WATSONVILLE, Calif. — For the second week in a row it was Bud Kaeding doing victory celebration donuts on the front stretch at Ocean Speedway.

Kaeding was once again aboard the Al’s Roofing Supply black No. 69. After starting from the pole position, the San Jose, Calif., veteran driver survived threats from both Justin Sanders and Brad Furr.

Sanders brought the familiar yellow No. 17 home in the runner up spot while Furr’s red No. 2 took a third-place finsh.

The finish:

Bud Kaeding, Justin Sanders, Brad Furr, Cole Macedo, Blake Carrick, Jeremy Chisum, Jason Chisum, Kyle Shaw, Koen Shaw, Kurt Nelson, Jake Andreotti, Jayson Bright. Bradley Dillard, Eli Deshaies, Ryon Nelson, James Ringo, John Clark, Richard Fajerdo

MARYVILLE, Tenn. — Johnny Bridges romped to his second USCS presented by K&N Filters Outlaw Thunder Tour sprint car victory of the season Friday night at Smoky Mountain Speedway.

Bridges started on the pole for the 25-lap feature and held off six-time series winner Mark Smith for the checkered flag. Smith started sixth on the night.

Terry Gray was third, followed by Brad Bowden and Danny Smith.

The finish:

Johnny Bridges, Mark Smith, Terry Gray, Brad Bowden, Danny Smith, Morgan Turpen, Justin Barger, Lance Moss, Brandon Taylor, Geoff Styner, Jeff Willingham, Bob Auld, Tony AGin, Joe Larkin, Bo Barber.

MUSKOGEE, Okla. – An unplanned visit to the Thunderbird Speedway paid off on Friday night for Earl Pearson Jr. as he captured the $3,000 Lucas Oil MLRA main event presented by Bravado Wireless.

Following an early cancellation of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event scheduled for Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill., Pearson and his Black Diamond race team made the haul to the half-mile track located in Muskogee, Okla., and led then entire distance en route to the win.

Coming into the weekend second in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series standings, Pearson would line up on the outside front row for the 25 lapper alongside pole award winner Will Vaught. Pearson jumped to an early advantage as the duo crossed the stripe and was able to clear the XR1 Rocket of Vaught exiting turn two.

In a race that would go the distance caution free, Pearson easily cruised to the win, with his biggest competition coming from lapped traffic as the race progressed. Vaught crossed the line in the runner-up position, coming in 3.025 seconds behind Pearson, who collected his fourth win with the MLRA series.

“That was going to be the race (turn one) there ain’t no doubt about it,” Pearson said of the start. “He (Vaught) slipped up there and the track took a little bit of rubber right around the bottom, so once we got out in front I just had to stay on the bottom and run my own race.

“Any time we’re not on the Lucas Series we enjoy coming over and running the MLRA.”

Payton Looney methodically made his way through traffic to finish third. Mitch McGrath and Logan Martin completed the top-five.

The finish:

Earl Pearson Jr., Will Vaught, Payton Looney, Mitch McGrath, Logan Martin, Billy Moyer Jr., Joseph Gorby, Jake Neal, Blair Nothdurft, Jeremy Grady, Jesse Stovall, Richard Shepler III.

OSBORN, Mo. — Making it two-for-two on the weekend with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network, Thomas Kennedy was unstoppable on the cushion on the high-banked U.S. 36 Raceway on Friday night.

“Big kudos to my dad. We’ve been busting our butts every year, all year. I really appreciate all the support we get to be out here from people like my mom, my brother, my wife especially, and my grandparents. It really means a lot,” stated Kennedy.

Taking the green fourth, Kennedy chased the opening laps as Wade Nygaard took command for four laps before surrendering the top spot to Roger Crockett with the Rt. 66 Chevrolet No. 11 working the low side of the speedway.

Followed by Scott Bogucki, who worked quickly from seventh, the pair began battling for the top spot as lapped traffic came into play. Working the hub at both ends of the one-third mile oval, the top was wide open for attack and as the laps clicked to 10, that attack was coming in the form of Kennedy.

