2019: A SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP UNLIKE ANY OTHER FOR SWANSON

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Silver Crown

Sunday, 3 May 2020

2019: A SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP UNLIKE ANY OTHER FOR SWANSON

Kody Swanson (#20) leads Derek Bischak (#31) at Lucas Oil Raceway. Cameron Neveu Photo

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.

2019: A SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP UNLIKE ANY OTHER FOR SWANSON

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

For Kody Swanson, 2019 was a year unlike any other.

The record books will forever show the Kingsburg, Calif. driver having another dominant year with five wins in 10 races and adding an unprecedented fifth USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series title to his laundry list of accomplishments within the series.

They say stats never lie, which is true. However, stats don’t always tell the whole story, a story that’s had its ups and downs, peaks and valleys, heartaches and headaches, yet ended with the thrill of victory and another triumph in a year the 31-year-old driver calls gratifying.

“It’s been a very challenging year,” Swanson admitted. “The thing that’s been great is these guys have been resilient. We won two pavement races with a backup car. Issues will happen in racing and you never know what will happen, but that’s what makes it so gratifying to win a race or a title, when you overcame so much. These guys overcame an awful lot this year and they’re champions with me.”

It’s a story that began over the offseason, when Kody’s former team with which he had won four Silver Cronw driver’s titles in a four-year-span, DePalma Motorsports, closed up shop and sent the hottest free agent on the hunt for a new ride.

He landed at Greenwood, Indiana-based Nolen Racing, the venerable team that had been winners with the series spanning from 1991 to 2018 with drivers Johnny Parsons, Jim Keeker, Tony Elliott, Shane Hollingsworth and Chris Windom.

After a rigorous offseason of prepping equipment, building a relationship with the crew, and adapting to the new environment in general, Swanson and the Nolen team were thrown into the proverbial heat of the fire at March’s season opener in Memphis.

During Friday’s practice that weekend, Swanson practiced both of Nolen’s cars. They had their primary car pulled apart on pit lane during the session after a brand-new driveshaft dealt them trouble. Meanwhile, the team pulled out their backup and Swanson put some laps on it to make sure it was ready to run. Swanson jumped back into the primary with a new driveshaft and proceeded to set the fastest lap of the afternoon.

Fast forward to raceday on Saturday, Swanson took to practice back in the primary before encountering what he described as a fluke engine part issue. Nolen once again had to roll the backup car out where they tweaked on the chassis to get it to where Kody felt it was at its best. Enter qualifying and Swanson promptly put it on the pole position. Enter race time, and after dropping back following an early-race lead, Swanson dug his way back to lead the final 20 laps and score the victory.

“I’m exhausted; I’m elated; I don’t even know what to feel,” Swanson exclaimed at the time. “I’m very grateful. I haven’t been to my day job since Tuesday. I could see the writing on the wall that we were already in a corner then. We had guys that were there into the wee hours of the morning with me almost every night this week, then back at it the next day, just digging for all we were worth to be ready. We got one ready and dug deep enough to get the other one ready just in case. You hate to think you’d ever have a failure and need it, but we did, and it was ready to come in off the bench and do a great job for us.”

Granted, any victory is difficult to come by. Yet, Swanson always seems to make it look relatively easily, although the backstories certainly tell a different tale as was the case in round two at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway in April. However, as with most success stories in racing, chapter one begins “Once upon a time…” somewhere in the race shop, with a crew burning the midnight oil with hour-after-hour of tedious maintenance and improvements. Or, perhaps, on the road, the setting may become a parking lot, as it was with Swanson and Nolen.

“The Nolen Racing 20 and everybody that’s involved is just digging harder and harder,” Swanson explained. “Yesterday, we worked in the parking lot for six-and-a-half hours before the rain came to make sure we’d be ready. Whether we liked it or not at the time, it’s the kind of stuff like that that gives you a chance to finish 100 laps and a chance to win on race day.”

Swanson did just that as the class of the field once again, winning the pole and wiring all 100 laps to capture his second-straight series victory to begin the new season at the Rollie Beale Classic.

Swanson was solid in his dirt debut with Nolen Racing in May’s Hoosier Hundred at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, starting 4^th and finishing 3^rd. The following night, back on the pavement at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg, Ind., provided one of the team’s most challenging moments of the season. On a restart just following the halfway mark of the 100-lapper, Swanson was leading after winning the pole for the third consecutive pavement race and all seemed right in Swanson and team’s world. However, his car failed to launch on the lap 54 restart with an engine issue, handing over the lead to Kyle Hamilton who raced away to victory while Swanson settled for a 16^th place finish.

