back for his fourth career victory with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network.

On his run to the checkered flag, Sweet stated, “Biggest thing was getting out front, working through lapped traffic, and avoiding a couple of close calls, and obviously holding off a fast closing Shane Golobic but I can’t thank the Mains enough. This one is for Kyle. We lost him last year and this was his true passion, so this is really neat.”

Getting the run over Andy Forsburg for the top spot, Sweet steadily worked away from the field as Blake Hahn worked into second. Giving chase into traffic, Hahn closed on the No. 35m while Shane Golobic stalked the pair.

Working the low line of the quarter-mile through turns one and two, Golobic got the run for second as the trio diced through heavy slower traffic. With Sweet in sight, the caution brought the run to a halt on Lap 15. In clean air on the restart, Sweet again started inching away from the field before the caution lights came on again on Lap 19.

Again, able to keep the NOS Energy Drink No. 17x at bay, Sweet’s night nearly went sideways on Lap 24 when Grant Dunkerkin got wadded up in the turn-four cushion; sending the No. 67G on its side directly in the path of the No. 35m. Able to avoid, the final six revolutions were quick for the Grass Valley driver as he opened his run to 1.394 seconds over Shane Golobic with Blake Hahn holding off Carson Macedo in the closing laps for third. Macedo in fourth was trailed by Andy Forsburg to complete the top five.

Ryan Bernal to a sixth-place finish with Roger Crockett seventh. Blake Carrick made up the most ground from 14th to eighth with Dominic Scelzi posting his third top-ten in as many races to take over the point’s lead with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network. Alex Hills held on to complete the top ten.

A field of 51 drivers assembled for the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network debut at Merced Speedway. The fifth California oval to host the series, Brad Sweet is the seventh different winner in eight previous trips to the “Golden State”.

Six SCE Gaskets Heat Races were topped by Michael Faccinto, Brad Sweet, Justyn Cox, Tanner Carrick, Thomas Kennedy, and Andy Forsberg. Hoosier Tire Qualifier wins went to Blake Hahn, Shane Golobic, Justin Sanders, and Dominic Scelzi. BMRS B-Features was won by Chase Johnson and Justyn Cox.

Mother Nature has intervened at Placerville Speedway and forced officials to call off Saturday’s event. The next event for the series will be Sunday, March 8 at Petaluma Speedway. Grandstands open at 4:00 P.M. with racing at 6:00 P.M. Admission for adults is $30, $26 for Seniors, $20 for youth 6-11, and free for kids five and under.

Petaluma Speedway can be found at 100 Fairgrounds Dr. on the Petaluma Fairgrounds. Information on the three-eighths-mile oval can be found at https://www.petaluma-speedway.com or by phone to (707) 763-7223. Note to teams, you are required to place a tarp under their car at all times in the Pit area.

To any team competing, the muffler rules in California are different. The ASCS Schoenfeld Muffler (Part #14272735-78) will not be allowed.

The required Mufflers will be the Flowmaster (Part #56545-10) or SpinTech (Part #1545 Super Stock). Both can be used with turndowns. The DBA requirements at all tracks are 95 dba @ 100’. This is strictly enforced.

Race Results:

Lucas Oil ASCS presented by MAVTV
Merced Speedway (Merced, Cali.)
Friday, March 6, 2020

Car Count: 51

SCE Gaskets Heat Races (Top 40 in Passing Points advance to Qualifiers)

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5H-Michael Faccinto[1]; 2. 38B-Blake Carrick[2]; 3. 14-Jordon Mallett[3]; 4. 57-Billy Butler[4]; 5. 41-Dominic Scelzi[7]; 6. 95-Matt Covington[6]; 7. 24-Garet Williamson[5]; 8. 01-Mitchel Moles[8]; 9. 5V-Sean Becker[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 35M-Brad Sweet[1]; 2. 88A-Joey Ancona[2]; 3. 21-Carson Macedo[4]; 4. 37-Mitchell Faccinto[3]; 5. 17-Justin Sanders[8]; 6. 8-Devon Borden[6]; 7. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[9]; 8. 43-Bradley Terrell[7]; 9. (DNF) 28-Scott Bogucki[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7C-Justyn Cox[5]; 2. 67G-Grant Dunkerkin[1]; 3. 12J-John Clark[4]; 4. 21S-Shane Hopkins[6]; 5. 38-Colby Johnson[3]; 6. 93-Stephen Ingraham[7]; 7. 56-Willie Croft[8]; 8. 0J-Jeremy McCune[9]; 9. (DQ) 63-JJ Hickle[2] Nose Wing too far forward on Hickle.

