Argabright recipient of Mike Swims Award
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Dave Argabright, the face of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series for more than a dozen years as the pit reporter on televised and streamed events before his October retirement, is 2021’s recipient of the Mike Swims Award of Excellence. | Complete PRI coverage
The 67-year-old Indiana native, a member of the Sprint National Sprint Car Hall of Fame for his lengthy career as a columnist and TV personality, received the honor during the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series banquet at Lucas Oil Stadium in conjunction with the weekend’s Performance Racing Industry Trade Show.
“I do want to thank Rick and Ashley Schwallie and Steve and Amanda Francis and Wayne Castleberry and everyone associated with the Lucas Oil series,” said Argabright. “I mean this from the bottom of my heart, I’m proud to be associated with this group of professionals. They are great people top-to-bottom. I also want to thank the racers, the teams, the officials and the crews. I always tried to treat you respect and I always felt that respect coming back the same way. So thank you.
Argabright thanked longtime co-workers James Essex, Bob Dillner and Jen Ashley, as well as his wife Lisa, who he said “has never once complained about the long hours or the late nights, the days and weeks” that he’s spent working away from home.
The award, honoring the Hall of Fame promoter of the Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series and Lucas Oil tour supporter Mike Swims, is presented annually to an honoree who’s gone above and beyond the call of duty in the racing industry to make a lasting impact on the lives of racers, crews and fans. Swims died in 2007 after a lengthy battle with cancer.
“Mike Swims was a beautiful human being,” Argabright said. “To receive something named in his honor just means a lot. I have to tell you at this moment I'm thinking about my mom. It was five years ago today that she left us. She's definitely been on my mind. It's kind of fitting because my mom is the one who would always say go for it, don't be afraid, give it a try. When I had a chance to do my first TV race all those years ago, that's what she would have been telling me and I'm glad I did go for it because the last 31 years have been just a great experience.”
While his early TV work began in open-wheel racing, Argabright branched out to Dirt Late Model models at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway and eventually to Lucas Oil Series events, often being the first person to talk to winners in victory lane while also serving as the national tour’s pit reporter and providing technical primers to fans.
“When I first did my first Lucas race 15 years ago, it was pretty much almost a brand new series and they were taking shaky steps with wobbly legs to try to get themselves established,” Argabright recalled. “And when I look around now 15 years later, all I can say is ‘Wow!’ They have become the premier short track racing series and the United States and that takes some doing.”
Along with working with Lucas Oil Racing TV, MavTV and other networks, he’s been affiliated with the Anderson (Ind.) Herald, Open Wheel magazine and National Speed Sport News and Sprint Car & Midget magazine. His TV work began in 1990 and expanded with the World of Outlaw Sprint Car Series on TNN in 2000. Argabright is also the author of several books, including works with National Dirt Late Model Hall of Famers Earl Baltes, Eldora Speedway’s founder, and Larry Moore, a three-time World 100 winner at Eldora.