Back to the drawing board, the team locked down and went straight to business with a 2^nd on the dirt at Pennsylvania’s Williams Grove Speedway and another pristine pole-starting/race-winning performance at Wisconsin’s Madison International Speedway.

However, two weeks later on the high banks of Indiana’s Salem Speedway, Swanson and Nolen Racing were thrust into a painfully familiar scenario. Right before the second round of practice began, crew member Chris Phillips noticed that water was coming through one of the nozzle filters. Engine builder Bill Tranter noticed it was a big issue as well, and Swanson was forced to hop out of the primary while the team quickly retrieved the backup car. Crew members Rick Laughlin and Dale Latty had worked on the backup car leading up to the event to make sure it was ready just in case it was needed.

In a matter of minutes, the backup car went from having travel tires on it to race tires that could be scuffed for qualifying. The time that was left only allowed for two laps of practice, which proved pivotal for Swanson to diagnose what needed to be done.

“In those two laps, I was able to find the things I didn’t like about the racecar and what made me uncomfortable from the cockpit,” Swanson explained. “Immediately, we came in and there was no ‘hey, we’re tired. You figure it out.’ They all jumped in and continued to just battle it out to make it better.”

Swanson described his qualifying run that day as an uncomfortable two laps. Yet, it was good enough for the four-time series champ to win the pole by more than three tenths of a second. Despite all that, Swanson had the hunger for more.

“After we qualified, I came in and wanted to change four shocks and four springs,” Swanson recalled. “Not once did any of the guys give me any grief, like ‘hey, don’t be greedy.’ They just kept after it.”

Swanson promptly put the car on the pole and led wire-to-wire to capture his fourth consecutive Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial victory, equaling a feat previously only accomplished by Pancho Carter in 1974-75-76-77, the very same night he became the 19th driver to join the 100-start club in the USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series

The following race on the dirt mile of the Du Quoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds on Labor Day weekend provided yet another grief-stricken scenario during practice, which saw the Nolen Racing team losing power to not one, but two different engines during practice. Fellow driver Patrick Lawson gave up his ride to Swanson for the main event where Swanson charged from 29^th to 14^thto earn KSE Racing Products Hard Charger honors.

A short week followed and, six days later, the story was written in reverse as Swanson and Nolen executed their smoothest night of the year, getting back to the basics – racing and winning, which they did again for the fifth and final time of the season under the lights of Lucas Oil Raceway at the Rich Vogler Classic after pulling another engine out from under the bench, installing it in their designated backup car and leading all 100 laps.

At the Eldora finale, all Swanson had to do was present his car for the 50-lap feature event and the title was his. But Swanson is a racer and proceeded to knock out one of his better Eldora performances, starting 3^rd and finishing 4^th to wrap up the title by 60 points over Justin Grant.

The path to a championship isn’t always a point A to point B process, although that’s always the initial goal. And though it was certainly unlike any other year Swanson had experienced in his illustrious USAC Silver Crown career, the end result was as familiar as a comfortable pair of shoes. It’s something we’ve become accustomed to – Kody Swanson standing on the stage celebrating a Silver Crown driver’s championship where, Saturday night, at Eldora, he concluded the decade as the most decorated driver of the 2010s, and in the history of the series, perhaps the likes we will never see again to this extent.

KODY SWANSON’S 2019 USAC SILVER CROWN SEASON BY THE NUMBERS:

638: The number of points accumulated by Swanson during the 2019 season, ranks 1^stamong all drivers.

404: The number of laps led by Swanson during the 2019 Silver Crown season, 277 more than his nearest competitor, which ranks 1^stamong all drivers.

103: The number of starts Swanson now has in his Silver Crown career, which ranks 17^th amongst all drivers in the history of the series.

82: The number of consecutive Silver Crown starts Swanson has made since 2012, which ranks 2^nd all time behind Brian Tyler’s 97 and 1^st among all active drivers.

10: The number of 2019 Silver Crown starts, which is tied for 1^st along with 8 other drivers.

8: The number of times Swanson finished in the top-five and top-ten during the 2019 season. His top-fives ranks 1^stwhile his top-tens rank tied for 2^nd.

5: The number of wins Swanson earned in 2019 as well the amount of Fatheadz Eyewear Pole Awards he’s won and the number of Silver Crown driving championships he now has, all of which rank 1^stamong all drivers.