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 83T-Tanner Carrick[2]; 2. 77X-Alex Hill[1]; 3. 88N-DJ Netto[3]; 4. 52-Blake Hahn[6]; 5. 96-Greg Hamilton[5]; 6. 11M-Mindy McCune[4]; 7. 24D-Danny Sams III[8]; 8. 1-Tony Gualda Jr[7]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 21K-Thomas Kennedy[2]; 2. 17B-Ryan Bickett[3]; 3. 22-Ryan Bernal[4]; 4. J2-John Carney II[5]; 5. 17W-Harli White[6]; 6. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 7. 9-Chase Randall[7]; 8. 88-Travis Reber[8]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. X1-Andy Forsberg[3]; 2. 11-Roger Crockett[2]; 3. 44-Chris Martin[1]; 4. 17X-Shane Golobic[6]; 5. 21P-Robbie Price[4]; 6. 24C-Chase Johnson[7]; 7. 1B-Chelsea Blevins[5]; 8. (DNS) 3K-Kaleb Montgomery

Hoosier Tire Qualifiers (Top 16 in combined Passing Points advance to the A-Feature)

Qualifier 1 (8 Laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 2. 21-Carson Macedo[3]; 3. 88N-DJ Netto[1]; 4. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[9]; 5. 88A-Joey Ancona[4]; 6. 21P-Robbie Price[8]; 7. 57-Billy Butler[7]; 8. 24D-Danny Sams III[10]; 9. (DNF) 5H-Michael Faccinto[5]; 10. (DNF) 7C-Justyn Cox[6]

Qualifier 2 (8 Laps): 1. 17X-Shane Golobic[2]; 2. 11-Roger Crockett[4]; 3. 35M-Brad Sweet[5]; 4. X1-Andy Forsberg[6]; 5. 37-Mitchell Faccinto[7]; 6. 12J-John Clark[3]; 7. 95-Matt Covington[9]; 8. 93-Stephen Ingraham[8]; 9. 11M-Mindy McCune[10]; 10. (DNF) J2-John Carney II[1]

Qualifier 3 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Justin Sanders[2]; 2. 22-Ryan Bernal[3]; 3. 67G-Grant Dunkerkin[4]; 4. 24C-Chase Johnson[8]; 5. 44-Chris Martin[1]; 6. 17W-Harli White[7]; 7. 83T-Tanner Carrick[6]; 8. 9-Chase Randall[10]; 9. 17B-Ryan Bickett[5]; 10. (DNF) 8-Devon Borden[9]

Qualifier 4 (8 Laps): 1. 41-Dominic Scelzi[1]; 2. 14-Jordon Mallett[2]; 3. 77X-Alex Hill[4]; 4. 38B-Blake Carrick[5]; 5. 21K-Thomas Kennedy[6]; 6. 96-Greg Hamilton[7]; 7. 21S-Shane Hopkins[3]; 8. 38-Colby Johnson[8]; 9. 56-Willie Croft[9]; 10. (DNS) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr

BMRS B-Feature (Top 6 advance to the A-Feature)

B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 24C-Chase Johnson[1]; 2. 83T-Tanner Carrick[2]; 3. 21P-Robbie Price[5]; 4. 95-Matt Covington[8]; 5. J2-John Carney II[11]; 6. 28-Scott Bogucki[17]; 7. 12J-John Clark[3]; 8. 21S-Shane Hopkins[6]; 9. 57-Billy Butler[7]; 10. 9-Chase Randall[10]; 11. 44-Chris Martin[4]; 12. 1-Tony Gualda Jr[16]; 13. 93-Stephen Ingraham[9]; 14. 1B-Chelsea Blevins[14]; 15. 0J-Jeremy McCune[13]; 16. 88-Travis Reber[15]; 17. (DNS) 3K-Kaleb Montgomery; 18. (DNS) 8-Devon Borden

B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 7C-Justyn Cox[3]; 2. 37-Mitchell Faccinto[2]; 3. 17W-Harli White[4]; 4. 88A-Joey Ancona[1]; 5. 96-Greg Hamilton[5]; 6. 24D-Danny Sams III[8]; 7. 38-Colby Johnson[9]; 8. 5V-Sean Becker[16]; 9. 17B-Ryan Bickett[7]; 10. 01-Mitchel Moles[14]; 11. 56-Willie Croft[11]; 12. (DNF) 24-Garet Williamson[13]; 13. (DNF) 11M-Mindy McCune[10]; 14. (DNF) 43-Bradley Terrell[15]; 15. (DNS) 5H-Michael Faccinto; 16. (DNS) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr; 17. (DNS) 63-JJ Hickle

Sawblade.com A-Feature

A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 35M-Brad Sweet[2]; 2. 17X-Shane Golobic[5]; 3. 52-Blake Hahn[4]; 4. 21-Carson Macedo[7]; 5. X1-Andy Forsberg[1]; 6. 22-Ryan Bernal[8]; 7. 11-Roger Crockett[3]; 8. 38B-Blake Carrick[14]; 9. 41-Dominic Scelzi[11]; 10. 77X-Alex Hill[10]; 11. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[15]; 12. 88N-DJ Netto[16]; 13. 14-Jordon Mallett[13]; 14. 37-Mitchell Faccinto[20]; 15. 7C-Justyn Cox[18]; 16. 21K-Thomas Kennedy[12]; 17. 21P-Robbie Price[21]; 18. 17W-Harli White[22]; 19. (DNF) 67G-Grant Dunkerkin[9]; 20. (DNF) 17-Justin Sanders[6]; 21. (DNF) 83T-Tanner Carrick[19]; 22. (DNF) 24C-Chase Johnson[17]; 23. (DNF) 95-Matt Covington[23]; 24. (DNF) 28-Scott Bogucki[24]

Lap Leader(s): Brad Sweet 1-30
Hard Charger: Blake Carrick +6
High Point Driver: Andy Forsburg
Provisional(s): Matt Covington (Points); Scott Bogucki (Points)