(Photo by DB3 Imaging)
Inside Line Promotions – WAYNESFIELD, Ohio (June 29, 2014) – The past week has been a wild one for Kevin Swindell.
Despite registering a pair of top-six results with Bernie Stuebgen and the Indy Race Parts team, Swindell battled mechanical woes that resulted in him skipping the second half of the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions Ohio Speedweek.
The action began a week ago Friday – June 20 – during a MOWA event at Bloomington Speedway in Bloomington, Ind. Swindell won his heat race from the pole position and he then placed fourth in the dash to line up on the outside of the second row for the main event.
“It got bottled up and I tried to put myself where I shouldn’t have and ended up turning around,” he said. “It got me hung in the slick. I didn’t want to get t-boned and I hustled it to get it out of the way.”
Swindell was forced to restart at the back of the field after spinning in the middle of turns one and two on the opening lap.
“I went to the back and kept plugging away,” he said. “We were definitely pretty good. It wasn’t terrible, but the stat sheet isn’t that good. It looks like I finished where I started rather than passed 20 cars.”
Swindell rebounded from last to pick up a fourth-place result, which marked his seventh top five of the season.
The team then tackled the Ohio Speedweek starting on Saturday at Eldora Speedway near Rossburg, Ohio. Swindell qualified 13th quickest and he was able to hold on to a transfer spot during his heat race, which ended with Swindell coasting across the line in fourth place because of an engine problem.
“I shut it off and pulled it out of gear and coasted,” he said. “I barely transferred out of the heat race. We worked from that point until it was time to push (to the main event) to get it fixed enough to run. It sounded like an old dump truck.”
The engine issue hampered the team in the main event, which Swindell started on the outside of the fifth row. He battled inside the top 10 for most of the race before a late-race restart allowed him to pick up a couple of positions to place sixth.
“It ran ok,” he said. “I kinda got stuck in bad spots. We weren’t really good in dirty air. It took me a lap or two once everything got spread out and the air cleaned out and I was a little better. Then I could pass guys and move around.”
Swindell ventured to Waynesfield Raceway Park for an Ohio Speedweek event on Sunday, when he qualified 17th quickest. However, after starting on the outside of the front row of his heat race, Swindell flipped on the opening lap.
“I went into turn three and it just took off,” he said. “It never stopped at all. It hit the fence and turned over. It killed it.”
Swindell was unable to compete the remainder of the night. Following a broken rocker in the engine during hot laps on Wednesday at Atomic Speedway in Chillicothe, Ohio, the team decided to park it for the rest of Ohio Speedweek.
QUICK RESULTS –
June 20 – Bloomington Speedway in Bloomington, Ind. – Heat race: 1 (1); Dash: 4 (3); Feature: 4 (4).
June 21 – Eldora Speedway near Rossburg, Ohio – Qualifying: 13; Heat race: 4 (3); Feature: 6 (10).
June 22 – Waynesfield Raceway Park in Waynesfield, Ohio – Qualifying: 17; Heat race: DNF (2); B Main: DNS (4).
SEASON STATS –
19 races, 1 win, 7 top fives, 9 top 10s, 14 top 15s, 16 top 20s
UP NEXT –
TBD
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.SwindellMotorsports.citymaker.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KevinSwindell
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KevinSwindellRacing
VIDEO –
Click on the link for highlights of Swindell’s first victory of the season at 81 Speedway on March 29: http://vimeo.com/90509051
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Arai Helmets
Arai Helmets are a premier helmet manufacturer with distributers throughout the country. For more information, visit http://www.AraiAmericas.com.
“Arai Helmets is the best fitting helmet I’ve ever worn,” Swindell said. “Visually and structurally it’s the best thing I’ve ever put on my head.”
Swindell would also like to thank Mike Curb and Curb Records, ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems, Racing Optics and Indy Race Parts for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.
To meet the media relations needs of your program and to join Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or InsideLinePromotions@gmail.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.
- Shawn Miller on Jun 29, 2014
- Article Date: 6/29/2014 by Inside Line Promotions