| Saturday, February 14, 2004 | |
| McCarl, Dollansky, and Swindell Battle To The End At East Bay | THREE CARS FINISH UNDER A BLANKET BUT McCARL WINS AGAIN IN EAST BAY 410 SPRINTS - WHILE YOUNG KEVIN SWINDELL WINS HIS FIRST MINI SPRINT FEATURE
by Jean Lynch
Tampa, Fl…..2/13/04….The fans were on their feet for the finish of the feature as three cars crossed under a blanket while trying to win the final preliminary night feature of the 28th Annual $157,000 Sprint Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park Friday night.
 Photo by Hosehead
Terry McCarl, Craig Dollansky and Sammy Swindell had a "battle royal" going for the last five laps of the 25-lap $4,000-to-win A-Main and no one could predict the outcome of the race. According to each of the drivers, three caution flags in those last five laps probably determined who would win.
McCarl used every trick in the book to stay ahead on those restarts and told the crowd, “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good! This is the best track in Florida, but it was pretty tricky tonight. What a knock down – drag out race this was. I tried to keep that Eagle as smooth as possible. I need to thank Brodix heads and Wesmar engines and my main sponsor Big Game Tree Stands.”
After going for years and not winning a 410 race here, McCarl put his wife Lori’s No. 24 in victory lane for the second consecutive night thanks to help from his associate sponsors Country Builders and Bosma Poultry and Florida friends Randy Burnett and Dick Morgan.
Swindell was all over McCarl with 10 laps to go and had passed him going into turn one after the two had completed 20 laps. But, a crash by Josh Wells who suffered front end damage and hopped the inside berm in turn three, put McCarl back in front. Swindell’s new Wesmar-powered Maxim used Super Shocks and Hoosier tires is owned by Bob Vielhauer and sponsored by Beaver Drill & Tool Company of Kansas City, Kansas.
“Vielhauer’s son Billy is the Crew Chief and the guys have had my car real good every night,” said Swindell. “We came from the back up to eighth the first night and ran well the next night, but going out first to time both nights hurt us and tonight was better when we went out later and timed seventh overall,” he explained. When Lance Dewease timed fifth, but had to qualify through the B-Main, that put Swindell on the pole for the A-Main start.
At the start, lining up in the front row outside Swindell it was Greg Wilson in Bob Hampshire’s car. “He got a run on me and we had harder tires on so it took me about 10 or 12 laps to get fast,” commented Swindell who dropped to third by lap four. A red flag came out on lap five for Ed Lynch, Jr. who jumped the cushion and caught the outside wall with the back end of his car and rolled onto the track in turn three. Lynch was uninjured.
A long green spell followed with McCarl now challenging Wilson on the inside in turn three and taking the lead away from him on lap eight. Swindell was set to try the same move on McCarl for the lead, but the lapped cars of Jimmy Weller, John VanDenBerg and Nick Naber made it impossible. Sammy made another serious run at McCarl on laps 19 and 20, but after the yellow for Wells, it was Dollansky who moved to the high side and blew by Sammy and almost pulled the same move on McCarl but another yellow came out on lap 21 for a tangle of Joey Saldana and Greg Leonard in turn three. After the green came out, Dollansky put his VMAC/Karavan sponsored Maxim immediately up in that high groove again and was cranking.
It looked like he had pulled off the move but now with two laps to go, Tom Bush stopped on the track inside turn one. “The car was tight at the beginning, but I made some adjustments and the car got better about half-way through the race,” explained Dollansky. “It was unfortunate that last yellow came out.” His crew, D.J. Lindsey, Scott Benic and Tony Grams thought their Garrett engine made him the fastest car at the end of the race.
The crowd witnessed a near photo-finish as McCarl barely stayed in front of Dollansky and Swindell at the flag stand. Sixteenth starting Jeff Shepard came across third and Daryn Pitman took fifth after starting 11th. Rounding out the top 10 it was Wilson, Danny Smith, Jim Nier, Shane Stewart and Jeremy Campbell.
Heats went to Stewart, Naber, Campbell and VanDenBerg. Dewease, Wells, Kevin Frey, Weller, Rager and Lynch came from the B-Main. The Strawberry Dash went to Rod George.
The 33 Florida Mini Sprints on hand were narrowed to a 26-car field for their 20-lap feature which was a down-to-the wire race, also. Sammy and Amy Swindell got to watch their son Kevin, who will be 15 on February 21st, win his first-ever Mini Sprint race. He started 25th and masterfully worked his way through the field and won by pulling off an inside pass in turn one of race leader Terry Monroe on the last lap of the A-Main.
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