Swindell — who came out of semi-retirement a couple of years ago — put last year’s runner-up finish behind him, holding off a hard charge from Kerry Madsen with five laps left to capture his third $50,000-to-win Kings Royal.
He experienced Eldora’s unique victory celebration for the first time since 1999 (he also won in 1992), this time donning the red cape, accepting the scepter and getting crowned by Sovereign King Doug Wolfgang before ruling the winged sprint car world from atop the oversized throne on Eldora’s victory lane stage.
“It’s harder to win these things and harder to do this,” the 56-year-old driver from Germantown, Tenn., said. “I really love this place. 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.”
With five laps to go, Swindell was fighting off Madsen. Madsen tried a slide in turns 1-2 but lost momentum to allow Swindell to pull ahead. On the final four laps he was fighting off the demons from 2011 and that blown tire.
“You never know. The last five laps it felt like the tire was getting low or something. You start looking at every little thing,” Swindell said of hearing every little creak and every little wiggle his sprint car made. “I’ve been close on quite a few during the years ... where if things would have held together we would have won.”
Swindell grabbed the lead from Daryn Pittman after 10 laps and clicked off the next 30 in the 40-lap feature. Pittman and Paul McMahan battled for the first four laps with each leading two.
Madsen, Jac Haudenschild, Justin Henderson and Kraig Kinser rounded out the top five in a field of 24 cars that featured the World of Outlaws winged sprint car series. Pittman, Joey Saldana (who won Friday’s Knight Before the Kings Royal feature), Donny Schatz, Greg Wilson and Steve Kinser were in the top 10.
Steve Kinser kept his streak of qualifying for all 29 Kings Royal features alive and is the only driver to so. He changed a motor before the B-Main to barely make the call, then grabbed the final transfer spot in that race after a frenzied one-lap dash to the finish.
In the undercard, Randy Hannagan swept the National Racing Alliance (NRA) Sprint Invaders weekend with a pair of wins on Friday and Saturday.
The Kings Royal will be broadcast on the SPEED channel 2 p.m. July 28.
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