(Photo by Brent Smith)
Inside Line Promotions – BECHTELSVILLE, Pa. (July 3, 2019) – Redemption tasted sweet on Tuesday evening for the Swindell SpeedLab sponsored sprint car team, which won its first feature event with NASCAR rising star Christopher Bell behind the wheel.
Bell led the distance of the Pennsylvania Speedweek event at Grandview Speedway, where a flat tire took him out of contention during a strong run a year ago.
“It’s a weight we kind of needed lifted,” team co-owner Kevin Swindell said. “We’ve had the car to win a bunch of these deals. It was good to get it out of the way. I feel like that was one of our lesser feature cars this year and we won.”
The victory came on the heels of a disappointing finish the previous night at Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pa., where Bell qualified 11th quickest, won a heat race and battled for a top five throughout most of the Pennsylvania Speedweek main event.
“We’re really not sure what happened,” Swindell said. “Around Lap 5 or Lap 6 he heard something clang and didn’t think a whole lot of it. Five or six laps after that we started to slow down. Once we had the yellow and he looked down he knew it wasn’t good. The torque tube lost control so it was able to bounce up or down three or four inches. As it was going it was opening itself up and getting worse. At a point it starts to get unsafe.”
Bell pulled off the track with five laps remaining and he was credited with a 24th-place finish.
The team started on the right foot on Tuesday, setting quick time during qualifying at Grandview Speedway. Bell advanced from fourth to second place in a heat race to make the feature redraw for the second straight night. This time he pulled the No. 2 to line up on the outside of the front row for the A Main.
“We were pretty comfortable going in there,” Swindell said. “The more round tracks I feel like we’re a little better. The qualifying lap was good and it was great to run down two cars in open track during the heat. When it’s that sticky passing them is always tough.
“We drew a good number for the feature. We didn’t think the track was going to lose grip that much. I thought it may, but I didn’t want to be the guy that messed it up more than letting him pull the wing back.”
While Bell led throughout the main event, he began to struggle with finding grip midway through the race. The battle for the lead got close a couple of times, but Bell was able to maintain the top spot until the checkered flag was waved.
“You just pull the top wing back and keep yourself buried to where you don’t make a mistake to get you out in the slick,” Swindell said. “I think in dirty air is when that affects you even more. When you lose air on the wing you’re grasping for everything you can get. When you lose wing speed you need the car tight to fix that. I think we left a good bit on the table by not reading the track right. He did a hell of a job.”
QUICK RESULTS –
July 1 – Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pa. – Qualifying: 11; Heat race: 1 (2); Feature: 24 (6).
July 2 – Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Pa. – Qualifying: 1; Heat race: 2 (4); Feature: 1 (2).
UP NEXT –
TBD
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: https://SwindellSpeedLab.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KevinSwindell
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SwindellSpeedLab/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swindellspeedlab/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7kEHF9aNcHsMdBZaCTWDNw
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 Trucking has been an integral part of our program at the Chili Bowl for a long time,” Swindell said. “We appreciate the support and partnership that John and his team bring to our program.”
Swindell would also like to thank Mike Curb and Curb Records, South Bay, Wiser Organics, High Performance Lubricants, Premier Truck Group, Rossie Feed & Grain, Hopf Farms, J. Davidson Scrap Metal Processors, Tim Walker Real Estate, TWRentToOwn.com, Gatewood Concrete, E-Distribution Racing, MPI Steering Wheels, Bell Helmets, DIRTVision, ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems, Racing Optics, Arai Helmets, Maxim Chassis, DMI, Hoosier Racing Tires, Sweet Manufacturing, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Kenny’s Components and Swindell SpeedLab 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 Jul 03, 2019
- Article Date: 7/3/2019 by Inside Line Promotions