SWINDELL RETURNS TO ELDORA’S STAGE WITH KNIGHT BEFORE KINGS ROYAL WIN
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Veterans Shares Stage with NRA Winner Randy Hannagan
ROSSBURG, OHIO (July 11) – Germantown, Tennessee’s Sammy Swindell passed Tim Shaffer on lap 14, withstood several mid-race restarts, and then powered away from the field to pick up a $10,000 victory in the 30-lap Knight Before The Kings Royal Friday night at Eldora Speedway. It was the sprint car legend’s 36th World of Outlaw (WoO) STP Sprint Car Series victory at Eldora Speedway in his 174th career start.
In the companion NRA Sprint Invaders nightcap, Randy Hannagan, who was doing double duty on the night along with Shaffer, took advantage of Shaffer’s misfortune to capture his 6th career NRA victory at Eldora.
“After the year we have had, this feels really good,” Swindell, now 59 years old, said of his second win of the 2014 WoO season. “This has always been one of my favorite race tracks and I like getting up by the wall and seeing how fast you can go.”
Shaffer jumped to the early lead and had pulled out to nearly a straight-away advantage when the lead cars entered lapped traffic on lap 5. That is when Swindell began to methodically erase the straightaway advantage that Shaffer had built up.
Shaffer held off several attempts by Swindell to take over the top spot before Swindell made the winning move. After getting beside Shaffer on several occasions, Swindell dove low below Shaffer in turn three and into the top spot as the exited turn four.
“I just screwed up in the lapped traffic,” Shaffer said. “I made my move too soon and I lost all my momentum and he was able to get that run down the backstretch.”
Lap 18 was a pivotal point. Several caution flags were shown before the lap was finally entered into the scoring records. The second caution flag erased a move that had the huge partisan crowd on their feet for Jac Haudenschild. Dubbed, ‘the wild child’, he advanced five positions before returning to turn four, only to have another yellow flag appear. With his ‘hand’ displayed, the next restart failed to show similar results.
Swindell was never seriously challenged after that as he and Shaffer raced several car lengths ahead of a torrid battle for the third position featuring Kerry Madsen, Shane Stewart, Daryn Pittman and Jac Haudenschild.
That quartet of drivers swapped positions throughout the race before Madsen claimed the third position at the finish. Stewart, who won at Eldora in May, finished in fourth-place, while Pittman, the defending World of Outlaw STP Sprint Car Series champion, completed the top five.
Paul McMahan, who was coming off a win at Limaland Motorsports Park on Wednesday night, outlaw point’s leader Donny Schatz, Haudenschild, Steve Kinser and defending Kings Royal winner Brad Sweet completed the top ten.
Two-time Kings Royal winner Joey Saldana was the fastest qualifier over the 49-car field while Haudenschild, David Gravel, Kinser, Pittman and Chad Kemenah won heat races. Austin Wheatley won the C-main, McMahan captured the Last Chance Showdown and Shaffer won the Dash to earn the pole starting position.
With the knowledge of what the clay surface was providing, Shaffer got behind the wheel of his NRA mount and appeared to have the field covered. However, a spun by a pair of lapped cars on lap 11 collected Shaffer. The end result was four cars flipping, but with no injuries. Shaffer’s run was through.
Veteran Randy Hannagan inherited the lead from there and cruised to an easy win over Tim Allison and Butch Schroeder.
Eldora returns to action tonight (July 12) with the 31st annual Kings Royal and the 40-lap main event which pays the winner $50,000 and the title of King XXXI.
“We were a little tight early in that race but if we can get this thing rolling like that again tomorrow night, we will have a shot at it,” three-time Kings Royal champion Swindell said when asked if he can get the weekend sweep.
Remaining race tickets and campsites for the Kings Royal or any other exciting Eldora event, are available by going online to www.EldoraSpeedway.com. Additionally, tickets and campsites may be purchased through the Eldora offices during normal business hours by calling (937) 338-3815 or on race day.
Race fans and race teams can get behind-the-scenes access by following @EldoraSpeedway on Twitter, hitting ‘Like’ at Facebook.com/EldoraSpeedway and view video highlights at YouTube.com/EldoraSpeedwayInc. Mobile device users can access the Eldora Speedway app for the iPhone, iPad and Android which are available for download via iTunes and Google Play.
