Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

And then there was the time at the Short Track Nationals when Sammy spun himself out - trying to get by a car on a dry slick track.  The other car didn't do anything wrong - and he never hit Sammy nor did Sammy hit him.  But when they restarted Sammy's car you could tell he was after the other car.  When he got up to the pace car and realized that he missed that other car he did a 180 and headed back down the track the wrong way.   I was proud that the I-30 officials had the balls to tell Sammy to get off of the track.

Sammy has pulled so many temper trantums I'm amazed that he is still allowed to race anywhere.   With that said - he is one of the best drivers ever and one of the best to set up his race car or build a car.  It's a shame that a man with so much talent has such a temper.

Once I was chatting with Sammy's Mom & Dad.  I told them that the first time I ever saw Sammy race was when he was about 16 or 17, I guess.  It was at West Memphis (Riverside) and Sammy and Sam (his Dad) were running first and second - and Sammy took them both out.  Daddy Sam said "that doesn't narrow it down any.".   Sammy has been at it all of his racing career. 

Sorry MSPN

No worries Carol, hope you are doing fine these days.  You sure have supported this sport for a long time, fans like you are rare it seems these days, hopefully that will change or this sport we love is in big trouble.  Take care my lady friend, miss ya.....

I suppose you guys want to take the hitting out of hockey also. I was there not a big deal. Remember the old days of NARC with Brent, Tyler Walker, Tim Green. etc.

Forgot to mention Randy Tiner.....or The Sargents at San Jose. Scott Ludorf etc.

No comparison. "hitting in hockey" would be compared to racing aggressively. Sammy was out of the car, not even racing.

"No big deal"????? What if he got killed like that kid in upstate NY?

     I feel there's a bigger issue here that's being overlooked- insurance! Maybe the tragedy in New York could be considered a one in a million occurrence, maybe not. If there is another event like that, I could see the cost of insurance for racing going through the roof. How easy would it be for a lawyer to make a case for wrongful death, etc. if a track or sanctioning body had a history or knowing there was a problem, but not fixing the problem?

     If I worked for an insurance company and could see an easily defined pattern where at least once a year (or more?) a driver gets out of a crashed racecar and confronts another driver still in a moving race car, I'd logically figure I'd have about 3 options: 1) Force the insured party to do a better job keeping drivers out of harm's way in the scenario described above, 2)Raise the insurance rates to cover the possible lawsuits sure to come or 3)Cancel the insurance policy and get away from the risk and liability.

     The long and short of it is that tracks and sanctioning bodies need to get serious about this kind of behavior on the track before someone gets hurt or killed.....again and racing becomes too expensive to insure. The sport has been down this road before. That's why we have safety rules.

Murphy i couldn‘t agree with you more.  If the insurance companies begin to see a pattern, eventually tracks will be forced to close their doors, and enough tracks are putting padalocks on the gates the way it is. To those who have replied to this thread saying “it wasn’t a big deal”, “its being blown out of proportion”, or “back in the day...”....yup, it was a different time then. Back in the day of Foyt, Opp, Hewitt, Wolfgang, Shuman, Ferkel, the Kinser clan and, yes, Sammy Swindell issues were settled like men and we didnt bat an eye. But back in the day of the aforementioned legends people didnt sue over spilled hot coffee either. Whether we like it or not times have changed, and in many cases not for the better, but we cannot change that. Sammy’s problem is, whether he likes it or not, he is racing in a new generation and its not 1987 anymore and the antics from that era are not acceptable today. Tracks need to put their foot down...ya get out of the car, barring the obvious fire, etc, before safety personell tell you to and the consequence is this or that.

At the same time, personally, I’d have loved to see Sammy confront Madsen in the pits just to see Madsen knock Senior Sammy on his crabby old ass and give him a good thumping if only to read and laugh at the posts that blew up on this forum. 

Last year, the guy that promotes a rather big sprint car groupin the midwest, who sells insurance to race tracks, had a number of situations on track.  2, that I know of, were against the same driver.  Both times this driver was still strapped in, and then acosted by a pissed off driver. Small, if any, consequences for these actions were dished out, but no one knows for sure. The lack of concern or protection for these drivers is one of the reasons that this driver is not competing full time, if at all this year.  

If you think for a minute that Sammy is afraid to go nose to nose with any driver on the circuit, think again! The only thing in his dis-favor is his age. And he's still in damn good shape! He went nose to nose with Steve Kinser more than once when they were younger, and yet they both had a lot of respect for the other when all was said and done. Steve in his prime would have kicked butt on most any driver, except maybe Keith Kauffman. Kauffman was a tough sob!

Never said Sammy would be afraid of anyone, but Kerry Madsen is a tough SOB. I totally agree with you on Steve and Kauffman.  Wolfe has a good Kauffman story in his book. 

