Swanson Wins Fourth Glen Nieble Classic Saturday in Anderson

📸 Rick Kimball

Anderson, IN - The yourbigplans.com 500 Sprint Car Tour season is officially underway after Saturday night's Glen Nieble Classic from Anderson Speedway. The tune-up event for the Little 500 in May featured over 20 cars on the property doing battle for 100 laps around the historic quarter-mile in metro Indianapolis.

Kody Swanson and Dakota Armstrong led the 23 car field to the green flag on a cool Saturday night. Swanson jumped out to the early lead with Armstrong hot on his heels early. Just three laps in the race saw the first caution flag of the day when Armstrong lost a right front tire entering turn three and slammed into the outside wall. An apparent spindle failure as the wheel and tire came off the car right before the turn into the corner. Armstrong was ok and able to climb from the car under his own power.

After a couple of single-car cautions inside the first 20 laps, the race opened up, and Swanson pulled away from the field. As Swanson began working on lapped traffic, the battle became for the podium positions as Tyler Roahrig and Coltin Bettis battled for third; after Roahrig made his way around the No.26, Roahrig and Bischak were locked in a battle for several laps for the second spot.

Roahrig clearly had the faster car near the midway point of the race, but just couldn't make a clean move to take away the second spot. Roahrig began trying to build runs down the straightaways to get to Bischak's inside entering the corner. The move worked on lap 49, allowing Roahrig to the inside of Bischak, but a bobble caused Roahrig's No.56 to wash up into the side of Bischak. Finally, on lap 53, Roahrig completed the pass and began trying to run down Roahrig as Bischak fell to Bettis, Bobby Sanos III, and Jackson Mecenko.

A pair of late race cautions were no problem for Swanson, who was able to hold off Roahrig down the stretch.

"You just never know," Swanson said in victory lane of his gap to Roahrig. "You watch that 56 creeping up the board, and you figure he's going to pounce at any moment. I'm thankful we were able to hold on there in the closing stages, and what a great opportunity. Surrounded by great people, this Doran Enterprises team, and Dan Binks power under the hood. Everyone that pitches in on this car."

With just over 20 laps to go in the race, Swanson made contact with Kyle O'Gara exiting turn two and spun him around. Swanson chalked it up to a racing incident.

"I hate that," Swanson said in Victory Lane. "I sure didn't want to hurt Kyle there. I was trying to time a run off of two, and he was trying to time a run on Derek. I hate that we tangled there, but thankful that we were able to survive and go on and try to get this car in victory lane."

The win on Saturday night was Swanson's seventh career win with the 500 Sprint Car Tour. The next event for the 500 Sprint Car Tour is the 78th Annual Unified Group Services Little 500 Presented by Ed Martin Automotive Group.