Sammy Swindell is a race car driver, a legendary motorsport. Naturally, I wanted his opinion on Mario Kurt.
“Mario Kurt?” he asks whether he's amused or annoyed. It's hard to tell Sammy. “Yeah, I played a bit. But racing video games aren't real. They don't give you a full-body experience.”
“When the car gets off the ground, you're really out of control. So I'm trying to figure out where I'm and where I'm going. I'm trying to get back to control.”
He means that when he describes racing as a full-body experience. His offensive driving style has earned him the nickname “Slammin'.”
Accuracy at any speed
There are very few numbers for sprint car racing. The uniforms in his work included sponsorships for STP and Hooters at various times. NASCAR described him as “arguably one of the greatest sprint car drivers ever.”
Born in Bartlett, Tennessee in 1955, Swindell built a career with raw speed, mechanical accuracy and unparalleled competitive fires.
He first turned his head in the 1970s and named himself in dirty ovals around the country. However, it was in the outlaw circuit world that solidified his legacy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wdq4emfvvy
For over 50 years, Swindell has gained a reputation as one of the most talented and sometimes polarizing figures of hundreds of victories, multiple championships, and open wheel racing.
As a motorsports site Driver Project Note: “When Sammy Swindell appears at the racetrack, it doesn't matter if he loves him or hates him.
We chatted with Sammy in early February. He has a reputation for being dry and almost hostile, but as he has said many times, racing is his job and he makes his own car. Most often, when someone approaches him, he is distracted by his work. And that happens a lot. In the world of racing, he is a celebrity.
Swindel of the 1987 Indianapolis 500. Photo courtesy Sammy Swindell
Tracking the tactician
He was more friendly than I had expected, but his Tennessee draw survived with the stoicism of engineer-oriented athletes. He smiled and laughed a few times, but soon returned to his gravitas.
In the middle of our chat I realized he wasn't in a bad mood – he is analytical.
“We have to meet a lot of really, really smart people,” Swindell told me. He learned a lot from his friend Henry “Smoky” Unick, a legendary stock car driver, mechanic, engineer and tactician.
And that's the word I've grasped: tactician.
Towards the end of our interview, he showed a bit of his card.
I said that if you win the biggest award in any sport, everyone is researching exactly how you did it – your equipment, your methods, everything is exposed. And the test that follows is whether the others can win again if they catch up.
Swindell does this over and over. how?
“Part of that is to keep it as much as you can for yourself,” he says. “And sometimes, when something important is over there, you throw things and make sure you show somewhere else.”
The Giants in the Midget
I was the first person to attend the Chile Bowl Nationals in 2024. Frontier Magazine story. I fell in love with the confusion and enthusiasm of the event. It was the Super Bowl of the Dirt Track Race, attracting 20,000 people from all over the world to Tulsa.
Swindel at this year's Chile Bowl. Courtesy of Brendan Baumann and Sammy Swindell
Indoor midget car racing is a brutal test of skill, where all the laps change and drivers sprint through deep fields to create the main event.
This January, I returned to the 39th Annual Chile Bowl, and Swindell, as usual, attracted crowds everywhere he walked.
He is happy with the racing press. Once, in a live interview, he pauses the sentences along the way and bares someone.
Swindell won the Chile Bowl Nationals five times. This forces him to be one of the greatest dirt racers of all time.
Motorsport legend and Chili Bowl announcer Brian Halbert said “Sammy's legacy helped make the Chili Bowl that is today.”
His superiority as a driver and car owner set the bar high for everyone who competed against him. Halbert said Swindell's “inventive and ingenuity in car design was ahead of its time.” The same can be said for sprint car racing. Swindell “contributes more to the performance and engineering aspects of sports than most people achieve.”
Dirt Truck Dynasty
Swindell's father served as president of the club that raced around Memphis.
At 15, Sammy began his own racing career at Riverside International Speedway, winning his third race.
He won six races in that first season. By then, he had already moved through various classes, including sprint cars, modifications, and later models, as anything with wheels and engines.
“I saw it as a job,” he told me. “The better I do, the more rewards I get. More sponsors, more money.
Swindell spent two years at a university studying physics and engineering before racing full-time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckn9lks7nqg
His mechanical instinct gave him an edge over his competitors when he built and tweaked his own car. “I want the car to do the job and just lead it. If you can put your car to do something other people can't, it's easy to pass them on.”
A three-time Outlaws Champion (1981, 1982, 1997), Swindell has been the dominant force in sprint car racing for decades.
Despite his intense, nonsense approach on the track, his influence has expanded beyond his own career. He shaped modern sprint car racing through the innovation and mentorship of young drivers.
Halbert said Swindell “everyone competes hard, but it's not as difficult as he competed with his son Kevin.”
Hulbert recalls his first one-second finish in the Chili Bowl, which announced the event, and compares it to a fierce battle between the brothers.
The race came down on the final lap, and Swindell “had his son earned everything of that victory and then some.”
The only time Hulbert saw Swindell race at that level of strength was against Steve Kinser, the rivalry who defined the era of sprint car racing.
Crash course
Crush is part of the race. Sprint calflip. They land violently. The steering wheel and rubber can be fired into bleach, past the chain link and beer can.
However, Swindell deals with the wreck when dealing with the rest of the race. As a problem that needs to be solved.
“When the car gets off the ground, you're really out of control. So I'm trying to figure out where I'm and where I'm going. I'm trying to get back into control.”
He is leaning Going towards It doesn't get nervous, it affects it. “Some people try to fight it, but you can't. You just have to go in the flow.”
That's the same mentality he brings to the race in general.
At 69, Swindell still has the same philosophy. Win and move on to the next philosophy. “I never thought about quitting. If I had a bad night, I just wanted to understand it and do better.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzmou7t0pr0
I asked him if the crash would slow him down.
“Yeah, sometimes it seems like it takes 30 minutes, but it's only a few seconds,” he says. “All the time, I'm just trying to gain control again, or whatever control I'm trying to control myself and my car to stop, slow, or make it easier.”
He pauses.
“I don't know, maybe it's just me. I really don't hear too many people talking about it – what they do with the crash.
Education for failure
When asked about the races he often revisits and certain nights, Sammy Swindell paused thoughtfully, taking into account the many tracks he conquered. He reflected that each victory had a unique memory shaped by the subtle differences from track to track.
Early in her career in the outlaw world, Sammy developed an analytical approach. “I look at a new truck and ask myself what it reminded me. If it resembles another place I did well, I'll start with that familiar setup.” However, he emphasized that each truck has different characteristics of corners, radii, and banks that must be mastered individually, no matter how similar they seem at first glance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwyt30kni
When our conversation shifts to feelings that are linked to victory – a moment of celebration when we leave the car, wind up a trophy or hold an oversized check – Sammy provided some interesting insights.
“Winning simplifies things,” he explained. “That means you're not in a hurry to fix your car. Your job will be basic maintenance and set it up for the next race.”
Conversely, poor performance will result in a thorough review, examining failures and setups incorrectly.
“You won't learn more from the night,” Sammy pointed out thoughtfully. “We discover what's off. It's easier to make mistakes than to get everything right.”
It turns out Sammy's perspective is refreshing, especially as many racers acknowledge that winning adds pressure to repeat success. But Sammy sees it differently. For him, victory is not an additional burden. We are confirming that he has achieved his goal.
“Winning never felt like pressure,” Sammy said. “It's always been an objective. Once we did it, the tension rose. The next night was another chance to do it again.”
