Brad Sweet addressed the news that he and his Paul Silva team dropped out of the Knoxville Nationals while also indicating that he might never race again.

Sweet retired from full-time Sprint Car racing at the end of 2025 sharing in an emotional speech at the High Limit Racing Championship Awards Banquet, “As many of you in this room know this was my final full-time season. I’ll get it together. I got a speech. I’m going to get through it. … I don’t know why I’m so emotional but I want to say thank you to the fans. They’re the heartbeat of this sport. Every time I rolled into a track and you see the-.

“Racing has been my whole life, walking away from driving full-time is not easy. But I know this I gave it everything I had, every lap, every season, every championship. This isn’t goodbye to racing, it’s just the end of a chapter behind the wheel full time. I will still be around supporting this sport we all love and giving back as much as I possibly can to the next generation. Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” he concluded.

Since then Sweet has gotten behind the wheel quite a few times this year including a trip down under to Australia to conclude 2025 and begin 2026. After his trip down under, Sweet began his part-time season with a win at Merced Speedway at the end of February. He’d be back in victory lane with a win at Thunderbowl Raceway at the end of March. In April, Sweet won against the Outlaws at Knoxville Raceway. His last trip to victory lane was at Skagit Speedway in June with his last time in the car coming earlier this month at Eldora Speedway during the Knight before the Kings Royal where he qualified and hot lapped, but did not start his heat nor the C-Feature.

Sweet was slated to compete with Paul Silva at the Knoxville Nationals, but his name was removed from the entry list. Jeremy Elliott of Sprint Car Unlimited noted that the reason for Sweet and the Silva entry pulling out of the Knoxville Nationals is due to him not being comfortable in the car.

Elliott shared, “According to Sweet, he wasn’t fired and his friendship with Silva is still solid. At Eldora, there was a point during that Friday program where the California native was honest with himself and the team. He just wasn’t comfortable enough to race at that track under those conditions. A few days later, he told Silva that it probably wouldn’t change at Knoxville.”

“Sweet indicated that not racing as much can have a negative effect when you roll into these Crown Jewel events. You need to be sharp, on point, and all-in for these shows,” Elliott continued. “Sweet retired at the end of last year and now that he’s a part-time, he doesn’t feel he’s in a place where he can go full tilt against these guys at certain facilities.”

In fact, Elliott when on to share that Sweet might be completely done with racing, “I do think there’s a possibility that his last laps were turned at Eldora and his last win came at Skagit.”

Justin Fiedler at DIRTRACKR shared that when he texted with Sweet over the weekend that “he wasn’t sure yet on running the Nationals and that he would decide soon.”

Sweet made it clear that he will not be competing in the Knoxville Nationals in an interview with FloRacing’s Kyle McFadden, “Right now, I didn’t feel comfortable at Eldora, so I pulled out of it. I don’t think I’m going to Knoxville because I don’t want to race Knoxville at that level.”

As for why he chose to pull out of Eldora and won’t race at Knoxville, Sweet explained, “I think as you get older — kids, family — your time becomes very important to you. What it takes to be competing at the highest levels, it’s just no joke out there. You don’t just show up and kind of half-ass it, especially when you’re driving for someone like Paul Silva and his team with Trevor Canales. They’re working as hard as anybody out there and put the time and effort in. And so, it’s just not fair.”

“If you’re a Sprint Car racer, you’re trying to win the race or you’re not. That’s how I look at it,” he added.

Sweet reiterated that his reason for stepping away was not due to the fact that he did not feel like he could compete, but rather his commitment level was not where it needed to be, “I’m not saying that I’m not capable. What I’m saying is I’m not showing up to the racetrack with that 110 percent commitment. And, you know, putting the work in behind the scenes that you have to, especially to try to win the race.”

He went on to share what that commitment looks like, “It’s studying the film, it’s working out, it’s being in race shape, it’s mentally being all in on making the right moves. The intensity gets ramped up at these big races.”

“Could I run up front at the Knoxville Nationals? Yeah. But that’s still not fair to go into it that way. I think that I just hold myself to a little higher regard than that,” he emphasized. 

As for whether he will race again, Sweet shared, “If I don’t race again, I don’t race again. If I decide I want to race again sometime, then I’ll race again. You know, I don’t feel the need to. When I retired from full-time racing, I didn’t know what that meant. Well, it meant I was gonna run 17 races this year and possibly be done, or I just don’t know.”

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