In celebration of the 50th year of USAC Silver Crown Champ Car racing in 2020, we are reviewing the past 49 years of series history.
2018 USAC SILVER CROWN SEASON
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Unprecedented is a word you don’t hear that often in racing that much. After all, if you’ve been around for a while, you see records that may seem untouchable, or so many of us thought.
When Kody Swanson and the DePalma Motorsports teamed up in 2013, they basically created their own record book, one of which Silver Crown participants will be chasing for years and years.
Following the 2018 USAC Silver Crown finale at Eldora Speedway, Swanson completed his fourth USAC Silver Crown season championship in one of the most dominant seasons of all, capturing the title by a grand total of 82 points. Not a single time throughout the season did the Kingsburg, Calif. native trail the points race.
It was August 18 before Swanson even had a race where he finished outside of the top-two! Prior to that, he began the season with two-straight runner-up finishes – two races in which he led a chunk of late in the going. Then, he proceeded to reel off five victories in a row during a midsummer stretch that saw him win four times on the pavement and once on the dirt, on half-mile speedways and on one-mile tracks, at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway, the Indiana State Fairgrounds, Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis, Wisconsin’s Madison International Speedway and Indiana’s Salem Speedway.
Regardless of where you saw the series run, the No. 63 car was normally up front. The five-in-a-row broke a long-standing, 32-year-old record of four-straight Silver Crown wins set by Jack Hewitt, who also made car No. 63 wrenched by Bob Hampshire the dominant force in the sport a generation before. Sometimes it seems that as fast as the world moves, some things seem to stay the same.
The last of those five wins, at Salem, was the ultimate. Kody drove to his 24th career victory in the Silver Crown Champ Car Series, overtaking the top spot on the all-time win list. Hewitt had previously held the record for just shy of three decades.
All the personal accolades are nice, but the one that Kody may very well be the proudest of is the record achieved for DePalma Motorsports. The Lima, Ohio-based family gave him a shot six years ago when his racing career was at a crossroads.
As crazy as it seems now, Kody was still seen as primarily a “pavement specialist” at the time and was tabbed as the driver for the blacktop while he searched for rides on the dirt to prove himself as a capable shoe. He recorded a 2nd, 5th and another 2nd in the first three pavement outings for DePalma during that initial season together in 2013. For 2014, Kody was handed the keys to both the pavement and dirt rides and he hasn’t missed a beat since, reeling off 21 wins together in the past five years and the four season titles.
Each of the five years Kody has been the full-time driver for the DePalma family, they have won the championship. It’s another accomplishment we’ve not seen before in the series, snapping the series record for streaking (four) set by Bob East/Tony Stewart Racing between 2002 and 2005 as well as Curb-Agajanian Motorsports, which grabbed four in a row from 2010 to 2013.
It’s a season-long goal for Kody and the DePalma’s every year, and Kody takes a lot of pride in the chance to drive this car for this team and be able to make history together.
“When I got the chance to drive for them the first time, their goal was to try to win the championship or run as high as they could in the points,” Swanson recalled. “I was just pavement only at the time. But the following year, I got the chance to run for them full-time and we won our first title together - my first and theirs. It’s so special to get five-in-a-row for them to become the first in history to do that. It’s great to be a part of this, but I try so hard to do a good job for this team. To be a part of this team record is as special as anything else to me.”
Meanwhile, New Castle, Indiana’s Kyle Robbins, a longtime Sprint Car racing veteran, claimed 2018 USAC Silver Crown Rookie of the Year honors for his sixth-place finish in the final standings.
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SANTOS GOES BACK-TO-BACK IN PHOENIX SILVER CROWN OPENER
By: Richie Murray - USAC Media
Avondale, Arizona………Each year, it seems the ongoing tug-of-war for pavement supremacy on the USAC Silver Crown Champ Car circuit is waged between Bobby Santos and Kody Swanson.
In the 2018 season opener, the duo once again picked up right where they left off in a memorable stop at the tri-oval of ISM Raceway where the two fought tooth-and-nail during a side-by-side battle that lasted two laps at speeds nearing 150mph with both never turning a single wheel in the wrong spot.
Although the starring roles remained unaltered on this day, a plot twist had Santos trying to overcome a turbulent beginning in which he dropped to the tail of the field following an early-race pit stop.
Santos’ precision was downright surgical as he rose up the scoring pylon, ultimately surging ahead on the inside of Swanson on lap 80, then rocketed away during the final laps to score his second-straight “Phoenix Copper Cup” victory.
Santos, of Franklin, Mass., became the first to capture a Phoenix Silver Crown victory in consecutive years since Dave Steele won five in a row between 2002 and 2006, something that doesn’t stray too far from Santos’ mind when he competes here in the Valley of the Sun.
“It’s right up there,” Santos exclaimed. “To win back-to-back is really cool. Although, for a minute there, I didn’t expect to be sitting here. We had a good car all day today, but we kind of missed (the setup) at the start of the race. This means a lot. One of my idols is Dave Steele. He owned this place. I feel like he’s pushing me a little bit.”
Santos’ early trouble commenced as he pushed up the racetrack between turns one and two on multiple occasions early in the going, dropping him from his second starting position to 10th by lap ten. Following a caution for a Kyle Robbins turn one spin on lap 17, Santos’ crew chief and father, Bob, made the decision to pull him into pit lane for a few adjustments that seemed to do the trick.
Although Santos would have his work cut out for him, restarting 16th on the lap 22 restart with quite a few heavy-hitters serving as the rabbits that Santos would have to chase down, including a strong Kyle Hamilton who led a race-high 54 laps, plus Chris Windom, Swanson, David Byrne and Justin Grant. Meanwhile, Santos was lurking just behind in sixth by the midway point.
On lap 53, Windom got caught behind the lapped car of Breidinger toward the end of the back stretch. Windom dove low, flat lining his momentum while Swanson and Byrne chose the high road to cruise past them all to take second and third, respectively.
On lap 66, Hamilton was seemingly in control in his first series start since the 2015 season. Yet, exiting turn four, the pack freight-trained him on the inside as Hamilton slowed dramatically, eventually coming to a rest on the back stretch to prompt a yellow flag.
Thirty laps remained on the restart, leaving a full-out sprint to the finish. Running fourth, Santos quickly disposed of Windom on lap 73 with an inside move in turn three. Two laps later, Santos said adios to Byrne as he bagged second with just a quarter of the race remaining.
Patience was not in the cards at this moment as Santos immediately caught Swanson and pressurized the three-time series champ, putting them nose-to-tail just inches apart. Santos then dove to the inside of Swanson moments later, engaging in a full two-lap, clean, Ben Hur-style wheel-to-wheel war that Santos emerged victorious with on lap 80.
“Racing side-by-side at a place like this is really cool and lot of fun,” Santos explained. “You never know what (Kody) has left. Last year, Kody made a late-race charge and, in another couple laps, he could’ve beat us. I had that in the back of my mind that, at that point, I needed to get past him and get away from him. Racing here, I’ve never had to try so hard and be so up-on-the-wheel for 100 laps. Ten years ago, I used to ride for 50 and race for 50. Now we’re racing for 100.”
From there, Santos had but a few lappers to overcome as a cloud of attrition cast itself over a few of the front runners in the final laps, including Windom and Byrne. But that cloud dissipated for Santos over the 100-miler, as he pulled away for a commanding victory over Swanson, Grant, Eric Gordon and hard charger/top Rookie finisher Cody Gerhardt.
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: April 6-7, 2018 – Avondale, Arizona – ISM Raceway – Phoenix Copper Cup
QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-25.326; 2. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ-25.363; 3. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-25.438; 4. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-25.550; 5. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-25.623; 6. Chris Windom, 17, Nolen-25.653; 7. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-25.836; 8. Eric Gordon, 21, Armstrong-25.893; 9. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-25.986; 10. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-26.012; 11. A.J. Russell, 3, Finkenbinder-26.384; 12. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-26.569; 13. Cody Gerhardt, 60, Gerhardt-27.450; 14. Bill Rose, 66, Rose-27.466; 15. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-27.476; 16. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-27.624; 17. Toni Breidinger, 80, Breidinger-27.914; 18. Jesse Dunham, 126, Pierce-28.262.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Bobby Santos (2), 2. Kody Swanson (1), 3. Justin Grant (7), 4. Eric Gordon (8), 5. Cody Gerhardt (13), 6. Travis Welpott (12), 7. David Byrne (4), 8. Chris Windom (6), 9. Matt Goodnight (16), 10. Aaron Pierce (3), 11. Kyle Hamilton (5), 12. Bill Rose (14), 13. Jesse Dunham (18), 14. Toni Breidinger (17), 15. Austin Nemire (10), 16. A.J. Russell (11), 17. Jerry Coons Jr. (9), 18. Kyle Robbins (15). 58:07.875
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-11 David Byrne, Laps 12-65 Kyle Hamilton, Laps 66-79 Kody Swanson, Laps 80-100 Bobby Santos.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER AWARD: Cody Gerhardt (13th to 5th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Jesse Dunham
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Bobby Santos, 2-Kody Swanson-70, 3-Justin Grant-64, 4-Eric Gordon-61, 5-Cody Gerhardt-58, 6-Travis Welpott-55, 7-David Byrne-52, 8-Chris Windom-49, 9-Matt Goodnight-46, 10-Kyle Hamilton-44.
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GLORY GOES TO GRANT IN SUMAR SILVER CROWN SCORE
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Terre Haute, Indiana………Speed has never been an issue for Justin Grant when it comes to USAC Silver Crown racing at the Terre Haute Action Track.
Two years ago, the Ione, California driver set quick time and was dominant for the first 93 laps of the 100-lap event. But it was just a slight mishap with seven laps remaining that cost him a shot at victory.
Fast forward to 2018 and a couple more years of experience under the belt, on a similar track surface he faced back then, Grant was determined to not let the past repeat itself on his way to Sunday night’s “Sumar Classic” victory.
“You have to keep your eye on the rubber or have your spotter keeping an eye on the rubber for you,” Grant detailed. “A couple years ago here, I was just concentrating on what I was doing, banging the fence and running as hard as I could. As I’ve gotten more comfortable in the Crown cars, I worry as much, or more, about what other guys are doing behind me and make sure to get to the rubber before somebody drives by.”
At the drop of the green, Jerry Coons Jr. was the dominant figure, climbing to the top spot from his outside front row starting position to lead the first 10 circuits before 2016 “Sumar” winner C.J. Leary went topside to ride by the USAC Triple Crown champ on the lap 11 restart.
Leary rode into the western Indiana sunset with the advantage until lap 36 when Grant caught Leary in lapped traffic and outlasted him down the back straightaway in a side-by-side battle similar to the duels at the adjacent Action Dragway before sliding back up to the berm where he would stand pat until nearly three-quarters of the event were in the books.
On lap 70, Shane Cottle dueled with Grant as the two swapped the top spot four times over the span of a lap and a half. Cottle was credited with leading the lap before each exchanged their race-leading surge. Grant made the ultimate, lasting move, ducking down to the inside of Cottle off turn two to recapture the lead.
“(Shane) and I were both running hard,” Grant recalled. “He was on a harder compound tire than I was, so he could abuse his car a bit more. I was trying to keep my track position, but not burn my tire up doing it. Right before he slid past me and got into Kody, the team made the call that we needed to let him go because we weren’t going to make it to the end racing like that.”
By lap 77, Swanson, the 2014 “Sumar” winner who was relegated to the 18th starting position following an engine change prior to qualifying, was in position to pounce for the lead, ringing around the outside of both Cottle and Grant in a single move between turns three and four.
On the 84th lap, the now third-running Cottle took a chance on a two-for-one deal entering the third turn. In one fell swoop, Cottle breezed by Grant on the inside, then pulled along the inside of Swanson on the inner guardrail. The two touched wheels, sending both into 360-degree spin-cycles. Cottle’s race came to an end backwards near the outside wall while Swanson managed to continue, albeit with a flat left rear tire, forcing him to make a pit stop for new rubber and restart from the tail of the field.