Railing the cushion off the second turn on lap 11, Kennedy’s powder blue No. 21k followed slower cars into the third turn with the leaders racing middle to bottom. With the lane clearing, for Kennedy, the move for second turned into a two-for-one sale for all the marbles with Kennedy rocketing to the lead off the fourth turn.

On coming up with the move for the lead, Thomas explained, “Everybody was everywhere, and I knew I just had to be patient up top. My car was great so I figured if I tried down low, I might screw myself up and lose some time. It’s all about momentum, and this track you have to keep your momentum up to keep moving forward.”

Putting several slower cars between himself and the race for second, the field came under caution on lap 13. Giving Kennedy a three-car buffer on the restart, no one would be able the keep pace with the Canadian shoe crossing under the checkered flag with a 2.902-second advantage.

Roger Crockett held on for second with Blake Hahn charging through the field from 10th to grab the final podium step. In a drag race off the final turn for the fourth position, the advantage was to Seth Bergman, who edged Scott Bogucki by .014 seconds.

The finish:

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 21K-Thomas Kennedy, [4]; 2. 11-Roger Crockett, [2]; 3. 52-Blake Hahn, [10]; 4. 23-Seth Bergman, [1]; 5. 28-Scott Bogucki, [7]; 6. 47X-Dylan Westbrook, [14]; 7. J2-John Carney II, [8]; 8. 5J-Jamie Ball, [12]; 9. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [17]; 10. 1-Travis Rilat, [13]; 11. 82-Jason Martin, [18]; 12. 84-Brandon Hanks, [20]; 13. 9N-Wade Nygaard, [3]; 14. 9X-Jake Bubak, [15]; 15. 21P-Robbie Price, [21]; 16. 21-Miles Paulus, [19]; 17. 77X-Alex Hill, [16]; 18. 17W-Harli White, [11]; 19. 44-Chris Martin, [9]; 20. (DNF) 9M-Chad Goff, [5]; 21. (DNF) 95-Matt Covington, [22]; 22. (DNF) 17-Josh Baughman, [6]

ELDON, Mo. — Brad Sweet was in his own timeline Friday night for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series race at Lake Ozark Speedway.

Laps clicked off when he wanted them too. Slower cars were placed where he wanted them. But that was until a red flag with 10 laps remaining in the 40-lap event at the third-mile track.

The lead was his. Only his.

Sweet’s straightaway lead on second-place David Gravel vanished with the snap of a finger. Time was no longer his to freely play with. He had to defend it.

When the green flag waved again and the thunder of the cars struck the facility, Sweet – looking for his second win of the season – tried to jolt his way back to a commanding lead. But Gravel struck just as hard.

Determined to win in his Jason Johnson Racing team’s backyard, Gravel became the mad titan of the high side. He used every inch of it to find the grip he needed to conquer his quest for the lead.

A lap after the restart, he took the lead in search of his third victory of the season.

Sweet was not going to live with second. Determined to leave hoisting the trophy, the Grass Valley, Calif., native used his years of experience to find the right line and reel Gravel back in.

With four laps to go, Sweet found his advantage. He slid under Gravel in turns one and two, clearing him on the backstretch and then changing course to the high side of the track for the final few laps.

Sweet still wasn’t invulnerable, though. Gravel tried every line he could to stay on Sweet’s bumper with Donny Schatz close behind in third.

With the checkered flag flying, Sweet saw a potential victory and defeat at the same time. One turn away from victory, a lap car blocked Sweet’s run off turn four, allowing Gravel to close through the middle of the track and Schatz to close on Gravel on the bottom.

But they were in Sweet’s endgame. He hammered the throttle off of turn four and found enough grip worthy of a strong run off the corner to claim his 36th World of Outlaws victory.

“I almost gave it away in the last corner,” Sweet said. “All that matters is we hung on to the checkers and got the win.”