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World of Outlaw Sprints
TIME TRIALS – 1. 71-Joey Saldana [19]; 2. 51-Paul Mcmahan [31]; 3. 29-Kerry Madsen [45]; 4. 24A-Rico Abreu [29]; 5. 1-Sammy Swindell [35]; 6. 45S-Tim Shaffer [16]; 7. 83-David Gravel [43]; 8. 2-Shane Stewart [44]; 9. 9-Daryn Pittman [36]; 10. 49-Brad Sweet [41]; 11. 4-Cody Darrah [46]; 12. 82C-Roger Crockett [13]; 13. 20W-Greg Wilson [33]; 14. 49X-Cole Duncan [12]; 15. 15-Donny Schatz [6]; 16. 9W-Jac Haudenschild [2]; 17. 10H-Danny Holtgraver [24]; 18. 11-Steve Kinser [4]; 19. 40-Caleb Helms [30]; 20. 63-Chad Kemenah [3]; 21. 11N-Randy Hannagan [32]; 22. 1S-Logan Schuchart [7]; 23. 14K-Dale Blaney [38]; 24. 21-Brian Brown [5]; 25. 81-Lee Jacobs [49]; 26. 71S-Kevin Swindell [37]; 27. 5T-Travis Philo [1]; 28. 7S-Jason Sides [42]; 29. 24H-Brandon Wimmer [18]; 30. 83X-Jason Meyers [21]; 31. 3G-James Mcfadden [48]; 32. 11K-Kraig Kinser [27]; 33. 19M-Brent Marks [23]; 34. 59K-Tim Kaeding [25]; 35. 9X-Rob Chaney [34]; 36. 48-Danny Dietrich [9]; 37. 44W-Austen Wheatley [22]; 38. 21M-Dallas Hewitt [8]; 39. 19P-Paige Polyak [17]; 40. 1A-Jacob Allen [15]; 41. 60-Kory Crabtree [10]; 42. 33H-Sheldon Haudenschild [40]; 43. 28-Brian Paulus [28]; 44. 16-Danny Mumaw [39]; 45. 2M-Dustin Daggett [11]; 46. 40DD-Caleb Griffith [47]; 47. 2S-Nathan Skaggs [14]; 48. 46AU-Stuart Williams [26]; 49. 59P-Chris Jones [20];
HEAT 1 – 1. 9W-Jac Haudenschild [1]; 2. 4-Cody Darrah [2]; 3. 45S-Tim Shaffer [3]; 4. 71-Joey Saldana [4]; 5. 71S-Kevin Swindell [6]; 6. 11N-Randy Hannagan [5]; 7. 3G-James Mcfadden [7]; 8. 2M-Dustin Daggett [10]; 9. 9X-Rob Chaney [8]; 10. 60-Kory Crabtree [DNF];
HEAT 2 – 1. 83-David Gravel [3]; 2. 10H-Danny Holtgraver [1]; 3. 1S-Logan Schuchart [5]; 4. 11K-Kraig Kinser [7]; 5. 82C-Roger Crockett [2]; 6. 33H-Sheldon Haudenschild [9]; 7. 44W-Austen Wheatley [8]; 8. 2S-Nathan Skaggs [10]; 9. 51-Paul Mcmahan [DNF]; 10. 5T-Travis Philo [DNF];
HEAT 3 – 1. 11-Steve Kinser [1]; 2. 2-Shane Stewart [3]; 3. 29-Kerry Madsen [4]; 4. 20W-Greg Wilson [2]; 5. 14K-Dale Blaney [5]; 6. 59K-Tim Kaeding [7]; 7. 21M-Dallas Hewitt [8]; 8. 28-Brian Paulus [9]; 9. 7S-Jason Sides [DNF]; 10. 46AU-Stuart Williams [DNF];
HEAT 4 – 1. 9-Daryn Pittman [3]; 2. 24H-Brandon Wimmer [6]; 3. 40-Caleb Helms [1]; 4. 49X-Cole Duncan [2]; 5. 21-Brian Brown [5]; 6. 24A-Rico Abreu [4]; 7. 19M-Brent Marks [7]; 8. 19P-Paige Polyak [8]; 9. 59P-Chris Jones [DNF]; 10. 16-Danny Mumaw [DNF];
