SWANSON HOPES USAC SILVER CROWN SEASON’S SWAN SONG PRESENTS A 6TH CHAMPIONSHIP
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Toledo, Ohio (October 7, 2021)………In one way, Kody Swanson has found himself in this position before – leading the USAC Silver Crown standings going into the final race.
In another sense, Swanson has rarely found himself in a position quite like the one he’ll face during this Sunday afternoon’s season finale at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway for the October 10 Hemelgarn Racing/Super Fitness Rollie Beale Classic.
The Kingsburg, Calif. native possesses a lead by the narrowest of margins, one point, over Logan Seavey heading into the event. In his five championship seasons, Swanson came into the last race as the point leader in all five and remained at the top exiting the track in 2014-15-17-18-19, ranging from a slim 27-point win in 2014 to a whopping 142-point title victory in 2015.
The year 2016 is the closest in comparison to Swanson’s current situation. A 10-point lead rested with Swanson in the season closer at Eldora Speedway but fighting back from an early race incident and a damaged racecar proved to be just barely too much to overcome, trailing race winner and champion Chris Windom by five in the final tally.
Swanson doesn’t take his historic run of an unprecedented number of wins and championships for granted, readily acknowledging the difficulty for everything to click in unison, and the versatility it takes from all involved, to reach the ultimate goal.
“It’s hard to win a championship in anything and the Silver Crown series has been at the top of the USAC ladder, historically,” Swanson said. “It’s really neat because it’s one of the last remaining open wheel series that you still have to run on both dirt and pavement surfaces.”
Clicking with one crew and one team in a single year is a study in success, but this season has put Swanson in three different situations with three different teams in just eight starts, on the dirt with both Chris Dyson Racing and the Mark Swanson Encore Team, plus the full pavement slate for Doran Racing.
His original intent was not set on competing for the full season and, despite missing a race, emerged at the front and is still in the driver’s seat of the championship, trying to become the first non-perfect attendance driver to win the Silver Crown title since Jimmy Sills in 1994.
“It’s neat to have a chance at a title, especially in a year like this, for sure,” Swanson acknowledged. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity, but I’m not trying to get caught up in it. It’s tough to race for points, and to race with it all on the line. One of the things I’ve been focusing on this year is just trying to focus on each race individually where a win will take care of itself.”
Swanson has been victorious in the Toledo Silver Crown event four times in 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2019. He’s led 455 of the possible 800 laps ever run by Silver Crown cars at Toledo and he’s also captured the pole four times in 2011, 2015, 2017 and 2019, the first of which remains the track record to this day.
Yet, despite the success, Swanson describes the track as “tricky,” a place where the speed sneaks up on you. With the corners being so long and the straightaways relatively short, space is at a premium and it’s close-quarters, high-speed throughout.
With three points for the pole, three points for most laps led, a difference of three points between each position from 1-10, a difference of two points between positions 11-20, and one point separating each position from 21st on back, Swanson simply needs to stay one step ahead of his championship competition, Seavey.
“He’s had a great year and has run really well, especially on the dirt,” Swanson said in praise of Seavey. “But he’s run well on the pavement too for not having that much experience, and they’ve put themselves in a good spot. He’ll be ready. They’ve been ready all year long. It’s up to us to go out and compete for it.”
A lot of conjecture and endless thoughts of “what-if” are to be expected in a tight title race. But Swanson and the Doran team are dead-set on putting their fate into their own hands, no “but’s” about it and leaving the “what-if’s” behind.
“We’re working hard in the shop to make sure that every base is covered, and everything’s been looked at,” Swanson revealed. “As far as race day, specifically, the goal is still the same – to be as fast as we can be, to qualify well, and try to win the race at the end of it. If we’re there, everything will take care of itself.”
Sunday’s Hemelgarn Racing/Super Fitness Rollie Beale Classic features the USAC Silver Crown National Championship plus R & M Recycling Late Model Sportsman and The Vault Factory Stocks.
The pits open at 8:30am ET and grandstands open at 11:15am with practice set for 11:30am. Racing will begin at 2pm.
Tickets are $25, kids 6-12 are $5, while ages 5 and under are free. Add $1 per ticket for online ticket purchases at http://www.toledospeedway.com/.
Sunday’s entire Toledo event can be watched LIVE on FloRacing at https://bit.ly/3frPoW6.
TOLEDO SPEEDWAY USAC SILVER CROWN ENTRY LIST:
1 ®KYLE O’GARA/Beech Grove, IN (SFHR Development)
6 ®TYLER ROAHRIG/Plymouth, IN (Klatt Enterprises)
7 KYLE ROBBINS/New Castle, IN (KR Racing)
11 ®NATHAN BYRD/Goodyear, AZ (Hamilton-Byrd Racing)
14 DAVEY HAMILTON JR./Boise, ID (Hamilton-Byrd Racing)
16 AUSTIN NEMIRE/Sylvania, OH (Nemire-Lesko Racing)
18 TRAVIS WELPOTT/Pendleton, IN (Welpott Racing)
22 BOBBY SANTOS/Franklin, MA (DJ Racing)
24 MIKE HAGGENBOTTOM/Levittown, PA (John Haggenbottom)
26 AARON PIERCE/Muncie, IN (Sam Pierce)
31 DAVE BERKHEIMER/Mechanicsburg, PA (Berkheimer Racing)
39 MATT GOODNIGHT/Winchester, IN (Goodnight Racing)
40 DAVID BYRNE/Shullsburg, WI (Byrne Racing)
42 ®JAKE DAY/Abilene, TX (Jake Day)
51 RUSS GAMESTER/Peru, IN (Gamester Racing)
55 TAYLOR FERNS/Shelby Township, MI (Ferns Racing)
77 KODY SWANSON/Kingsburg, CA (Doran Enterprises)
80 TONI BREIDINGER/Hillsborough, CA (Breidinger Motorsports)
81 BRIAN TYLER/Parma, MI (BCR Group)
91 JUSTIN GRANT/Ione, CA (Hemelgarn Racing)
92 JIM ANDERSON/Joliet, IL (Kazmark Motorsports)
94 ®MIKE MCVETTA/Grafton OH (Dick & Deborah Myers)
222 ®LOGAN SEAVEY/Sutter, CA (Rice Motorsports)
® USAC Silver Crown National Championship Rookie of the Year Contender