Perhaps it's best not to describe Sammy Swindell as being in the twilight of his racing career anymore.
Swindell, 61, won his fourth Short Track Nationals title Saturday night at I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, mastering a tricky track surface that stumped many of the nation's top sprint car drivers, most of whom were half his age or younger.
In Victory Lane after the race, Swindell shrugged when asked if he took pride in continuing to beat his younger competitors.
"It makes it a little more important -- I guess that's the word -- because there's not that many left," said Swindell, who collected $15,825 with the victory. "I know I'm on the back end here. They're all important, so I am going to try to get as many as I can before it gets to that point where I stop."
That, Swindell said, is not yet being considered.
"As long I can keep winning, I'll keep trying," he said.
A resident of Bartlett, Tenn., Swindell also claimed STN titles in 2013, 2011 and 1990. He joins Gary Wright (2004, 2003, 1999, 1995) as the event's only four-time winners.
Swindell, who was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2006, started third in Saturday's 40-lap main event. Polesitter Tim Crawley of Benton and second-place starter Tim Shaffer of Aliquippa, Pa., dueled for the lead at the start, with Shaffer taking the top spot at the end of the first lap.
Swindell settled into third and passed Crawley for second on the third lap after a restart.
The leaders started encountering lapped traffic by the 10th lap, which is when Swindell began to challenge for the lead and eventually took the position by sliding in front of Shaffer on the exit of turn 4 on the 15th lap.
Shaffer harassed Swindell for the lead throughout the middle portions of the race. He twice pulled alongside Swindell on the frontstraight but was never able to make the pass stick.
The caution came out on the 28th lap when Terry McCarl of Altoona, Iowa, bounced off the frontstretch wall and came to a stop at the entrance of turn 1. On the restart, Swindell pulled away to a large lead and was never challenged again.
The track surface was considerably different on opposite ends of the quarter-mile clay oval, and it befuddled many drivers as it changed throughout the main event. But Swindell wisely chose the times to swap racing grooves to maintain the lead in the second half of the race.
"The track changed all through the race, it seemed like," he said. "You had to run the middle, then that went away and the bottom came in for a little bit. The bottom was what got me to the front, but then it slowed down too much.
"But it seemed like I was doing the right things at the right time."
"I just stayed [off the bottom groove] too long," said Shaffer, 49, who finished second. "I probably should have moved down. I started getting a little free up there. There late, all we had was the bottom. I was able to hit it. Just should have gotten down there earlier."
Swindell's son, Kevin, is former sprint racer who has been sidelined after suffering a broken back in a crash at Knoxville, Iowa, in August 2015. Sammy said part of the reason he continues to race is to help Kevin, who has become a car owner as he continues to work to regain mobility in his legs.
"Since he's trying to do some stuff in racing, it helps that I can help him because he knows that I can still do it," Sammy said.
Kevin took part in the postrace celebration with his father Saturday. His driver, Spencer Bayston of Lebanon, Ind., started 18th in the event and finished 10th.
Jason Johnson of Eunice, La., the 2006 STN winner, finished third and Crawley, the 1998 winner, was fourth. Brian Bell of Gallaway, Tenn., finished fifth.
Mark Smith of Sunbury, Pa., took sixth, followed by Chad Kemenah of Findlay, Ohio. Marion's Derek Hagar was eighth, his best STN finish. Rounding out the top 10 were Trey Starks of Puyallup, Wash., and Bayston.
Marshall Skinner of West Memphis finished 19th. A.G. Rains, also of West Memphis and Swindell's car owner, was 21st.
Sports on 11/07/2016