Sweet to Race for NDS Motorsports at NHMS
Posted By Tj Ingerson On September 18, 2012
Categories: Regional
PHOTO: Thunder Road champion Nick Sweet will make his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East debut in this NDS Motorsports Car on Saturday in the G-Oil 100. (Photo courtesy NDS Motorsports)
--by T.J. Ingerson
LOUDON, N.H. -- Nick Sweet is no stranger to Late Model racing fans on the east coast. The now two-time Thunder Road champion picked up two of the biggest races at Thunder Road this season, narrowly finished second to Kyle Busch in last year’s TD Bank 250, and is a two-time runner-up to Eddie MacDonald in the ACT Invitational at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Sweet has also competed in select Late Model Stock races in Virginia.
But Sweet will take on his most daunting task in his racing career that began at the quarter-mile bullring when he straps into a NASCAR K&N Pro Series East machine for the G-Oil 100 Saturday at New Hampshire.
The Barre, Vt., native will pilot the Gilbane Chevrolet for Georgia, Vt.-based NDS Motorsports in Saturday’s event.
“It’s a huge opportunity,” Sweet said. “It’s a great honor that they thought of me to put me in the race car. I just want to do a good job for them.”
The NDS team, however, is no stranger to Sweet. He has tested for the team in the past.
“I’m proud that I’ve been picked,” the 27-year-old said. “I want to be competitive, but I’d be happy with a tenth place finish. I’m on a different agenda there, and the expectations aren’t that high. The biggest thing is just going there and getting comfortable with the car. We went to Airborne last week and I was atrocious. Heck, I spun the thing out in the first corner. But as the day went on, I got better and better. That’s just the fact of it. It’s going to take some time to get used to it. They’re a lot heavier race cars.”
Some previous K&N Pro Series East races at New Hampshire have been caution plagued that featured many incidents. Sweet knows the key to the day is avoiding the incidents.
“I want to do well, but my biggest goal is just to finish,” Sweet said. “That’s a tough race to finish. I’ve watched a couple of them and they’re rough. Hopefully, I can go out there and give it a good run.”
The success Sweet has had in recent years has brought a slight negative to him: the want to win no matter what.
“I’ve gotten to the point where I want to win all the time,” Sweet explained. “And it’s good to want to win all the time. But, you have to make sure it’s fun. The problem is when you don’t win, you’re kind of upset. I have to get back to that having fun stage. And I think we got that here.”
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East G-Oil 100 is slated to start at 2:15pm on Saturday afternoon. Sweet will hop from the NDS No. 53 and into his ACT Late Model immediately after in an attempt to improve one position in the ACT Invitational.