8/20/2018
Inside Line Promotions
Swindell Produces 20th Podium Finish of Season During All Star Show in New York
(Photo courtesy of All Stars)
Inside Line Promotions – LEBANON VALLEY, N.Y. (Aug. 20, 2018) – Sammy Swindell earned his 20th podium finish of the season on Sunday during an Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions event at Lebanon Valley Speedway.
The even more impressive part is that it occurred during Swindell’s season debut behind the wheel of Jared Zimbardi’s sprint car. It marked the fourth different team Swindell has netted a top-five result with this season. He has recorded a top-six finish for five different teams in 2018.
“We definitely started off pretty good being the fastest car in practice and coming back to be the fastest one in qualifying,” Swindell said. “The guys had the same car I ran last year with a different motor. They do a pretty good job with their stuff. We set the car up close to the same way it was last year and it was all going pretty smooth.”
Swindell set quick time during qualifying and he advanced from fourth to third place in a heat race to make the dash. Unfortunately, he pulled the second-highest number – seven – during the random redraw to start the dash on the inside of the fourth row.
“I pulled that seven out and knew it was going to be a tough night,” he said. “You try to get as much as you can. We got a row there.”
Swindell advanced from seventh to fifth place in the dash to start the A Main fifth.
“The car was making really good starts,” he said. “The track is a fast place with long straightaways and tight turns. When you’re behind somebody you lose the front of the car pretty easy so you have to be careful there.
“At first I wanted to run some laps to see what I could or couldn’t do. I started picking the pace up and trying to pass the guys. We found some stuff where I could run up top in turns one and two and the bottom in turns three and four. I was able to get alongside the leader a couple of times. Once I’d get behind him on the straights the front end would want to pick up. I was dragging the brakes and got them a little hot. We lost them for about five laps. We had a yellow and I was able to pump them about 200 times and got them back.”
The brake problem was followed by Swindell running out of fuel in the closing laps. Fortunately, a caution came out and the drivers were allowed to have fuel put in the race cars.
“I was out and was able to keep coasting around there until they had the open red,” he said. “I wasn’t sure we were going to fire back off after that because it took about a quarter of a lap of being pushed before we started up.”
The team also found two holes in the right rear tire during that late-race caution.
“We didn’t have a lot of choices but to take the bleeder out and fill the tire up with a lot of air,” he said. “We were pretty fortunate with all the things that happened during the race that we got through it.”
Swindell held on for a third-place finish.
It was the lone race of the weekend as All Star races on Friday at Utica-Rome Speedway in Utica, N.Y., and on Saturday at Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, N.Y., rained out.
QUICK RESULTS –
Aug. 19 – Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. – Qualifying: 1; Heat race: 3 (4); Dash: 5 (7); Feature: 3 (5).
SEASON STATS –
44 races, 6 wins, 23 top fives, 28 top 10s, 30 top 15s, 33 top 20s
UP NEXT –
TBD
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.SammySwindell1.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/1sam91
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Simpson Race Products
Simpson Race Products is an American motor sports parts business that supplies gloves, helmets, harness systems, driver’s suits, head restraints, shoes and more ranging from racers at local tracks to international teams. For more information, visit http://www.SimpsonRaceProducts.com.
“Simpson Race Products has been with me since 1974,” Swindell said. “They’ve been keeping me safe for more than 40 years.”
Swindell would also like to thank ACME Graphix & Design, High Performance Lubricants, Whitacre Glass, FK Rod Ends, CP Pistons, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Sweet Manufacturing, Schoenfeld Headers, W&B Service Company, Griffin Fishing Charters and Lodge, South Bay Partners, MyRacePass and Inside Line Promotions for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.
To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.
Article Credit: Inside Line Promotions
Submitted By: Shawn Miller
