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Sammy
Swindell takes the checkered flag Saturday night at Eldora
Speedway to win the annual Kings
Royal. CNO Photos by Nancy
Lane-Feldner, splitsecondsports.com
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Eldora Speedway
King Swindell
captures $50,000 Kings Royal
Randy Hannagan Repeats NRA Sprint Invader Win
ROSSBURG, OH (July 14) -- All hail King Sammy XXIX. And IX. And
XVI. Sammy Swindell, the veteran driver from Germantown, Tenn.,
held off a spirited challenge from Kerry Madsen over the final five
laps Saturday night to win his third Kings Royal victory at Eldora
Speedway. He wasn’t the only one celebrating. Randy Hannagan swept the
National Racing Alliance (NRA) Sprint Invaders weekend with a pair of
wins, including Saturday’s victory.
In the Kings Royal, the $50,000 winner’s check is the goal for the
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series drivers, regional racers and others
who want to test their skill against Eldora. But there are other items
the Kings Royal champion cherishes in a post-race celebration like no
other. Once dressed in the red cape and holding his scepter, Sovereign
King Doug Wolfgang presented Swindell with the Kings Royal crown as the
56 driver took his place on the oversized throne.
In the 29th running of the prestigious and lucrative Kings Royal,
Swindell took the lead from Daryn Pittman after 10 laps and then
clicked off the next 30 in the 40-lap feature. An appreciative and
impressive crowd that packed the grandstands and spilled out onto the
hills ringing the turns cheered Swindell’s first Kings Royal victory
since 1999. He also won in 1992.
Pittman and Paul McMahan traded the lead the first four laps, with each
leading two. Pittman then pulled away to lead laps 4-10. Swindell
worked his way around Pittman to lead lap 11 and never looked back. A
caution bunched up the field for a double-file restart with 28 laps
complete. But Swindell quickly restored his advantage to 1.5 seconds as
Madsen, Pittman and Jac Haudenschild engaged in a wild battle behind
him. Madsen finally broke free from the pack and with five laps left
made his last-gasp move. He got underneath Swindell in turns 1-2 but
couldn’t hold the momentum.
“I think he was trying to do all he could,” Swindell said. “I couldn’t
see where he was. I think we had to be fairly evenly matched. If he was
faster I think I would’ve seen him quite a few times. We must have had
fairly equal cars.”
Swindell, who started third, should have been celebrating a repeat. He
led 39¾ of 40 laps last year before his right rear tire shredded coming
out of turn 4. He avoided back luck this time, a day after Friday the
13th.
“I’ve been close on quite a few back during the years … where if things
would have held together we would have won,” Swindell said. “You never
know. The last five laps it felt like the tire was getting low or
something. You start looking at every little thing. You try to
concentrate on driving and making good laps.”
Madsen, Haudenschild, Justin Henderson and Kraig Kinser made up the top
five. Pittman, Joey Saldana, Donny Schatz, Greg Wilson and Steve
Kinser, who grabbed the final transfer spot in the B-Main feature to
qualify for every Kings Royal feature, rounded out the top 10.
“It’s harder to win these things and harder to do this. I really love
this place,” Swindell said. “I always have. To win here is great. You
really have to have a good car but you have to be smart. You have to
put the car in the right place and keep the car under you. It’s a tough
track but I enjoy it.”
Minnesota’s Craig Dollansky was the fastest of the 50-cars around the
.500 mile oval in 13.338 seconds (134.953 mph).
Chad Kemenah, Justin Henderson, Daryn Pittman, Sammy Swindell, Paul
McMahan and Tim Kaeding all won heat races. Dallas Hewitt won the
C-Main. Donny Schatz won the B-Main.
In the NRA feature, Hannagan survived a green-white-checkered finish to
add to his NRA points lead. It was also his third win at Eldora this
season.
“When you get the white flag you want to make one more circuit and then
guys crash,” Hannagan said. “That’s just the way it is. We do the best
job we can.”
Kyle Sauder, Butch Schroeder, Dustin Daggett and Hud Horton rounded out
the top five.
“It’s good win here,” Hannagan said following his sixth NRA win. “It
helps coming back to the same race tracks. I’m really familiar with
them.
Kyle Sauder’s lap of 14.490 set fast time in NRA qualifying. Dallas
Hewitt, Hannagan and Dustin Daggett won heat races. Luke Hall won the
B-Main.
The Kings Royal will be broadcast on SPEED TV on July 28th at 2 p.m. It
will re-air on July 29th at 1:30 a.m. and on July 30th at 8 a.m. All
times are Eastern Time Zone.
