(Photo Courtesy of FVP National Sprint League)
Inside Line Promotions – JACKSON, Minn. (Sept. 6, 2015) – Sammy Swindell put together one of his most dominating performances in recent memory last weekend to score his biggest payday in more than three years.
Swindell led CJB Motorsports and its newest partner, Mainstream Holdings, Inc., to a sweep during the 37th annual Jackson Nationals at Jackson Speedway. Saturday’s victory during the FVP National Sprint League event netted Swindell $25,000, which is the most money he has won in a single event since capturing the Kings Royal in July 2012.
“Just to be that good through everything, it gives you a lot of confidence,” he said. “It was good the whole time and we didn’t make a lot of changes. There’s not many times you go into two-day races and hardly do anything and have a fast car. It was a pretty easy weekend. Plus, I think we found a couple of things and did a few things a little different and it seemed to work. Hopefully we can continue on that direction and win a few more of these big races.”
Swindell opened the doubleheader on Friday by setting a new track record during qualifying.
“In the warm-ups we caught up to a guy pretty quick and I was trying to get some space and another guy came along and was quite a bit slower,” he said. “I never got any clean laps so I never knew exactly what we had. We didn’t do anything other than put new tires on for qualifying. My first lap wasn’t as good, but I didn’t know exactly what I had. I was able to make the changes on the second lap and picked up two or three tenths.”
Swindell then powered from sixth to win a heat race, which locked him into the feature redraw. He pulled the No. 4 during the random draw to start the feature on the outside of the second row.
“I was able to get a great start,” he said. “It seemed like the guys in front of me got out of the way and I was leading off turn two. We just kind of cruised from there.”
Swindell had a sizeable advantage until a late-race restart allowed his competitors to close the gap.
“That’s the only problem about being first if the track is changing,” he said. “Up until they had that yellow I was quite a ways ahead. In traffic I could go right through them wherever I wanted to go. When you’re leading and running one place you stick to it. It’s hard to do something else when you don’t know. I didn’t make a very good first corner (on the restart) and was lucky enough to salvage the win.”
Swindell held on for the victory – his first career with CJB Motorsports – which locked him into the first six rows of Saturday’s $25,000-to-win main event.
“We knew we had a good advantage,” he said. “I felt if we could get a good qualifying lap we’d be on the front row no matter how the heat race went. It took a lot of pressure off. We were able to come back the same as the night before because the track wasn’t that much different. As long as we didn’t have any mechanical problems I felt like we had a good shot at winning.”
Swindell once again set quick time during qualifying before advancing from sixth to third place in a heat race. He was highest in overall points and therefore garnered the pole position for the 25-lap feature.
“I felt like (the track) was going to get to where we’d be wearing the tires down,” he said. “Once I got out front it was try to make conservative laps and run as hard as I needed to. We were able to work it the whole way. Before halfway there was some (rubber on the track). After five laps there was a couple of places and I knew it’d get better where you’d have some grip. I didn’t have a lot of lapped traffic to deal with the way the yellows came out, which helped.”
Swindell then survived another late-race caution as he led every lap and powered to the marquee win, which capped a special weekend.
“It was great to get two wins,” he said. “I also want to thank Tod Quiring, his family and the NSL Series for being so generous and raising money for my son, Kevin, during his recovery from a racing injury. Thanks also to Clint Garner and his guys for coming over to help out the team throughout the weekend.”
A silent auction combined with a donation from the Quiring’s raised $30,000 for Kevin Swindell’s recovery from a crash during the Knoxville Nationals in mid-August.
QUICK RESULTS –
Sept. 4 – Jackson Speedway in Jackson, Minn. – Qualifying: 1; Heat race: 1 (6); Feature: 1 (4).
Sept. 5 – Jackson Speedway in Jackson, Minn. – Qualifying: 1; Heat race: 3 (6); Feature: 1 (1).
SEASON STATS –
35 races, 4 wins, 15 top fives, 22 top 10s, 30 top 15s, 32 top 20s
UP NEXT –
TBD
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.SammySwindell1.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/1sam91
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Simpson Race Products
Simpson Race Products is an American motor sports parts business that supplies gloves, helmets, harness systems, driver’s suits, head restraints, shoes and more ranging from racers at local tracks to international teams. For more information, visit http://www.SimpsonRaceProducts.com.
“Simpson Race Products has been with me since 1974,” Swindell said. “They’ve been keeping me safe for more than 40 years.”
Swindell would also like to thank John Christner Trucking, J. Davidson Scrap Metal Processors, Energy Release, FK Rod Ends, High Performance Lubricants, Sweet Manufacturing, Brown and Miller Racing Solutions, HRP Wings, Schoenfeld Headers, Kistler Racing Engines and Driver Websites 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 by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.
- Shawn Miller on Sep 06, 2015
- Article Date: 9/6/2015 by Inside Line Promotions