By the time Sammy Swindell won his third Short Track Nationals title, it was no longer his birthday.
And perhaps it was a little late for someone his age to still be out and about.
But Swindell, who celebrated his 58th birthday on Saturday, belied his age and dominated a field of younger drivers at the 26th Comp Cams Short Track Nationals, taking the checkered flag shortly before 1:30 a.m. Sunday at Little Rock’s I-30 Speedway.
Neither the late hour nor a track made extremely heavy and tacky by an early evening rain shower could slow Swindell.
“Yeah, but we had a real good car,” Swindell said when it was suggested that the track conditions were better suited for younger drivers. “It was going around there pretty easy. Thursday night and tonight [Saturday] we had a pretty good handle on it, when it was slick and then how it was tonight.”
Swindell, of Germantown, Tenn., won his preliminary feature Thursday night and collected $15,600 for Saturday night’s victory. He also claimed STN championships in 1990 and 2011.
A total of 105 drivers from 21 states competed in the event, which began Wednesday night, but not one was older than Swindell and most were considerably younger.In fact, the combined ages of the second- and third-place finishers Christopher Bell (17) and Anthony Nicholson (26) were still 15 years younger than Swindell.
But, Swindell said, he has no desire to retire any time soon.
“I’ve always said when I can’t win and I don’t think that I’m competitive enough to win, that’ll be when it’s time for me to get out of the seat,” he said. “I don’t know when that will be. I don’t have a time, deadline, nothing. When I feel that I can’t do the job, that’s when it’s time for me to leave.”
Swindell started on the pole Saturday night alongside his 24-year-old son, Kevin. Father and son, who have combined to win nine ChiliBowl Midget Nationals titles, charged side by side into Turn 1 at the green flag. Kevin appeared briefly to have the advantage before the two banged wheels in the middleof the turn. Sammy pulled ahead on the backstretch and settled into the top spot.
“I wasn’t expecting him to turn down so early,” said Sammy, who has five Chili Bowl titles. “I was giving him room and I was actually in the grease a little bit. I didn’t slide up, but he ran across there and it was like, ‘Oh, crap.’ I tried to give him room [offTurn 4] even though I didn’t have to, I guess, because I got a pretty good start.
“But it was OK. He’s pushed me around a little bit at the Chili Bowl before. You’re going to have that on this little track. I don’t think it hurt either one of us.”
Kevin had begun to close in on his father in lapped traffic when he spun, wheelied and crashed into the utility tires at the exit of Turn 4 on the 19th lap. He did not return and finished 18th.
The race’s only other caution came on the restart when David Gravel of Watertown, Conn., Channin Tankersley of Highlands, Texas, and Seth Bergman of Snohomish, Wash., tangled.
Sammy Swindell was never challenged and pulled away to a comfortable victory.
For the second year in a row, the drive of the race belonged to Bell, who was the runner-up for the second year in a row, his only two STN appearances.
“You always want to win, but running second to Sammy is nothing to be ashamed of,” said Bell, of Norman, Okla. “He’s the best in the business and has been for 40-something years.”
Racing began at about 6 p.m. Saturday with a series of qualifiers. But after the running of two E-Main features and two D-Mains, a light rain began to fall shortly after 7 p.m. The rain finally relented at about 9 p.m. and after about two hours of track prep and packing, racing resumed.
Afterward, the track was tacky and fast, making mistakes more noticeable and putting drivers in hardcharging mode.
“If you went up there and railed the curb, you could make up a lot of time, but it was tough to do,” Bell said. “On that last restart I wanted to get around Sammy, but I just overdrove the car.”
“It was definitely fast, definitely had to be up on the wheel,” said Nicholson, of Bartlett, Tenn. “We raced a bunch on the top and the bottom. Even though the track was hammer down, you could race on it.”
Johnny Herrera of Albuquerque, N.M., finished fourth and Shane Stewart of Bixby, Okla., was fifth, followed by Chad Kemenah of Findlay, Ohio, and Ray Allen Kulhanek of Conroe, Texas.
Rounding out the top 10 were Terry McCarl of Altoona, Iowa, Tulsa’s Dustin Morgan and Brandon Hanks of Burlison, Tenn.
Two Arkansans made the field for the main event. A.G. Rains of West Memphis, who earned I-30’s track champion provisional, started 21 st and finished 12th. Marion’s Derek Hagar started 19th and finished 14th.
Sports, Pages 21 on 10/28/2013