Once racing resumed, Grant set off toward a comfortable margin with a lead of nearly three seconds while Swanson mounted a valiant charge to the front, threading the needle to slip past Tyler Courtney with seven laps to go for third in turn three, then motoring past Leary with an outside pass a lap later. With Swanson’s charge, the message was sent forth to Grant that this was no time to dawdle, this was ‘go time.’
“My spotter, Chris (Wheeler), let me know that Swanson was back to P2 and that, whatever we had left, we needed to use it now,” Grant exclaimed. “We saved everything as best we could up to that point. When he gave me the call, that’s when we went.”
It’s a chess game trying to save, yet be fast throughout a 100-lap race on the dirt that, on this day, included variables such as the sun setting early on in the race and the ever-changing track conditions throughout the event.
“On a rubber down racetrack, you’re slowing yourself down to not kill the tires,” Grant continued. “If you wear a tire out, you won’t make it to the end. You’re trying to go as fast as you can without using the tire up. You have to get yourself to the end, then you can go as fast as you can. You hope you have enough tire left to run the last ten (laps) hard and not have a whole lot of concern with it.”
The interval between Grant and Swanson was rapidly closing in the final laps as lapped traffic loomed. It’s one thing to navigate your way through gridlock with ease and another to catch them at exactly the right spot without interruption to your rhythm, which Grant executed with the precision of an X-Acto knife as he encountered the lapped cars of Neil Shepherd and Mike Haggenbottom in turn one.
“You have to catch them right,” Grant said point blank. “You don’t want to waste any time and you can’t let them break your momentum because somebody like Kody behind you will capitalize. You try to get through them as fast as you can and not let them break your stride and hope the guys behind you get caught up a little bit with them.”
“I figured if I got caught behind them in (turns) one and two, I was going to be pretty well toast or, at least, allow Kody a good shot at it,” Grant admitted. “I knew I needed to get by them there. I wasn’t real sure where they were going to go, though. I thought about splitting them and staying in the rubber, but the inside car kind of moved up a little bit. Fortunately, I had enough of a run to where I was able to get down in the dust and get by them.”
Grant flawlessly finished out the final lap to take his second career Silver Crown win by 1.33 seconds over KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Kody Swanson and pole sitter Tyler Courtney, who charged all the way from 22nd after an early race spin. Chris Windom was fourth after jumping into Bill Rose’s car following mechanical trouble in his regular Gene Nolen Racing ride while Leary rounded out the top-five.
Grant continued the streak of a new “Sumar Classic” winner each year since 1999 with the victory and assumes the series point lead, holding the tiebreaker over Swanson heading into Friday’s Hemelgarn Racing/Super Fitness “Rollie Beale Classic.”
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: April 29, 2018 – Terre Haute, Indiana – Terre Haute Action Track – Sumar Classic
QUALIFYING: (Top-16 locked into the feature) 1. Tyler Courtney, 97, Lein-22.990; 2. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-23.004; 3. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-23.068; 4. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-23.359; 5. Brady Bacon, 6, Klatt-23.521; 6. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-23.583; 7. Shane Cockrum, 71, Hardy-23.764; 8. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-23.825; 9. Coleman Gulick, 114, Scorpion-23.844; 10. Jacob Wilson, 07, WBR-24.026; 11. Casey Shuman, 55, Bateman-24.167; 12. Johnny Petrozelle, 8, Cornell/Petrozelle-24.219; 13. Chris Windom, 17, Nolen-24.289; 14. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-24.420; 15. Austin Mundie, 47, Butler-24.443; 16. Joss Moffatt, 32, Williams/Wright-24.516; 17. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-24.555; 18. Neil Shepherd, 04, Shepherd-24.611; 19. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-24.919; 20. Joe Liguori, 4, Liguori-25.085; 21. Steve Buckwalter, 53, Five Three-25.192; 22. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-25.384; 23. Mike Haggenbottom, 124, Haggenbottom-25.451; 24. Korey Weyant, 99, Weyant-25.460; 25. Chris Fetter, 89, Fetter-25.487; 26. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-25.597; 27. Chris Dyson, 9, Dyson-25.789; 28. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-NT; 29. Bill Rose, 66, Rose-NT.
QUALIFYING RACE: (15 laps, top-8 transfer to the feature) 1. David Byrne, 2. Kody Swanson, 3. Kyle Robbins, 4. Steve Buckwalter, 5. Joe Liguori, 6. Matt Goodnight, 7. Neil Shepherd, 8. Mike Haggenbottom, 9. Austin Nemire, 10. Chris Dyson, 11. Korey Weyant, 12. Chris Fetter. NT
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (3), 2. Kody Swanson (18), 3. Tyler Courtney (1), 4. Chris Windom (13), 5. C.J. Leary (4), 6. Shane Cockrum (7), 7. Jerry Coons Jr. (2), 8. Joe Liguori (21), 9. Johnny Petrozelle (12), 10. Neil Shepherd (23), 11. Mike Haggenbottom (24), 12. Austin Nemire (25), 13. Kyle Robbins (19), 14. Shane Cottle (8), 15. Jacob Wilson (10), 16. Casey Shuman (11), 17. Steve Buckwalter (20), 18. Aaron Pierce (6), 19. Travis Welpott (14), 20. David Byrne (17), 21. Joss Moffatt (16), 22. Matt Goodnight (22), 23. Coleman Gulick (9), 24. Austin Mundie (15), 25. Brady Bacon (5). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-10 Jerry Coons Jr., Laps 11-35 C.J. Leary, Laps 36-69 Justin Grant, Lap 70 Shane Cottle, Laps 71-76 Justin Grant, Laps 77-83 Kody Swanson, Laps 84-100 Justin Grant.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER AWARD: Kody Swanson (18th to 2nd).
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Kyle Robbins
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-137, 2-Kody Swanson-137, 3-Chris Windom-110, 4-Jerry Coons Jr.-81, 5-Travis Welpott-80, 6-David Byrne-75, 7-Austin Nemire-72, 8-Bobby Santos-70, 9-Aaron Pierce-70, 10-Matt Goodnight-67.
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SWANSON’S 20/20 VISION NETS MILESTONE SILVER CROWN WIN AT TOLEDO
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Toledo, Ohio………Twenty wins. Count ‘em up and you’ll find that in the annals of USAC Silver Crown racing, only two individuals have reached such a mark – two individuals who’ve also become synonymous with car number 63 and crew chief Bob Hampshire, which have graced victory lane so many times over the past three decades in the division.
Kody Swanson has now entered the lexicon following his victory in Friday night’s Hemelgarn Racing/Super Fitness “Rollie Beale Classic” at Toledo Speedway as he put on a performance as smooth as glass in the city clearly made famous for its production. The Kingsburg, Calif. driver now stands just three behind series king Jack Hewitt’s long-standing record of 23 victories.
Swanson’s performance came just five days after a topsy-turvy, tumultuous outing during the “Sumar Classic” at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track. Alea iacta est for Swanson’s legacy in the history of Silver Crown racing as he arrived in the 2018 season and was reiterated at Terre Haute. It’s a trait that has molded Swanson and the DePalma Motorsports team into three-time series champs, something they reinforced to all at Toledo after overcoming a subpar qualifying run (for them) that placed them mid-pack for the start of the main event.
“It’s hard to believe we had to make such big changes after practice,” Swanson reflects. “We were pretty speedy, but knew it just wasn’t right. I thought I screwed up and gave it all away. I had to start behind eight very good racecars and drivers. At Toledo, that’s pretty tricky. We made even more changes after qualifying. I’m not sure if we were going too far or if it hadn’t come in yet. We were kind of in the dark. We all huddled around and gave it our best shot. The consensus was, right, wrong or indifferent; I was going to have 100 laps to figure out how to get whatever we could get.”
By the end of the first lap, Swanson had already advanced three positions to the sixth spot, taking evasive action when Kyle Hamilton’s ride was hesitant to take off. causing the inside row to check up momentarily. Meanwhile, outside front row starter Jerry Coons Jr. bolted to the lead at the start to lead the opening laps for the second consecutive race.
Swanson steadily moved forward to fifth on lap five and fourth on lap 15 where he maintained position for the remainder of the first third of the race as the first caution of the night came out on the 33rd lap for the stopped car of sixth-running Hamilton. If the Swanson/DePalma team had any chink in its armor in recent years, it was restarts. But for the lap 37 restart in Friday night’s race, this was where the team won the thing.
“Something we’ve struggled with at times is taking off on starts,” Swanson acknowledges. “Tonight, this thing took off the best it has in four or five years. We got a couple spots and some good runs on restarts because of the effort these guys put in at the shop.”
Second-running Santos didn’t quite launch on the restart, so Swanson went where they weren’t. By turn two, Swanson had muscled the banks to take third from Byrne and second from defending race winner Santos in the snap of a finger. Just three laps later, Swanson had roped in the race leader, Coons, and sped around him for the top spot exiting turn two on the 40th circuit.
“I don’t know if it was the motivation or driving angry or whatever you want to call it, but whether that was a good move or bad, I went to the top,” Swanson justified. “It happened to work out and I kind of got a run on the outside and got into second with a two-for-one in one turn. I don’t know why it seemed like a good idea at the time. I thought, ‘well, I’ll just go for more.’ Bobby almost got back to the inside of me and that pretty much solidified that it’s now or never. You’re either first or third at that point.”
Moments later, Coons had his race end abruptly when he began to slow before steering his ride back to the pit area. Swanson, though, was on complete cruise control, ramping up his lead to a half-straightaway by midway. Swanson continuously extended his lead throughout the second half as he checked off a succession of lapped cars until the final yellow flag fell with three laps remaining when Austin Nemire and Travis Welpott made contact in turn four, sending Welpott into a spin.
On the final restart, by rule, the lapped cars would be removed from the equation and start from the tail. The frightening proposition for Swanson was that the two drivers directly behind him had found another life.
“Bobby (Santos) and David (Byrne) were second and third and are really good racers,” Swanson said. “They’ll both race you really hard and really clean, but you’re not safe with them behind you. They’ve proven they can pass anybody at any time. It’s just one of things where you must focus. I’ve got my wife on the radio, and we had the best car during the race. It was my job to hit two good laps.”
“The engine took off great on the restart and got me a little bit of a gap, which is huge into turn one knowing that they’re not already on your bumper,” Swanson detailed. “If you make any sort of mistake, you can run it in there and try to build some momentum. Luckily, the thing re-fired up really well and we were able to pull away in the last two laps to seal it. What a wild night, what a wild weekend it’s been. It’s all the reasons why I love Silver Crown racing.”
Swanson finished out the deal, winning his third career “Rollie Beale Classic” by just a tick under a second over Santos, Byrne, Eric Gordon and Aaron Pierce. Swanson had previously won the annual event back in 2011 and 2015, a race that has a special personal meaning to him.
“The first one I won, I got my picture taken with Rollie in victory lane and met his whole family, which was really cool,” Swanson remembers. “Not only does this race mean a lot, but now we race in his memory. The legacy that he left in open wheel racing just means that much more and it’s always cool to come back and race in Toledo in his honor.”
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: May 4, 2018 – Toledo, Ohio – Toledo Speedway – Hemelgarn Racing-Super Fitness Rollie Beale Classic
QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-15.170; 2. Eric Gordon, 21, Armstrong-15.205; 3. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-15.222; 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-15.269; 5. Chris Windom, 17, Nolen-15.311; 6. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ-15.370; 7. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-15.427; 8. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-15.436; 9. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-15.538; 10. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-15.698; 11. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-15.753; 12. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-15.759; 13. Dave Darland, 32, Williams/Wright-15.974; 14. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-15.983; 15. Cody Gerhardt, 60, Gerhardt-16.049; 16. Toni Breidinger, 80, Breidinger-17.239; 17. Cody Gallogly, 81, Williams-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (9), 2. Bobby Santos (4), 3. David Byrne (7), 4. Eric Gordon (16), 5. Aaron Pierce (6), 6. Austin Nemire (8), 7. Cody Gerhardt (15), 8. Matt Goodnight (10), 9. Travis Welpott (11), 10. Justin Grant (1), 11. Kyle Robbins (12), 12. Toni Breidinger (14), 13. Jerry Coons Jr. (2), 14. Kyle Hamilton (3), 15. Chris Windom (5), 16. Dave Darland (13). 32:00.90
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-39 Jerry Coons Jr., Laps 40-100 Kody Swanson.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER AWARD: Eric Gordon (16th to 4th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Jerry Coons Jr.