Sammy is always about Sammy and we’re all supposed to fall in line as a fan as well.....I once waited in line about 4-5 years ago to get a pit pass at I96 in Michiigan while wearing an old ChannelLock Sammy shirt from the 90’s...after 15 mins of waiting and getting it purchased, I turn around and he was right behind me the entire time....think he said anything?  Hell no.  Not even a “you better get yourself a new one” or something even remotely engaging to what he had to have figured was a long-time fan.  Also went to the “night before” the Kings  Royal last year...walked by his souvenir trailer and saw him sitting in the wings on the phone (he didn’t race on Friday last year).  As soon as he figured out that we recognized him, he turned and walked off.  He could have sold each of us a couple t-shirts by just saying hi and offering an autograph or something.  At least his wife Amy has some personality and respect for the fans...several years ago I ordered a shirt over the phone from her when their website was acting up, and she couldn’t have been nicer and more professional.  Not sure why I ordered it other than it was a cool shirt....wouldn’t dream of doing it now.....

I don't want to be his buddy, i just like to watch him race. Got the chance to meet him at Chili Bowl.... he's just not an outgoing "people person".... big deal, he's been a great driver for years, but he was wrong this time for sure

Not trying to give you a hard time or start an argument....

But its a sad comment on our values when insurance is a "bigger issue" than the kid's life

 Thats how it seems to work sometimes, doesn't it? Money talks....

    I certainly can't disagree with you. Money has always talked loud. The insurance becomes an issue because of the death of a participant in a sport. More things that can possibly cause problems equals higher insurance rates to provide coverage. Fixing things that are fixable can offset that.

Good shape? He's at least 30 lbs over weight.

It took me several times observing Sammy up close after the races to figure him out. Everybody thinks he's anti-social.....whch he is not. It isn't shyness, but it's real close to that. He simply can't help himself from clamming up in a crowd of strangers. Like stage fright sort of. If you watch him close you'll see it.  It was really evident years ago in the earlier years of the Outlaws. Early on I jumped on the bandwagon of opinion on him based on what others said, too. But one night after a race my son and I saw him posing for pictures with a couple small kids. He was totally different before and after the picture taking when confronted by adults. He almost looked fearful to us. That's when we picked up on what Sammy was all about. A few years ago, we had Sammy and the Dude at the dealership with their T Shirt trailers and both of the big rigs and race trailors. The thing I remember most about that day was this: after they had loaded up and left, the General Manager of the dealership walked up to me and said that he was really surprised by something. Sammy had made his way in to the dealership and back to his office specifically to thank him for having him there. He said that after everything he had "heard" about Sammy, he was surprised Sammy would do that. He said they had a nice visit, and that Sammy was nothing like what he had heard. As fans, we are wrong to judge drivers and crew based on incidents we may or may not witness at the track and elsewhere. And yeh, maybe some drivers have a pattern. But that pattern may very well be the porduct of something we don't understand.

Sammy's an introvert. Anybody who knows anything about personalty types and tendancies would agree with that designation for him. I have heard stories from people who know him and love them. They all say the same thing I am saying here. The puzzling thing to me is that he has had MORE than enough time to develop coping skills to help him get through times when he needs to be a little more outgoing and personable but as we all know he has not. I am an introvert and I am not in a position where I have to interact with people the way Sammy inevitably will because of what he does but I have developed coping skills to help me in situations where being an introvert will not fly. It's exhausting I will quickly acknowledge that but I do it well enough that some people don't believe me when I tell them that I actually am an introvert. Given half the opportunity though I revert to the antisocial ogre truly I long to be :-).

Here we go again.  Blazer, you are very close in your observation.  I got to know Sammy very well back in the day and he is painfully shy until he feels safe around you and then he is an entirely different man and believe it or not a funny one at that.  He has a great very dry sense of humor.  He's just wired a bit different than most of us.  I remember sitting in his Office at his shop in TN and I was trying to get him to tell me which trophy (he had dozens on Display) meant the most to him and he didn't have an answer.  He just likes to race and more importantly, likes to win and then it's on to the next one, honestly.

The fact that fans have physically threatened him, thrown pop, beer and the likes on him (from up close), cursed him out around young Kevin (many years ago) and on and on his made him even more sheepish/silent at the track. 

I covered some Winged Go-Kart races a long time ago out in CA when Kevin was racing as was Brad Sweet.  It was trophy night or something equivalent and all the winners got one.  I was there shooting pics and I asked  favor of Sammy, 'would he pose with each of the winners with their trophy' and he did and loved it.  Don't think I ever saw him smile so much in one night and I've spent many with him and his team.  I will never give any excuse for his driving style, suffice it to say he wants to win and win badly and this has caused the occasional problem over the years but whatever happens, it's on to the next race.  The vast majority of the haters in this forum have never spent any time with the man and if they did they would no longer be haters, they might not be big fans but they see the world from his shoes and learn much.....

I've actually heard more first hand accounts similar to yours about Sammy than first hand accounts of the other. The other usually came from a fan who had heard from a fan who had heard from a fan that Sammy had done something on track or had behaved badly. Funny how that shit grows, and the good stuff gets overlooked. I've seen hundreds of WoO shows and races involving Sammy and I've seen maybe two instances on track that he may have been the cause of. I can say that about numerous drivers. I can't state that I'm a friend of Sammy's, but I have been around him at certain times and other than being rather soft spoken he seems fine to me.