Meanwhile, for the owner champions, Klatt Enterprises, the stark contrast between the 2018 and 2019 seasons was the difference between night and day. Perhaps, more to the point, it was the difference between mechanical woes/DNF’s to reliability/results en route to the 2019 series owner title.

Rewind to the beginning of 2018 where the decision was made by the team to acquire the talents of the two best Silver Crown free agents on dirt and pavement. Two-time USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car champ Brady Bacon was secured as the team’s dirt driver while 2017 Little 500 winner Kyle Hamilton was tabbed for the pavement.

Optimism was in abundance as Hamilton (Danville, Ind.) checked out in the opener at Phoenix, leading a race-high 54 laps and was head of the class when engine trouble spelled doom with 35 laps remaining, sending the team to the sidelines disappointed but hopeful that the strong run was indicative of what the year was going to bring.

Unfortunately, that part of the equation wouldn’t pan out, as the team became plagued by an onslaught of mechanical problems all throughout 2018. Bacon was done after one lap on the dirt at Terre Haute, finishing 25th. Hamilton reentered on the pavement of Toledo and was running well when an ignition issue knocked him out early. Weeks later at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, Bacon fell out with an engine issue, followed by a handling problem at Lucas Oil Raceway for Hamilton, a driveshaft issue at Madison for Hamilton and a clutch gone askew while Bacon led at Du Quoin early in the 100-miler.

The lone bright spots came in the form of a 5th for Hamilton at Salem and an 8th by Bacon in the Eldora finale. A flip of the calendar from 2018 to 2019 was a welcome change for all involved, but as the 2019 season unfolded, it became apparent it was so much more than that. Everybody from top-to-bottom, from crew to each driver, was nearly on point every time they hit the track whether on dirt or pavement.

A 2018 season that featured just three top-tens in 10 total starts improved to a perfect 10 – 10 top-tens in 10 starts in 2019, including just a single finish outside the top-five.

Hamilton had a 4th place result at Memphis after stopping early due to an accident in front of him, then charged from the tail of the field to grab the best finish of his Silver Crown career up to that point. He followed suit with a 6th at Toledo where he was running in 2nd early, but a brief problem sent him to the back of the pack where he charged up through the field once again, twice overcoming adversity and sending a message that the story new year was being written in an entirely different manner with a happier ending.

Bacon, meanwhile, took over control on the dirt at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in May, scoring a solid 5th after starting 8th. The following night, the team brought out it’s pavement car for a run at Lucas Oil Raceway where the patient Hamilton handled the second half of the race with grace, taking advantage of mechanical problems that befell leader Kody Swanson on a lap 54 restart. However, he still had to fight off Bobby Santos who was able to whip by Hamilton with just a quarter of the race remaining, but Hamilton was undeterred, retaking the lead the following lap and racing away to his first career series victory.

“Last year, it didn’t seem like anything could go right mechanically,” Hamilton recalled. “Our ‘Little 500’ car broke, my teammate Brady’s dirt car broke, we broke right out the box here at (LOR) and had to start the race from the tail with no practice laps. This year, we qualified third tonight at LOR and I thought, ‘well, this is going a lot better.’ But, honestly, tonight was the night I was a little bit more worried about being slow. We’ve always struggled here, and I didn’t want to disappoint my team, but I was a little nervous inside.”

“I grew up about 15 minutes from here and I’d always tell my buddies that we’re racing at LOR,” Hamilton continued. “But I kind of hesitated because I was always so bad here. To say we pulled one off in a Silver Crown car on a big night is pretty cool to me.”

With a mark now tallied in the win column, confidence was booming in droves at Williams Grove Speedway and Bacon was in position to pounce after falling back early when two different drivers, Steve Buckwalter then Chris Windom, both had misfortune during the final laps. Bacon took over the lead on the final lap, leading only the final three turns to score his first win in the series as well.

“I knew we had a better car at the end,” Bacon noted following the victory. “I was a little worried when we weren’t very good at the beginning, then I saw some tire issues come about. Coming off turn two, I thought I had the win sewn up, but then I’m like, there’s no telling who’s behind me. I don’t know how much I slowed down to miss (Windom), but I was pretty confident I had it. I was just hoping they didn’t throw the yellow. It feels like I should’ve won a couple of these, but glad to get my first one. I love coming out here to PA. This is a really cool place to win a race.”

