BEAVER DAM, Wis. – Sammy Swindell is searching for his next opportunity after Thone Motorsports has parked its operation.
“On Sunday I got a text from Brandon (Thone),” he said. “Their business has been growing and some circumstances led to us not being able to race anymore. Sometimes there are things you can’t control. I want to thank him and Ashley for the time we did have.
“I still love to drive and would like to compete. I’d love the chance to keep doing that if there is something out there for me.”
Thone Motorsports officials released a statement regarding the news on the team’s Twitter account.
https://twitter.com/TMotorsports59/status/1143294737442582528
Swindell had a strong finish to his final night with Thone Motorsports last Saturday during the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series Jim “JB” Boyd Memorial presented by Karavan Trailers at Beaver Dam Raceway.
He qualified 17th quickest and finished seventh in a heat race, after an incident forced him to restart at the back of the field. That relegated Swindell to the Last Chance Showdown.
“I tried something a bit different because I felt like I was going to make it through the B-main fairly easily,” Swindell noted. “I didn’t like that at all, so we went back in a direction that worked for us.”
Swindell capped the night by hustling from 20th to a 10th-place finish, earning the KSE Hard Charger Award for passing the most cars.
“It wasn’t a track that had a lot of room for passing,” he said. “I found a little place where there was some rubber off turn two. I got next to (Donny) Schatz, but didn’t quite clear him. Then he knew where it was. We had a tire with a hole in it so it was going down. I got tight on the cushion and lost a spot toward the end. But I had the third fastest lap of the race so I felt pretty good about that. Track position would have made a big difference. If we started up there we would have finished up there.
“Everybody was pretty happy with the way it turned out. I wasn’t expecting to get that much, but you never know. There were some circumstances where I got by somebody and a caution came out so I didn’t have to go back. It seemed like every time there was a yellow we were gaining ground. It was a good finish.”