Exhibit 99
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                                 PRESS RELEASE
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                          SMITHWAY MOTOR XPRESS CORP.
                            ANNOUNCES ACQUISITIONS

FORT DODGE, IOWA (PR Newswire)  September 30, 1998 - Smithway Motor Xpress Corp.
(Nasdaq/NMS:  SMXC)  announced  today the  closing  of one  acquisition  and the
signing  of  a  definitive  agreement  on  another  acquisition.   The  combined
transactions  are expected to add over $30 million to Smithway's  annual revenue
and both are expected to be immediately  accretive to earnings.  After these two
acquisitions  during 1998, Smithway will have acquired companies with nearly $60
million in annual revenue.

In August,  Smithway closed the  acquisition of $4 million  (annual  revenue) TP
Transportation  of Enid,  Oklahoma.  TP operated 34  company-owned  tractors and
served exclusively the flatbed market.

In September,  Smithway signed a definitive asset purchase  agreement to acquire
the freight operations and trucking assets of JHT, Inc. and related companies of
Grand  Rapids,  Minnesota.  JHT  operates  approximately  185  tractors  serving
exclusively  the dry van  market.  Slightly  over  half of  JHT's  tractors  are
company-owned,   with  the  balance  being  provided  by  owner-operators.   The
acquisition is contingent upon several factors,  including due diligence, and is
expected to close October 30, 1998.

Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, William G. Smith said, "We are
excited to add JHT and TP to the Smithway family.  The  transactions  strengthen
our market  presence in both the dry van and flatbed markets and raise our fleet
to over 1,450 power  units.  In both  transactions  the Company has followed its
policy of paying fair market value for the assets plus a  percentage  of revenue
for goodwill.  The transactions are Smithway's  seventh and eighth  acquisitions
since May 1995. These acquisitions, plus internal growth, put Smithway on target
to meet anticipated  gross revenue of $160 million in 1998.  Smithway intends to
continue its strategy of expanding both internally and through acquisitions."

Smithway is a truckload  carrier  that  provides  nationwide  transportation  of
diversified  freight,  concentrating  primarily  on the  flatbed  segment of the
truckload market.  Smithway's Class A Common Stock trades on the Nasdaq National
Market under the symbol "SMXC."

                      For additional information contact:
                 G. Larry Owens, Executive Vice President and
                            Chief Operating Officer
                                (515) 576-7418

This  press  release  and  statements  made by the  Company  in  reports  to its
stockholders  and public filings,  as well as oral public  statements by Company
representatives, may contain certain forward-looking information that is subject
to certain  risks and  uncertainties  that could cause actual  results to differ
materially  from  those   projected.   Without   limitation,   these  risks  and
uncertainties  include economic  recessions or downturns in customers'  business
cycles,  excessive  increases in capacity within  truckload  markets,  decreased
demand for transportation  services offered by the Company,  rapid inflation and
fuel price  increases,  increases in interest rates,  and the  availability  and
compensation of qualified drivers and owner-operators. Readers should review and
consider the various  disclosures  made by the Company in this press release and
in its reports to stockholders and periodic reports on forms 10-K and 10-Q.