For Kevin Swindell, Dover Nationwide Race Is A Tryout On Major Stage

As Eminem sings:

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment, you own it, you better never let it go. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow; this opportunity comes once in a lifetime.

It may not be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but Swindell, the 22-year-old son of sprint car legend Sammy Swindell, has been waiting for a chance like the one he has with Roush Fenway Racing at Dover this weekend.

With Trevor Bayne still recovering from the illness that has kept him out of the car since Richmond, Roush tapped Swindell to drive the No. 16 car in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race.

But Bayne will soon return, and Swindell will once again be looking for a way into NASCAR. He’s earned national notoriety by winning the prestigious Chili Bowl in back-to-back years, but that alone isn’t enough to earn him a NASCAR ride.

So when Swindell got the call on Tuesday that he was officially in the No. 16 car at Dover, he knew there was a lot on the line.

“I’ve got this weekend to shine,” he said Friday, standing in the sun of the Nationwide Series garage. “This is pretty much as close to a tryout as you could ever get.”

When Swindell arrived at Dover, he had never driven one of the new Nationwide cars and had only driven the track in the K&N East Series.

But you wouldn’t know it based on his practice speeds. In the first and only Nationwide practice of the weekend, Swindell went out and recorded the fifth-fastest time overall.

Swindell said there was more speed in his car that he had yet to find. He said he knew that because Roush Fenway teammates Carl Edwards and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were the fastest two cars in practice, so Swindell rather honestly assumed “my car is as good as theirs is.”

You’d be hard-pressed to detect any nervousness or apprehension in Swindell, though. He said there was “no time to be nervous,” because his focus needed to remain on how well he is capable of running.

“This has been my job since I was 17,” he said. “This is how I pay my bills. I think you drive yourself into just kind of a calm. You’re worried about it, definitely, and I want to be able to perform – this is a hell of an opportunity for me and I don’t want to mess anything up.

“But you’ve got to keep yourself grounded and make sure you just do the right thing and keep telling yourself, ‘You can do this. You don’t have to overdo anything. This is what you’re good at, and keep doing what you do.’ That’s kind of the way I worked at it today – go at my own pace and get where I needed to be.”

Swindell’s dirt-racing background may come in handy. In the World of Outlaws, he’s constantly faced with changing track conditions as the evening goes on. And at most tracks, drivers get just three hot laps before it’s time to qualify.

“You gotta figure it out quick,” he said. “It makes you learn to move around and search and really learn on the fly.”

That experience – along with his demeanor – seems to have helped Swindell so far at Dover.

“I think the biggest thing is just staying calm and doing what you know how to do,” he said. “I’ve just got to get in and do my job.”