Sammy Swindell is one of the most accomplished Sprint Car drivers anywhere. At the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series inaugural event Friday night at Merced Speedway, Swindell used lessons learned from an off-season of racing in Australia to hold off a late charge from California native Tim Kaeding.
“I drew from a lot of knowledge from racing down there (Australia) tonight,” said Swindell, who won for the second time this season in his Big Game Treestands Maxim. “We’ve been a consistent top-five car all year long and tonight I just used my experience and put it to good use with the awesome car we had.”
Swindell was indeed the class of the field, posting the fastest time in time trials to kick off the evening. Kaeding was on the pole for the main event after an impressive performance in the dash that had the Roth Motorsports driver feeling confident, but it was Kasey Kahne Racing’s Joey Saldana who used a quick jump to get around the polesitter and lead lap the first lap. Swindell, who started fourth, worked his way around Saldana to lead the second lap and he never looked back.
“Sammy was just the class of the field tonight,” said eventual runner-up Kaeding, who resides in San Jose, Calif. “You always hate to finish second but we had a great battle and if you have to finish second, it better be to one of the best.”
Jason Sides wound up third with Jonathan Allard and four-time World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion Donny Schatz rounding out the top five.
Kaeding and the rest of the field had a few chances to reel in Swindell. First was a red flag for a violent flip in Turn 2 that resulted in Trey Starks’ car landing on its side near a concrete barrier. Track and series officials worked fast to remove Starks. On the restart, which was single-file on the small quarter-mile oval, Saldana and Jason Sides mounted a charge. The drivers duked it out with Swindell for the top spot until the field was slowed again for an incident involving Saldana. Lapped traffic was the culprit as Saldana’s Red Bull Maxim made contact with Californian Justin Sanders’ car. The damage was extensive to Saldana’s machine but the crew, led by Kale Kahne, managed to get Saldana back on track.
After a quick restart and spin by Kerry Madsen, the field strung out during a prolonged green flag period. A spin by Chad Kemenah prompted a restart with just 11 laps to go. Kaeding mounted one final charge as the white flag flew. He and Swindell raced side-by-side but Swindell powered up off of Turn 2 and held on to take the checkered flag.
Saldana, who was tied with Steve Kinser atop the World of Outlaws championship standings entering the night, rallied to finish 16. Saldana added three points for his qualifying effort, but Kinser raced to a 10th-place finish to retake the points lead.
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