Swindell Captures the NAPA Auto Parts Outlaw Showdown

A perfect night for racing at America’s home track saw the return of the World of Outlaws 410 winged sprints to the high banks as SLS Promotions ended a too long hiatus of the best of the best in winged sprint car racing.

Sammy Swindell just missed a clean sweep of the racing action at Eagle Raceway Wednesday night after failing to be the quick qualifier, timing in fourth. But, that was the only contest that he didn’t win; capturing his heat, the dash and the A Feature in convincing style.

Swindell, Ian Madsen’s 7K and the 33 of Danny Lasoski were the heat race winners.

The A Feature saw Swindell start on the pole and he held kept the #1 in the lead at the end of the first lap with Cody Darrah’s #4 in second, the #7 of Craig Dollansy third and Donny Schatz’s #15 fourth. Lap 6 saw Schatz get past Dollansky for third. The first caution of the race came when Joey Saldana looped his #9 on lap 13. Kraig Kinser momentarily moved into fourth on the restart, but Dollansky passed him back to regain the position. Terry McCarl’s #24 stopped in turn 3 on lap 17 for the final caution. McCarl dropped to the infield shortly after that and the race went yellow-free to the finish.

Swindell maintained the lead throughout the event, holding off Darrah, Schatz and Dollansky for his series leading 12th win this year. He also has the most heat race wins and most qualifying bonus points. Despite all of those facts, he currently sits in third posiiton in the World of Outlaws points; he is 117 points behind points leader Schatz and 94 behind Dollansky.

“The track tonight was where you had to battle; it was tough” Swindell said. We’ve got a new car here, but everything went great. The car was really good, and I had a good time” he continued. When asked if he still enjoyed racing in his 40th year he stated “Most times, but we had a run of bad luck. Broken parts, stuff like that. But, it’s definitely been a good fun year”.

This was the last event of the 2012 racing season, but Eagle Raceway is already gearing up for 2013, which will be the 50th Anniversary of the track. Stay tuned to www.eagleraceway.com for news.

NAPA Auto Parts Outlaw Showdown Statistical Report; Eagle Raceway; Eagle, Neb.; Sept. 19, 2012
A-Main – (40 Laps) – 1. 1-Sammy Swindell [1]; 2. 4-Cody Darrah [5]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz [6]; 4. 7-Craig Dollansky [2]; 5. 29-Kerry Madsen [11]; 6. 11K-Kraig Kinser [4]; 7. 33-Danny Lasoski [8]; 8. 13-Mark Dobmeier [13]; 9. 7K-Ian Madsen [9]; 10. 11-Steve Kinser [12]; 11. 14-Tony Stewart [14]; 12. 82-Justin Henderson [17]; 13. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [15]; 14. 9-Joey Saldana [18]; 15. 91-Dusty Zomer [7]; 16. 6-Bill Rose [10]; 17. 53-Jack Dover [21]; 18. 63-Chad Kemenah [20]; 19. 24-Terry McCarl [16]; 20. 21-Brian Brown [19]; 21. 41-Jason Johnson [3]. Lap Leaders: Sammy Swindell 1-40. KSE Hard Charger Award: 29-Kerry Madsen [+6].