power plant. It’s carried the outspo-
ken Floridian to numerous big-money
grudge victories, but it too will be re-
placed soon.
“The only reason I got the car was it
was a much lighter car, lower center of
gravity – it was just a better car. I had
kind of reached the limits of ‘Apocalypse’
and how fast I could go with it. Now I
just bought another car, a 2015 Camaro.
That’s where we’re at right now.”
The 22-year-old no-time racing star
sat down with Drag Illustrated at
Wooostock for a wide-ranging interview
about his racing for big money, doing
things his way and growing with the
rapidly expanding grudge racing world.
No topic was left off the table and no
punches were pulled.
With a big Pat Musi-built 959 ci
engine up front and small Mickey
Thompson 315-series radials in the
back, Swanstrom’s “Armageddon” ‘04
Mustang is a beast to wrangle down
the track, often hiking up the front
end as it leaves the starting line.
bly 16. I ran ‘Skywalker’ and another
car called ‘Hand Me Down’, which
was the naturally aspirated car that
I turned into a small-block nitrous
car. I started running grudge races
with that. Well, then I graduated from
the small-blocks. I sold the ‘Skywalker’ Mustang
and bought Barry Mitchell’s old black Mustang
that he ran X275 with. That’s kind of where my
grudge scene really started to take off and people
May 2018
started noticing.”
Swanstrom’s stable grew again a year late