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-210, 2-Justin Grant-183. 3-Chris Windom-143, 4-David Byrne-139, 5-Bobby Santos-137, 6-Aaron Pierce-128, 7-Austin Nemire-127, 8-Travis Welpott-126, 9-Eric Gordon-122, 10-Jerry Coons Jr.-118.
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SWANSON EQUALS UNSER WITH 4TH STRAIGHT HOOSIER HUNDRED WIN
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Indianapolis, Indiana………Al Unser and Kody Swanson. Of course, Al Unser’s place in the history of the sport has long ago been cemented. Kody Swanson’s legacy continues to grow with each race, each year.
Following Thursday night’s 63rd running of the “Hoosier Hundred,” those two names will forever be linked as drivers who’ve mastered the 100-mile event at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in four consecutive attempts. Unser got the job done in 1970-71-72-73 and now Swanson in 2014-15-16-18 (2017 was rained out).
It’s a feat that the Kingsburg, California driver admits he’s unsure will ever sink in. But this had a slightly different feel for the three-time Silver Crown champion. Rather than settling in and then pouncing to the lead about two-thirds of the way in as he had during his first three wins, Swanson became the rabbit early on after starting from the pole position, setting the pace.
“Sometimes coming from fourth or sixth is ideal here,” Swanson explained. “Winning the pole is important and getting those three bonus points is important. Two years ago, it proved that every point counts. I’ve won the pole before and still rode in third or fourth for a while. Tonight, the racetrack was different. I know the other three all came about the same way, but believe it or not, it wasn’t just by design. You try to run each race independently, try to manage your tires, your situation, your brakes and they happened to work out the same as those ones. I’d say it’s coincidence as much as anything.”
“Obviously, the later it gets, the more time becomes of the essence,” Swanson continued. “The way the racetrack was, I didn’t feel like I wanted to be fourth or sixth because there are a lot of good cars and maybe you don’t have as many passing opportunities to get them back. I was okay with leading early, for a little while, but the harder they wanted to press, the less I was okay with it. I didn’t want to get off my game because of what was going on behind me.”
At the start, Swanson set the tone, but two-time Du Quoin “Ted Horn 100” winner Shane Cockrum was an early challenger, peeking the nose of his No. 71 high and low on both ends of the racetrack on lap 12 before falling into line. There wasn’t much time for riding around, though, and eight laps later, two-time USAC National Sprint Car champ Brian Tyler stormed to second past Cockrum and quickly closed in on leader Swanson.
A yellow on lap 21 slowed the pace for a moment, but not Tyler’s. Tyler checked high, he checked low and, on lap 29, got a run on Swanson down the front straightaway that propelled him into the lead on lap 29. Tyler quickly put a large gap between he and Swanson which grew to four-plus seconds by lap 40 when the yellow flag flew following series Rookie Kyle Robbins’ turn three wall contact.
Sometimes plans change mid-stream and, when constant pressure was being applied to from Tyler, Swanson admitted that the game plan changed.
“It’s hard,” Swanson admits. “I’m trying to win the DePalmas a fifth-straight title, which has never been done. If I had let somebody outthink me, and I blow a tire and give it away, then that’s on me. I got to a spot where I couldn’t do it anymore. He got a big run and that seemed like the right time to change strategy a little bit and I tried to save as much as I could. If I’m going to be behind, I might as well save everything I can.”
“The racetrack was different and what it was going to require was different,” Swanson continued. “I hated leading early. I mean, I just hated it. Cockrum was good and (Shane) Cottle was good. I knew Tyler would be good too. If Tyler qualifies in the top-18, he’s going to be good. I know that from being his teammate. He was pushing hard, and I wasn’t going to hold him off for 70 (laps) in a row. He wanted to go faster than I felt I could go at the time.”
Following the lap 44 restart, Tyler reestablished a stranglehold at the front, but in racing, things can change in a hurry. On the 56th lap, Tyler made contact with a piece of brake rotor that came off Chris Windom’s car, sending Tyler hard into the outside wall and ending dreams of a first “Hoosier Hundred” victory for the veteran driver.
During that 12-lap stint following the restart, Swanson was fully entrenched in his game plan, hanging a little bit closer to Tyler than before the yellow.
“We caught a caution there and I felt like I tried to stay with him a little bit and felt like I could,” Swanson said. “It wasn’t as easy to run him down as I was hoping. I felt like we could stay with him, and maybe the longer it went, the more things would come to us. You watch their cars and I could tell he was very good through the corner and good off the corner. I felt like we were running awful hard and I absolutely hated to see that happen to him. Brian’s been a teammate, he’s a friend of mine and I know he’s been after a “Hoosier Hundred” win for a long time. I can’t say that I would’ve gotten him, but I was going to give it everything I had at the end, but so would he, and he’s very good.”
When racing resumed, the show came down to a two-horse race between Swanson and Cockrum. Swanson established his dominance by never wavering from 10-15 car-length lead as the two orchestrated a cat-and-mouse chase through lapped traffic. However, each time Cockrum seemed to move his chess piece past one obstacle, Swanson picked one off himself and never gave Cockrum an opportunity to shave off any of the interval.
A lap 88 yellow for a turn three crash involving Jerry Coons Jr. erased the gap, albeit momentarily. Swanson never allowed Cockrum to get close enough to challenge, finishing out an incredible run of success on the Indy Mile, winning by 2.7 seconds over Cockrum, Tyler Courtney, Cottle and a career-best finish for birthday boy Johnny Petrozelle.
The win was the 21st of Swanson’s Silver Crown career, moving him to within two of Jack Hewitt’s record 23 victories.
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: May 24, 2018 - Indianapolis, Indiana - Indiana State Fairgrounds – 63rd Hoosier Hundred
QUALIFYING: (Top-24 locked into the feature) 1. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-33.522; 2. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-33.722; 3. Shane Cockrum, 71, Hardy-33.921; 4. Chris Windom, 17, Nolen-34.496; 5. Brian Tyler, 12, Galas-34.626; 6. Tyler Courtney, 97, Lein-34.749; 7. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-34.808; 8. Chris Dyson, 9, Dyson-34.843; 9. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-34.946; 10. A.J. Fike, 711, Hardy-35.049; 11. Joe Liguori, 4, Liguori-35.053; 12. Jeff Swindell, 21, Swanson-35.089; 13. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-35.136; 14. Coleman Gulick, 114, Scorpion-35.251; 15. Kevin Thomas Jr., 56, Foxco-35.307; 16. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-35.370; 17. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-35.400; 18. Johnny Petrozelle, 8, Cornell/Petrozelle-35.484; 19. Mike Haggenbottom, 124, Haggenbottom-35.563; 20. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-35.651; 21. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-35.723; 22. J.C. Bland, 5, BBE-35.730; 23. Jacob Wilson, 07, WBR-35.745; 24. Austin Mundie, 47, Butler-35.818; 25. Brady Bacon, 6, Klatt-35.985; 26. Neil Shepherd, 04, Shepherd-36.021; 27. Dave Darland, 75, Rose-36.244; 28. Casey Shuman, 55, Bateman-36,297; 29. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-36.306; 30. Steve Buckwalter, 53, Five Three-36.415; 31. Bill Rose, 66, Rose-36.556; 32. Korey Weyant, 99, Weyant-36.722; 33. Daniel Robinson, 43, Felker/Nix-37.476; 34. Ken Schrader, 14, McQuinn-37.525; 35. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-38.843; 36. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-39.734; 37. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-41.079; 38. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-NT.
QUALIFYING RACE: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Neil Shepherd, 2. Casey Shuman, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Dave Darland, 5. Steve Buckwalter, 6. Korey Weyant, 7. Patrick Lawson, 8. Bill Rose, 9. Daniel Robinson, 10. Travis Welpott, 11. Ken Schrader, 12. Austin Nemire, 13. Dave Berkheimer. NT
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (1), 2. Shane Cockrum (3), 3. Tyler Courtney (6), 4. Shane Cottle (2), 5. Johnny Petrozelle (18), 6. Jacob Wilson (21), 7. Joe Liguori (11), 8. David Byrne (15), 9. Dave Darland (28), 10. Austin Mundie (24), 11. Austin Nemire (29), 12. Matt Goodnight (19), 13. Chris Windom (4), 14. Mike Haggenbottom (17), 15. Casey Shuman (26), 16. Chris Dyson (8), 17. Korey Weyant (30), 18. Jerry Coons Jr. (9), 19. Brady Bacon (25), 20. Steve Buckwalter (27), 21. Justin Grant (16), 22. Travis Welpott (32), 23. Brian Tyler (5), 24. C.J. Leary (7), 25. Kyle Robbins (31), 26. Kevin Thomas Jr. (13), 27. J.C. Bland (22), 28. Russ Gamester (20), 29. Jeff Swindell (12), 30. Neil Shepherd (23), 31. Coleman Gulick (14), 32. A.J. Fike (10).
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-28 Swanson, Laps 29-55 Tyler, Laps 56-100 Swanson.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER AWARD: Dave Darland (28th to 9th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Chris Windom
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-286, 2-Justin Grant-205, 3-David Byrne-188, 4-Chris Windom-180, 5-Austin Nemire-168, 6-Matt Goodnight-155, 7-Travis Welpott-147, 8-Jerry Coons Jr.-145, 9-Aaron Pierce-138, 10-Bobby Santos-137.
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KODY SWANSON WINS 3RD STRAIGHT IN DAVE STEELE CARB NIGHT CLASSIC
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Brownsburg, Indiana………Winning three USAC Silver Crown Champ Car races in a row is an accomplishment of epic proportions. In fact, it’s a feat that occurs so rarely, it took 13 seasons for it to happen again.
Perhaps there was something in the air that had Friday night’s “Dave Steele Carb Night Classic” at Lucas Oil Raceway pegged as the spot where the monumental task would be accomplished.
After all, the last one to win three consecutive was none other than Dave Steele in 2005, the man who used the .686-mile paved oval as his personal playground and ATM between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s in USAC competition and the man whose life was honored Friday night.
Perhaps no driver marvels at the significance of the event more than Kody Swanson. One night following his fourth-straight “Hoosier Hundred” victory, Swanson was again on a mission to get the coveted trophy and winner’s share totaling $17,000. But this night had an extra emotional incentive factored in, winning the 100-lap event in memory of his late friend and mentor.
“Dave was an incredible competitor and his resume speaks for itself on the racetrack,” Swanson praised. “He was a friend and a guy I looked up to. I miss him dearly. It’s truly special to be able to compete in a race in his honor, and to win it is something else. Lynn and the Steele family are ones I care about so much. It’s great to see them here tonight and to see what they put into this event as well. You could feel the buzz from the crowd. I really hope this is something that everyone enjoyed not only for the Silver Crown series, but in memory of Dave.”
On this night, not only was a statistical accomplishment on the line, so were bragging rights among brothers. Tanner Swanson cashed in the fastest time in qualifying for a $1000 bonus, then elected to start the main event from the tail of the 22-car field, which would net him another bonus of $5000 if he could take the checkered flag.
A furious start saw new pole sitter Kody Swanson swap the lead with fellow front row starter Bobby Santos where they exchanged the lead multiple times in the opening laps before Kody cleared the most recent Silver Crown race winner at the track on lap three.
Meanwhile, Tanner was hauling the mail and, by lap 32, had moved into the top-five. Just like clockwork, three laps later, he was fourth. Another four laps clicked by; he was third.
