Kevin Swindell was named “Rookie of the Race” at the 65^th annual running of the “Turkey Night Grand Prix” at Irwindale Speedway Thursday night.  Starting the 100-lap feature in 29^th position, Kevin passed 18 cars to finish 11^th in a star-studded field of drivers, including NASCAR drivers Jason Leffler and J.J.Yeley.  Driving a car owned by NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion Tony Stewart, Kevin was impressive in his “Turkey Night” debut and was very happy, along with his car owner, with his rookie performance.

“Tony and his team gave me a great opportunity to drive this car," Swindell said.  "My goal was to make the Feature which we were able to do through the qualifying event.  I got messed up on the start of that race and fell back a couple of positions.  With only 12 laps, I really had to get going to get back to a transfer spot.  The car was better than it had been all day so I moved up to the top where nobody else really was and got a lot of momentum to sneak back into the top 8."

"Tony told me just get in the race!  He didn’t care if I won the qualifier, just transfer, then we could race in the l00 lapper” .  

And race he did, taking care of the car during the first portion of the race and coming on strong at the end.  “I felt like we could have used 150 laps in this one; I think my fastest laps were the last 10 or so.  We really got going good about halfway and I started making my way by some guys.  A car laid down oil from turn 4 to turn 1 on the top, which is where I was running, and they had to put down a bunch of oil dry.  It didn’t get run in very well so that pretty much held me to the bottom for about 20 laps. A yellow bunched everybody back up and I knew that would be my last chance to get by some of them.  Everybody pretty much stayed down on the restart and it left me enough room up on the fence to sneak by,  3 and 4 wide at times. I saw the 67 and knew that’s who I had to get by for the rookie of the race.  We had a fun race the last few laps."

"I really want to thank Tony and his crew for this opportunity and for working so hard on this car.  I am really proud of how far we came with everything in this first race with Stewart and Mopar.”

Kevin joins an exclusive list of “Rookies” which include Kasey Kahne, Dave Steele, and Bobby East.  Swindell will return to the Tony Stewart Racing Enterprises Mopar #20s in the 1^st Annual Mopar-PRI  Sprint and Midget Classic at Orlando Speedworld on December 1-2.