Eldora Speedway hosts the USAC National Sprint cars and celebrates
their partnership with a special 50-lap feature on July 28, honoring
the 50th anniversary of USAC’s first appearance at the historic track.
A minimum $10,000 payout awaits the winner of the feature. The National
Racing Alliance Sprint Invaders and Eldora stock cars will also be in
action. Tickets for the Summer Sprint Car Shootout presented by NAPA
Auto Parts, and all other Eldora events, are available through the
track office at (937) 338-3815 or online 24 hours a day at
www.EldoraSpeedway.com. Like us at www.Facebook.com/EldoraSpeedway or
follow us on Twitter at @EldoraSpeedway.
World of Outlaw
Sprints
HEAT 1 - 1. 63-Chad Kemenah [2]; 2. 7-Craig Dollansky [4]; 3. 83-Tim
Shaffer [3]; 4. 11K-Kraig Kinser [1]; 5. 89G-David Gravel [5]; 6.
71M-Paul May [6]; 7. 56R-Ryan Myers [8]; 8. 22W-Chuck Waddell [9]; 9.
1X-Randy Hannagan [7];
HEAT 2 - 1. 82-Justin Henderson [2]; 2. 59-Jac Haudenschild [4]; 3.
2-Dale Blaney [3]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz [1]; 5. 7S-Jason Sides [5]; 6.
8H-Brian Paulus [8]; 7. 2MH-Dallas Hewitt [7]; 8. 15A-Adam Wilt [6]; 9.
3F-Rick Fraley [9];
HEAT 3 - 1. 27-Daryn Pittman [1]; 2. 1Z-Danny Lasoski [2]; 3. 49-Brad
Sweet [3]; 4. 11-Steve Kinser [5]; 5. 19-Stevie Smith [4]; 6. 6-Bill
Rose [6]; 7. 97-Dean Jacobs [7]; 8. 60-Kory Crabtree [8];
HEAT 4 - 1. 1-Sammy Swindell [1]; 2. 29-Kerry Madsen [3]; 3. 21-Brian
Brown [2]; 4. 4-Cody Darrah [4]; 5. W20-Greg Wilson [5]; 6. 24H-Bryan
Sebetto [6]; 7. 09-Craig Mintz [7]; 8. 59P-Joey Magaruh [8];
HEAT 5 - 1. 45-Paul Mcmahan [2]; 2. 9-Joey Saldana [4]; 3. 35W-Tyler
Walker [3]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart [6]; 5. 1R-Chad Blonde [7]; 6. 35-Wes
Mcglumphy [8]; 7. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild [5]; 8. 78-Todd Kane [1];
HEAT 6 - 1. 83K-Tim Kaeding [4]; 2. 2L-Ed Lynch Jr [1]; 3. 5W-Lucas
Wolfe [2]; 4. 55-Trey Starks [3]; 5. 3G-Shane Stewart [6]; 6. 2M-Dustin
Daggett [5]; 7. 4S-Danny Smith [7]; 8. 48H-Scott Hull [8];
C FEATURE - 1. 2MH-Dallas Hewitt [2]; 2. 4S-Danny Smith [6]; 3.
15A-Adam Wilt [8]; 4. 56R-Ryan Myers [1]; 5. 78-Todd Kane [9]; 6.
22W-Chuck Waddell [7]; 7. 3F-Rick Fraley [12]; 8. 59P-Joey Magaruh [4];
9. 60-Kory Crabtree [3]; 10. 48H-Scott Hull [10]; 11. 1X-Randy Hannagan
[DNS]; 12. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild [DNS];
B FEATURES - 1. 15-Donny Schatz [2]; 2. W20-Greg Wilson [4]; 3.
11K-Kraig Kinser [1]; 4. 11-Steve Kinser [3]; 5. 1S-Logan Schuchart
[5]; 6. 89G-David Gravel [7]; 7. 55-Trey Starks [6]; 8. 24H-Bryan
Sebetto [10]; 9. 09-Craig Mintz [16]; 10. 6-Bill Rose [9]; 11. 7S-Jason
Sides [8]; 12. 15A-Adam Wilt [21]; 13. 4S-Danny Smith [20]; 14.
71M-Paul May [13]; 15. 1R-Chad Blonde [11]; 16. 35-Wes Mcglumphy [17];
17. 2M-Dustin Daggett [18]; 18. 8H-Brian Paulus [14]; 19. 78-Todd Kane
[23]; 20. 56R-Ryan Myers [22]; 21. 22W-Chuck Waddell [24]; 22.
