Twice, Kevin Swindell's racing career has taken him away from his family's house in Germantown, Tenn., but the sport he loves has yet to provide a permanent home.

Swindell, a 19-year-old development driver for Gillett Evernham Motorsports, moved to North Carolina in January to be close to NASCAR's hub in Mooresville, near rows and rows of top-notch race shops.

“

I don't have a lot of control over my future right now. ... You're waiting to decide if someone thinks you're good enough to move forward.

”

KEVIN SWINDELL

The year prior, Swindell moved to Indiana to be close to the Kasey Kahne Racing shop in Brownsburg as he competed in the USAC Series as part of his development program with GEM.

Racing go-karts and Quarter Midgets since he was 5, Swindell is accustomed to life on the road but admits a home base would be nice. However, the teenager is uncertain if he will find a permanent address as his racing plans for the 2009 season have yet to be established.

"It's not great, I don't have a lot of control over my future right now," Swindell said. "You can go out, do all you can do when you get the opportunities, but when they are few and far between it doesn't make you sleep better at night. You're waiting to decide if someone thinks you're good enough to move forward."

Signed by GEM in 2006, Swindell said setbacks have occurred in his program, a program that seemingly has dwindled to one last race: NASCAR's Camping World East race Oct. 12 at Stafford Motor Speedway.

Swindell made his Camping World Series debut in August at Mansfield Motorsports Park in the No. 9 Evernham/Gillette Motorsports Dodge. He qualified seventh and finished 13th.

"The finish didn't show as good as we were ... we ran in the top five all day. The race was different, I expected a lot more patience," Swindell said. "The pace was a lot faster and rougher than I thought. I'm just looking forward to Stafford. I'll be a lot more prepared."

Preparation is something this driver has never lacked; he's the son of well-known World of Outlaws racer Sammy Swindell, a three-time National Sprint Car champion. The father-son team has raced together before Kevin Swindell could even ride a bike -- the youngster went straight to a go-kart instead.

"A lot of the things I've learned have come from my dad," Swindell said. "He knows about racecars, setups, tracks, as much as anyone I know and he has good answers for anything I can come up with."

In 2006, Swindell, then 17, became the youngest driver in World of Outlaws history to win a feature event. The win came at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway. In addition, Swindell finished 14th in his first ARCA Series race at Salem Speedway.

Racing for his father's World of Outlaws team during Speedweeks 2006 at Daytona was where Swindell first met Ray Evernham, who intended on creating a stock-car program around the young driver. Struggles with GEM's Cup car program and driver changes prevented that from happening, Swindell said.

"If stuff doesn't work out I'm not sure where'd I go," Swindell said. "Hopefully, something in USAC or Outlaw cars, but I enjoy the stock-car stuff a lot because it's a different challenge. I like to challenge myself and not get into a rut. It takes effort to be better at different types of racing, but I think the strategies of stock-car racing suit me the best."