HEAT 5 – 1. 63-Chad Kemenah [1]; 2. 49-Brad Sweet [3]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz [2]; 4. 1-Sammy Swindell [4]; 5. 81-Lee Jacobs [5]; 6. 48-Danny Dietrich [7]; 7. 83X-Jason Meyers [6]; 8. 1A-Jacob Allen [8]; 9. 40DD-Caleb Griffith [9];
DASH – 1. 45S-Tim Shaffer [1]; 2. 1-Sammy Swindell [2]; 3. 29-Kerry Madsen [3]; 4. 71-Joey Saldana [4]; 5. 9-Daryn Pittman [7]; 6. 2-Shane Stewart [6]; 7. 83-David Gravel [5]; 8. 63-Chad Kemenah [10]; 9. 11-Steve Kinser [9]; 10. 9W-Jac Haudenschild [8];
C FEATURE – 1. 44W-Austen Wheatley [1]; 2. 1A-Jacob Allen [4]; 3. 21M-Dallas Hewitt [2]; 4. 19P-Paige Polyak [3]; 5. 2M-Dustin Daggett [10]; 6. 2S-Nathan Skaggs [11]; 7. 28-Brian Paulus [7]; 8. 59P-Chris Jones [13]; 9. 60-Kory Crabtree [DNF]; 10. 16-Danny Mumaw [DNS]; 11. 33H-Sheldon Haudenschild [DNS]; 12. 40DD-Caleb Griffith [DNS]; 13. 46AU-Stuart Williams [DNS];
B-FEATURE – 1. 51-Paul Mcmahan [1]; 2. 24A-Rico Abreu [2]; 3. 11N-Randy Hannagan [4]; 4. 5T-Travis Philo [9]; 5. 14K-Dale Blaney [5]; 6. 82C-Roger Crockett [3]; 7. 7S-Jason Sides [10]; 8. 3G-James Mcfadden [12]; 9. 71S-Kevin Swindell [8]; 10. 48-Danny Dietrich [15]; 11. 9X-Rob Chaney [16]; 12. 83X-Jason Meyers [11]; 13. 1A-Jacob Allen [17]; 14. 19M-Brent Marks [14]; 15. 21-Brian Brown [6]; 16. 81-Lee Jacobs [7]; 17. 44W-Austen Wheatley [18]; 18. 59K-Tim Kaeding [13];
A FEATURE – 1. 1-Sammy Swindell [2]; 2. 45S-Tim Shaffer [1]; 3. 29-Kerry Madsen [3]; 4. 2-Shane Stewart [6]; 5. 9-Daryn Pittman [5]; 6. 51-Paul Mcmahan [11]; 7. 15-Donny Schatz [17]; 8. 9W-Jac Haudenschild [10]; 9. 11-Steve Kinser [24]; 10. 49-Brad Sweet [13]; 11. 24A-Rico Abreu [12]; 12. 11N-Randy Hannagan [20]; 13. 1S-Logan Schuchart [21]; 14. 10H-Danny Holtgraver [18]; 15. 40-Caleb Helms [19]; 16. 4-Cody Darrah [14]; 17. 63-Chad Kemenah [8]; 18. 11K-Kraig Kinser [9]; 19. 7S-Jason Sides [25]; 20. 83-David Gravel [DNF]; 21. 20W-Greg Wilson [DNF]; 22. 24H-Brandon Wimmer [DNF]; 23. 5T-Travis Philo [DNF]; 24. 49X-Cole Duncan [DNF]; 25. 71-Joey Saldana [DNF];
NRA Sprint
TIME TRIALS – 1. 12H-Tim Hunter [14.460]; 2. 20B-Butch Schroeder [14.470]; 3. 45S-Tim Shaffer [14.555]; 4. 16-Ryan Ruhl [14.564]; 5. 17-Jared Horstman [14.601]; 6. 49-Shawn Dancer [14.635]; 7. 2MD-Dustin Daggett [14.672]; 8. 23-Devon Dobie [14.678]; 9. 83-Kyle Sauder [14.716]; 10. 11-Tim Allison [14.736]; 11. 6JS-Jr Stewart [14.759]; 12. 22H-Randy Hannagan [14.795]; 13. 98-Joe Trenca [14.837]; 14. 89-Robbie Stillwaggon [14.845]; 15. 5G-Curt Michael [14.863]; 16. 28H-Hud Horton [14.924]; 17. 