HUTCH TREAT! KTJ GETS FIRST USAC SILVER CROWN WIN AT SALT CITY

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Hutchinson, Kansas (July 20, 2024)………After five career runner-up finishes in USAC Silver Crown competition, Kevin Thomas Jr. had no desire for any more “second” thoughts during Saturday night’s inaugural Murphy Tractor & Equipment Salt City 100 at Hutchinson, Kansas’ Salt City Speedway.

Thomas’ (Cullman, Ala.) quest for his initial series victory didn’t exactly occur in a straightforward manner.  First, Thomas was brought to the Chris Dyson Racing/Concord American Flagpole – Macri Concrete – High Performance Lubricants/Maxim/Ott Chevy in a substitute role while the team’s regular driver, Brady Bacon, was competing in the Kings Royal at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway.

Secondly, in a late-race battle for the lead between Thomas and C.J. Leary, the two touched wheels, resulting in Leary toppling over while Thomas continued onward to victory, casting a bit of a pall over his long-awaited Silver Crown celebration.

“I’m going to start off by apologizing to C.J. and everybody over there on the Klatt Enterprises team,” Thomas stated.  “C.J. and I have been friends for 10-plus years, and we’ve never touched.  That was piss poor judgement on my end.  He’s one of my better friends and that really sucks.”

Nonetheless, Thomas’ $10,000 victory extended a remarkable streak of first-time USAC Silver Crown winners.  A brand-new first-time series victor has emerged in each of the past three events: Daison Pursley (Port Royal), Dakoda Armstrong (Madison) and now Kevin Thomas Jr. (Salt City).

That’s the first time there have been three consecutive first-time Silver Crown winners in as many races since 2010 when Tanner Swanson (Berlin), Kody Swanson (Du Quoin) and Bryan Clauson (Eldora) reeled off first-time series wins in succession.

Not to mention, all three dirt Silver Crown races held thus far in 2024 have resulted in first-time winners: Kaylee Bryson (Belleville), Pursley (Port Royal) and Thomas (Salt City).  The last occurrence of three-straight first-time dirt winners also came in 2010 when Levi Jones (USA Raceway), Shane Hmiel (Indiana State Fairgrounds) and Kody Swanson (Du Quoin) each grabbed their firsts.

But for Thomas, the Silver Crown monkey on his back has finally been released.  Entering Saturday night’s race, He held the dubious distinction of owning more runner-up finishes in series history among drivers who had not yet won a main event.

Thomas previously finished as the runner-up at Springfield (2018), Du Quoin (2018), Eldora (2018), Indiana State Fairgrounds (2019) and Eldora (2019).  And for a time, it looked like it might happen again after he led the opening 68 circuits around the historic 1/2-mile Kansas State Fairgrounds dirt oval.

After winning the pole and establishing the Salt City USAC Silver Crown track record with a lap of 21.090 seconds in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying, Thomas started from the pole position and was in total control from the drop of the green flag until that very point when he encountered lapped traffic at just the wrong moment.

Thomas became hung up behind the car of six-time Hutchinson Grand Nationals Sprint Car champion and first-time Silver Crown competitor Danny Jennings in turns three and four.  Leary took advantage of the opportune moment by darting to the inside in turn three before coming out of the other side of turn four with the lead in hand and just 31 laps remaining.

Throughout the ensuing 10 laps, Leary extended his lead over Thomas to nearly two seconds until a caution for fourth-running Justin Grant who slowed suddenly in turn four on lap 79.  Grant continued toward the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area where the crew added fuel.  However, fuel didn’t turn out to be the remedy.  Soon after Grant pulled back onto the track, he was back in the infield, this time out of the race for good with a 13th place finish.

In time for the lap 83 resumption, Thomas was in full attack mode as he dove under Leary to swipe the lead in turns one and two.  However, Leary countered the maneuver and raced back under Thomas on the back straightaway.  By the time the pair reached turn one the next time around on lap 84, Thomas pulled a car length ahead of Leary.

However, by the time they reached turn two and Leary attempted to race around the outside of Thomas, the town proved to be not big enough for the both of them.  Thomas’ right rear tire and Leary’s left rear tire collided, sending Leary flipping upside down multiple times.  Leary walked away but his bid for his first Silver Crown win of 2024 was finished.

When action resumed, Thomas worked the low line in turns three and four while opting for the top side in turns one and two down the stretch.   Meanwhile, new second place runner Seavey made his pursuit while committed to the multi-layered cushion that had been built up around the top.  At moments, only a couple car lengths separated the two with the lap count hurriedly rushing to 100.

However, in crunch time, Thomas hit all his marks and was able to steadily stretch his lead over the final five laps to cross the stripe 2.046 seconds ahead of Seavey.  Trey Osborne’s see-saw battle with Chase Stockon saw the pair swap the third position three times over a four-lap span before Osborne made the decisive pass on the low side of turn one on lap 96.  Stockon took fourth behind Osborne while USAC Silver Crown point leader Kody Swanson rounded out the top-five.

For Thomas, it had been four years since he last sat in the seat of the Chris Dyson Racing No. 9.  In his triumphant return, Thomas led a race-high 85 of 100 laps to finally get the deed done and check off another feat on his lengthy list of USAC accomplishments.