By midway, it had become a three-car race at the front with Kody leading Aaron Pierce and Tanner who were stacking ‘em deep and selling ‘em cheap in rush traffic, running nose-to-tail one-two-three.
Kody went to the low line often to work around the lappers, keeping his ears tuned in to his wife, Jordan, for direction as she served as his eyes in the sky as a spotter for the DePalma Motorsports/Radio Hospital - Hampshire Racing Engines/Beast/Hampshire Chevy No. 63.
“My wife does an amazing job spotting,” Swanson said. “On a night like this where strategy is so important, I could try whatever strategy I had because I knew they were coming. That played a huge role. You hate to say it’s a radio race, but it is a strategy race. I feel like the Silver Crown series is open wheel’s big-time. You can’t ever give up. If you never do, breaks will go your way. And if you’re close, maybe you’ll come away with one here and there.”
After relentlessly working on Pierce for nearly one-third of the race, Tanner finally made the move on lap 68, sliding up in front of Pierce for second with an inside move in turn three. However, Tanner drifted up the racetrack, nearly collecting the outside SAFER barrier in the process. Pierce got back by momentarily, but it would be only four more laps before Tanner found a little bit of redemption, passing Pierce again, this time on the outside of turn two to take second.
“My goodness, multiple times I was three-wide in lapped traffic for the lead. Man, I sure hope people enjoyed that. I don’t know how it could get any more nail-biting. If I hadn’t had had both hands on the wheel, I think I would’ve been in the same boat. We survived that and were better after the caution. The longer it went, the tighter I got and, all the while, I have to withstand all these charges knowing Tanner’s still coming and that maybe we hadn’t seen anything yet.”
The final sprint to the finish would now be a showdown between Kody and younger brother Tanner, the way it has so many times before. Kody had been the dominant force thus far, but Tanner was the show throughout the race, bringing the fans to their feet with several daring passes on his charge to the front past 20 other competitors in the first 72 laps, something that didn’t surprise Kody one bit.
“I knew it wouldn’t be long,” Swanson admitted. “I’ve told people Dave (Steele) might’ve been the greatest of all-time in a pavement open wheel car. Tanner’s got to be next. For as little as he races, the fact that he comes out and he’s the guy. I’m biased, but I have to be. He’s my brother and he’s earned it, I think. He’s put it on us for how many years out here now. Tonight, he spotted us the field! Not only has he been special in a Silver Crown car at this racetrack, he’s been great in everything even as little as he gets to go.”
On lap 87, with the laps winding down, Kody took every avenue he could to keep his hard-charging younger brother at bay. It looked like a race from the Thursday/Saturday Night Thunder era of the early 1990s with Kody using the Steve Butler line at the entry of turn one in an effort to get around the lapped car of Chris Windom, nearly clipping the grass with his left side tires. Meanwhile, Tanner was running the old groove that was popular before the repave job in the late 1990s, right up against the outside wall in the corners.
“If you even think about making a mistake, Tanner’s going by you,” Swanson pointed out. “I was fortunate that a couple of the spots played out in my favor and I was able to get clear. I had one spot where I knew he got to my outside. My only move left was to try and stay there on the bottom and do some sort of pick and roll and just hope that the lapped car occupied the space because I had been had.”
Tanner was relentless in his approach, pulling alongside Kody on several occasions and appeared poised to make the winning pass with 10 laps remaining on the outside at the exit of turn two, but was shielded by a lapped car that shackled his momentum, allowing Kody to breakaway.
Simultaneously, Tanner’s car began to run low on fuel, causing the engine of his Bowman/Elmore Racing #02 to sputter as Kody began to put a gap on the rest of the field and would finish it out with Silver Crown win number 22, which stands just one behind Jack Hewitt for the all-time series lead.
Tanner just missed an opportunity to become the track’s winningest Silver Crown driver. He still stands at five alongside Mike Bliss. Aaron Pierce finished third with Bobby Santos and Chris Windom rounding out the top-five.
Only eight times previously has a driver gone back-to-back-to-back within the same season in Silver Crown competition, Mario Andretti (1974), Tom Bigelow (1975), Rick Hood (1985), Jack Hewitt (1986), J.J. Yeley (2003), Jay Drake (2004), Tyler Walker (2004) and Steele (2005).
Even rarer, though, is the driver who’s won two Silver Crown races in two nights: Andretti at the Missouri and Illinois State Fairgrounds in 1974 and J.J. Yeley at Indianapolis Raceway Park and the Indiana State Fairgrounds in 2003.
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: May 25, 2018 – Brownsburg, Indiana – Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis – Dave Steele Carb Night Classic
QUALIFYING: 1. Tanner Swanson, 02, Bowman/Elmore-21.010; 2. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-21.043; 3. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ-21.083; 4. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-21.258; 5. Derek Bischak, 131, Bischak-21.438; 6. Chris Windom, 17, Nolen-21.451; 7. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-21.503; 8. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-21.518; 9. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-21.529; 10. Jim Anderson, 92, Kazmark-21.602; 11. Eric Gordon, 21, Armstrong-21.621; 12. Austin Blair, 96, Blair-21.903; 13. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-21.974; 14. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-22.073; 15. Dave Darland, 32, Williams/Wright-22.084; 16. Cody Gerhardt, 60, Gerhardt-22.211; 17. Toni Breidinger, 80, Breidinger-22.262; 18. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-22.366; 19. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-22.385; 20. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott-22.461; 21. Bill Rose, 66, Rose-22.481; 22. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-NT; 23. Mike Haggenbottom, 124, Haggenbottom-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (1), 2. Tanner Swanson (22), 3. Aaron Pierce (6), 4. Bobby Santos (2), 5. Chris Windom (4), 6. Justin Grant (5), 7. David Byrne (3), 8. Jim Anderson (8), 9. Eric Gordon (9), 10. Kyle Hamilton (21), 11. Travis Welpott (17), 12. Patrick Lawson (16), 13. Cody Gerhardt (14), 14. Dave Darland (13), 15. Kyle Robbins (11), 16. Toni Breidinger (15), 17. Matt Goodnight (12), 18. Bill Rose (18), 19. Jerry Coons Jr. (7), 20. Derek Bischak (20), 21. Austin Blair (10), 22. Mike Haggenbottom (19).
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Bobby Santos, Laps 2-100 Kody Swanson.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER AWARD: Tanner Swanson (22nd to 2nd)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Cody Gerhardt
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-359, 2-Justin Grant-260, 3-David Byrne-240, 4-Chris Windom-238, 5-Aaron Pierce-202, 6-Bobby Santos-198, 7-Travis Welpott-188, 8-Matt Goodnight-184, 9-Austin Nemire-178, 10-Jerry Coons Jr.-170.
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SWANSON EQUALS HEWITT AS ALL-TIME SILVER CROWN KING WITH 23RD WIN AT MADISON
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Oregon, Wisconsin………History has been a major part of his story for quite a while, but now the record books will forever reflect the fact that Kody Swanson made good on two pieces of USAC Silver Crown history in Friday night’s debut at Madison International Speedway.
Swanson won his 23rd career race to tie Jack Hewitt atop the all-time series’ victory list. Meanwhile, it was also the Kingsburg, California’s fourth-straight Silver Crown victory of the season, becoming the third driver to accomplish the feat and the first since Hewitt in 1986.
These are stats that the humble Swanson doesn’t take for granted and is quick to spread the credit around to the teams
who’ve helped him along the way from the first one to number 23: Six-R Racing, the team whose car he piloted to his first back in 2010 and the ride in which Kody has become synonymous with – the DePalma Motorsports/Radio Hospital - Hampshire Racing Engines/Beast/Hampshire Chevy – that he raced to victory lane at the Bytec “Dairyland 100” for the 23rd win of his career.
“I’m just extremely grateful,” Swanson said. “There’s 23, but I’ve done zero of them alone. That’s how I feel about it. It takes a team; it takes a family and it takes support from people no one will ever see. I’ve been fortunate that 23 times those great people have carried me to victory lane. Racing’s as big of a team sport as any. It’s like a relay race and I get the baton last. This team puts in the work and deserves to win races. I take pride in being a part of that.”
Though USAC’s National Sprint and Midget divisions had made a smattering of visits over the years to the track, this was the first visit for the Silver Crown cars, putting everyone on mostly equal footing entering the gates of the half-mile paved oval.
“I put more into coming to Madison because it’s such an opportunity to have a clean slate,” Swanson explained. “No one’s got any more laps than me. No one’s got any more notes than me. You get a chance to go out and be the first one to get it done. But I was not getting it done early on. I didn’t have the car handling very good. That’s on me. These guys never quit on me. They jumped through hoops for me. We changed four springs during practice and changed another one before qualifying. We changed the left rear tire because I didn’t think we were going to be good enough.”
Despite the slight pessimism early on, Swanson sped to the lead from his outside front row starting spot, securing the lead from pole sitter Justin Grant by the time the two hit turn three on the opening lap.
Grant wasn’t content to play it conservatively and let Kody ride into the Badger State sunset. Grant remained within arm’s reach of Swanson, and on lap six, used an inside move to snare the lead away from Swanson at the stripe where he would remain for the ensuing 41 circuits.
Swanson had remained within five car lengths of Grant as the front runners began to encounter lapped traffic just prior to midway. Grant encountered the lapped car of leading series Rookie contender Travis Welpott and tried to race past him using the lower groove, but no room was vacant, and Grant’s ride got squirrelly off turn two. All the while, Swanson was steadfast up top and smoothly drove by both to capture the lead.
“When racecars that are equal are battling up front, you have to look for opportunities. Lapped cars are opportunities,” Swanson dissects. “Lapped cars are opportunities. As a driver, where I can help this team is being the best prepared I can be ahead of time to capitalize on those opportunities. I saw he was going to choose low, so we chose high. It’s hard to know exactly where they’re going to go, but it’s your job to know the drivers you’re racing against. You got to have that feeling, that instinct, that it was time to sail it around the top.”
“I got lucky (Justin) got pinned in and I was close enough to capitalize and get alongside of him so that he couldn’t change lanes and occupy the space,” Swanson continued. “He’s someone I love racing against because he races me clean every time. At that point, you’re committed and it’s your job to see it to the end. I was fortunate to have a good handling car through the middle to keep it going on a long run.”
Once Swanson was clear of Grant, the space between grew incrementally to 1 second, to 1.5, to 2 and ultimately more than 2.5 seconds with 30 laps remaining following a lengthy 60-lap green-flag stint. The construction of the lead would meet the wrecking ball when Toni Breidinger’s machine went up in smoke with 14 laps remaining.
That put second-running Santos right on the tail tank of Swanson for the lap 92 restart. Santos was able to mount a furious challenge as he pulled alongside Swanson to the inside on the front straightaway. Swanson was able to flex enough muscle to ward off the challenge into turn one.
With four to go, Kyle Hamilton slowed to bring out the yellow and set up one last restart for a green-white-checkered finish. This time, Swanson never allowed Santos an opportunity to make a move, jetting away to lock up the lead as Santos followed single file into one.
“I didn’t do a good enough job on the first restart,” Swanson admitted. “You’re not going to beat Bobby Santos very many times. If you give him an opportunity with five to go, you know he’s going to be there. I didn’t do a great job on that first restart. I maybe brought the pace down too slow and I spun the tires. When it stood up, I slid out, and I drove it all the way down there into turn one and plumb missed the corner. I just got lucky that he couldn’t carve it good enough to get by me, just back to me, and I had another opportunity to do a better job in turn three than I did in turn one. I surely wouldn’t make the same mistake twice, so I got in hard to make sure he couldn’t get a run, got on the brakes well to hit the bottom and do it like I was supposed to. On the second restart, I didn’t do it perfect, but I got it a little better and was able to bring it home.”
It was game, set, match as Swanson went on to stamp his place alongside and atop the USAC record books with a victory margin of seven tenths over Santos, Grant, a career-best finish for Jim Anderson in fourth and Chris Windom rounding out the top-five.
