From Inside Line Promotions
Tulsa, OK — (January, 21, 2014) — Once again, Sammy Swindell showed that he has one of the fastest cars.
Unfortunately for the Big Game Motorsports driver, luck was missing during the 28th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire at Tulsa Expo Raceway last weekend.
Swindell opened the premier midget event by charging from fourth place to win his heat race during his qualifying night last Wednesday. That gave him the third-most points heading into the qualifiers, which Swindell started sixth.
However, he was quickly shuffled to last place – 10th – when he was trapped between two cars and knocked sideways.
“I was stuck in the middle,” he said. “I lost all the spots and went to last and came back to fifth.”
Swindell rebounded to pick up five positions in the closing laps, which earned him enough points to advance to the main event. He then started on the inside of the seventh row for the 25-lap feature, which locked the top-three finishers into Saturday’s main event – a race that was broadcast live on MAVTV.
Swindell quickly moved into the top 10 of his qualifying feature and was running fifth during a late caution with only a handful of laps remaining. Swindell then capitalized on a wild restart and climbed into the runner-up position with two laps remaining.
“I should have won it,” he said. “I just slipped that one time getting off of turn two. I lost that little bit of momentum. It was close.”
Swindell, who briefly took the lead, came up a nose short of the victory and he finished second by only 0.441 seconds. That locked him into Saturday’s 55-lap main event, which he started on the outside of the third row.
“I wasn’t too worried,” he said. “I knew the car would be good the second half of the race. I moved up a bit and I got trapped with those two guys racing each other. You can’t tear your car up and get a good finish. I was waiting because I knew those cars would slow down and I would get better. I usually don’t run hard the first half and then we turn it up a bit. The part I can’t control is the part about getting run into.”
After maintaining fifth place for most of the first 24 laps, Swindell was smashed into exiting turn two on Lap 25. The contact spun him toward the infield and when he reentered the track going into turn one, Swindell was scored one lap down.
“Our car got hurt pretty bad,” he said. “I got turned around almost the wrong way and had to go through the infield. I thought I could get my lap back and I could make some adjustments. I didn’t know how bad the damage was.”
Swindell ended with a 14th-place result as the first car a lap down.
“There’s so many things that are out of your control,” he said.
Swindell and his Big Game Treestands team will kick off the sprint car season Feb. 12-16 at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., for 43rd annual UNOH DIRTcar Nationals Presented by Summit Racing Equipment with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series.
QUICK RESULTS –
Jan. 15 – Tulsa Expo Raceway in Tulsa, Okla. – Heat race: 1 (4); Qualifier: 5 (6); Feature: 2 (13).
Jan. 18 – Tulsa Expo Raceway in Tulsa, Okla. – Feature: 14 (6).
UP NEXT –
Feb. 12-16 at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., for 43rd annual UNOH DIRTcar Nationals Presented by Summit Racing Equipment with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series
MEDIA LINKS –
Big Game Treestands: http://www.BigGameTreestands.
Aggressive Hydraulics: http://www.
MobileStar: http://www.MobileStar.us/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Big_Game_
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/