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Sammy Swindell Shows Speed Throughout Two Big Events at Knoxville

(Photo by Paul Arch)

Inside Line Promotions – KNOXVILLE, Iowa (Aug. 5, 2019) – A high pill draw hampered Sammy Swindell during a pair of marquee events at Knoxville Raceway last weekend.

It began last Thursday when Swindell was one of the final qualifiers out of the 42 entrants during his preliminary night of the 29th annual My Place Hotels 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank. However, he produced a solid lap to time in eighth quickest in the Scott Brown and Terry Steward owned No. 11x.

“We were in a little bit of a hole with the draw, but were able to salvage a good lap out of it,” Swindell said. “We got in a heat race and got hung up with some guys. With the 360 stuff the guys out front can take off and leave. That’s just part of the circumstances. In eight laps if you have to get out of the gas two or three times that kills your chance of moving forward.”

A sixth-place result in the heat race relegated Swindell to the B Main, which transferred the top four to the main event.

“I was running third and was catching the guy running second,” he said. “We came up on a lapped car. He would go in on the bottom, miss it and slide out. My plan was to go right underneath him when he slid out. That time he got in and spun to where his tail was facing the berm. There was no chance of going under him it looked like. As I turned right, I don’t know if he got off the brakes, but he started going up the race track. I was full right to miss him and it just clipped him with my left front tire. It bent the wheel some and put a hole in the tire. It didn’t go down, but was leaking slow. It got low enough when we got up to speed (after the restart) that it pushed it off the wheel. The wheel dug in and turned me around. That killed our chance for that.”

Swindell was competing for second place when the incident occurred in the closing laps. He was credited with a 14th-place finish. That lined him up deep in the C Main on Saturday. Swindell gained a handful of positions before finishing eighth, which missed a transfer by four spots.

He returned to the half-mile oval on Sunday in the Swindell SpeedLab No. 39 to tackle the 8th annual Bell Helmets Capitani Classic presented by Great Southern Bank.

“It wasn’t too bad starting out,” he said. “In the warmup we were second quick in our group and was up on the board. But it was another deal similar to what we ran at Eldora. We were at the end of where the split is (in the time trial groups). We made some changes from the warmups, but we were tight off the corner. That hurt me probably a tenth to a tenth and a half. That cost me a few positions. We were 13th, which is one out of the inversion for the heat. I think we were fifth from the end and we would have been second quickest in the second group so it was a situation of circumstances.”

Swindell qualified 13th quickest in his group before placing sixth in a heat race and eighth in a B Main.

“We didn’t have the best balance we could have had,” he said. “At the speeds we run if you get held up one way or another you lose so much ground. In the B Main I was fifth so I tried to run the top because the guys in front were running the bottom. We just didn’t have the car to where we could run the top.”

Swindell and the Swindell SpeedLab team will return to action at Knoxville Raceway during the 59th annual NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s General Stores, which runs this Wednesday through Saturday.

“We just have to look at where we were at and try to make the right decisions to be a bit better,” Swindell said. “From the qualifying we know we can be close. We have to get everything to where it’s a bit better in traffic. We’ll look at that and hopefully make all the right decisions and that we can get a little bit better draw than we have been getting. We’ve got everything there. We just have to put it together and hit it right.”

QUICK RESULTS –

Aug. 2 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – Qualifying: 8; Heat race: 6 (5); B Main: 14 (4).

Aug. 3 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – C Main: 8 (12).

Aug. 4 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – Qualifying: 13; Heat race: 6 (5); B Main: 8 (5).

SEASON STATS –

15 races, 0 wins, 4 top fives, 6 top 10s, 9 top 15s, 10 top 20s

UP NEXT –

Wednesday through Saturday at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa, for the 59th annual NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s General Stores

MEDIA LINKS –

Website: http://www.SammySwindell1.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/1sam91

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Sweet Manufacturing

Sweet Manufacturing was incorporated in 1978 with the basic concept of providing racers with steering products that would offer a competitive advantage. For more information, visit http://www.SweetMfg.biz/home.php.

“I’ve been with Randy Sweet and Sweet Manufacturing going on our fifth year,” Swindell said. “He continues to make improvements to his steering gears. For all the people who don’t have one they don’t know what they’re missing out on.”

Swindell would also like to thank John Christner Trucking, Rossie Feed & Grain, High Performance Lubricants, Whitacre Glass, Simpson Race Products, FK Rod Ends, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Premier Truck Group, Hopf Farms, Schoenfeld Headers, W&B Service Company, Superior Trailer Sales, South Bay Partners 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.

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