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: June 29, 2018 – Oregon, Wisconsin – Madison International Speedway – Bytec “Dairyland 100”
QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-16.870; 2. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-16.930; 3. Eric Gordon, 21, Armstrong-16.982; 4. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-17.171; 5. Chris Windom, 17, Nolen-17.181; 6. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ-17.184; 7. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-17.201; 8. Jim Anderson, 92, Kazmark-17.263; 9. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-17.403; 10. Dave Darland, 32, Williams/Wright-17.452; 11. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-17.516; 12. Derek Bischak, 31, Bischak-17.584; 13. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-17.694; 14. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-17.773; 15. Toni Breidinger, 80, Breidinger-17.849; 16. Austin Blair, 96, Blair-17.865; 17. Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-18.815; 18. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-(Time of 17.128 disallowed); 19. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-(Time of 17.202 disallowed); 20. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (2), 2. Bobby Santos (6), 3. Justin Grant (1), 4. Jim Anderson (8), 5. Chris Windom (5), 6. Jerry Coons Jr. (7), 7. David Byrne (19), 8. Travis Welpott (9), 9. Matt Goodnight (11), 10. Kyle Robbins (14), 11. Kyle Hamilton (4), 12. Toni Breidinger (15), 13. Aaron Pierce (18), 14. Patrick Lawson (13), 15. Mike Haggenbottom (17), 16. Dave Darland (10), 17. Austin Blair (16), 18. Derek Bischak (12), 19. Eric Gordon (3). 36:49.04
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Kody Swanson, Laps 6-47 Justin Grant, Laps 48-100 Kody Swanson.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER AWARD: David Byrne (19th to 7th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Aaron Pierce
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-432, 2-Justin Grant-327, 3-Chris Windom-296, 4-David Byrne-292, 5-Bobby Santos-265, 6-Aaron Pierce-239, 7-Travis Welpott-237, 8-Matt Goodnight-230, 9-Jerry Coons Jr.-225, 10-Kyle Robbins-199.
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SWANSON BECOMES WINNINGEST SILVER CROWN DRIVER WITH SALEM SCORE
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Salem, Indiana………On a night when he was in a class of his own on the Salem Speedway high banks, Kody Swanson put himself in a class of his own in the record books.
The Kingsburg, California native led the 59th “Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial” from start to finish in a landslide, perhaps the best on-track performance he’s displayed of all 24 of his series victories, to surpass Jack Hewitt and become the USAC Silver Crown division’s winningest driver.
Swanson set additional records, including notching his fifth consecutive series win, which passed the four-straight wins accomplished by Hewitt in 1986 and Tom Bigelow between 1975 and 1976. His third-straight “James/O’Connor” triumph slotted him into exclusive company as only the second driver to win that many consecutively. Pancho Carter won four-in-a-row between 1974 and 1977.
Twenty-one of those 24 wins have come behind the wheel of the DePalma Motorsports/Bob Hampshire-wrenched No. 63. Hampshire was also the crew chief on Hewitt’s win streak and the majority of his Silver Crown wins over the years. Swanson is quick to credit his crew on the Lima, Ohio-based team. It’s something he doesn’t take for granted.
“It’s so hard to believe,” Swanson exclaimed. “It’s what you dream about and what you wish for, but you never really give it a real chance. Silver Crown cars have long been my favorite, so to be on that list is special, let alone be at the top. But I didn’t do it alone, though. Not a single one.”
After all the preparation and anticipation between races, the anxiousness and butterflies dissipate once the green flag drops. It becomes all business. Swanson was proficient right from the outset, setting quick time in qualifying, then jumping out to the lead at the start.
David Byrne was pretty much the lone challenger to Swanson’s throne early on, driving through an impressive shower of sparks that engulfed the nighttime sky to second by lap four and was routinely challenging for the race lead throughout the first third of the 75-lapper.
Following a lap 15 yellow for a slowing Matt Goodnight, Byrne remained relentless on the lone restart of the night, diving inside Swanson multiple times to no avail before slotting back in as the leader of the high-wire act displayed by Swanson’s pursuers, followed by Bobby Santos, Chris Windom and Jerry Coons Jr.
Between laps 30 and 40, Swanson extended his lead from a mere half-second to a 2.5 second challenge as he cut through the lapped traffic with the precision of a laser-guided missile.
On the 53rd lap, Windom grabbed second from Santos and began shrinking Swanson’s lead ever so slightly over the next handful of laps. Yet, the shrinkage didn’t last long, and Swanson opened up the lead once again, upping the interval to over six seconds and a near half-straightaway advantage that would simply not be overcome, challenging and lapping cars that were competing for the lead with him seemingly just moments earlier.
Swanson was flawless all night long, winning by just a tick under 8.5 seconds, and setting a new 75-lap track record in the process, over Windom, Santos, Coons and a career-best finish for Kyle Hamilton.
You couldn’t script a better performance than Swanson showcased on a fairytale night in which the record books were cast aside, and a new edition was published. From dirt to pavement, this team seems to be on the same page much more often than not and Saturday night’s performance at Salem certainly showed.
“Salem is such a tough and challenging racetrack, not only physically as a driver, but man it’s hard on everything to have a car that will be good the whole race,” Swanson said. “These guys go the distance for me every time and we do it together. My wife and I drive to the shop and put in the effort with them. As far as a team, we’re all in it together. That’s what makes it so special.”
There are many things that make Swanson appreciate the efforts of his crew, including his spotter, and wife, Jordan. But it’s the competition that keeps Swanson and crew challenging themselves to be better every time they hit the racetrack.
“Part of the reason every win is special in Silver Crown is because of who you’re racing against,” Swanson said. “Everyone’s here. Our crew goes the extra mile and they’re always trying something to get better because you know they are. Every win is special because they’re all great competitors and they’re here to win just like any of us. If you’re going to beat them, you’re going to have to put in the extra time and you’re going to have to have a little bit of luck too.”
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: August 11, 2018 – Salem Speedway – Salem, Indiana – Discover Scott County Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial presented by Kentuckiana Ford Dealers
QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-16.001; 2. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-16.186; 3. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ-16.264; 4. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-16.298; 5. Chris Windom, 17, Nolen-16.353; 6. Eric Gordon, 21, Armstrong-16.479; 7. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-16.493; 8. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-16.540; 9. Jacob Wilson, 07, WBR-16.566; 10. Dave Darland, 32,
Williams/Wright-16.922; 11. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-17.061; 12. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-17.194; 13. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-17.329; 14. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-17.434; 15. John Heydenreich, 43, Felker/Nix-18.008; 16. Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-18.497; 17. Toni Breidinger, 80, Breidinger-19.065; 18. Cody Gallogly, 81, Williams-20.881; 19. Terry James, 16, Logan-NT
FEATURE: (75 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (1), 2. Chris Windom (5), 3. Bobby Santos (3), 4. Jerry Coons Jr. (2), 5. Kyle Hamilton (7), 6. Justin Grant (8), 7. Jacob Wilson (9), 8. David Byrne (4), 9. Dave Darland (10), 10. Travis Welpott (12), 11. John Heydenreich (15), 12. Mike Haggenbottom (16), 13. Patrick Lawson (14), 14. Eric Gordon (6), 15. Matt Goodnight (13), 16. Toni Breidinger (17), 17. Kyle Robbins (11), 18. Cody Gallogly (18), 19. Terry James (19). 24:06.27 (New Track Record)
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-75 Kody Swanson.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER AWARD: John Heydenreich (15th to 11th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Patrick Lawson
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-508, 2-Justin Grant-382, 3-Chris Windom-363, 4-David Byrne-341, 5-Bobby Santos-329, 6-Jerry Coons Jr.-286, 7-Travis Welpott-280, 8-Matt Goodnight-263, 9-Aaron Pierce-239, 10-Eric Gordon-228.
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WINDOM WINS ONE FOR THE HOME CROWD AT BETTENHAUSEN 100
By: Ryan Mahan - The Springfield State Journal-Register
Springfield, Illinois (Aug. 18, 2018)………Chris Windom had plenty of patience in Saturday’s USAC Silver Crown Series Tony Bettenhausen 100 race.
He had plenty of car left too.
The Canton driver became just the third from Illinois to win the 100-lap Bettenhausen race on the 1-mile dirt track, beating Kevin Thomas Jr. by 1.701 seconds.
“This is pretty sweet,” Windom said. “I’ve been trying to win this race since 2010 or 2011 It’s pretty awesome to do it with a lot of my hometown friends and family here to watch.”
Gary Bettenhausen, of Tinley Park, won in 1983. It took 29 years until Galesburg’s A.J. Fike ended that drought in 2012. He repeated in 2013.
Windom previously earned an in-state USAC win — the 2016 Ted Horn 100 at the Du Quoin State Fair. But this one came just 70 miles away.
“It’s pretty special to win one this close to home,” he said.
It didn’t take long for the race to shuffle from its starting grid.
Jerry Coons Jr. and Kody Swanson owned the front row. Swanson, who won the 2014 and 2015 Bettenhausen races and owned a five-race win streak prior to Saturday, quickly dropped to the middle of the pack.
Tyler Courtney, Justin Grant — last year’s Bettenhausen champion — and Kevin Thomas Jr. all worked their way to the front. It took Windom a little longer for him to crack the top-four, which he did by passing Coons.
“It was a really tight field today,” said Grant, who finished third, 2.012 seconds behind Windom. “Normally this is more about tire management and the sun’s a little brighter and the track’s a little cleaner — more rubbered up — so you don’t see guys racing that hard the whole race. Today, you could kind of abuse your stuff about all race. It was a little different Silver Crown race than what we’re used to.”
Windom tried to pressure the top-three drivers but backed off to let them battle each other. ON lap 82, Windom grabbed third place. Almost immediately, Shane Cockrum, of Benton, brought out a caution flag.
On the restart, Windom took second place on lap 87. On lap 92, Windom made the final lead change.
“I’ve ran enough of these races now and I’ve ran around with Kody Swanson and he falls back to ninth or 10th and rides for almost the whole race,” Windom said. “I knew the pace they were running; they weren’t going to be able to run the pace I could the last 10 laps. It worked out in our favor like that.
“This car, I knew it was good enough to win the whole race. I wasn’t going to pressure it too early and wear our stuff out...so I saved it just like I planned, and the cautions came just like I wanted.”
On the final restart, on lap 98, Windom kept Thomas and Grant in his rear-view mirror.
Thomas took his final lead on lap 55 when Courtney slid high into the loose dirt. He kept Grant and Courtney behind him but couldn’t prevent Windom’s advance.
“It really was (competitive),” Thomas said. “From the start, me and Sunshine (Courtney) started in the second row and getting into (the first turn), we were running 1-2, so that was pretty exciting.
“That was a fun race. Windom was back there. He was up under me at the beginning of the race. I knew he was good because where I was running was a little bit more of a dominant line and he was staying with me in the dirty stuff. When your car is that good, you’re going to be able to be patient and poke right underneath people and get the runs you need when you need to.”
Two other Illinois drivers — and both closer to home — had plenty of fans cheering.
Springfield’s Joey Moughan finished ninth — his highest finish in less than 10 USAC Silver Crown Series starts.
He said he was “extremely” happy with the top-10 showing.
“I’m not a great mechanic. Just to finish with everything working, we haven’t done that yet,” Moughan said. “I missed the setup just a touch. You’ve got to crawl before you can walk.”
He finished 15th in last year’s Ted Horn 100 at the Du Quoin State Fair.
Korey Weyant, also a Springfield product, made a hard-charge in the 12-lap semi-feature event. The top-six cars earned a spot in the main event. Weyant needed a push start, so he had to start at the back of the field despite originally on the front row.
Weyant had the fastest car in the field and quickly ran up the standings. As he was battling David Byrne, of Shullsburg, Wisconsin, for the lead in turns 3 and 4 of lap 11, Weyant’s engine blew, prematurely ending an exciting day.