“I’m really proud of my guys and I’m happy to get the call to come out here and race for these guys in a car that is as fast as it is,” Thomas praised.  “To finally get my first win, it’s pretty special.  It’s been a long two days, but it’s been well worth it.  (Crew chief) Sean (Michael) and everybody on the team gave me a really good racecar.  I felt like I made a couple of bad decisions right there in lapped traffic, but I had a good enough car to stay with the pace that C.J. was running and try to get back to him.  Then, unfortunately, the contact happened.  I feel like the fans don’t deserve something like that.  They deserve to see us two race it out.”

Defending series champion Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) equaled his best finish of the season with a runner-up finish in his Rice Motorsports-Abacus Racing/DiaEdge Mitsubishi Materials – STIDA.com/DRC/Felker Chevy.

“With Justin (Grant) and I being on the hard tires and Kevin (Thomas Jr.) and C.J. (Leary) being on the softs, it played out to be a different kind of Silver Crown race than I think we were all expecting,” Seavey admitted.  “We all kind of thought it was going to rubber, and tires were going to play a big factor, but it didn’t.  This place built a huge curb, and we were up there smashing it pretty hard.  I was actually more worried about fuel because, normally, we don’t run this hard on half-miles.  Usually, you’re kind of pedaling around a bunch.  That was like a sprint car race for 100 laps.”

Following a career-best fourth place finish in his most recent Silver Crown outing in June on the pavement at Wisconsin’s Madison International Speedway, Trey Osborne (Columbus, Ohio) one-upped himself with a career-first podium result on the dirt at Salt City, scoring third in his BCR Group/Flint Trucking & Truck Service – Duncan Oil – QS Components/Maxim/Kercher Chevy.  He reached third in spectacular fashion in a battle with Stockon that lasted the duration of the final 10 laps.

“He raced me clean, but he made me work for it,” Osborne said of Stockon.  “We were definitely going at it.  This year has sucked, so to run third is great.”

Nathan Moore (Kaufman, Texas) earned his best career USAC Silver Crown finish at Salt City after starting 16th and finishing eighth in his Chip Thomas-Joe Moore/Abilene Powder Coating – Boxwell Heavy Haul/Maxim/Kercher Mopar.  That earned the series Rookie the hard charger honor of the evening.  Furthermore, his performance also netted him Inferno Armor’s Fire Move of the Night after overcoming a mid-race spin to collect his first Silver Crown top-10 result.

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USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 20, 2024 – Salt City Speedway – Hutchinson, Kansas – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – Murphy Tractor & Equipment Salt City 100

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9, Dyson-21.090 (New Track Record); 2. C.J. Leary, 6, Klatt-21.204; 3. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-21.491; 4. Mario Clouser, 21, Team AZ-21.529; 5. Logan Seavey, 22, Rice/Abacus-21.536; 6. Trey Osborne, 81, BCR-21.558; 7. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-21.596; 8. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran/Binks-21.673; 9. Kyle Steffens, 08, Steffens-21.831; 10. Trey Burke, 60, Legacy/Wilson-21.905; 11. Kaylee Bryson, 26, Pierce-22.001; 12. Kip Hughes, 160, Hughes-22.311; 13. Danny Jennings, 61, Grace-22.384; 14. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-22.581; 15. Chris Fetter, 15, Fetter-22.634; 16. Nathan Moore, 48, Thomas/Moore-22.800; 17. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-23.450; 18. Steve Gennetten, 03, Gennetten-23.480; 19. Danny Long, 44, Long-24.578.

FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (1), 2. Logan Seavey (5), 3. Trey Osborne (6), 4. Chase Stockon (7), 5. Kody Swanson (8), 6. Kaylee Bryson (11), 7. Kyle Steffens (9), 8. Nathan Moore (16), 9. Danny Jennings (13), 10. Gregg Cory (14), 11. Mario Clouser (4), 12. C.J. Leary (2), 13. Justin Grant (3), 14. Chris Fetter (15), 15. Kip Hughes (12), 16. Trey Burke (10), 17. Dave Berkheimer (17), 18. Steve Gennetten (18), 19. Danny Long (19). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-68 Kevin Thomas Jr., Laps 69-83 C.J. Leary, Laps 84-100 Kevin Thomas Jr.

**C.J. Leary flipped on lap 84 of the feature.

USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-423, 2-Justin Grant-392, 3-Logan Seavey-373, 4-C.J. Leary-370, 5-Trey Osborne-261, 6-Kaylee Bryson-260, 7-Bobby Santos-250, 8-Kyle Steffens-245, 9-Taylor Ferns-235, 10-Gregg Cory-230.

USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-126, 2-Logan Seavey-115, 3-Robert Ballou-111, 4-C.J. Leary-96, 5-Justin Grant-93, 6-Joey Amantea-89, 7-Kyle Cummins-86, 8-Chase Stockon-73, 9-Carson Garrett-63, 10-Brady Bacon-62.

NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: August 10, 2024 – Jennerstown Speedway – Jennerstown, Pennsylvania – 1/2-Mile Paved Oval – Silver Crown Showdown

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: C.J. Leary (20.876)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Kevin Thomas Jr. (21.090)

Hard Charger: Nathan Moore (16th to 8th)

Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Race: Nathan Moore