Swindell brings home win in Outlaws feature

Wednesday, Nov. 3, 1999 | 11 a.m.

Sammy Swindell managed to avoid a multi-car crash at the start of Tuesday night's main event and led wire-to-wire to record his 245th career in the Pennzoil World of Outlaws "A" feature at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway 1/2-mile dirt oval.

Swindell, the second-winningest driver in Outlaws history, earned the pole position for the "A" feature by winning the five-lap ChannelLock Dash after taking first in the second of four heat races.

His choice starting position proved to be even more valuable when seven cars piled up behind him as the 24-car field came out of turn 4 to take the green flag to start the race.

The accident took out three of the top five drivers in the field and seven of the winged sprint cars were damaged, although three drivers were able to make repairs and get back in the field before the restart.

"It worked out for the best, getting the car in front in the heat and we were out in front of everything (at the time of the accident)," Swindell, a three-time World of Outlaws champion, said. "The car was good all night, but this is a tough race track to run on."

It became even more difficult when Swindell began catching the backmarkers in the closing laps of the 20-lap feature.

Swindell ran up on Johnny Herrera, who was in one of the cars damaged in the earlier accident, but couldn't get by him in the final four laps.

"(Herrera) didn't want me to pass him so he ended up making it tough and there just wasn't any places to get by," Swindell said. "Once we got to the traffic there (near the end), we really didn't pass anybody."

Joey Saldana started the race in sixth, but moved up to second as a result of the accident that took out the second, third and fifth cars on the starting grid.

Jeff Shepard was third and Stevie Smith and Paul McMahan rounded out the top five in the race, which started after midnight in front of a crowd estimated at 9,500.

Outlaws series points leader Mark Kinser was another of the drivers involved in the opening-lap accident and his car was too severely damaged to continue and he was credited with 17th place in the race.

Danny Lasoski, who trailed Kinser by 72 points entering the "A" feature, finished sixth and cut Kinser's lead to 61 points, but all Kinser has to do tonight is roll his car onto the track for qualifying to officially clinch the series championship.