Brad Sweet won the Group A Feature at the Eldora Million Wednesday (Mike Campbell Photo) (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com)
(NBC Sports) Brad Sweet and Rico Abreu each won a 25-lap feature Wednesday night in preliminary action for the Eldora Million at Tony Stewart's Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.
Sweet won the Group A feature over Aaron Reutzel and NASCAR's Kyle Larson. Abreu was victorious ahead of Carson Macedo and the World of Outlaws Sprint Car points' leader David Gravel. Both races seeding Thursday night's heats, which in turn will determine the lineup for the $1,002,023-to-win Eldora Million.
Sweet led 13 of 25 laps in the first feature after securing the lead on a Lap 13 restart. Two restarts were required to get the field back to speed on that lap with Reutzel taking the top spot initially. When it was waved off, Sweet showed patience to get a jump the second time.
"(Reutzel) won the first (restart on lap 13)," Sweet said at FloRacing.com. "The second one he waited a little longer and it gave me a little more of an advantage. Once I got into clean air, my car was really good. I felt like we were going to race them there in lapped traffic. My car would work on the cushion, off the cushion. Pretty happy to get it in victory lane. We struggled a few times. This is tough. This is a tough field of cars. And it’s all about tomorrow, that million dollars. Obviously tonight getting the win puts you in a good position."
Reutzel held onto second-place.
Larson's third-place finish in his feature sets him up to start on the pole position of Thursday's fifth heat race.
"That’s good and sets us up for tomorrow," Larson said. "My car felt really good in the feature. It just got so top dominant that whoever got the lead would check out and we’d all run the same pace until he caught traffic. Much longer race tomorrow, so should be good. I’m sure the top will probably slow down some. I’m sure they’ll probably smooth the track out. So it’ll probably be a lot different. But all in all, I thought my car handled good all night long."
If Larson can take the big check home, it will be his fourth million-dollar payday after winning the 2019, 2022 and 2023 NASCAR All-Star races.
In the Group B feature, Abreu had to overcome a poor qualification effort to earn the victory. He was ninth among 41 cars in his group and three-tenths of a second behind Gravel. The spin of a wheel created an eight-car inversion that put him in position to win from the outside pole.
"We had to win that race to be in position to win tomorrow night," Abreu said. "These guys have been doing an unbelievable job this year on my car. It’s a special time in my racing career just to be a part of something like this where it’s consistent results and you have things to build off of after every night. These guys, like I said, all this year and all last year, they just don’t give up on me. You can see it in them. It’s a bonding friendship we’ve created over time. It’s a special time in my career."
This was Abreu's fifth overall win of 2023 and it makes him one of the favorites to challenge for the million-dollar payday Thursday night. Abreu led 15 of the 25 laps in the preliminary feature; he will need to outlaws the competition for 50 laps if he wants to pocket the big prize.
As with Sweet, Abreu believes patience is going to be critical Thursday night.
"I think it’s going to be (about) race pace. It’s going to be torrid in the beginning,” Abreu said. “It’s 50 laps. A lot of Sprint Car drivers aren’t used to something like that. It takes a lot of patience to win these races."
There will be six heat races Thursday night to help set the field for the Eldora Million.
Notable drivers include Macedo (pole in Heat 1) Abreu (second in Heat 2), Michael "Buddy" Kofoid (third in Heat 2), Tyler Courtney (fifth in Heat 2), Gravel (pole in Heat 3), McKenna Haase (fifth in Heat 3), Sweet (pole in Heat 4), Gio Scelzi (second in Heat 4), Kasey Kahne (eighth in Heat 4) and Donny Schatz (second in Heat 6). Click here for the complete lineups.
To automatically advance into the main, drivers must finish in the top three in their heat. All others will go to a Last Chance Qualifier.
