Brownsburg, Indiana…….Tanner Swanson continued his dominance on the pavement side of the Silver Crown Series schedule as he passed his brother Kody two-thirds of the way through Thursday’s “Rich Vogler Classic” 100-lapper and took off for a comfortable 5.366-second victory in the Bowman Racing – Banjo Products #2 Beast/Kistler Chevy. The non-stop race was completed in 37 minutes and 25 seconds.
“I’m so thankful for the opportunity to race with these guys, and to get to battle with my brother for the win. I had an awesome race car tonight. I got snookered on the start and fell back to about seventh, so I tried to just get to some clean air and get some laps laid down. These things can go all 100, so I tried to run those top two down. I put some pressure on Kody just to see what I had, and I didn’t know what I had either. We didn’t have brakes for a while to end the race, so it got hairy a few times. Rich Vogler passed away about six months to the day before I was born, so all I really know about him are through the highlight reels, and there are plenty of them, so it’s cool to win a race dedicated to him,” Tanner Swanson said.
Aaron Pierce took the lead after setting ProSource “Fast Time” for the night’s pole position. Kody Swanson was quickly on him, though, and took the lead on lap three as Pierce back-pedaled through the top-ten. Tanner’s teammate for the night, 1999 series champion Ryan Newman, moved to second, with defending race winner David Byrne and most recent pavement Silver Crown winner Bobby Santos also lined up in front of Tanner, who ran fifth on lap ten.
Tanner started his ascent through the field right then, however, as he disposed of Santos and Byrne to leave them in a nearly race-long battle for fourth.
On lap 32, Tanner went by Newman for second, but the lead trio stayed in tight formation for much of the race as they carved through traffic. By halfway, they had lapped up to the tenth spot, and Tanner appeared ready to pounce for the top spot.
While coming up on a slower car, Tanner darted to the inside of Kody on lap 57 to make a bid for the lead, making it three-wide with the slower car as Kody slipped away to hold the lead. Tanner looked again to the inside down the frontstretch into turn-one on the next lap, but settled back in behind his brother.
Again coming up on slower cars, this time Kody looked low into turn-three on lap 66 as Tanner jumped to the outside, circling for the lead as they exited onto the fronstretch and sliding to the bottom in front of Kody to work past the slower cars, now with the lead. From there, Tanner was untouchable, lapping up to sixth in the closing circuits to leave Kody to settle for second while lengthening his point lead in the DePalma Motorsports – Radio Hospital #63 Beast/Hampshire.
“This is two or three years and quite a few races where I’ve run second or third on pavement. Last year when we were here, we struggled to stay on the lead lap against Tanner, and this time we made him work for it for a little while. This 63 team doesn’t quit, and we’re always getting better. We’re gaining on it and nobody here is giving up, so we’re looking forward to trying it again,” Kody Swanson said.
Nearly six seconds behind Kody was Newman, turning a rare appearance with the series into a podium finish aboard the Bowman/Armstrong Racing – Bricker’s Pub #21 Beast/Chevy.
“I’ve gotta thank Mike Bowman and his whole group for letting me come out and run. They could roll the corner a bit better and easier than I could, while I had to cowboying it some and sliding my tires more than I wanted. When Tanner got the lead, I tried to save my tires and bide my time, but we just never caught a caution. It wasn’t quite what we wanted, but we were better than last year,” Newman said.
Santos finally cleared Byrne late in the race to take fourth in the DJ Racing – Simpson Race Products #22 Beast/VDS Chevy, and Windom snuck into the top-five late in the going after starting ninth in the Fred Gormly – RPM Auto Enterprise #98 Beast/Mopar.
USAC SILVER CROWN RACE RESULTS: July 23, 2015 - Brownsburg, Indiana - Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis - "Rich Vogler Classic"
QUALIFYING: 1. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-21.006; 2. Ryan Newman, 121, Bowman/Armstrong-21.019; 3. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-21.117; 4. Tanner Swanson, 02, Bowman-21.173; 5. Bobby Santos, 122, DJ-21.187; 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-21.192; 7. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-21.294; 8. Jacob Wilson, 07, Wilson-21.310; 9. Chris Windom, 98, RPM/Gormly-21.328; 10. A.J. Fike, 3, RFMS-21.365; 11. Austin Nemire, 91, Hemelgarn-21.574; 12. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary/Six-R-21.614; 13. Rex Norris III, 16, Norris-21.625; 14. Joe Axsom, 120, Nolen-21.692; 15. Jarett Andretti, 4, Andretti-21.705; 16. Tim Barber, 28, Finkenbinder-22.018; 17. Jimmy McCune, 81, Williams-22.277; 18. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-22.531; 19. Tad Roach, 84, Spivey-26.489.
FEATURE: (100 laps) 1. Tanner Swanson, 2. Kody Swanson, 3. Ryan Newman, 4. Bobby Santos, 5. Chris Windom, 6. Aaron Pierce, 7. David Byrne, 8. Jerry Coons Jr., 9. A.J. Fike, 10. Austin Nemire, 11. Rex Norris III, 12. Joe Axsom, 13. Jarett Andretti, 14. Tim Barber, 15. Patrick Lawson, 16. C.J. Leary, 17. Jacob Wilson, 18. Jimmy McCune, 19. Tad Roach. 37:25.11
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Pierce, Laps 3-65 K.Swanson, Laps 66-100 T.Swanson.
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-K.Swanson-323, 2-Pierce-265, 3-Fike-261, 4-Coons-253, 5-Byrne-204, 6-Wilson-203, 7-Santos-189, 8-Nemire-177, 9-Norris-177, 10-Leary-174.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 31 - Belleville (KS) High Banks - "Hustle on the High Banks"