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: August 18, 2018 – Springfield, Illinois – Illinois State Fairgrounds – Bettenhausen 100
QUALIFYING: (Top-26 locked into the feature) 1. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-30.875; 2. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-31.128; 3. Kevin Thomas, Jr, 56, Foxco-31.273; 4. Tyler Courtney, 97, Lein-31.681; 5. Shane Cockrum, 71, Hardy-31.689; 6. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-31.731; 7. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-31.923; 8. Brady Bacon, 6, Klatt-32.010; 9. C.J. Leary, 10, DMW-32.012; 10. Jacob Wilson, 07, WBR-32.046; 11. Joey Moughan, 29, Moughan-32.073; 12. Dave Darland, 92, Kazmark-32.082; 13. Chris Windom, 17, Nolen-32.341; 14. Bill Rose, 75, Rose-32.725; 15. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-33.068; 16. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-33.443; 17. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-33.490; 18. Neil Shepherd, 04, Shepherd-33.510; 19. Korey Weyant, 99, Weyant-33.585; 20. Jeff Swindell, 21, Swanson-33.634; 21. Joe Liguori, 4, Liguori-33.763; 22. Mike Haggenbottom, 124, Haggenbottom-33.844; 23. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-33.885; 24. Johnny Petrozelle, 8, Cornell/Petrozelle-33.975; 25. J.C. Bland, 5, BBE-34.000; 26. Brian Tyler, 12, Galas-34.102; 27. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-34.308; 28. Chris Urish, 77, Urish-34.314; 29. Chris Dyson, 9, Dyson-34.460; 30. Terry Babb, 34, Morford-34.496; 31. A.J. Fike, 41, McQuinn-34.604; 32. Terry James, 23, Satterthwaite-35.016; 33. Ken Schrader, 14, McQuinn-35.040; 34. Keith Burch, 24, Burch-35,296; 35. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-35.657; 36. Jackie Burke, 33, Burke-36.068; 37. Dave Berkheimer, 31. Berkheimer-41.088; 38. Austin Mundie, 47, Butler-NT; 39. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-NT; 40. Chris Fetter, 88, Fetter-NT; 41. Steve Buckwalter, 53, Five Three-NT; 42. Danny Long, 44, Long-NT; 43. Casey Shuman, 55, Bateman-NT.
QUALIFYING RACE: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. David Byrne, 2. Chris Urish, 3. Terry Babb, 4. Chris Dyson, 5. Keith Burch, 6. Patrick Lawson, 7. Travis Welpott, 8. Jackie Burke, 9. Terry James, 10. Korey Weyant, 11. A.J. Fike (#14), 12. Dave Berkheimer. NT
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Chris Windom (13), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 3. Justin Grant (6), 4. Jacob Wilson (10), 5. Jerry Coons Jr. (1), 6. Kyle Robbins (7), 7. Joe Liguori (19), 8. Austin Nemire (16), 9. Joey Moughan (11), 10. David Byrne (25), 11. Brady Bacon (8), 12. Mike Haggenbottom (20), 13. Chris Dyson (28), 14. Chris Urish (26), 15. Russ Gamester (21), 16. Keith Burch (29), 17. Travis Welpott (31), 18. J.C. Bland (23). 19. Matt Goodnight (15), 20. Tyler Courtney (4), 21. Jeff Swindell (18), 22. C.J. Leary (9), 23. Shane Cockrum (5), 24. Neil Shepherd (17), 25. Dave Darland (12), 26. Kody Swanson (2), 27. Johnny Petrozelle (22), 28. Bill Rose (14), 29. Patrick Lawson (30), 30. Brian Tyler (24). 31. Terry Babb (27). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-44 Tyler Courtney, Laps 45-49 Kevin Thomas Jr., Laps 50-54 Tyler Courtney, Laps 55-91 Kevin Thomas Jr., Laps 92-100 Chris Windom.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER AWARD: David Byrne (25th to 10th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Chris Dyson
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-525, 2-Justin Grant-446, 3-Chris Windom-433, 4-David Byrne-384, 5-Jerry Coons Jr.-347, 6-Bobby Santos-329, 7-Travis Welpott-309, 8-Matt Goodnight-288, 9-Kyle Robbins-283, 10-Aaron Pierce-239.
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WINDOM’S PLAN COMES TOGETHER IN Du QUOIN TED HORN 100 VICTORY
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Du Quoin, Illinois………Every driver, every team has a plan when they enter the ring for 100 miles of USAC Silver Crown racing at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds.
Sometimes those plans go awry and sometime those plans come to fruition. Then again, other times, the way things play out don’t fit into either of those columns. Sometimes, you must take advantage of the hand you’re dealt and see where it goes.
That was how Chris Windom’s Sunday night played out down the stretch for the topsy-turvy conclusion to the latest edition of the “Ted Horn 100.”
Not one, but two race leaders ran out of fuel during the final 13-lap stretch and the Canton, Illinois driver was poised to pounce, leading the final six laps to win his second “Ted Horn 100” in the last three years. He also became the first driver in a decade, since Brian Tyler in 2008, to sweep both Silver Crown races on the Illinois dirt miles of Du Quoin and Springfield in the same year.
Windom started eighth in the 30-car field aboard his Gene Nolen Racing/KECO Coatings/Maxim/Tranter Chevy. Meanwhile, up front, his teammate and outside front row starter Jerry Coons Jr. notched the top spot, maneuvering around the outside of pole sitter Jacob Wilson to lead the opening six circuits.
Brady Bacon was a man in motion early on, riding the high line from the fourth starting spot to the lead past Coons on lap seven.
The race came to a halt on the 15th lap when J.C. Bland’s rear axle snapped, sending him flipping over the inside guardrail on the back straightaway nearing the entrance to turn three.
The ensuing restart was a Flying Wallendas high wire act between Bacon and C.J. Leary, both running the fence at a torrid pace as they separated themselves from the pack until the second and final stoppage of the night on lap 34 when series Rookie Austin Mundie flipped it over in turn one and walked away unscathed.
When the time came to restart, race leader Bacon’s car was unable to fire. His car was pushed to the infield without power and, being unable to restart due to a clutch issue, retired for the remainder of the evening.
That gave the lead to Leary who was a rocket right out of the box in his second race for the DMW Motorsports team, riding the high line to perfection and constantly extending his lead, up to over three seconds by the halfway point. As the laps wound down to 40 to go and 30 to go, Leary maintained a lead of between two and three seconds, with Windom in third another 10 whole seconds back.
While Windom had an inkling that both Leary and Courtney would run into issues with fuel, he wasn’t exactly sure if or when he had to turn up the wick to catch them as he remained disciplined at his own pace.
“It’s really hard in that situation,” Windom explained. “I didn’t know when to pick it up because we never got a caution. There really wasn’t a right time to. I don’t feel like I’ve really learned that until this year. You really have to pace yourself. It may not always work out but, nine times out of ten, it’s going to work out because the pace those guys tried setting there, I didn’t think was sustainable for 100 laps.”
The furious pace on the long green flag run and running the high line for the entire duration of the race would soon rear its ugly head with 15 laps remaining. Courtney began to pulley the once untouchable Leary, ultimately passing the sputtering Leary on the 88th lap exiting turn two. Leary slowed considerably but was able to nurse his ride home the rest of the way for a seventh-place finish.
Now, Courtney was in control, and he too had no hesitation of letting up anytime soon, stretching his advantage over Windom to 5.4 seconds with six laps to go just before the proverbial rug got pulled out from beneath the Indianapolis, Indiana driver and his bid to claim his first win on a mile.
On lap 95, Courtney’s thirsty engine sputtered off turn four, coasting down the front straightaway and gave way to Windom who had planned to be in contention at the end, but most probably not in the manner it ultimately did.
“I didn’t think the race was going to play out that way,” Windom admits. “I didn’t think we’d go green for that long. I thought we’d get a caution with 20 or 30 to go, then I’d be able to race them for the lead. It never came, so then I started thinking with 20 to go that, with the pace they’re setting, there’s no way they’re going to last. I got a little more nervous when there were 13 to go and they were still 13 seconds ahead of me. Finally, my spotter came over the radio and said the No. 10 and then the 97 was slowing. So, I knew it was our race to lose at that point.”
“I moved down and tried to conserve fuel then because I started getting nervous that I was going to run out,” Windom continued. These races are different every time. You never know what you’re going to get. I don’t think I’ve ever ran a Crown race at that pace for that long. I tried to manage it as long as I could. I’ve had to learn the hard way a lot of times here while leading. I’ve run out of fuel and crashed multiple times. I tried to take what I’ve learned from the past and put it to use here today.”
That experience ultimately paid off for Windom, the 2016 series champ, as he was able to bring home his eighth career Silver Crown score to move into sole possession of 14th on the all-time list. The triumph also added a third Du Quoin Silver Crown victory to car owner Gene Nolen's list of accomplishments, previously scoring wins with Johnny Parsons in 1992 and Tony Elliott in 1999.
Same as Springfield, Windom led only a scant number of laps (15 in total between there and Du Quoin) but came away with two monster victories on his racing resume. Also similar was Kevin Thomas Jr. finishing in the runner-up spot. Shane Cockrum took third ahead of Justin Grant with Kody Swanson rounding out the top-five.
Contingency award winners Sunday night at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds were Mike Haggenbottom (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger), Chris Dyson (Wilwood Brakes 13th place finisher) and Terry James (Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer).
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: September 2, 2018 – Du Quoin, Illinois – Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Ted Horn 100
QUALIFYING: (Top-24 locked into the feature) 1. Jacob Wilson, 07, WBR-30.214; 2. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-30.286; 3. C.J. Leary, 10, DMW-30.343; 4. Brady Bacon, 6, Klatt-30.452; 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 56, Foxco-30.474; 6. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-30.605; 7. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-30.650; 8. Chris Windom, 17, Nolen-30.670; 9. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-30.737; 10. Chris Urish, 77, Urish-30.739; 11. Tyler Courtney, 97, Lein-30.744; 12. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-30.806; 13. Joe Liguori, 4, Liguori-30.847; 14. Shane Cockrum, 71, Hardy-31.077; 15. Joey Moughan, 29, Moughan-31.183; 16. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-31.193; 17. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-31.214; 18. Jeff Swindell, 21, Swanson-31.296; 19. Austin Mundie, 47, Butler-31.408; 20. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-31.856; 21. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-31.874; 22. Bill Rose, 75, Rose-31.911; 23. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-31.941; 24. Brian Tyler, 12, Galas-32.199; 25. Steve Buckwalter, 53, Five Three-32.275; 26. Mike Haggenbottom, 124, Haggenbottom-32.311; 27. J.C. Bland, 5, BBE-32.340; 28. Korey Weyant, 99, Weyant-32.418; 29. Chris Dyson, 9, Dyson-32.792; 30. Terry Babb, 34, Morford-32.922; 31. Keith Burch, 24, Burch-33.090; 32. A.J. Fike, 14, McQuinn-33.125; 33. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-33.415; 34. Terry James, 23, Satterthwaite-33.778; 35. Jackie Burke, 33, Burke-33.807; 36. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-35.851; 37. Danny Long, 44, Long-NT; 38. Chris Fetter, 89, Fetter-NT.
QUALIFYING RACE: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Mike Haggenbottom, 2. Chris Dyson, 3. J.C. Bland, 4. Keith Burch, 5. Terry Babb, 6. Korey Weyant, 7. Terry James, 8. Travis Welpott, 9. Steve Buckwalter, 10. Jackie Burke. 6:41.75
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Chris Windom (8), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 3. Shane Cockrum (14), 4. Justin Grant (9), 5. Kody Swanson (12), 6. David Byrne (6), 7. C.J. Leary (3), 8. Austin Nemire (17), 9. Joey Moughan (15), 10. Kyle Robbins (7), 11. Mike Haggenbottom (25), 12. Bill Rose (22), 13. Chris Dyson (26), 14. Tyler Courtney (11), 15. Shane Cottle (16), 16. Jerry Coons Jr. (2), 17. Jacob Wilson (1), 18. Joe Liguori (13), 19. Keith Burch (28), 20. Patrick Lawson (21), 21. Brady Bacon (4), 22. Matt Goodnight (20), 23. Chris Urish (10), 24. Austin Mundie (19), 25. Terry Babb (29), 26. Brian Tyler (24), 27. Korey Weyant (30), 28. J.C. Bland (27), 29. Russ Gamester (23), 30. Jeff Swindell (18). NT
**J.C. Bland flipped on lap 15 of the feature. Austin Mundie flipped on lap 34 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-6 Jerry Coons Jr., Laps 7-34 Brady Bacon, Laps 35-87 C.J. Leary, Laps 88-94 Tyler Courtney, Laps 95-100 Chris Windom.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER AWARD: Mike Haggenbottom (25th to 11th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Chris Dyson
SALDANA RACING PRODUCTS FIRST NON-TRANSFER: Terry James
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-583, 2-Justin Grant-507, 3-Chris Windom-503, 4-David Byrne-439, 5-Jerry Coons Jr.-378, 6-Bobby Santos-329, 7-Kyle Robbins-326, 8-Travis Welpott-319, 9-Matt Goodnight-309, 10-Austin Nemire-286.
