Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Outlaws champ Swindell returns from long layoff

Wednesday, June 19, 2002 | 9:47 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Three-time Pennzoil World of Outlaws champion Sammy Swindell will make his return to the winged sprint car series this weekend after a layoff of more than three months.

Swindell, who has not raced since the Silver State Shootout at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March, will be back in the No. 83jr Beef Packers Eagle for this weekend's triple program at Eagle Raceway in Eagle, Neb. Swindell had announced before the season that he would run a limited schedule.

"We put this deal together to race the first part of the year," Swindell said. "We ran those five races (at the start of the season) and now we're going to run most of the races between this weekend and the Knoxville Nationals (in August).

"We're going to run some more out in California, too. We want to be organized when we come back because we're going to be pretty busy the next couple of months."

Swindell, 46, said he spent the spring helping his 13-year-old son get his racing career started.

"I've been really busy racing with Kevin every weekend," Swindell said. "He's doing really good. We have a couple of karts he races with the (World Karting Association) and we also have a mini-sprint.

"He's won eight or nine races already this year."

Swindell, who has 257 career "A" feature wins, opened the season with a seventh-place finish at Kings Speedway in Hanford, Calif., and then finished third in the "A" feature at Perris Speedway in Perris, Calif., one night later.

Swindell, who won the WoO championship in 1981, 1982 and 1997, was the runner-up in both preliminary features at LVMS earlier this season and was 10th in the "A" feature on the final night of the three-night Silver State Shootout.

The win was the second in a row for da Matta and his fifth in the past eight FedEx Championship Series events, dating to last year's race in Australia. Four of the five wins came on road or street courses -- the lone oval win coming in the 2001 season finale at California Speedway.

"It doesn't get any better than winning two weeks in a row," da Matta said. "I haven't had a season like this since 1998 (when he won the Indy Lights championship).

"It's very rewarding. It makes you feel good about yourself, good about your team and your manufacturers but it's only the sixth round and there are a lot of other good teams trying to beat us. We're going to keep working hard to stay ahead of everyone."

Da Matta holds a 20-point lead over Bruno Junqueira and Michel Jourdain Jr. going into the Grand Prix of Chicago at Chicago Motor Speedway on June 30.

IMCA Modifieds and Thunderstocks also will be on the card. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for senior citizens, military personnel and high school students and $5 for children ages 6-12. Spectator gates will open at 5:30 p.m.