Brad Sweet is King Doodlebug VI
Saturday, June 21, 2008
by Bob Wilson
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (June 20) Brad Sweet took a late race lead to become King Doodlebug VI during the 7th annual Knoxville Midget Nationals at Knoxville Raceway Friday night. The event was a USAC (United States Auto Club) sanctioned race.
All along it looked to be a race in the pocket of front row starter Cole Whitt. He took the initial lead and held it through three yellows and one red flag. In the early going he was chased by Levi Jones who eventually came to the pits after five miles after sliding backward with a right-rear tire problem.
Though Knoxville is a half-mile oval, on this night the drivers were using all of it which means they were closer to running a 5/8 at the fences. On a track shared with ASCS sprinters, the midgets were fastest on the cushion as most of the track became dry-slick from so much racing.
Sweet chased Whitt from lap six until he finally overtook him on a restart of the 16th lap. From then on, Whitt had to follow the Grass Valley, California driver to the checkereds. In the final going several of the top cars exited the race with blown tires or worse.
In the end it was Sweet over Whitt with Stenhouse trailing closely. Jerry Coons, Jr. took fourth and Bobby East was fifth after starting 19th. Interestingly, in the final stages of the race, East went to the bottom of the track while all others paraded on the top. Forming the top ten of this Classic were Micheal Pickens (from 23rd), Russ Harper (from 17th), Aaron Fiscus (from 26th), Tracy Hines and Levi Jones (who changed a tire and restarted on the tail at the half-way point of this event.
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