TULSA, Okla. — Kevin Swindell is a six-time Chili Bowl champion, counting the four Golden Drillers he won as a driver and the two he’s won with Logan Seavey at the wheel of his No. 39 midget.
It’s been a long road for the 34-year-old to travel between his final Chili Bowl victory (2013) and Seavey’s first (2023), but on Saturday night at SageNet Center, Swindell had a telling smile on his face.
“To come in here with some unknowns about the changes with the tires and everything and to be kind of be able to pick up where we left off was really good,” Swindell said. “Last night, (Seavey) kind of got himself in a hole and then dug himself out of it.”
The instance Swindell was referring to was Seavey’s seventh-to-first drive in his Friday night qualifying feature, which was one of the first potential hiccups of the pairing’s Chili Bowl week.
A second major glitch, which could’ve cost them the win, occurred during Saturday night’s 55-lap race.
“We actually had a couple little gremlins pop up here in the feature that we just survived,” Swindell said. “I think we had about three quarters of a gallon of fuel left because of a little issue, so that almost got us.”
There was a twinge of disbelief in Swindell’s voice as he recapped the week the Swindell-Curb-Bertrand Motorsports crew experienced at the Chili Bowl and how it ended in victory lane for a second year in a row.
“It’s incredible when you think about Keith (Kunz) having 15 cars or whatever it is they have down there, compared to us showing up once a year with one car and one guy,” Swindell said. “It feels really cool to accomplish.”
But on a personal note, the Tennessee native has a great deal of gratitude for Seavey and the relationship he’s built with the two-time USAC national midget champion.
“Logan and me go back to, I don’t know, probably 2015 or 2016 right after I got hurt,” Swindell said, referring to his 2015 wreck at the Knoxville Nationals that left him paralyzed from the waist down. “I remember he was one of the people that, when I was stuck doing nothing, I was playing video games with him and stuff. To give him a great opportunity here is awesome.
“I think the kid’s a world-class race car driver and he shows it time and time again.”