10X-Dustin Stroup [14.929]; 18. 6S-Max Stambaugh [14.977]; 19. 12CS-Cody Swanson [15.002]; 20. 35-Ron Blair [15.010]; 21. 6K-Chad Kemenah [15.026]; 22. 2MS-Beau Stewart [15.169]; 23. 11N-Ed Neumeister [15.186]; 24. 79-Jordan Thomas [15.198]; 25. 22R-Kevin Roberts Jr [15.264]; 26. 49T-Gregg Dalman [15.305]; 27. 31-Andy Teunessen [15.350]; 28. 15-Brandon Ferguson [15.472]; 29. 97-Bryan Sebetto [15.482]; 30. 8J-Jess Stiger [15.556]; 31. 14C-Andy Conley [15.704]; 32. 3B-Brad Greer [15.723]; 33. 12R-Nick Roberts [16.262]; 34. 23P-Nick Patterson [99.999];
HEAT 1 – 1. 6K-Chad Kemenah [1]; 2. 10X-Dustin Stroup [2]; 3. 17-Jared Horstman [5]; 4. 97-Bryan Sebetto [8]; 5. 98-Joe Trenca [3]; 6. 22R-Kevin Roberts Jr [7]; 7. 12R-Nick Roberts [DNF]; 8. 83-Kyle Sauder [DNF]; 9. 12H-Tim Hunter [DNF];
HEAT 2 – 1. 89-Robbie Stillwaggon [3]; 2. 11-Tim Allison [4]; 3. 20B-Butch Schroeder [6]; 4. 49T-Gregg Dalman [7]; 5. 2MS-Beau Stewart [1]; 6. 6S-Max Stambaugh [2]; 7. 8J-Jess Stiger [8]; 8. 49-Shawn Dancer [DNF]; 9. 23P-Nick Patterson [DNS];
HEAT 3 – 1. 45S-Tim Shaffer [6]; 2. 11N-Ed Neumeister [1]; 3. 5G-Curt Michael [3]; 4. 6JS-Jr Stewart [4]; 5. 31-Andy Teunessen [7]; 6. 12CS-Cody Swanson [DNS]; 7. 2MD-Dustin Daggett [DNS]; 8. 14C-Andy Conley [DNS];
HEAT 4 – 1. 22H-Randy Hannagan [4]; 2. 16-Ryan Ruhl [6]; 3. 28H-Hud Horton [3]; 4. 35-Ron Blair [2]; 5. 23-Devon Dobie [5]; 6. 79-Jordan Thomas [1]; 7. 3B-Brad Greer [8]; 8. 15-Brandon Ferguson [DNS];
B-FEATURE – 1. 98-Joe Trenca [6]; 2. 23-Devon Dobie [4]; 3. 12CS-Cody Swanson [8]; 4. 6S-Max Stambaugh [7]; 5. 2MS-Beau Stewart [9]; 6. 79-Jordan Thomas [10]; 7. 22R-Kevin Roberts Jr [11]; 8. 8J-Jess Stiger [14]; 9. 31-Andy Teunessen [12]; 10. 14C-Andy Conley [15]; 11. 3B-Brad Greer [DNF]; 12. 12R-Nick Roberts [DNF]; 13. 12H-Tim Hunter [DNF]; 14. 23P-Nick Patterson [DNF]; 15. 49-Shawn Dancer [DNS]; 16. 2MD-Dustin Daggett [DNS]; 17. 83-Kyle Sauder [DNS]; 18. 15-Brandon Ferguson [DNS];
A FEATURE – 1. 22H-Randy Hannagan [7]; 2. 11-Tim Allison [2]; 3. 20B-Butch Schroeder [6]; 4. 89-Robbie Stillwaggon [8]; 5. 6K-Chad Kemenah [13]; 6. 6JS-Jr Stewart [1]; 7. 35-Ron Blair [12]; 8. 97-Bryan Sebetto [16]; 9. 16-Ryan Ruhl [4]; 10. 5G-Curt Michael [9]; 11. 10X-Dustin Stroup [11]; 12. 12CS-Cody Swanson [19]; 13. 6S-Max Stambaugh [20]; 14. 49T-Gregg Dalman [15]; 15. 23-Devon Dobie [DNF]; 16. 45S-Tim Shaffer [DNF]; 17. 17-Jared Horstman [DNF]; 18. 28H-Hud Horton [DNF]; 19. 98-Joe Trenca [DNF]; 20. 11N-Ed Neumeister [DNF];