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Swaim Steps Up To State Championship Racing At Caraway

A veteran NASCAR Late Model driver stepped up to a new career high in 2009. Travis Swaim, 30, of High Point, N.C., won the tough NASCAR North Carolina state championship. Swaim also won the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model division championship at his home track of Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, N.C.

Swaim became a three-time Caraway Late Model champion with his 2009 title. He also topped the track standings there in 2004 and 2005.

Racing NASCAR Late Models in the Carolinas is a tough business. The landscape is splashed with historic NASCAR short tracks that helped shape the competitive level of the sport: Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway, Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Greenville, S.C., and Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Speedway among them.

Swaim’s home track, Caraway Speedway, opened in 1966 and hasn’t been around quite as long as some Carolina tracks. But the place has been a talent tester that has yielded track champion drivers such as NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Bobby Labonte, 18-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race winner Dennis Setzer, and 1995 truck series champion Mike Skinner.

Swaim is a good fit in the history of the track’s Late Model champions. He’s been around racing his entire life. His dad, Mike, is a two-time champion of the former NASCAR Goody’s Dash Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series veteran. His older brother, Mike Jr., won the Dash Series championship in 1997 and went on to become a winner in the ARCA Re/Max Series.

Swaim remembers his first and second trips as a six and seven-year-old boy to Daytona International Speedway very well.

“The first time I went to Daytona in 1985, dad won the (NASCAR Goody’s Dash Series) race. We went back the next year, and he won it again. I thought every year we’d go to Daytona and go to Victory Lane. That’s not the way it worked out, but my brother won the Dash Series championship in 1997 and the Daytona Dash race in 1998.”

Swaim says his father was insistent that his sons complete high school before embarking on their racing careers. When Travis began racing, he spent a year racing dirt Late Models in order to learn car control.

Then he embarked on his NASCAR Late Model racing career and worked his way up the ladder. He didn’t focus on racing for track points until 2004. His 2009 campaign became a career-high season. While he raced full time at Caraway, he also made a few starts at Hickory and Tri-County. He completed his season with five wins, 13 top 5s and 17 top 10s in 22 starts. He ended up being ranked 24th in the series’ Top 500 national ranking.

Swaim’s effort is backed by veteran crew chief Ronald Fox. As a driver, Fox won 59 races at Caraway in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was a longtime crew chief in the NASCAR Goody’s Dash Series, helping Swaim Jr. win that series championship.

Interestingly, Swaim posted one of his biggest wins of the season at Tri-County in September. Ironically, he took the lead in that 100-lap race from Andy Mercer, who won Hickory’s 2009 track championship. Mercer’s brother, David, is a crewman for Swaim, specializing in setups.

“Andy and I work together,” Swaim said. “He tested my car for me that weekend. We may be rivals on the track, but we work together and share information.

“I wasn’t expecting to win that race. It was one of the biggest wins of the year, and it was a surprise.”

The team finished up the season competing in the Bailey’s 300 NASCAR Late Model Stock Car race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, a fall classic event for the division. Swaim finished 11th in the 42-car field. 

The Swaim family teams operate under the Falcon Racing banner. Swaim’s Late Model is based on a Tom Pistone chassis and powered by a Ravon Clark-built engine. Bobby Little is also on the crew.

Swaim is married to Kimberly and is a project manager for Management Resource Systems, Inc.

Travis Swaim drove to a record-tying third track title at Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, N.C. Courtesy of Caraway Speedway