Three-time World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champion Sammy Swindell entered the Knoxville Nationals for the 48th time this year at 68 years old.
Why? He still enjoys racing, and people are still calling.
“I’m out here and people are calling me to go drive cars,” Swindell said. “Maybe sometimes I shouldn’t. I’ve been in some situations where I’ve been promised a lot and didn’t get it. But have to deal with that and move on. I’ve got a good group here (at Knoxville). We’re just doing something completely different.”
The 1983 Knoxville Nationals champion has teamed with Memphis native Shawn Woods and renowned chassis builder Flea Ruzic for the latest edition of “The Granddaddy of Them All.” And while he’s ran the event for nearly 50 years and sits sixth on the all-time wins list at Knoxville Raceway, his No. 1 machine shares few similarities to the cars he’s driven before. Some of its unique features include coil over shocks on all four corners, the front torsion bars are inside the frame and the right front shock is inside the frame.
“This is a little bit of a challenge,” Swindell said. “This car is different, a bit different. It’s back close to coil over cars. Shawn Woods had a bucket list of things he wanted to do, so we did a few things and got together with Flea Ruzic. We came here and ran the car. We ran some 15.80s, which was quicker than anybody running that night. When we were here it was just practice. So, we went back and made a lot of changes and figured we’d come up here and see what we can do.
“We don’t really have any notes on where we’re at. We have a new motor. It’s going to be tough. But we have a shot.”
Various gremlins with the car hindered Swindell’s chances to race for a spot in Saturday’s main event during Wednesday’s preliminary night but he will be back for Friday’s Hard Knox Night, which transfers the top four finishers to Saturday’s Feature.
“There are a lot of times I’ve come here and realized I’m in one of the best cars or a top-10 car,” he said. “Now, the few years I’ve been here it hasn’t been that way. It makes it tough. I know what I’ve got and what I’m doing, what I’m running. I know if we had a good night, or a bad night based off of what I’m driving at the time.
“If we take a 20th-place car and finish in the top 10, we did pretty good. People can’t just base it off of well, you know, you’re not winning races, you’re not doing this, you’re not doing that.”
Knoxville isn’t his first time back behind the wheel this year either. He’s ran several 360 Sprint Car races with the United Sprint Car Series and some American Sprint Car Series regional series, picking up multiple top five and top-10s finishes among them. He’s also spent time helping mentor young drivers like rising star Kaylee Bryson.
No matter his results, when the name “Sammy Swindell” is cited, the Sprint Car legend continues to be honored with as much recognition as any current star. It’s an element in the fuel that keeps him coming back.
“You can’t beat it,” Swindell said. “I have a lot of fans that support me and a lot of things throughout my career. For people to stick with me and still want to help me and do things is pretty neat to have that relationship with a lot of people. I’m having fun and we’re going to do the best we can do no matter what it is.
“I just enjoy driving and doing it.”
You can watch Swindell compete in the Knoxville Nationals Hard Knox Night on Friday, Aug. 9, by buying tickets HERE, or watching every lap live on DIRTVision.
