Photo finishes are all the rage right now and the High Limit Racing series produced one of the better ones imaginable on Friday night at 34 Raceway in Iowa.
This close finish, with five-time World of Outlaws champion Brad Sweet outdueling James McFadden in deep lapped traffic over a long green flag run, was decided by a final margin of 0.012 seconds.
Sweet, who co-owns the series alongside brother-in-law Kyle Larson and streamer FloSports, won the race by ripping the outside as McFadden got bogged down in traffic on the bottom
“I thought my car was really good. James was doing a good job in the lead,” Sweet said. “I was trying to keep up with him, but it was tough. I needed lapped traffic to slow that bottom down a little, especially in three and four.”
It was his third win in a row and fifth overall this season but he needed to commit to moving up to get there.
“I waited long enough,” Sweet said. “I kept the tires cool. If I was going to win the race, I needed to get aggressive. When I went up there the first time I drove right by the lapped car and got right to James. I knew that was my line and that was my best chance to win the race.
“I never could figure out turns one and two out. “But I started to get a little bit better, started to move around a little bit and got a little better. I was able to make just enough speed in turn four to clear that outside pass.”
All McFadden could do was pick the race apart.
“It’s really, really, really easy to miss on the bottom,” McFadden said. “I hadn’t really seen anyone do that good up on top. I made a couple bad laps where I missed the bottom and that gave Brad an opening.”
Sweet left the night with a 36 point lead over Tyler Courtney.
“I’m happy with our results and what we’ve been doing lately. We’ve been really working hard to try to win these races,” Sweet said. “There’s a battle going on across the country to determine who has the best drivers and who the best driver is. We certainly want to be in that conversation. It’s only May, but I feel there’s more intensity this season than I’ve ever felt.”