Running Several Times Per Week Makes For Feuding Neighbors

Running Several Times Per Week Makes For Feuding Neighbors

Kerry Madsen and Brad Sweet continue to finish in tandem, and Sweet is sick of being on the back of the bicycle made for two.

Jul 14, 2017 by Victoria Beaver
Running Several Times Per Week Makes For Feuding Neighbors
Kerry Madsen and Brad Sweet continue to finish in tandem, and Sweet is sick of being on the back of the bicycle made for two.

Madsen and Sweet have finished one-two in three of the last four races on the circuit.

Sweet has finished on Madsen’s tail in the winner’s last three appearances. Last night at the Joker’s Wild at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, OH and in the double feature at Cedar Lake Speedway in Spring Valley, MN on July 7 and 8. Sweet must be sick of seeing the view of Madsen’s push bar. In his post-race interview Sweet said in tongue-and-cheek style that he wishes Madsen would just stay home.

Since the track was slick and packed from the heavy rain, drivers had a hard time finding a second groove. Sweet held on to his second-place position because of this, even though his car was less than spectacular in his mind.

“We weren’t that great tonight, to be honest,” Sweet said. “We didn’t qualify great, but we had a really good start in our heat and got up in there to give ourselves a chance. Then the drew the six and that was a lottery pick. Sometimes you’ll have nights like that where things go a little more your way then other nights.”

Thursday night was a preliminary to the big show and Sweet has the big picture in mind.

“We realize we have to get the NAPA Auto Parts car a little faster if we want to really have a shot at it Saturday night,” Sweet continued. “We'll take a second tonight. Kerry’s been awful fast and did a great job there. We’re hungry to win and we’re knocking on the door. We just need to get the car a little better and the driver needs to do a little better job.”

Madsen and Sweet are not the only drivers finding themselves as semi-permanent neighbors.

Tim Shaffer and David Gravel finished back-to-back for the second race in a row. On Tuesday July 11, Shaffer dominated at Attica Raceway Park for the first 38 laps before Gravel stole the win from him coming to the white flag.

Last night, Shaffer was fastest in Flight A qualifying with a lap of 12.862. He was the fastest overall before Gravel beat it 0.15 seconds to top Flight B. The drivers were paired again in the Dash with Gravel edging out Shaffer—this time by 1.958 seconds.

Shaffer received a small measure of revenge when he finally passed Gravel during the A Main, finishing fourth to Gravel’s fifth and crossing the finish line ahead by a little more than a second.

Tonight, the drivers will line up again for the Knight Before the Kings Royal feature, and it will be interesting to see how these two pairs line up against each other.

To follow along with this storyline and others from the weekend at Eldora, follow us on twitter @FloRacing. We’ll be live tweeting throughout the night.

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Kerry Madsen Continues To Dominate The Outlaws With His Third Straight Win 
Going With The Flo: A Day At Attica 
Gravel Steals Brad Doty Classic From Shaffer 
Forget Stats; Donny Schatz Can Win Back to Back Kings Royals
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