From Pete Walton
Atlanta, GA – (February 27, 2015) – Three-time World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Champion and sprint car racing legend Slammin’Sammy Swindell tops the entry list for the United Sprint Car Series 2015 season opener when the series invades Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Mississippi for the sprint car portion of the 7th annual “Frost Buster 250” presented by Carl Hogan Toyota (www.carlhogantoyota.com ) to kick off its 2015 season on Friday and Saturday, March 6th and 7th. Although he lives just three hours away in Germantown, Tennessee, it will be his first ever appearance at Magnolia Motor Speedway
Swindell’s career and name is legendary. He has won almost every major event in open wheel dirt track racing for winged sprint cars. He has also earned three World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series National championships and ranks second in career wins in World of Outlaws with 294 wins in the premier sprint car series.
Swindell has also claimed almost every major sprint car event, including the Knoxville Nationals, the Gold Cup Race of Champions in Chico, California, the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway, the Williams Grove National Open, the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup, the Selinsgrove (Speedway) Open, the Western World Championships at Manzanita Speedway and the Syracuse Super Nationals on the 1 mile track at the Syracuse, NY Fairgrounds just to name a few.
He additionally picked up victories and set 1/2 mile dirt track World records at Bristol Motor Speedway when it was covered in dirt for World of Outlaws events in 2000 and 2001. His five Chili Bowl Nationals victories are the most for any driver at the famed indoor midget event held each January in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He recently finished third in the 2015 version of the event out of 320 entries.
Swindell, who was elected into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2006, has accumulated more than 600 feature victories and at least one win in every season since his career started four decades ago.
Swindell made the decision to “back down” from a full time coast-to-coast schedule of approximately 100 races per year in August of 2014. Although he competed in the 2015 Chili Bowl Nationals midget car race, this will be his first race back in a winged sprint car. To quote Sammy, says USCS Founder and President, Pete Walton, “I’m just really doing this for fun’ said Sammy.” According to Walton, “But, I don’t think by fun to Sammy it would be to run second”.
Sammy Swindell will not only be the most recognizable sprint car driver name causing him top the entry list, he will pilot the #01 car owned by capable car owner and crew chief Donnie Cooper from Jefferson City, Missouri. Cooper’s cars have twice won the famed Short Track Nationals held the last weekend of October at I-30 Speedway in Benton, Arkansas.
Swindell will not be short on competition for the check each night at “The MAG”. At least four drivers ranked in the top 25 or mentioned in the Top 40 drivers receiving votes in the 2014 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Driver of the Year poll are also entered. Those include 2013 and 2014 Frostbuster Champion and 2013 USCS National Champion, Derek Hagar from Marion, Arkansas plus 2013 USCS National Champion and previous USCS Magnolia feature winner, Tim Crawley from Benton Arkansas. Also entered are the 2014 and 11-time USCS sprint car Champion, Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee and his team-mate Morgan Turpen from Cordova, Tennessee who was ranked in the poll and is the top ranked female sprint car driver in North America. Turpen was the 2014 USCS Road to Atlanta, Hoosier Asphalt Series titlist.
Sammy Swindell and these other top drivers plus additional entries from at least seven states are expected to compete on both nights in the USCS event that features a complete USCS sprint racing program each night for the winged sprint cars. Over $20,000 in prize money is posted with $1500 going to the winner on Friday night and $2500 posted for the feature winner in Saturday night’s 30-lap Frostbuster sprint car finale.
The event, at what is considered by many as the Mid South’s premier dirt oval racing facility, will award National Championship points and USCS Mid South Thunder regional series Championship points each night. The event also gives the drivers from the USCS Southern Thunder region a chance to use their finish at Magnolia to replace a USCS Southern Thunder regional event finish as a bonus for participating in this Mid South region event.
Race fans and the race teams will be treated to a full menu of early season speed contests with racing in eight of the area’s most popular divisions. The event includes one of only two scheduled 2015 season appearances for the USCS “Outlaw Thunder” Tour presented by K&N Filters winged sprint cars plus the K&N Filters USCS Outlaw Modified Series and the www.rockauto.com USCS 600 Sprint Car Series mini sprints at Magnolia Motor Speedway. The racing action will feature over 400 laps of racing around the 3/8 mile clay oval including 250+ laps of Championship main events.
Action kicks off on Friday night at 7:30pm with a full racing program in seven divisions including the 130 mile per hour USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour winged sprint cars. They will be joined by the mighty K&N Filters USCS Outlaw Modified Series, Nesmith Dirt Late Model, www.RockAuto.com USCS 600 Sprint Car Series mini sprint, Street Stock, Factory Stock and Mini Stock divisions on Friday’s racing card.
The Magnolia Motor Speedway season-opener turns up the tempo on Saturday night with the addition of the 800 horsepower ground-pounding Super Late Models. The racing divisions featured in back-to-back nights in the cavalcade of racing include the United Sprint Car Series presented by K&N Filters winged sprint cars, the mighty K&N Filters USCS Modified Series, Super Late Models (Saturday), Nesmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Models, plus the popular Magnolia Motor Speedway weekly racing series Street Stocks and Factory Stocks. Also on the racing card will be the Mini Stock racing division in their only scheduled appearance at “The Mag” so far in 2015.
NASCAR veteran racer and frequent TV commentator, Ken Schrader is again entered to compete in the K&N Filters USCS Outlaw Modified Series portion of the event on both Friday and Saturday nights. The appearance by the Schrader will be a re-match of sorts as Schrader captured the win in last year’s event after besting a 40 car USCS Outlaw Modified field. It will only be Schrader’s third-ever appearance at the track in an Outlaw Modified race car. So far in his previous two appearances he is undefeated. Schrader was the 2012 as well as the 2014 “Frostbuster 250” USCS Modified event Champion, Ken Schrader has 970 starts in NASCAR’s top three divisions including 763 Sprint Cup (formerly the Winston Cup) divisions.
Race fans may enter to win V.I.P. tickets/passes for a driver meet and greet and to not only have tickets to the races, but to have access to the Magnolia Motor Speedway V.I.P. suite during the races.
Magnolia Motor Speedway is located just West of Columbus, Mississippi at the junction of US Highway 82 and US Highway 45 South. For more info and for directions to Magnolia Motor Speedway please visit www.magnoliadirt.com or call 662-240-3478 (or 662-574-2572). For info on the United Sprint Car Series, K&N Filters USCS Outlaw Modified Series or www.rockauto.com USCS 600 Sprint Car Series please visit www.uscsracing.com or call 770-460-7223 or 770-865-6097.