KNOXVILLE, Iowa – A year older, a year wiser and with one run at the Knoxville Nationals already under his belt, Spencer Bayston will return for his second shot at making the crown jewel of sprint car racing on Saturday night.
Bayston will again team with second-generation sprint car driver-turned team owner Kevin Swindell at the black-dirt half-mile, piloting the Swindell Speed Labs No. 39 as he looks to make the A-main on championship night for the first time.
The 19-year-old native of Lebanon, Ind., finished 22nd in Saturday’s B-main last year at Knoxville, but he enters this year’s festivities with some solid momentum on his side.
Bayston picked up his career-best Knoxville finish during the final tune-up for the Knoxville Nationals and ran well during a pair of Pennsylvania Midget Week events with Keith Kunz Motorsports in USAC on Saturday and Sunday night, giving the young gun confidence he can excel during the biggest sprint car show of the year.
“We feel really good about our chances this year,” Bayston told SPEED SPORT in advance of this year’s Nationals. “After the performance we had last year for the limited amount of experience that I had at the track in a winged car, to come back this year with a whole ‘nother year under my belt with the same team and same stuff is a big deal, and I think it’s something we can build on.
“I feel like we’ve gotten better, both with the car and myself as a driver. Hopefully we can lead off where we came from recently and make some cool things happen this week.”
Though Bayston is still relatively fresh behind the wheel of a winged sprint car, he does have the added benefit of having Swindell turning the wrenches on his race car. Swindell, a four-time Chili Bowl Nationals champion and former sprint car ace, has plenty of laps in his own right at Knoxville and knows what it takes to go fast at the historic facility.
“It’s been a learning curve for both of us, but to have someone like Kevin who has experience … not just in terms of car setup and getting around that place, but who’s ‘been there, done that’ and been fast there and won races there is really valuable to someone in my shoes,” noted Bayston. “His experience there has been really helpful for me, he’s done well with relaying his insight and how to go about things to me in a way that I can understand it and work with that information.
“Knoxville is a really different track than anywhere else we run. It’s a unique place and to get around there well is really difficult, so to have Kevin there where I can gain knowledge from him is something I’m really enjoying.”
As far as where the bar is set for the week, Bayston pointed out that the goal is rather simple, at least in his eyes.
“The aim is definitely to make the Saturday A-main,” he said. “I think I’d be pretty happy with doing that, and obviously the goal is to lock in after our qualifying night on Thursday to where we didn’t even have to run on Friday night (during the Hard Knox program).
“If we can come away on Sunday morning and be driving home looking back on how we made the show at Knoxville, I’d be pretty thrilled.”
Not lost on Bayston, even as a driver who came out of midgets into sprint cars, is the prestige and special aura that comes with racing at Knoxville Raceway during the Knoxville Nationals.
He’s hoping that the track will help to launch his name into stardom and give some positive energy back to the Swindells, three years after Kevin Swindell endured a crash there left him semi-paralyzed from the waist down.
“It’d be huge to have any sort of real positive success this week,” Bayston said. “It’d be a huge confidence booster for me, personally; it’d be great publicity for our team and to be able to do that for Kevin and Jordan at a place that changed their lives a handful a couple of years ago … I’d be honored if I could give them some good memories there again.
“Knoxville is about the best drivers in the world competing in the biggest race in the world, and hopefully when it’s all over we can say we were one of those names that turned a lot of heads.”
