World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series

A Rare World Of Outlaws Off Weekend Leads To Fun Ahead Of Bristol

A Rare World Of Outlaws Off Weekend Leads To Fun Ahead Of Bristol

Matt Weaver chats with some of the biggest names from the World of Outlaws ahead of Bristol to see what a sprint car driver does on their weekend off.

Apr 21, 2021
A Rare World Of Outlaws Off Weekend Leads To Fun Ahead Of Bristol

From a Dollhouse to the Last Great Coliseum.

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On any given weekend, Brad Sweet can be found slinging dirt and racing wheel to wheel against the best Sprint Car drivers in the world, but not this one.

A certifiable badass by every metric, Sweet instead spent the days leading up to the Throwdown at Bristol Motor Speedway in California with the only teammates more important than those at Kasey Kahne Racing.

"When I'm home, it's whatever my daughter wants to do," Sweet said of Savannah. "It's totally up to her. If she wants to go play outside on the playground and go to McDonald's afterward, that's what we're going to do.

"We don't get too crazy and it's nice to relax, but she's going to want to play hide and seek, or dollies or paint my nails. We're going to do whatever she wants."

Girl dad life rules.

A rainout of both races at Lawton Speedway and Devil's Bowl provided a rare weekend off for the Greatest Show on Dirt, but not everyone knows how to stay still.

Sheldon Haudenschild is second in points behind Sweet and chose to make the last-minute trek north to Knoxville Raceway for the 68th opener in the storied history of the Sprint Car Capitol of the World. He won it, too.

It took a last lap pass on Gio Scelzi after starting 14th, but he won it, too.

"I can’t give it up to my guys enough," Haudenschild said in Victory Lane. "We trucked it up from down south to do this, and that was our goal … to win a race at Knoxville. We were just thankful to be up here."

Make that two-for-two in wins for the Outlaws.

Jacob Allen won a heat race with the All-Stars Circuit of Champions at Port Royal before finishing fourth in the feature. Teammate Logan Schuchart wanted to join his younger uncle at Port, but couldn’t realistically make it in time, so he watched from the road instead.

"We have some friends, Steve and Nancy, that we park next to in Knoxville, and they're from Tulsa so I was going to spend some time with them before the races," Schuchart said. "That got cut short once the races were rained out because I was hoping to do the same thing Jacob did.

"But I'm the only one that can drive the motor home and would have had to drive 20 hours, would have got there right before qualifying and that just wasn’t realistic."

A living legend and a 10-time champion, Donny Schatz has access to his own jet, not that it makes him lazy or complacent. It actually just affords the Tony Stewart Racing veteran time to get even more work done … and maybe relax a little.

When reached at his home office on Monday afternoon, Schatz was between calls, using the remainder of the off weekend to play catch-up.

"I had a great weekend, really," Schatz said. "I had some friends in town and they invited me to an event at a jewelry store called ‘Watches and Whiskey.’ That was Friday evening. On Saturday, I just played in the yard and stayed at home. It was really a good weekend.

"You don't get too many opportunities to do this on prime racing days, Friday and Saturday, so it was pretty cool to see what it’s like to be a normal person. Definitely refreshing."

David Gravel grew up in Connecticut but has since moved to Florida. If he had chosen to fly back home living in New England, he would have been greeted by snow, but instead flew into the Sunshine State.

He’s winning too!

Gravel would rather be racing right now, though.

"It would be nice if it were in the middle of the summer, once we're really in the stretch run, but I feel like we just got going.

"It was still nice to have a normal weekend though."

Aaron Reutzel, Carson Macedo, Mason Daniel and Parker Price-Miller joined Haudenschild at Knoxville. It’s never too early to start building a notebook for the Nationals after all.

Sweet, contrary to Gravel, knows to take a weekend whenever you get one. Like the World of Outlaws championship battle -- all weekends count the same.

"I don't get caught up in the disappointment that we didn't race or anything like that," Sweet said. "I mean, yes, I would love to be racing and making money, but it’s okay because the extra time at home is important too.

"This summer is going to be hectic, and come the meat of the season, I’m going to be happy that I had a weekend at home."

That’s especially true when one of the greatest racers of his generation is playing dollies and getting his nails painted.