Indianapolis, Indiana…….After three Silver Crown Series events this season, the scoreboard reads “Swanson Family: 3, Everybody Else: 0.” Point-leader Kody Swanson scored his second victory of the season on Thursday night as he came on to take the lead on lap 78 and win the “Hoosier Hundred” at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
“I’m not even sure if I know what to think about all this. This is something special. You come out here and just try to do your job and perform for your team without ever really thinking about this moment. This whole team is quite a story. My deal with them started with a pavement car out in a barn where they could have left it sitting forever. It’s just an amazing group of people from the DePalma family to (crew chief) Bob Hampshire to Clark and everybody else who comes and helps us,” said an elated Swanson on the famous fronstretch.
Bobby East led from outside the front row, although the original start ended when Jon Stanbrough got turned around in turn-one and Dakota Jackson ended up as the unlucky recipient of a meeting with the turn-one concrete. His race was over, but Stanbrough restarted.
East led and opened up a comfortable margin as Swanson quickly made his way from eighth into fourth within the first ten laps. Shortly after, Caleb Armstrong got into the turn-four wall just after Swanson had passed him for third. His night was done.
The race hit a longer green run as East led Hines, Swanson, Shane Cockrum, and Chris Windom. A red flag stopped the action on lap 30, however, as John Hunt turned over in turn-three. He walked away.
Two-time race winner Jerry Coons, Jr. joined the top-five as they broke away from the field during a 34-lap green run that saw East open up a commanding lead. Swanson moved in on Hines for second using a lapped car, but he made contact which forced a caution on lap 63.
The race restarted with 34 laps to go, and Coons made a big move into turn-one to take a top-five spot. Then, Swanson jumped to the higher groove and went to work on Hines, taking the second spot on lap 73. With clear track between him and East, the gap was shrinking rapidly, and Swanson went to the outside of East entering turn-one on lap 78 to take the lead.
From there, Swanson was untouchable, winning by 4.148 seconds aboard the DePalma Motorsports – Radio Hospital #63 Maxim/Hampshire.
“I felt like I messed up qualifying and told my guys I owed them some spots early. It was important to get those spots early. I was good for a while and stayed with Tracy, and then I’d have trouble keeping up. I knew if I was gonna get anything done, I’d have to get creative. Luckily, they pinched down more and I was using the outside, especially in turn-two,” Swanson said, further explaining his assault on the lead, “After working so hard to get Tracy. The closer we got to Bobby, the more he protected the bottom, and that probably helped a little. I got a good run to catch up to him, and I kinda thought I’d try the top and use my momentum to go after him quickly. I got a run to the outside and it stuck.”
East easily held on for second in the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Chevy Performance #10 Maxim/Kistler, while Hines rounded out the podium in the Lightfoot Racing – Hughs Brothers#16 Beast/Chevy. Coons ended his strong run by climbing from 14th to fourth in the Fred Gormly – RPM Auto Enterprise #98 DRC/Mopar, and Windom rounded out the top-five in the RW/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Driven Racing Oil #17 Beast/Wallace Toyota.
USAC SILVER CROWN RACE RESULTS: May 22, 2014 – Indianapolis, Indiana – Indiana State Fairgrounds – “Hoosier Hundred”
QUALIFYING: 1. Tracy Hines, 16, Lightfoot-36.266; 2. Bobby East, 10, Stewart/Curb-36.759; 3. Shane Cockrum, 66, Hardy-37.028; 4. Caleb Armstrong, 9, Armstrong-37.048; 5. Jacob Wilson, 07, Wilson-37.112; 6. Chris Windom, 17, RW/Curb-Agajanian-37.181; 7. Jon Stanbrough, 56, Foxco-37.233; 8. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-37.316; 9. A.J. Fike, 3, RFMS-37.471; 10. Chris Urish, 77, Urish-37.689; 11. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-37.693; 12. Zach Daum, 5, Daum-37.705; 13. Christopher Bell, 21, Team SixR-37.817; 14. Jerry Coons Jr., 98, RPM/Gormly-37.909; 15. Jarett Andretti, 14, McQuinn-38.070; 16. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-38.092; 17. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-38.114; 18. Davey Ray, 25, Sachs-38.352; 19. Dakota Jackson, 33, Jackson-38.582; 20. John Hunt, 91, Hunt-38.721; 21. Andrew Felker, 30, King-38.757; 22. Dave Darland, 19, Longworth-38.863; 23. Randy Bateman, 55, Bateman-39.141; 24. Joe Liguori, 99, RPM/Gormly-39.338; 25. Jake Simmons, 31, Simmons-40.238; 26. Taylor Ferns, 35, Ferns-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps) 1. Kody Swanson, 2. Bobby East, 3. Tracy Hines, 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 5. Chris Windom, 6. Zach Daum, 7. Aaron Pierce, 8. Chris Urish, 9. A.J. Fike, 10. Christopher Bell, 11. Joe Liguori, 12. Shane Cockrum, 13. Davey Ray, 14. Jon Stanbrough, 15. Dave Darland, 16. Jarett Andretti, 17. Randy Bateman, 18. Jacob Wilson, 19. Patrick Lawson, 20. Jake Simmons, 21. Russ Gamester, 22. John Hunt, 23. Caleb Armstrong, 24. Andrew Felker, 25. Dakota Jackson. NT
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**Hunt flipped on lap 30 of the Feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-77 East. Laps 78-100 Swanson.
NEW SILVER CROWN SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1-Swanson-180, 2-Hines-168, 3-East-147, 4-Windom-120, 5-Fike-108, 6-Coons-105, 7-Daum-93, 8-Cockrum-93, 9-Wilson-87, 10-Bell-81.
NEXT SILVER CROWN SERIES RACE: June 14 – Madison, Illinois – Gateway Motorsports Park