Hamilton led a race-high 52 laps at Wisconsin’s Madison International Speedway two weeks later, ultimately finishing 2nd, then ran 4th at Salem while Bacon led 23 laps and finished 5th on the dirt at the Du Quoin (Ill.) Mile Labor Day weekend, which proved to be a pivotal point in the season. Kody Swanson’s Nolen Racing ride had engine trouble with multiple powerplants, forcing Kody to move over to the car owned and driven by Patrick Lawson, thus the Nolen team receiving 10 appearance points and Klatt receiving 58 for 5th.

The 48-point swing moved the Klatt team from a 33-point deficit to a 15-point advantage heading into the finale at Eldora Speedway on the final weekend of September following the rain cancellation of Springfield the week prior. The objective was clear – to lock up the owner title, Bacon had finish at least 4th to lock up the title regardless of what Kody did.

However, that didn’t necessarily mean Bacon was planning on run a 4th place race. Bacon had a car capable of winning, just as he and Hamilton both did all year long, as he tracked down leader Kevin Thomas, Jr. with 10 laps remaining to lock up his second career series victory and a first owner’s title for Terry Klatt of Hastings, Neb. in grand fashion.

On the road to the title, both Bacon and Hamilton improved their results at every single track from 2018 to 2019. Klatt Enterprises became the first team since RW Motorsports/Curb-Agajanian in 2012 to win a Silver Crown owner title with split drivers for both surfaces and was the only team to win in the Silver Crown series this year on both dirt and pavement, a testament to the perseverance of team Klatt with a crew that includes USAC Hall of Famer Bob East and Dave Brzozowski.

“We worked really hard to turn the program around,” Bacon explained. “We had a lot of misfortunes last year and they stepped it up. We haven’t had any this year and had cars capable of winning every race we were at, and they had cars good enough to win all the pavement races they were at too. I’m happy for them. I’ve had a good relationship with Bob (East) over the years racing the No. 76m (Midget) and this. It’s really awesome to win a championship for them. I remember racing against Terry’s cars when I first started, the first year I raced in 2006 when Don Droud, Jr. was racing his midget in Kansas. It’s just awesome to be part of a Silver Crown championship.”

Of all drivers who competed solely on the pavement in 2019, Hamilton finished highest in the points, securing a career-best 6th place result amongst all drivers in the final Silver Crown series standings.

“Thank you to everyone involved in making these races happen,” Hamilton said in a Facebook post. “It was a great year with a win on the pavement and two on the dirt. (It was) a full team effort. I’m so honored to be a part of this organization.”

2019 KLATT ENTERPRISES NO. 6 USAC SILVER CROWN SEASON:

Mar 23: Memphis International Raceway – Kyle Hamilton started 2nd, finished 4th

Apr 28: Toledo Speedway – Kyle Hamilton started 2nd, finished 6th

May 23: Indiana State Fairgrounds – Brady Bacon started 8th, finished 5th

May 24: Lucas Oil Raceway – Kyle Hamilton started 2nd, finished 1st

Jun 14: Williams Grove Speedway – Brady Bacon started 3rd, finished 1st

Jun 28: Madison International Speedway – Kyle Hamilton started 3rd, finished 2nd

Aug 10: Salem Speedway – Kyle Hamilton started 6th, finished 4th

Sep 1: Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Brady Bacon started 2nd, finished 5th

Sep 7: Lucas Oil Raceway – Kyle Hamilton started 6th, finished 3rd

Sep 28: Eldora Speedway – Brady Bacon started 4th, finished 1st

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SWANSON PERSEVERES WITH MEMPHIS 100 WIN

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Millington, Tennessee (March 23, 2019)………It takes a master of a craft for an individual to adapt to anything thrown at them.

Kody Swanson has encountered countless tests throughout the offseason - in the weeks leading up to the first race and on both days of race weekend - yet he managed to ace them all, culminating in Saturday’s “Memphis 100” USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series victory at Memphis International Raceway.

At the conclusion of 2018, Swanson migrated to Nolen Racing after the closure of DePalma Motorsports with whom he won four of the previous five Silver Crown championships. The team thrashed through the offseason to get their machines ready for the opener and had the foresight and the want-to to have two cars ready to go for Memphis. As it turned out, they would need their full arsenal.

During Friday’s practice, Swanson practiced both of Nolen’s cars. They had their primary car pulled apart on pit lane during the session after a brand-new driveshaft dealt them trouble. Meanwhile, the team pulled out their backup and Swanson put some laps on it to make sure it was ready to run. Swanson jumped back into the primary with a new driveshaft and proceeded to set the fastest lap of the afternoon.