Group A – Qualifying
1. 1s-Logan Schuchart, 12.908; 2. 48-Danny Dietrich, 12.991; 3. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 13.070; 4. 49x-Cale Thomas, 13.071; 5. 55P-Daryn Pittman, 13.084; 6. 19-Brent Marks, 13.089; 7. 49-Brad Sweet, 13.099; 8. 57-Kyle Larson, 13.108; 9. 15-Donny Schatz, 13.114; 10. 55T-McKenna Haase, 13.129; 11. 8-Aaron Reutzel, 13.139; 12. 35-Zach Hampton, 13.144; 13. 7-Ian Madsen, 13.151; 14. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 13.155; 15. 9-Kasey Kahne, 13.191; 16. 19L-CJ Leary, 13.192; 17. 83-James McFadden, 13.196; 18. 52-Blake Hahn, 13.211; 19. 91-Kyle Reinhardt, 13.211; 20. 20G-Noah Gass, 13.248; 21. 21H-Brady Bacon, 13.248; 22. 5-Spencer Bayston, 13.258; 23. 35B-Austin Bishop, 13.282; 24. 1m-Landon Myers, 13.292; 25. 24W-Garet Williamson, 13.302; 26. 17B-Bill Balog, 13.311; 27. 11T-TJ Stutts, 13.346; 28. 39-Hunter Schuerenberg, 13.350; 29. 99-Skylar Gee, 13.362; 30. 21T-Cole Macedo, 13.411; 31. 19w-Trent Pigdon, 13.438; 32. W20-Greg Wilson, 13.442; 33. 7S-Robbie Price, 13.443; 34. 26-Zeb Wise, 13.480; 35. 46-Michael Bauer, 13.486; 36. 11N-Harli White, 13.508; 37. 20B-Cody Bova, 13.544; 38. 13M-Brandon Matus, 13.550; 39. 3-Denny Peebles, 13.564; 40. 56R-Ryan Myers, 13.621; 41. 29-Carl Bowser, 13.758; 42. 15M-Mitchell Harble, 99.991
Heat #1 – (10)Laps – Top 5 Transfer
1. 1s-Logan Schuchart[8]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz[6]; 3. 83-James McFadden[4]; 4. 21H-Brady Bacon[3]; 5. 7-Ian Madsen[5]; 6. 99-Skylar Gee[1]; 7. 7S-Robbie Price[9]; 8. 55P-Daryn Pittman[7]; 9. 20B-Cody Bova[10]; 10. 29-Carl Bowser[11]; 11. 24W-Garet Williamson[2]
Heat #2 – (10)Laps – Top 5 Transfer
1. 21T-Cole Macedo[1]; 2. 17B-Bill Balog[2]; 3. 5-Spencer Bayston[3]; 4. 52-Blake Hahn[4]; 5. 55T-McKenna Haase[6]; 6. 48-Danny Dietrich[8]; 7. 19-Brent Marks[7]; 8. 11K-Kraig Kinser[5]; 9. 26-Zeb Wise[9]; 10. 13M-Brandon Matus[10]; 11. 15M-Mitchell Harble[11]
Heat #3 – (10)Laps – Top 5 Transfer
1. 35B-Austin Bishop[3]; 2. 8-Aaron Reutzel[6]; 3. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[8]; 4. 49-Brad Sweet[7]; 5. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[4]; 6. 9-Kasey Kahne[5]; 7. 11T-TJ Stutts[2]; 8. 19w-Trent Pigdon[1]; 9. 46-Michael Bauer[9]; 10. 3-Denny Peebles[10]
Heat #4 – (10)Laps – Top 5 Transfer
1. 39-Hunter Schuerenberg[2]; 2. 57-Kyle Larson[7]; 3. W20-Greg Wilson[1]; 4. 20G-Noah Gass[4]; 5. 49x-Cale Thomas[8]; 6. 1m-Landon Myers[3]; 7. 19L-CJ Leary[5]; 8. 35-Zach Hampton[6]; 9. 11N-Harli White[9]; 10. 56R-Ryan Myers[10]
B-Feature – (12)Laps – Top 4 Transfer
1. 48-Danny Dietrich[1]; 2. 19-Brent Marks[2]; 3. 55P-Daryn Pittman[3]; 4. 26-Zeb Wise[14]; 5. 9-Kasey Kahne[5]; 6. 19L-CJ Leary[7]; 7. 11K-Kraig Kinser[6]; 8. 24W-Garet Williamson[11]; 9. 99-Skylar Gee[10]; 10. 7S-Robbie Price[13]; 11. 35-Zach Hampton[4]; 12. 11T-TJ Stutts[9]; 13. 19w-Trent Pigdon[12]; 14. 29-Carl Bowser[21]; 15. 56R-Ryan Myers[20]; 16. 11N-Harli White[16]; 17. 46-Michael Bauer[15]; 18. 20B-Cody Bova[17]; 19. 15M-Mitchell Harble[22]; 20. 3-Denny Peebles[19]; 21. 13M-Brandon Matus[18]; 22. 1m-Landon Myers[8]
A-Feature – (25)Laps
1. 49-Brad Sweet[3]; 2. 8-Aaron Reutzel[2]; 3. 57-Kyle Larson[6]; 4. 1s-Logan Schuchart[8]; 5. 83-James McFadden[10]; 6. 19-Brent Marks[22]; 7. 15-Donny Schatz[4]; 8. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[7]; 9. 26-Zeb Wise[24]; 10. 5-Spencer Bayston[15]; 11. 21H-Brady Bacon[16]; 12. 49x-Cale Thomas[5]; 13. 21T-Cole Macedo[19]; 14. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[14]; 15. W20-Greg Wilson[20]; 16. 52-Blake Hahn[11]; 17. 48-Danny Dietrich[21]; 18. 55T-McKenna Haase[1]; 19. 17B-Bill Balog[17]; 20. 55P-Daryn Pittman[23]; 21. 20G-Noah Gass[13]; 22. 35B-Austin Bishop[12]; 23. 7-Ian Madsen[9]; 24. 39-Hunter Schuerenberg[18]