2MH-Dallas Hewitt [19]; 23. 97-Dean Jacobs [15]; 24. 3G-Shane Stewart
[DNS];
A FEATURE - 1. 1-Sammy Swindell [3]; 2. 29-Kerry Madsen [10]; 3. 59-Jac
Haudenschild [8]; 4. 82-Justin Henderson [5]; 5. 11K-Kraig Kinser [23];
6. 27-Daryn Pittman [4]; 7. 9-Joey Saldana [11]; 8. 15-Donny Schatz
[21]; 9. W20-Greg Wilson [22]; 10. 11-Steve Kinser [24]; 11. 83-Tim
Shaffer [13]; 12. 4-Cody Darrah [20]; 13. 2-Dale Blaney [14]; 14.
45-Paul Mcmahan [2]; 15. 49-Brad Sweet [15]; 16. 2L-Ed Lynch Jr [12];
17. 35W-Tyler Walker [17]; 18. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [18]; 19. 1Z-Danny
Lasoski [9]; 20. 21-Brian Brown [16]; 21. 7-Craig Dollansky [7]; 22.
63-Chad Kemenah [6]; 23. 83K-Tim Kaeding [1]; 24. 19-Stevie Smith [19];
NRA Sprint
HEAT 1 - 1. 2MDH-Dallas Hewitt [3]; 2. 7K-Kyle Sauder [6]; 3. 18-Todd
Heuerman [2]; 4. 66-Geoff Dodge [4]; 5. 28H-Hud Horton [5]; 6. 27-Beau
Steward [7]; 7. 7C-Chad Trout [1]; 8. 12CS-Cody Swanson [8]; 9. 10P-Jim
Perricone [9];
HEAT 2 - 1. 22H-Randy Hannagan [5]; 2. 11-Tim Allison [1]; 3. B20-Butch
Schroeder [6]; 4. 7-Darren Long [3]; 5. 49T-Gregg Dalman [7]; 6.
49-Shawn Dancer [2]; 7. 34H-Luke Hall [4]; 8. W11-Chris Auckland [8];
9. 2G-Joe Giebe [9];
HEAT 3 - 1. 2MD-Dustin Daggett [4]; 2. 22D-Dennis Yoakam [1]; 3. 9-Ryan
Myers [3]; 4. 220Z-Aaron Shaffer [2]; 5. 11N-Ed Neumeister [5]; 6.
9J-Jesse Mccreary [7]; 7. X-Dan Mazy [8]; 8. 10C-Bob Carmen [9]; 9.
35-Ron Blair [6]; 10. 5M-Max Stambaugh [DNS];
B FEATURES - 1. 34H-Luke Hall [2]; 2. 27-Beau Steward [5]; 3. 49-Shawn
Dancer [3]; 4. 12CS-Cody Swanson [7]; 5. 7C-Chad Trout [4]; 6. 9J-Jesse
Mccreary [6]; 7. W11-Chris Auckland [8]; 8. X-Dan Mazy [9]; 9. 10C-Bob
Carmen [12]; 10. 2G-Joe Giebe [11]; 11. 5M-Max Stambaugh [DNS]; 12.
10P-Jim Perricone [DNS]; 13. 35-Ron Blair [DNS];
A FEATURE - 1. 22H-Randy Hannagan [3]; 2. 7K-Kyle Sauder [6]; 3.
B20-Butch Schroeder [5]; 4. 2MD-Dustin Daggett [7]; 5. 28H-Hud Horton
[4]; 6. 66-Geoff Dodge [1]; 7. 11-Tim Allison [13]; 8. 2MDH-Dallas
Hewitt [8]; 9. 11N-Ed Neumeister [2]; 10. 18-Todd Heuerman [11]; 11.
49-Shawn Dancer [18]; 12. 49T-Gregg Dalman [15]; 13. 9-Ryan Myers [10];
14. 35-Ron Blair [21]; 15. 22D-Dennis Yoakam [14]; 16. 27-Beau Steward
[17]; 17. 220Z-Aaron Shaffer [12]; 18. 7C-Chad Trout [20]; 19. 7-Darren
Long [9]; 20. 9J-Jesse Mccreary [22]; 21. 10C-Bob Carmen [23]; 22.
34H-Luke Hall [16]; 23. 12CS-Cody Swanson [19]
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Swindell
sits on the Kings Royal throne at Eldora Speedway Saturday.
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