(Photo by Vince Vellella Photos)
Inside Line Promotions – MESQUITE, Texas (May 29, 2017) – Sammy Swindell earned his first top-five finish of the season last Friday during the opening round of the 15th annual Memorial Day Classic.
Swindell and car owner A.G. Rains had intended to compete last weekend with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour in Colorado, but the two races were postponed because of rain.
“We were going to pick up (our granddaughter) on Thursday in Amarillo, Texas, and then go on to Colorado,” Swindell said. “We stayed there and when they cancelled it the next morning we turned around. A.G. was wanting to race so we stayed in Texas.”
With the ASCS Gulf South Region hosting a trio of races in the state the team ventured to RPM Speedway in Crandall, where Swindell made his debut on Friday.
“We got a chance to go through the car and made a bunch of small changes,” he said. “We had a brand new motor. You could definitely tell the car was better and the motor was better.”
Swindell won a heat race after starting on the pole. That earned enough points to lock into the feature redraw, in which Swindell pulled the second-highest number – seven – to start the main event on the inside of the fourth row.
“I was seventh in points so it was either a seven or a three and we got the seven,” he said. “The track changed a lot more than I thought in the feature. I thought there’d be some track to run on around the bottom, but it didn’t seem to work that way. Once everyone got to running it was right on the wall. It was waiting for someone to make a mistake to pass. Most of the time when I passed someone it was on a restart. I got up to fourth, but got in the wrong place and fell back to sixth. You’ll run into that on these small, tight tracks. All in all, we definitely learned quite a few things and we made a few small changes for the next night.”
Swindell battled for a top five throughout the main event before posting a fifth-place result.
The team headed to Devil’s Bowl Speedway on Saturday. After a near crash at the start of his heat race, Swindell ended where he started – sixth. That relegated him to the B Main, where he maneuvered from fifth to second place to transfer into the 16th starting position in the main event.
“We made some changes to the motor and a couple to the car,” he said. “It was fine-tuning some things and we definitely found some things with the motor that it liked. I think there were five classes so by the time we ran the A Main the bottom to the middle of the track was kind of gone. It didn’t leave you much choice but to run around the top. I got a really good start the first time, but they had a car flipped and had a red. I probably got by five cars. The next one we didn’t gain any. I had to start picking them off and was able to do that when people would make mistakes. Once we passed one we ran right up to the next one.”
Despite a broken throttle spring that occurred during the main event, Swindell rallied to a seventh-place finish. He netted the Hard Charger Award for passing the most cars.
This week Swindell and Rains are joining the remainder of the USCS Speedweek, which features races on Monday at Clayhill Motorsports in Atwood, Tenn.; on Thursday at Talledega Short Track in Eastaboga, Ala.; on Friday at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss.; and on Saturday at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Ark.
QUICK RESULTS –
May 26 – RPM Speedway in Crandall, Texas – Heat race: 1 (1); Feature: 5 (7).
May 27 – Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas – Heat race: 6 (6); B Main: 2 (5); Feature: 7 (16).
SEASON STATS –
7 races, 0 wins, 1 top five, 5 top 10s, 5 top 15s, 5 top 20s
UP NEXT –
USCS SPEEDWEEK: Monday at Clayhill Motorsports in Atwood, Tenn.; Thursday at Talledega Short Track in Eastaboga, Ala.; Friday at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss.; and Saturday at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Ark.
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.SammySwindell1.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/1sam91
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – CP Pistons
CP Pistons specializes in developing and manufacturing pistons and rods for high performance race vehicles and the aftermarket. For more information, visit http://www.CP-Carillo.com.
“CP Pistons made us some special pistons and the motor has really responded to that,” Swindell said. “They have been great to work with and we have more improvements coming this summer so I look forward to continuing to work with everyone at CP Pistons.”
Swindell would also like to thank John Christner Trucking, Rossie Feed & Grain, Acme Graphix & Design, High Performance Lubricants, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, FK Rod Ends, Sweet Manufacturing, Simpson Race Products, Schoenfeld Headers, MyRacePass and Inside Line Promotions 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 May 29, 2017
- Article Date: 5/29/2017 by Inside Line Promotions