Easy as clockwork, right? Of course not, but with Swanson as part of the operation, he almost makes it seem that way on the regular.

“I’m exhausted; I’m elated; I don’t even know what to feel,” Swanson exclaimed. “I’m very grateful. I haven’t been to my day job since Tuesday. I could see the writing on the wall that we were already in a corner then. We had guys that were there into the wee hours of the morning with me almost every night this week, then back at it the next day, just digging for all we were worth to be ready. We got one ready and dug deep enough to get the other one ready just in case,” Swanson explained. You hate to think you’d ever have a failure and need it, but we did, and it was ready to come in off the bench and do a great job for us.”

Swanson led the first five circuits from the pole position of the 100-lapper before David Byrne corralled Swanson and used an outside turn one pass to clear him for the point. Eric Gordon capitalized and was able to grab second from Swanson just moments later on the back straightaway. By lap eight, Swanson was fourth as hard-charging Aaron Pierce slipped by as well.

Matt Goodnight was the lone wall contact of the weekend, pounding the SAFER barrier between turns three and four on lap 10 to bring out a lengthy yellow, that ultimately resulted in a red flag for the cleanup. He climbed from the car and walked away under his own power. Fifth-running Kyle Hamilton also stopped during the incident and was relegated to the tail.

When racing resumed, Pierce was a man on a mission, sweeping by Gordon for second on the 25th lap and, one lap later, ripping by Byrne on the inside of turn three to snare the top spot.

Pierce had constructed a one-and-a-half second lead until lap 36 when he fell to the wayside with a driveline issue, putting him on the sidelines for the remainder of the afternoon. That put two familiar foes, Swanson and Bobby Santos, at the front running one-two.

One lap following a restart, Santos made his move on Swanson, swiping the lead with an inside turn one pass just before the halfway mark, ultimately building a one-and-a-half second lead. Coming into Memphis, Santos had won the series’ pavement opener in two-straight years and Swanson admitted tracking down Santos in a pavement Silver Crown car was no easy feat, but his faith and confidence never wavered.

“I did my homework enough to know that Memphis eats tires and that you need to be there at the end,” Swanson explained. “I was glad to be in a good spot early and get the lead, but Bobby was coming strong through the middle. I didn’t know if once he got the lead, we’d see him again. I felt like we kind of stabilized there and got a couple restarts and got a chance to just start over.”

That chance seemingly arrived on the lap 71 restart when Swanson tracked Santos’ path and shot to the lead on the inside off turn two. However, back in the pack, the machines of Travis Welpott (backstretch) and Austin Nemire (turn two) came to a stop to bring out the yellow, thus negating Swanson’s race-leading move.

With oil dry on the low line between turns one and two, Swanson had to alter his line entering and exiting the second turn as he went to work on Santos on the lap 79 restart. It didn’t take long for the fruits of Swanson’s labor to pay dividends as Swanson was able to occupy the low line into turn three to overtake Santos for good.

Swanson still had to work his way through traffic down the stretch, weaving his way through as Santos kept a close watch. Coming to the white flag, the cars of Chris Dyson and Byrne ran side-by-side into turn one. Swanson looked for an escape and had to whoa up his ride, getting him a tad squirrely on entry, but recovered to drive around the outside of Dyson midway down the back straight and enter clear waters to win his 25th career USAC Silver Crown event.

Behind Swanson were a series of fascinating perseverance stories of their own. Santos finished second after starting 21st on the grid due to having a push start on the initial start. Grant was third after charging from 20th following a right rear tire change prior to the start. Hamilton earned a career-best fourth after restarting from the tail following Goodnight’s early-race incident. Rookie Joey Schmidt took fifth in his very first Silver Crown start.

Yet, at the front, it was Swanson once again, who admitted he hadn’t even been able to go to the gym lately because he had been at the shop so much. After burning the midnight (and beyond) oil night-after-night, and through the trials and tribulations, the Kingsburg, Calif. native once again prevailed, and takes off in 2019 right from where he left off with a group as dedicated as he is to the craft.

“If I’ve learned anything over the last five years, it’s that the effort put in by the people you work with can make all the difference. This Nolen bunch, so many people have stepped up and really tried to put their best foot forward and give it all we had.”