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LEARY LEAVES NOTHING ON THE TABLE IN ELDORA SILVER CROWN VICTORY
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Rossburg, Ohio………C.J. Leary felt he gave one away earlier Saturday night in the USAC Sprint Car portion of the 37th “4-Crown Nationals” at Eldora Speedway.
When the time came for him to set foot in his USAC Silver Crown car for the season finale, he made it his life’s mission to not let another golden opportunity slip through his fingers.
“The top was so treacherous, I kept making little mistakes and throwing the right front into it,” Leary recalled. “I thought I gave the race away three or four times. This racecar was bad fast, and I had a bad fast sprint car too. But the driver stepped on it in that one.”
Leary’s hunger was palpable after finishing second in the sprinter. You would’ve had to use a jackhammer to crack that lingering “What if” thought out of his head throughout the 50-lap Silver Crown finale. He wasn’t going to let anything go to chance; he was going to put this race in his own hands and be on the attack on the cushion. Although, the cushion at this particular moment of the night was an unmovable concrete wall.
“I’m always one to bang the boards,” Leary admitted. “The top’s the best place to run here at Eldora. The guy who can throw his nut sack over his shoulder and just haul it around here is normally the winner. I’m just glad to be standing down here and have the car in one piece after banging off the fence for the 50 laps.”
Leary had his work cut out for him, starting the race from the eighth position in his Chuck & Tammi Leary/Leary Construction – GreenTech Lubricants/DRC/1-Way Toyota, while Shane Cottle took off from the pole to lead early despite a rough going for others in the field that created a bevy of stoppages within the first eight laps.
On the third lap, David Byrne flipped into the catchfence between turns three and four to bring out the first red flag. Chris Windom, the victor of the two most recent series races, had a rear end break on him just as he was poised to snag the race lead on the seventh circuit. A lap later, defending race winner Tyler Courtney’s bid to sweep the three USAC divisions in a single night came to an abrupt end after tagging the turn one wall and flipping. Both Byrne and Courtney were uninjured.
As he had done throughout the night, Leary was on a mission, sliding into second past Jerry Coons Jr. in turn one on the 15th go-around. By the time the two hit the back straight, Kevin Thomas Jr. entered the fray and also ripped past Coons to move into third. Thus, began what would be a familiar refrain for the remaining 33 laps - Leary and Thomas side-by-side!
As the two found their distinctive grooves – Leary heaving his car around the top against the outside wall and Thomas keeping his car straight as an arrow through the middle – they were able to cut Cottle’s lead down substantially from a second-plus to pretty much nil within a handful laps.
Leary pulled the bow first, sliding by Cottle momentarily in turn two on lap 30 with Thomas crashing the party as well. Cottle re-emerged with the lead at the line as the trio crossed the stripe three-wide.
Shuffle, repeat, shuffle, repeat like an old five-disc CD changer your grandparents might still own, that was the name of the game. Thomas initially gained the lead on lap 31, controlled three laps before Leary blasted by around the outside. Two laps later, Leary repainted the turn one wall with rubber after blasting the concrete, allowing Thomas to sneak back by for another three-lap stint at the front.
Leary again was pestering Thomas around the top, coming back to snare the lead on lap 39, but for nary one trip around the half-mile – by a half-car-length – before bouncing off the turn one wall again, handing the race back over to Thomas for one lap. Leary once again roared back to reclaim the lead the following time around, then led for four laps before battering the turn one wall again, allowing Thomas to take the advantage with six laps remaining.
Leary was relentless, ripping the topside around Thomas off turn four coming to the stand with three laps to go, beating Thomas by the mere diameter of a wheel. Thomas, never doubting, made one last ditch run at Leary into turn one, nearly getting the deed done, but Leary cleared Thomas by as much as the thickness of a five o’clock shadow exiting turn two.
All that stood in Leary’s way between he and a first series victory since Terre Haute in 2016 was a triumvirate of lapped cars. However, they were all hugging the bottom, which was more of a bugaboo to Thomas’ middle line than it was to Leary skimming the fence.
Leary was untouched the remainder of the way to win his second career Silver Crown race by a half-second over Thomas, a second-place finisher for the third race in a row. Pole sitter Cottle finished third in front of an impressive fourth place run in Jason McDougal’s series’ debut while new, four-time series champ Kody Swanson rounded out the top-five.
“Winning these Silver Crown races are the crown jewel,” Leary said. “Winning sprint car races are cool, but these are my favorite races to run. This is a dream come true tonight.”
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: September 21-22, 2018 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 37th 4-Crown Nationals presented by NKT.TV
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-16.764; 2. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-16.888; 3. Chris Windom, 17, Nolen-16.935; 4. Brady Bacon, 6, Klatt-16.993; 5. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-16.993; 6. Tyler Courtney, 97, Lein-16.998; 7. Jason McDougal, 9, Dyson-17.002; 8. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-17.011; 9. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-17.118; 10. Kevin Thomas Jr. 56, Foxco-17.146; 11. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-17.179; 12. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-17.250; 13. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-17.306; 14. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-17.333; 15. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-17.543; 16. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-17.554; 17. Mike Haggenbottom, 124, Haggenbottom-17.714; 18. Jacob Wilson, 07, WBR-17.765; 19. Aaron Schuck, 53, Five Three-18.034; 20. Chris Fetter, 89, Fetter-18.513; 21. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-19.076; 22. Bill Rose, 66, Rose-NT, 23. Dave Darland, 43, Felker/Nix-NT.
FEATURE: (50 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. C.J. Leary (8), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (10), 3. Shane Cottle (1), 4. Jason McDougal (7), 5. Kody Swanson (5), 6. Jerry Coons Jr. (2), 7. Justin Grant (12), 8. Brady Bacon (4), 9. Kyle Robbins (11), 10. Jacob Wilson (16), 11. Austin Nemire (15), 12. Bill Rose (20), 13. Steve Buckwalter (#53) (19), 14. Matt Goodnight (9), 15. Mike Haggenbottom (17), 16. Dave Darland (23), 17. Travis Welpott (14), 18. Chris Fetter (18), 19. Dave Berkheimer (21), 20. Aaron Pierce (22), 21. Tyler Courtney (6), 22. Chris Windom (3), 23. David Byrne (13). NT
**David Byrne flipped on lap 3 of the feature. Tyler Courtney flipped on lap 8 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Shane Cottle, Laps 31-33 Kevin Thomas Jr., Laps 34-35 C.J. Leary, Laps 36-38 Kevin Thomas Jr., Lap 39 C.J. Leary, Lap 40 Kevin Thomas, Laps 41-44 C.J. Leary, Laps 45-46 Kevin Thomas, Laps 47-50 C.J. Leary.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS/LARRY RICE HIGH PERFORMANCE HARD CHARGER: Kevin Thomas Jr. (10th to 2nd)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Steve Buckwalter
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2018 USAC SILVER CROWN DRIVER POINTS
1. (641) Kody Swanson, Kingsburg, Calif.
2. (559) Justin Grant, Ione, Calif.
3. (524) Chris Windom, Canton, Ill.
4. (459) David Byrne, Shullsburg, Wisc.
5. (433) Jerry Coons Jr., Tucson, Ariz.
6. (372) Kyle Robbins, New Castle, Ind.
7. (348) Travis Welpott, Pendleton, Ind.
8. (344) Matt Goodnight, Winchester, Ind.
9. (329) Bobby Santos, Franklin, Mass.
10. (327) Austin Nemire, Sylvania, Ohio
11. (282) Mike Haggenbottom, Levittown, Pa.
12. (276) Jacob Wilson, Crawfordsville, Ind.
13. (262) Aaron Pierce, Muncie, Ind.
14. (238) Dave Darland, Lincoln, Ind.
15. (228) Eric Gordon, Indianapolis, Ind.
16. (223) C.J. Leary, Greenfield, Ind.
17. (221) Kyle Hamilton, Danville, Ind.
18. (218) Kevin Thomas Jr., Cullman, Ala.
19. (214) Tyler Courtney, Indianapolis, Ind.
20. (209) Shane Cottle, Kansas, Ill.
21. (206) Shane Cockrum, Benton, Ill.
22. (180) Joe Liguori, Tampa, Fla.
23. (179) Bill Rose, Plainfield, Ind.
24. (175) Toni Breidinger, Hillsborough, Calif.
25. (158 Patrick Lawson, Edwardsville, Ill.
26. (155) Brady Bacon, Broken Arrow, Okla.
27. (147) Cody Gerhardt, Fresno, Calif.
28. (120) Johnny Petrozelle, Denton, N.C.
29. (115) Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, N.Y.
30. (110) Jim Anderson, Joliet, Ill.
31. (109) Steve Buckwalter, Royersford, Pa.
32. (92) Jim Moughan, Springfield, Ill.
33. (91) Austin Mundie, Dallas, Texas
34. (75) Neil Shepherd, Warsaw, Ind.
35. (74) Casey Shuman, Tempe, Ariz.
36. (70) Tanner Swanson, Kingsburg, Calif.
37. (65) Korey Weyant, Springfield, Ill.
38. (62) Russ Gamester, Peru, Ind.
39. (61) Jason McDougal, Broken Arrow, Okla.
40. (58) J.C. Bland, Springfield, Ill.
41. (57) Chris Fetter, Troy, Mo.
42. (56) Keith Burch, Farmington, Mo.
43. (55) Chris Urish, Elkhart, Ill.
44. (55) Dave Berkheimer, Mechanicsburg, Pa.
45. (51) Austin Blair, Fairview Heights, Ill.
46. (50) Brian Tyler, Parma, Mich.
47. (50) Derek Bischak, Angola, Ind.
48. (49) Jeff Swindell, Germantown, Tenn.
49. (45) Terry James, St. Louis, Mo.
50. (41) John Heydenreich, Bloomsburg, Pa.
51. (37) Jesse Dunham, Gilbert, Ariz.
52. (37) Cody Gallogly, Pataskala, Ohio
53. (33) A.J. Fike, Galesburg, Ill.
54. (33) Coleman Gulick, Binghamton, N.Y.
55. (31) Terry Babb, Decatur, Ill.
56. (31) A.J. Russell, Clovis, Calif.
57. (22) Joss Moffatt, Columbus, Ind.
58. (20) Danny Long, Bonne Terre, Mo.
59. (20) Jackie Burke, Houston, Texas
60. (20) Ken Schrader, Fenton, Mo.
61. (10) Daniel Robinson, Ewing, Ill.
