While announcer Steve Logan makes the call over
the PA system for Radial vs. the World compet-
itors to make their way to the staging lanes for
the fourth qualifying session, all Swanstrom can
do is sit and wait until his grudge race against
PDRA Pro Nitrous star Jay Cox. The two drivers
are locked in for a big-money race at 2 p.m., one
of the numerous high-profile grudge races tak-
ing place during the second annual Wooostock
event put on by Keith Berry, Lance Stanford and
Travis Harvey.
“There’s not much I can do at this point,” Swans-
trom says. “Here in a couple hours I’ll get ready to
make a shakedown, make sure everything is good
to go. Then I’ll get ready to go back up there and
do my deal at 2 – not a minute later.”
Swanstrom and his father, Corey “Big Country”
Swanstrom, rolled into the rural South Carolina
track early Friday morning after driving through
the night from their home in Zephyrhills, Florida.
They planned to leave Wednesday night, but a
last-minute service call came in to their busi-
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ness, a vacuum and video service that cleans and
inspects storm and sewer lines. Upon arriving
at Darlington, Swanstrom unloaded his “Arma-
geddon” ’04 Mustang and proceeded to make a
series of test passes in preparation for his Satur-
day-night race with Cox, who was brought in to
drive and tune Al Boogie’s Camaro.
There’s an unlikely calm surrounding Swans-
trom’s pit area. He’s mere hours away from mak-
ing one run worth $10,000. One of the most
feared nitrous tuners in the Southeast will be
in the other lane. Rather than pacing around
frantically or poring over data and pondering
a tuneup change that really shouldn’t be made,
Swanstrom is laid back, chatting with one of his
crew guys about a new Instagram post from Demi
Lovato, a pop star who he very publicly crushes
on. Make no mistake, Swanstrom understands
the intensity of what is about to take place. He
just doesn’t seem to feel the pressure.
“With my grudge races, nothing is guaranteed,”
Swanstrom points out. “Hell, no race is guaran-
teed, but I race against the top line of the guys.
Me and Dad, our name and all that requires us to
race against the top guys. Like this afternoon, I’m
going up against Jay Cox in a big-tire wheelie bar
car. I’m staying on 315s. This will be a real test of
our abilities. I believe I have a good chance. We’re
going to see what happens. That’s just how it goes.”
This type of racing is just about all Swanstrom
knows. He made his first pass in a ’91 Mustang
with a naturally aspirated big-block Ford at age
14 after a few years playing around in Jr. Drag-
sters. He tried running in X275, but the all-motor
combination wasn’t enough to contend with the
power adders filling the class. Swanstrom then
upgraded to a nitrous-assisted small-block, but
his first big move in X275 came when he pur-
chased the silver “Skywalker” Mustang he used
to reset the small-block world record. The need
for continuous improvement led the Swanstroms
to move on, though.
“That’s when we got introduced into grudge
racing,” Swanstrom remembers. “I was proba-
Issue 132