Contingency award winners Saturday at Memphis International Raceway were Kody Swanson (Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier), Bobby Santos (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Mike Haggenbottom (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: March 23, 2019 – Memphis International Raceway – Millington, Tennessee – Memphis 100

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 20, Nolen-20.830; 2. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-21.083; 3. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-21.096; 4. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ-21.120; 5. Chris Windom, 17, Goodnight/Byrd-21.209; 6. C.J. Leary, 10, DMW-21.314; 7. Eric Gordon, 78, Armstrong/Slinkard-21.340; 8. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 11, DHR/Byrd-21.405; 9. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-21.489; 10. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-21.559; 11. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-21.604; 12. Derek Bischak, 31, Bischak-21.715; 13. Bill Rose, 66, Rose-21.829; 14. Chris Dyson, 9, Dyson-21.837; 15. Joey Schmidt, 25, Pierce-21.900; 16. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-21.927; 17. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-21.927; 18. Jason Conn, 88, DHR-21.983; 19. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-22.202; 20. Cody Gallogly, 81, Williams-22.245; 21. Cody Gerhardt, 60, Gerhardt-22.904; 22. Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-22.992; 23. Jim Anderson, 92, Kazmark-NT.

FEATURE: (100 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (1), 2. Bobby Santos (21), 3. Justin Grant (20), 4. Kyle Hamilton (2), 5. Joey Schmidt (14), 6. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (7), 7. Eric Gordon (6), 8. Derek Bischak (9), 9. Chris Dyson (11), 10. David Byrne (3), 11. Kyle Robbins (18), 12. Cody Gerhardt (19), 13. Mike Haggenbottom (22), 14. Cody Gallogly (17), 15. Austin Nemire (8), 16. Travis Welpott (13), 17. C.J. Leary (5), 18. Aaron Pierce (10), 19. Bill Rose (12), 20. Chris Windom (4), 21. Jason Conn (15), 22. Matt Goodnight (16), 23. Jim Anderson (23). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Kody Swanson, Laps 6-25 David Byrne, Laps 26-35 Aaron Pierce, Laps 36-49 Kody Swanson, Laps 50-79 Bobby Santos, Laps 80-100 Kody Swanson.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Bobby Santos (21st to 2nd)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Mike Haggenbottom

NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-76, 2-Bobby Santos-67, 3-Justin Grant-64, 4-Kyle Hamilton-61, 5-Joey Schmidt-58, 6-Kevin Thomas Jr.-55, 7-Eric Gordon-52, 8-Derek Bischak-49, 9-Chris Dyson-46, 10-David Byrne-43.

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HOLY TOLEDO! SWANSON WINS 4TH ROLLIE BEALE CLASSIC

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Toledo, Ohio (April 28, 2019)………Mother Nature may have delayed Sunday’s USAC Silver Crown race at Toledo Speedway by one day, but it still couldn’t keep Kody Swanson out of victory lane as he wired all 100 laps to score his fourth career Hemelgarn Racing/Super Fitness “Rollie Beale Classic” victory, his record-extending 26th overall Silver Crown victory and second-straight in the series to begin the 2019 season.

Granted, any victory is difficult to come by. The Kingsburg, Calif. native always seems to make it look relatively easily, although the backstories certainly tell a different tale.

In the March Memphis opener, Swanson and Nolen Racing endured a number of mechanical issues that forced them to a backup car on raceday. The team went on to win their debut after starting from the pole. To onlookers, the story appeared to unfold much the same Sunday at Toledo, winning his 26th career pole position and leading all 100 laps to win his sixth-straight Silver Crown race on pavement, an all-time record.

However, as with most success stories in racing, chapter one begins “Once upon a time…” somewhere in the race shop, with a crew burning the midnight oil with hour-after-hour of tedious maintenance and improvements. Or, perhaps, on the road, the setting may become a parking lot, as it was with Swanson and Nolen.

Just two days shy of Kody and his wife, and spotter, Jordan’s eighth anniversary, Swanson was able to scoot out to the lead at the drop of the green, leading a three-car breakaway with outside front row starter Kyle Hamilton and Eric Gordon in tow.

On the 20th lap, second-running Hamilton encountered an issue and began to slow to bring out the yellow, ending a promising bid for a win after challenging Swanson in the early-going. An inadvertent yellow slotted him back to eighth on the ensuing restart where he was able to gather himself and race back to a sixth-place finish by race’s end.

On lap 33, seventh-running C.J. Leary’s car blew off a radiator hose in turn two. Chaos developed behind him as the oncoming drivers took evasive action. Justin Grant went right to avoid the spinning Leary. Kevin Thomas, Jr. had no place to go, ramping over Grant’s right rear and slamming nose-first into the outside back straightaway wall, sending his car into a 360-degree, mid-air roundabout before landing on all fours. Hamilton was also caught up in the incident, spinning to the inside without contact. Hamilton restarted, but the incident marked the end of the day for both Leary and Thomas.

