Sometimes the caution flag is your friend and sometimes it's not.  The latter was the case for Kevin Swindell Saturday night when he had to move back to second after taking the lead during the running of the Short Track Nationals in Little Rock, Arkansas.  What would have been the winning move was nullified when the yellow flag waved with only a few laps remaining.  With lap traffic taken out of the picture, Kevin’s only choice was to follow the leader and finish with a strong second place showing.

“Our car was just the best it had been all weekend.  We had a race strategy and stuck to it and found ourselves in a position to win at the end.  I made the move, but the yellow flag came out right as I went under the leader down the front straightaway,” explained the somewhat disappointed Swindell.  “I felt like we could win this race during all the qualifying races this weekend; our car was that good.  I was really comfortable with all the changing track conditions.  In fact, I enjoyed the track being different every night.  We were ready for the rubber down type track we had at the end of the race Saturday night.”

The event had 93 entries, with only three transferring each night.  Kevin was able to use the points system to his advantage on Friday, and capture one of the three coveted positions for the final event on Saturday.  After a tough heat race, he came from 7^th to win the first qualifier race, then started 11^th in the next race and won on the final lap.  A solid 3^rd place finish in the feature event secured his spot for Saturday. 

“We ran our Mini-Sprint on this track a few times and I had won some features here.  I think that gave me a lot of confidence running the sprint car.  My Dad and Rob Hart had the car nearly perfect every time we went out.  With all the races I had to run during the night it was a challenge keeping up with the track, but we were able to do that.  It sure is fun to race up front and I’m learning more and more every time we race.  Dad is making sure I run as many different types of tracks that I can."

"My thanks go out to sponsors Stu Murray at Wirtgen and Les & Lynda Stewart at York Excavating.”

“It’s always disappointing to come up 2^nd, but that’s how they go sometimes.  It was just too hard to pass with the rubber down.  I really wish the track would have stayed as slick as it was early in the race.  I felt we had the best car in those conditions, but we were good in the rubber too.  We had a right rear tire going down slightly under the yellows so it took 5 or 6 laps to make up the lost ground on the restarts.  It seemed like every time I would get to challenge the leader the yellow would come out or we’d get hung up with a lap car."

"I have no complaints on the weekend. We had gotten the car to do what we wanted by feature time Saturday; we just got beat to the rubber.  I’m proud of our accomplishments this weekend.”  

“We had trouble in our qualifier race Thursday after being high in points through the heats, but I was determined to get locked-in for Friday.  I was in disbelief after we got taken out after coming from the back of our first heat Friday.  I refused to get down about it and knew we had a good car.  I was just going to have to step up an make it happen from the back of the last chance race and the qualifier.  After we won the last chance race I knew we had a shot to be up front if I could just win the qualifier from the tail.  I caught the leader off of 4 and slid the wing back as far as I could and drove straight to the line and we got the win!  It took us from somewhere around 70^th in points to 4th.  From there I just made sure I put together a solid run and got in the top 3.  I fought myself on the yellow.  I thought I could get around the outside of Shane, but didn't want to lose a locked in spot.  I just played it conservative and took home 3^rd.”