(Photo by TeeJay Crawford)
Inside Line Promotions – TULSA, Okla. (Jan. 21, 2019) – Fortune wasn’t on Sammy Swindell’s side this year during the 33rd annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.
“The cars were good and were fast, but in the Race of Champions and qualifying night A Main I got ran over from behind,” he said. “A lot of it is how the draw goes and who you’re stacked up against. There’s such a big difference in the fast cars to the slow cars. It mixes a lot of things up. Until you get some points established then it starts to weed out some of the stuff.”
Sometimes even then it can be tough to avoid contact inside the River Spirit Expo Center, where Swindell was one of 350 drivers vying for the crown.
After placing 13th during the Race of Champions last Tuesday, Swindell returned to the bullring on Wednesday for his preliminary night. He overcame a bent shock in a heat race to charge from fifth to second place. Swindell then rallied from fifth to third in a qualifier to rank fifth in overall points out of more than 70 drivers.
“In the main event it seemed like the first few laps I got stuck behind somebody that would make a mistake or get sideways,” he said. “A couple of times I’d get passed, but we’d pass them back. Then we got held up behind somebody for a minute. A guy behind me kept running into us going into the corner. The next stint he ran inside the berm and got stuck on top of me. That put us back and I spent the rest of the race trying to get through some traffic. One little thing can bury you.”
Swindell maneuvered from the back of the pack to a 15th-place finish following the mid-race incident. That relegated him to a D Main on Saturday. He gained a position to finish second and transfer into a C Main, in which he finished 13th to cap the event.
Swindell said he’ll start his sprint car season March 15-16 at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas, during the 46th annual ASCS Spring Nationals with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour. He will pilot a race car for A.G. Rains during the event.
Swindell will make his 410ci winged sprint car season debut at Devil’s Bowl Speedway on April 12-13 during the Texas Outlaw Nationals with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series. He will drive for Thone Motorsports that weekend.
QUICK RESULTS –
Jan. 15 – River Spirit Expo Center in Tulsa, Okla. – Race of Champions: 13 (16).
Jan. 16 – River Spirit Expo Center in Tulsa, Okla. – Heat race: 2 (5); Qualifier: 3 (5); Feature: 15 (5).
Jan. 19 – River Spirit Expo Center in Tulsa, Okla. – D Main: 2 (3); C Main: 13 (17).
UP NEXT –
March 15-16 at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas, for the 46th annual ASCS Spring Nationals with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.SammySwindell1.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/1sam91
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – John Christner Trucking
Established in 1986, John Christner Trucking has grown into a giant in the trucking industry. For more information, visit http://www.JohnChristner.com.
“John Christner has been huge,” Swindell said. “If it hadn’t been for him coming along we wouldn’t be able to do much of this at all. He’s been a great supporter for us and he’s been a great friend. It was nice of him to do all the things he’s done for us and continues to do for us.”
Swindell would also like to thank Acme Graphix & Design, High Performance Lubricants, Whitacre Glass, FK Rod Ends, Premier Truck Group, CP Pistons, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Sweet Manufacturing, Schoenfeld Headers, Simpson Race Products, W&B Service Company, Griffin Fishing Charters and Lodge, South Bay Partners, 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 Jan 21, 2019
- Article Date: 1/21/2019 by Inside Line Promotions