Following the cleanup, and through the mid-portion of the race, the man on the move was 2017 “Rollie Beale Classic” winner Bobby Santos. Santos started 11th, but before the yellow, was up to sixth before turning up the wick, using the high line to enter the top-five around the outside of 2016 series champ Chris Windom between turns three and four on lap 48.

Three laps later, he used the bottom to drive by David Byrne on the low line for fourth on the 51st lap, then took third on lap 54 when second-running Gordon fell off the pace with a driveline issue, then set forth toward Aaron Pierce for the runner-up position before two-time American LeMans Series champ Chris Dyson spun backward into the infield grass in turn three on lap 59.

On the lap 67 restart, Windom entered the fray once again as a four-car battle for second ensued between Pierce in second, while Windom and Santos dueled side-by-side for third, with Grant trailing the herd in fifth. Santos finally cleared Windom with just a little more than a quarter of the race left in the tank and set forth once again toward Pierce for second.

In the meantime, Swanson had boosted his lead up to 2.5 seconds and growing while Pierce and Santos duked it out western saloon-style more than a half-straightaway back. Santos aimed low in turns three and four below Pierce on lap 90 of 100 to pull even off the exit of turn four. Santos had the run on Pierce into turn one. Pierce wound up wide in turn two, allowing Santos to breakaway with the runner-up spot. However, dwindling time and hope impeded Santos' opportunity to chase down Swanson who was, by then, more than four seconds ahead.

Swanson closed out yet another “Rollie Beale Classic” victory, following triumphs in 2011, 2015 and 2018. Swanson held the advantage by 4.121 seconds at the checkered over Santos, Pierce, Grant and Windom. Swanson now holds an 18-point lead over Santos, Grant, Hamilton and leading Rookie Joey Schmidt.

Of note, the relatively frosty afternoon got a bit heated between Santos and Pierce during the post-race ceremonies with Santos challenging Pierce to a boxing match on the front straightaway to the delight of the fans. Tempers were tempered, cooler heads prevailed, and racing continued with an Auto Value Bumper-to-Bumper Super Sprint Car Series feature. Santos ended upside down after a scary looking crash on lap four. Under the red flag, Pierce helped tip Santos’ damaged ride back on its wheels before Pierce went on to score the 25-lap victory over fellow Silver Crown starters Grant, Schmidt and Russ Gamester.

Contingency award winners Sunday at Toledo Speedway were Kody Swanson (Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier), Austin Nemire (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Cody Gerhardt (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: April 28, 2019 - Toledo Speedway - Toledo, Ohio - Hemelgarn Racing-Super Fitness Rollie Beale Classic

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 20, Nolen-14.856; 2. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-15.098; 3. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-15.129; 4. Eric Gordon, 78, Armstrong/Slinkard-15.165; 5. C.J. Leary, 10, DMW-15.201; 6. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-15.202; 7. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-15.220; 8. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 11, DHR/Byrd-15.233; 9. Jason Conn, 88, DHR-15.324; 10. Chris Windom, 17, Goodnight/Byrd-15.327; 11. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ-15.363; 12. Derek Bischak, 131, Bischak-15.376; 13. Joey Schmidt, 25, Pierce-15.460; 14. Chris Dyson, 9, Dyson-15.476; 15. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-15.485; 16. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-15.552; 17. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-15.603; 18. Cody Gallogly, 81, Williams-15.624; 19. Brian Gerster, 94, Ram-15.647; 20. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-15.663; 21. Cody Gerhardt, 60, Gerhardt-15.710; 22. Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-16.103; 23. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-NT; 24. Jim Anderson, 92, Kazmark-NT.

FEATURE: (100 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (1), 2. Bobby Santos (11), 3. Aaron Pierce (3), 4. Justin Grant (6), 5. Chris Windom (10), 6. Kyle Hamilton (2), 7. Austin Nemire (20), 8. Derek Bischak (12), 9. Joey Schmidt (13), 10. Brian Gerster (19), 11. Russ Gamester (16), 12. Mike Haggenbottom (22), 13. Cody Gerhardt (21), 14. Kyle Robbins (17), 15. Cody Gallogly (18), 16. Chris Dyson (14), 17. Matt Goodnight (15), 18. Eric Gordon (4), 19. David Byrne (7), 20. Jason Conn (9), 21. C.J. Leary (5), 22. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (8). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-100 Kody Swanson.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Austin Nemire (20th to 7th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Cody Gerhardt

NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-152, 2-Bobby Santos-134, 3-Justin Grant-125, 4-Kyle Hamilton-116, 5-Joey Schmidt-104, 6-Derek Bischak-98, 7-Aaron Pierce-91, 8-Austin Nemire-85, 9-Chris Windom-81, 10-Eric Gordon-79.

