Stuart Brubaker knows how to work hard and play even harder.

The Helena resident, a graduate of Gibsonburg High School, is a farmer who grows beans, corn and wheat on 5,000 acres of land stretching from Lindsey all the way to Toledo.

“It's all I've done all my life,” Brubaker said.

Come Friday and Saturday nights, however, its play time for the Brubaker family. Brubaker is in his seventh year as a sprint car driver and most of his weekends are spent at Attica Raceway Park and Fremont Speedway.

Brubaker, who drives 305 sprint cars that feature 490 horsepower, is the defending points champion at Fremont, which races every Saturday night. He also won the 2008 points title at the one-third mile semi-banked clay oval.

Heading into Saturday's Burns Petroleum Night events, Brubaker is once again in the points lead at Fremont with 916 points, two more than Paul Weaver of Fremont. Brubaker last won at Fremont on June 25, on Football Pizza Night, and he has five career feature wins at the track.

“It's been a pretty good season,” said Brubaker, who took third in the A-Main (25 laps) at Fremont on July 9. “It's been up and down. I've struggled a couple weeks. Other than that, we've been finishing in the top five almost every week.”

One reason Brubaker said he's having a good season at both Fremont and Attica is that he and crew chief Donny Lyons, from Wayne, Ohio, “are on the same page and getting along pretty good.”

“We started last year at Findlay, so we've only been together over last winter and this summer,” Brubaker said. “It took us a little while to get going. I called him and talked to him about going to Findlay for a one-night deal and we ended up winning over there. We became partners over the winter and it's worked out real good.”

Brubaker, 27, has six career feature wins at Attica, including the track championship there in 2008. Attica, which races on Fridays, is also a one-third mile banked clay oval. Brubaker was sixth in points there in 2010.

“Last year was really disappointing,” he said. “We tried to switch cars, from a Maxim (chassis) to a J&J, and we just struggled all year long with it. We couldn't get it figured out. Last year was horrible. We had a car owner who wanted to try to run J&J, and when you're driving for somebody else you have to do some things.”

Brubaker drove to a second-place finish at Attica on July 1, but that wasn't good enough.

“It was a good night,” he said, “but you're thinking 'what could we have done to be better.' Sometimes guys look at me a little funny when I get out of the car. They say second's not bad, but I say it's not good. Some nights, a lot of times it's the driver's fault.”

On July 15, Brubaker qualified 10th and pulled out a fourth-place finish in the main feature at Attica.

“We had a run up to second place and then we lost brakes,” he said. “I just had to maintain. It was a pretty good night considering everything that happened.”

Brubaker was his car's owner up until last season. After one season of giving up ownership, he is back to being his own boss.

“It didn't work out at the end of last season,” Brubaker said. “When I own my own stuff, I feel like when I screw up nobody's going to fire me.”

Brubaker, who is currently second in points at Attica, has only finished out of the top five in the main events once this season, taking eighth. Through July 8, Nate Dussel had the points lead with 1,401 followed by Brubaker with 1,367.

“I've been having a real good season at Attica,” Brubaker said. “I like Attica better than Fremont. It's a lot wider and you can have a bad night and overcome the bad draw you had.”

No matter where he finishes, Brubaker has the support of his family. His wife, Amanda, and their daughter Gracie, 2½, attend every race.

“Gracie loves it,” Brubaker said. “She asks every week when we're going back. She'll get up in the morning in her crib and ask me if we're going racing. It makes me feel great. It's a good family sport and we go do it as a family every weekend.”

Brubaker said he's confident he will be able to finish the season on a high note.

“I'm hoping we can maintain the points lead at Fremont,” he said. “It's going to be really hard. Maybe we can close up some points on Nate Dussel at Attica. He's doing a real nice job over there this year. Our biggest goal is to maintain our lead at Fremont.”

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