By Bob Baker
KNOXVILLE, IOWA (August 13, 2010) – As the late Jack Miller would have announced to the Knoxville Nationals crowd at the top of his voice, “HOLY COW!” With Sammy Swindell’s win in last night’s second preliminary show for the open-competition 50th annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals presented by Lucas Oil at the Knoxville Raceway, the Tennessee native is well-positioned to claim the 2010 Cox Design & Metal Fabrication Iowa Speed Week point championship and its Jesse Hockett “Mr. Sprint Car” title. All Sammy has to do is start Friday night’s Premier Chevy Dealers Knoxville World Challenge and Saturday night’s National Championship main event and the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame (NSCHoF) inductee will be the new “Mr. Sprint Car”. Friday night’s Premier Chevy Dealers Knoxville World Challenge is the next points-paying round of the Iowa Speed Week.
The unofficial top twenty in the 2010 Cox Design Iowa Speedweek points after eight nights are as follows: 1., Sammy Swindell, 244 points; 2., Bronson Maeschen, 205 points; 3., Brandon “Bud” Kaeding, 185 points; 4., Brooke Tatnell, 177 points; 5., Robby Wolfgang, 171 points; 6., Brian Brown, 170 points; 7., Brady Bacon, 167 points; 8., Davey Heskin, 162 points; 9., Shane Stewart, 150 points; 10., Johnny Herrera, 147 points; 11., Rager Phillips, 143 points; 12., Jason Johnson & Jamie Veal, 137 points (tied); 14., Cale Conley, 130 points; 15., Randy Hannagan, 126 points; 16., Tony Bruce, Jr., 117 points; 17., Tim Kaeding, 114 points; 18., Mark Dobmeier, 110 points; 19., A.J. “Skip” Jackson, 97 points; 20., Dustin Selvage, 96 points.
The Cox Design & Metal Fabrication Iowa Speedweek includes ten straight nights of sprint car racing between Knoxville Raceway and the Southern Iowa Speedway. The top three places pay $2,500, $1,000, and $500, respectively, with the winner declared the Jesse Hockett “Mr. Sprint Car” titlist. Past “Mr. Sprint Car” titlists include Ricky Logan (2002) of Arkansas, Shane Stewart (2003, ’04) of Oklahoma, Billy Alley (2005) of Nebraska, Jason Johnson (2006) of Louisiana, Wayne Johnson (2007, ‘08) of Oklahoma, and Terry McCarl (2009) of Iowa.