2018 USAC SILVER CROWN ENTRANT POINTS
1. (641) DePalma Motorsports, Lima, Ohio (#63)
2. (559) Hemelgarn Racing, Toledo, Ohio (#91)
3. (524) Nolen Racing, Greenwood, Ind. (#17)
4. (459) Byrne Racing, Shullsburg, Wisc. (#40)
5. (433) Nolen Racing, Greenwood, Ind. (#20)
6. (376) Klatt Enterprises, Hastings, Neb. (#6)
7. (372) KR Racing, Greenfield, Ind. (#7)
8. (348) Welpott-Gorman Racing, Pendleton, Ind. (#18)
9. (344) Goodnight Racing, Hartford City, Ind. (#39)
10. (329) DJ Racing, Jamestown, Ind. (#22)
11. (327) Nemire Racing, Sylvania, Ohio (#16)
12. (282) Haggenbottom Racing, Bristol, Pa. (#124)
13. (276) Wilson Brothers Racing, Crawfordsville, Ind. (#07)
14. (262) Sam Pierce, Daleville, Ind. (#26)
15. (246) Curtis Williams, Springfield, Ohio (#81)
16. (228) Brad Armstrong, New Palestine, Ind. (#21)
17. (218) Foxco Racing, Bloomington, Ind. (#56)
18. (214) Hans Lein, Edgerton, Wisc. (#97)
19. (206) Hardy Boys Motorsports, Decatur, Ill. (#71)
20. (180) Liguori Racing, Lebanon, Ind. (#4)
21. (176) Chris Dyson Racing, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (#9)
22. (175) Breidinger Motorsports, Hillsborough, Calif. (#80)
23. (165) Williams & Wright Racing, St. Paul, Ind. (#32)
24. (158) Patrick Lawson, Edwardsville, Ill. (#2)
25. (147) Chuck & Tammi Leary, Greenfield, Ind. (#30)
26. (147) Cody Gerhardt, Fresno, Calif. (#60)
27. (128) Gene Kazmark, Joliet, Ill. (#92)
28. (125) Bill Rose Racing, Plainfield, Ind. (#66)
29. (120) Cornell-Petrozelle Racing, Monee, Ill. (#8)
30. (109) Five Three Racing, Joliet, Ill. (#53)
31. (100) Bill Rose Racing, Plainfield, Ind. (#75)
32. (92) Joey Moughan, Springfield, Ill. (#29)
33. (91) Les Butler, Kaufman, Texas (#47)
34. (82) Felker/Nix Racing, Jeffersonville, Ind. (#43)
35. (76) DMW Motorsports, Phoenix, Ariz. (#10)
36. (75) Shepherd Racing, Rochester, Ind. (#04)
37. (74) Patty Bateman, Murphysboro, Ill. (#55)
38. (70) Bowman-Elmore Racing, Brownsburg, Ind. (#02)
39. (65) Scott Weyant, Springfield, Ill. (#99)
40. (62) Gamester Racing, Peru, Ind. (#51)
41. (58) Bland Brothers Enterprises, Springfield, Ill. (#5)
42. (56) Keith Burch, Farmington, Mo. (#24)
43. (55) Chris Urish, Elkhart, Ill. (#77)
44. (55) Berkheimer Racing, Mechanicsburg, Pa. (#31)
45. (51) Austin Blair Racing, Fairview Heights, Ill. (#96)
46. (50) Galas Motorsports, O’Fallon, Ill. (#12)
47. (50) Derek Bischak, Indianapolis, Ind. (#131)
48. (49) Swanson Racing, Des Moines, Iowa (#21)
49. (47) Chris Fetter, Troy, Mo. (#89)
50. (37) Sam Pierce, Daleville, Ind. (#126)
51. (33) Team Scorpion, Binghamton, N.Y. (#114)
52. (31) Ted Finkenbinder, Fairfield, Calif. (#3)
53. (31) Ken Morford, Harristown, Ill. (#34)
54. (30) Dennis & Dave McQuinn, Springfield, Ill. (#14)
55. (25) Dr. Jim Logan, St. Louis, Mo. (#116)
56. (20) Danny Long, Bonne Terre, Mo. (#44)
57. (20) Jackie Burke, Houston, Texas (#33)
58. (20) Todd Satterthwaite, St. Louis, Mo. (#23)
59. (13) Hardy Boys Motorsports, Decatur, Ill. (#711)
60. (10) Dennis & Dave McQuinn, Springfield, Ill. (#41)
61. (10) Fetter Racing, Troy, Mo. (#88)
2018 USAC SILVER CROWN ROOKIE DRIVER POINTS (TOP-10)
1. (372) Kyle Robbins, New Castle, Ind.
2. (348) Travis Welpott, Pendleton, Ind.
3. (282) Mike Haggenbottom, Levittown, Pa.
4. (218) Kevin Thomas Jr., Cullman, Ala.
5. (175) Toni Breidinger, Hillsborough, Calif.
6. (147) Cody Gerhardt, Fresno, Calif.
7. (120) Johnny Petrozelle, Denton, N.C.
8. (115) Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, N.Y.
9. (110) Jim Anderson, Joliet, Ill.
10. (91) Austin Mundie, Dallas, Texas
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2018 USAC SILVER CROWN SCHEDULE & RESULTS
Apr 7: (P) (#) Phoenix, AZ – ISM Raceway – WINNER: Bobby Santos (DJ Racing #22)
Apr 29: (D) Terre Haute, IN – Terre Haute Action Track – WINNER: Justin Grant (Hemelgarn Racing #91)
May 4: (P) Toledo, OH – Toledo Speedway – WINNER: Kody Swanson (DePalma Motorsports #63)
May 24: (D) Indianapolis, IN – Indiana State Fairgrounds – WINNER: Kody Swanson (DePalma Motorsports #63)
May 25: (P) Brownsburg, IN – Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis – WINNER: Kody Swanson (DePalma Motorsports #63)
Jun 29: (P) Oregon, WI – Madison International Speedway – WINNER: Kody Swanson (DePalma Motorsports #63)
Aug 11: (P) Salem, IN - Salem Speedway Fueled by the Hoosier Lottery – WINNER: Kody Swanson (DePalma Motorsports #63)
Aug 18: (D) (#) Springfield, IL – Illinois State Fairgrounds – WINNER: Chris Windom (Gene Nolen Racing #17)
Sep 2: (D) Du Quoin, IL – Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – WINNER: Chris Windom (Gene Nolen Racing #17)
Sep 22: (D) Rossburg, OH - Eldora Speedway – WINNER: C.J. Leary (Leary Racing #30)
------------------------ KEY DEFINITIONS -------------------------
(D) represents a dirt event
(P) represents a pavement event
# represents a daytime event
FEATURE WINS
(5) Kody Swanson (May 4 at Toledo Speedway, May 24 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, May 25 at Lucas Oil Raceway, June 29 at Madison International Speedway & Aug. 11 at Salem Speedway)
(2) Chris Windom (Aug. 18 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds & Sep. 2 at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds)
(1) Justin Grant (Apr. 29 at the Terre Haute Action Track)
(1) C.J. Leary (Sept. 22 at Eldora Speedway)
(1) Bobby Santos (Apr. 7 at ISM Raceway)
FEATURE LAPS LED
(388) Kody Swanson
(99) Justin Grant
(89) C.J. Leary
(56) Tyler Courtney
(55) Jerry Coons Jr.
(54) Kyle Hamilton
(51) Kevin Thomas Jr.
(31) Shane Cottle
(28) Brady Bacon
(26) Brian Tyler
(22) Bobby Santos
(15) Chris Windom
(11) David Byrne
TOP-FIVE FINISHES
(9) Kody Swanson
(6) Chris Windom
(5) Justin Grant & Bobby Santos
(3) Kevin Thomas Jr.
(2) Shane Cockrum, Jerry Coons Jr., Shane Cottle, Tyler Courtney, Eric Gordon, C.J. Leary & Aaron Pierce
(1) Jim Anderson, David Byrne, Cody Gerhardt, Kyle Hamilton, Jason McDougal, Johnny Petrozelle, Tanner Swanson & Jacob Wilson
TOP-TEN FINISHES
(9) Justin Grant & Kody Swanson
(8) David Byrne
(7) Chris Windom
(5) Jerry Coons Jr. & Bobby Santos
(4) Kyle Robbins, Travis Welpott & Jacob Wilson
(3) Shane Cockrum, Matt Goodnight, Eric Gordon, C.J. Leary, Joe Liguori, Austin Nemire, Aaron Pierce & Kevin Thomas Jr.
(2) Jim Anderson, Shane Cottle, Tyler Courtney, Dave Darland, Cody Gerhardt, Kyle Hamilton, Joey Moughan & Johnny Petrozelle
(1) Brady Bacon, Jason McDougal, Austin Mundie, Neil Shepherd & Tanner Swanson
FEATURE STARTS
(10) David Byrne, Jerry Coons Jr., Matt Goodnight, Justin Grant, Kyle Robbins, Kody Swanson & Chris Windom
(9) Travis Welpott
(8) Mike Haggenbottom
(7) Dave Darland & Austin Nemire
(6) Aaron Pierce & Jacob Wilson
(5) Brady Bacon, Toni Breidinger, Tyler Courtney, Eric Gordon, Kyle Hamilton, Patrick Lawson, C.J. Leary, Bill Rose & Bobby Santos
(4) Shane Cockrum, Shane Cottle, Joe Liguori & Kevin Thomas Jr.
(3) J.C. Bland, Steve Buckwalter, Chris Dyson, Russ Gamester, Cody Gerhardt, Austin Mundie, Johnny Petrozelle, Neil Shepherd, Jeff Swindell & Brian Tyler
(2) Jim Anderson, Terry Babb, Derek Bischak, Austin Blair, Keith Burch, Coleman Gulick, Joey Moughan, Casey Shuman, Chris Urish & Korey Weyant
(1) Dave Berkheimer, Jesse Dunham, Chris Fetter, A.J. Fike, Cody Gallogly, John Heydenreich, Terry James, Jason McDougal, Joss Moffatt, A.J. Russell & Tanner Swanson
TOP ROOKIE FINISHER OF THE RACE
Apr. 7: ISM Raceway – Cody Gerhardt (5th)
Apr. 29: Terre Haute Action Track – Johnny Petrozelle (9th)
May 4: Toledo Speedway – Cody Gerhardt (7th)
May 24: Indiana State Fairgrounds – Johnny Petrozelle (5th)
May 25: Lucas Oil Raceway – Jim Anderson (8th)
June 29: Madison International Speedway – Jim Anderson (4th)
Aug. 11: Salem Speedway – Travis Welpott (10th)
Aug. 18: Illinois State Fairgrounds – Kevin Thomas Jr. (2nd)
Sep. 2: Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Kevin Thomas Jr. (2nd)
Sep. 22: Eldora Speedway – Kevin Thomas Jr. (2nd)
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER OF THE RACE
Apr. 7: ISM Raceway – Cody Gerhardt (13th to 5th)
Apr. 29: Terre Haute Action Track – Kody Swanson (18th to 2nd)
May 4: Toledo Speedway – Eric Gordon (16th to 4th)
May 24: Indiana State Fairgrounds – Dave Darland (28th to 9th)
May 25: Lucas Oil Raceway – Tanner Swanson (22nd to 2nd)
June 29: Madison International Speedway – David Byrne (19th to 7th)
Aug. 11: Salem Speedway – John Heydenreich (15th to 11th)
Aug. 18: Illinois State Fairgrounds – David Byrne (25th to 10th)
Sep. 2: Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Mike Haggenbottom (25th to 11th)
Sep. 22: Eldora Speedway – Kevin Thomas Jr. (10th to 2nd)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER
Apr. 7: ISM Raceway – Jesse Dunham
Apr. 29: Terre Haute Action Track – Kyle Robbins
May 4: Toledo Speedway – Jerry Coons Jr.
May 24: Indiana State Fairgrounds – Chris Windom
May 25: Lucas Oil Raceway – Cody Gerhardt
June 29: Madison International Speedway – Aaron Pierce
Aug. 11: Salem Speedway – Patrick Lawson
Aug. 18: Illinois State Fairgrounds – Chris Dyson
Sep. 2: Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Chris Dyson
Sep. 22: Eldora Speedway – Steve Buckwalter
FAST QUALIFYING TIMES
(3) Kody Swanson
(2) Justin Grant
(1) Jerry Coons Jr., Shane Cottle, Tyler Courtney, Tanner Swanson & Jacob Wilson
QUALIFYING RACE WINS
(2) David Byrne
(1) Mike Haggenbottom & Neil Shepherd