Concord, NC —

Catching Up With….

Sammy Swindell

Germantown, Tennessee

Off the track, Sammy Swindell may be very quiet, but on the track, he lets his driving do the talking for him, and it has spoken volumes for well over 30 years.

The native of Germantown, Tennessee competed in a number of events during the inaugural Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season in 1978, including the series first event at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Texas, where he finished fourth. He won twice during the 1978 campaign, picking up his series win at Devil’s Bowl Speedway, on September 16. He was also victorious in 1978 with the World of Outlaws at Lawton Speedway in Oklahoma.

Swindell won his first of three World of Outlaws championships in 1981, on the strength of 28 A-Feature wins. He followed that up in 1982 with another title, and also won a title in 1997. He made history with his third World of Outlaws title, becoming the first owner/driver to win a championship with the series. In his career, Swindell finished in the Top-10 in the series championship standings 17 times.

The Hall of Fame driver is second all-time on the World of Outlaws win list with 268 A-Feature victories. He has won A-Feature events with the series in 28 different seasons. Among his biggest wins are the 1983 Knoxville Nationals, the 1992 and 1999 Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway, the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup at Lernerville Speedway in Pennsylvania on three occasions, the 1981 Gold Cup Race of Champions and the1997 National Open at Williams Grove Speedway. In his career, Swindell has won A-Feature events at 88 tracks with the World of Outlaws, in 29 states and one Canadian province.

Swindell became the only driver in history to win two World of Outlaws races on the same, accomplishing that feat at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse and Rolling Wheels Raceway Park in Elbridge, New York on October 12, 1991. He also was the first driver to “Sweep” a World of Outlaws event, setting fast time, winning a heat race, winning the Crane Cams Dash and winning the A-Feature, at Bridgeport Speedway in New Jersey on August 7, 1995.

Swindell began racing modifieds in his home state of Tennessee in 1971 and competed in his first sprint car race in 1973, winning for the first time in one the following season. Overall in his career, Swindell has won nearly 600 times in a sprint car from coast-to-coast.

In 1997, he was named to the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association All-America Team for the first time, an honor bestowed to a select few drivers over the years.

Swindell was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2006 and still competes on a limited basis. Last season he finished fourth with the World of Outlaws at Volunteer Speedway in Tennessee and was also fourth at the Gold Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway in California.

Thoughts on the first Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Car Series event at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in 1978: “There was a lot of excitement. There were a lot of things going on and a lot of changes going on at that point. I had run there quite a few times in the middle 1970’s and that was really one of the first places we ran other than around home. We had always done pretty well there. I remember everyone just being very excited. I think I only ran about 10 races that season, but that’s just because of the situation I was in. The team that I was driving for, that is all they could really afford.”

Thoughts on the inaugural World of Outlaws season in 1978: “When it all started, any race that paid $2,000 or more to win was an ‘Outlaws’ race. Some you could not go to because there were two on the same night. Then it changed and became a series where they had events at certain tracks. If you paid $2,000 or more you had the name “World of Outlaws” on your race. Some people probably don’t even remember that. It changed really quick in the late 70’s and early 80’s. It went from a very small series to a bigger one really quick. In 1980, we ran all of the races and I think we ran 131 nights.”

Thoughts on what made the World of Outlaws so popular in the early days of the series: “There were a lot of places that we would go, where the people had never seen these types of races or these drivers. It was not like today where you know what is instantly going on with the Internet. There were things that people would hear about and never see. There were a lot of places that I had never seen or been to. It was a lot of fun and a lot work, but we were able to see a lot of the country and meet a lot of people. We had a pretty good time.”

Thoughts on the differences between sprint car racing 30 years ago and sprint car racing today: “There’s a lot more to do now, especially with the maintenance. We use to run tires for sometimes half the season, because they were so much harder. That was something we didn’t have to as much of, was stuff with the tires. You started with a rack of tires and that is pretty much what you had for the rest of the year. The same with the motors. We would run the motors for probably 30 races or so and all the parts as well. There was not as much stuff back then and the expenses were not there. We never had spare cars or spare rears or fronts. We were lucky if we had a second motor. Most of the time we had the car that was on the trailer and if there was something that needed to be done with it we had to find a place. It’s a whole different environment now. Some of these younger guys would probably be amazed at some of the stuff we did on the road that they would never be exposed to.”

Thoughts on the hundreds of wins during his career: “It all had to be special at some point. There are some that have more meaning than others and maybe some of the bigger races we won, we may have had a dominating car and those don’t stick out as much as the ones that I might have won on the last turn. It might have been some little track that nobody has ever heard of that I won on the last lap and I might remember that one more than one that I won pretty easy. There were all kinds (of wins) and there were so many, that’s it just hard to have to stop and really think about them. I’ll have people stop me and say they remember me running somewhere and I only ran there once and it was 30 years ago. Some of it is hard to stay on top of, but it’s been an experience that nobody can take away.”

Thoughts on the longevity of his career: “The way I was, I wasn’t even sure I would live that long. Back then there were a lot of guys that weren’t that old running the cars. Guy’s careers didn’t last near that long. When I was back there, you were lucky to be racing against guys in there 40’s. Now there are guys in their 50’s and I feel like I can still compete. It’s so much different now than it was. There are a lot of things that are different.”

“I would do it all again. You can always sit back and say, I should have done this or could have done that. You see mistakes that you made or turns that you made wrong. Even today you see that, and think well yesterday I could have done this or made that easier. I’m, sure that’s with anyone. It was a lot of fun, and it was a good experience. I was able to see a lot of the country, meet a lot of people and do a lot of different things. I was able to do something that I loved to do and made a living at it.”