While the battle with Gravel was nerve-racking, he said, the most challenging part of the night was trying to find the best line.

“The top got tricky, then I had to get the bottom going, and the bottom got slow and tricky, as well,” Sweet said. “Just trying to maneuver through lap cars, that’s key to winning these races. We’re getting better and better at managing our tires and getting through lap cars. Tonight, I thought we did a really good job and did everything perfectly until that caution.”

Gravel knew if Sweet stuck to the bottom on the restart he could get by him on the high side. But he said, with five to go, the high side just didn’t work for him anymore.

“The top got extremely tricky at the end,” Gravel said. “Our right rear tire was going low, and that doesn’t help on the cushion. A couple of little things that hurt us a little bit. Just those last three-four laps were not good laps, and paid for it.”

To see full results, turn to the next page.

Big Picture

This is the third time this IPL that Delhi Capitals are coming back to their home venue, Feroz Shah Kotla, full of exuberance and positivity. They first did so on the high of having beaten Mumbai Indians in Mumbai. Then they did so having built a three-match winning streak on the road, in Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad. On both occasions they came crashing down thanks largely to a slow and low home surface.

On this homecoming, Capitals are on their highest high. They have won seven out of their 11 matches - teams have previously qualified with seven wins - and are looking for that one win to all but ensure progress to the next round. You might wager they are more or less in, but these wins can take them into the top two, which gives them two shots at making the final.

Up against them is an opposition on a streak itself, defying elimination, which has looked imminent for weeks now. Royal Challengers are hanging by a thread, but are not letting go of that thread. In their last three wins in a row, they have beaten Chennai Super Kings even though MS Dhoni needed two off the last ball, and Kings XI Punjab, who won the first 17 overs of each innings.

It's streak v streak now; one team is gunning for the top spot, the other fighting for another match of life. At the heart of it will be adaptation to a slow surface and an accurate forecast of the dew. In the last set of matches in Delhi, Mumbai Indians defended easily with no dew, and Capitals chased relatively easily thanks to the dew.

In the news

Dale Steyn won't be coming back for Royal Challengers after he injected life into their campaign with a mid-season entry. His shoulder injury has cast a shadow over his participation in the World Cup too. That isn't the only absence RCB will worry about. Moeen Ali too is back home for a preparatory camp with England ahead of the World Cup.

Previous meeting

Capitals went to Bangalore, restricted the hosts to 149 and then chased it down without much bother and with seven balls to spare.

Likely XIs

Delhi Capitals 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Prithvi Shaw, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt.), 4 Rishabh Pant, 5 Colin Ingram, 6 Sherfane Rutherford, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Amit Mishra, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Sandeep Lamichhane

Royal Challengers Bangalore 1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Virat Kohli (capt.), 3 AB de Villiers, 4 Shimron Hetmyer/Colin de Grandhomme, 5 Akshdeep Nath, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Washington Sundar/Pawan Negi, 8 Umesh Yadav, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Nitin Saini

Strategy Punt

• AB de Villiers has been the spirit of Royal Challengers' survival this season, but against Capitals he will have to work harder than against other teams. Since 2017, Kagiso Rabada has got him out in two balls. His problems against left-arm spin are well-documented too. So expect Capitals to attack him with Rabada and Axar Patel or even Ishant Sharma, who has managed to keep him quiet.

Stats that matter

• Ten players have scored more than 4000 runs in the IPL. Only Chris Gayle has a better strike rate than AB de Villiers' 151.57. Gayle scores 0.2 run more over 100 balls.

• Second-innings scores at Kotla this year have ranged between 128 and 185, all depending on the dew in the night.

• With 150 wickets to his name, Amit Mishra is the second-most successful bowler in IPL, behind Lasith Malinga's 166.

• Powerplay runs are crucial, and Shikhar Dhawan has scored the fourth-highest in that period this season. Among batsmen from these two teams, he also holds the best strike rate inside the Powerplay.