TULSA, Okla. — Chili Bowl master Sammy Swindell may have struck out on Wednesday night at the SageNet Center, but his week isn’t over yet.
The five-time race winner persevered through a frustrating set of circumstances during York Plumbing Qualifying Night, finishing fifth in his heat race and 10th in his qualifier.
“We’re missing it a little here, missing there,” Swindell said. “We passed quite a few cars in the heat after starting in the back, and almost passed half of them.”
Though he was happy with the forward march early on in the night, he admitted the Swindell Motorsports team struggled to get the car setup right for the qualifier.
“We made some changes for the B (main) and it was better, but it’s still not a hundred percent,” Swindell noted.
Near the end of the evening, Swindell soldiered on to the B main, where he finished sixth in the 16-car field. He nearly clinched a transfer spot after making his way into fifth on lap nine, but he slipped out of the groove and lost the position.
“I made a little mistake, got up over the cushion and got slowed down between (turns) one and two. Like three or four cars just came through there,” Swindell explained. “Just to do this once a year, it’s getting a little tougher to do it on my own this way. But we’re still having fun.”
The three-time World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion couldn’t hide his innate racer mentality, as he broke down the “little things” he missed and how it could’ve made a difference in his preliminary result.
But even as he hunts down his 26th championship feature start at the Chili Bowl, the veteran racer knows it will take more than skill to make Saturday’s A main. It will take the one factor that every driver inside SageNet Center is searching for: a healthy dose of Chili Bowl luck.
“You’ve just gotta have everything go for you,” Swindell said with a subtle shrug when asked what it takes to win a Golden Driller. “That’s the way it goes.”
And if anyone knows the foundational truth of the Chili Bowl, it’s Swindell. Not only does he own the most victories at the indoor midget race, but he’s also been there since the beginning.
The Tennessee native was present at the first running of the event in 1987.
“I think there was maybe 40 cars and it was two days,” Swindell said. “I actually took the lead in that race and was leading it. That was before they put dirt in the infield.”
He’s seen it all, he’s experienced it all and he hasn’t forgotten the “almosts.”
“Been close a lot of times in past years — a lot of seconds and thirds,” Swindell said. “The one year I should have been back-to-back, we were leading it late, but we got a piece of somebody’s bead lock stuck in my tire.”
The tire went down, Swindell dropped from the lead and finished the race with a flat right-rear tire.
“I still finished third. But there’s a lot of ‘em that (got away), I could’ve had a lot more,” Swindell said. “I’m just fortunate enough to have more than anybody else.”