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HOOSIER HUNDRED’S SUNSET BELONGS TO SUNSHINE

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Indianapolis, Indiana (May 23, 2019)………Bravery, machismo, call it what you will. On a late restart with seven laps remaining, Tyler Courtney used everything he had in his figurative tank to rip around near-race-long leader Kevin Thomas, Jr. to win a bittersweet “Hoosier Hundred” Thursday night, in the final running of the event at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

Courtney, the Indianapolis, Ind. native whose parents were part of the promotion team for the 2005 Hoosier Hundred, kept pace with Thomas, following him for 92 straight laps until making the winning move on a restart that made all the difference, one that came with a bit of advice courtesy of a voice from above.

“(Tyler Ransbottom), who’s my crew chief on the sprint car and midget, and my spotter tonight, told me on the open red that Jason McDougal had been making up time on restarts doing that same move. KT was lifting on restarts into one. So, I knew that if I could just outbrave him a little bit getting in and make sure I didn’t blow past it, it would work. Luckily, it did. You get the open track, no lapped cars, nothing, I got to run as hard as I wanted to for the last eight laps and that’s what I did. If it was going to blow, it was going to blow with me trying.”

The Hoosier Hundred’s illustrious history runs the gamut in terms of the names that have won since its debut in 1953. Courtney is fully aware of the history, and Thursday night’s win was something he doesn’t take for granted.

“My name is now alongside a lot of great names,” Courtney realized. “Including Kody Swanson, one of the best Silver Crown drivers in our lifetime. Foyt, Andretti, Pancho Carter, all those names. It’s incredible.”

Courtney started third on the grid as Chris Windom got the jump on the field on the initial start from his outside front row starting position. Windom led the first five trips around the one-mile dirt oval, but Thomas and Courtney were able to make up ground and close the gap. Thomas ducked to the inside of Windom coming off turn four with Courtney a car length behind in third when all broke loose.

Seemingly without warning, Windom’s right rear tire shredded, sending the 2016 Silver Crown champ into one of the most harrowing crashes witnessed in the century-plus history of the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Windom’s car immediately veered his car right, hitting nose first into the outside wall, which sent him barrel-rolling seven times and lasting nearly a half-straightaway.

Brian Tyler and Brady Bacon took evasive action, swerving to miss the helpless Windom machine as it bounced aimlessly toward the middle of the racetrack.

Miraculously, Windom climbed from the mangled wreckage unscathed and plans to move on with his weekend, which includes his Indy Lights debut Friday afternoon at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a Friday night Silver Crown race at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis and a 500-lap Sprint Car race in Anderson, Ind.

Following the lengthy red flag, Thomas dominated up front, driving for four-time “Hoosier Hundred” winning team Foxco Racing to lead a race-high 87 laps. By lap 16, Thomas had already infiltrated lapped traffic and the interval between he and Courtney rarely fluctuated as Thomas built a half-straightaway lead over Courtney with a quarter of the laps in the books.

Just after halfway, four-time “Hoosier Hundred” winner Kody Swanson put the heat on Courtney for second while Thomas managed to stretch his lead from 1.5 sec. to 2.5 sec. over the following ten laps. Six-time All Star Circuit of Champions titlist Chad Kemenah then found t the turn two wall in his maiden Silver Crown start.

Though Swanson applied pressure, Courtney wasn’t going to allow him to make any sort of run at him as he bid his time in anticipation of making his own move.

“I knew if I kept KT within sight and Kody behind me, I was going to be at a good pace,” Courtney realized. “We tried not to let KT get too far. If he got too far, then I’d pick up the pace a bit. Luckily, we got that last red there and made a few adjustments, timed the restart right and made a bold move. I wanted it really bad.”

On the lap 69 restart, Swanson turned up the wick, getting to second briefly by going underneath Courtney between turns one and two. Courtney fought back on the outside and regained second by the exit of turn two as Swanson slipped back to third. Jason McDougal, meanwhile, making his second career Silver Crown start was mega-impressive using the cushion long thought to be extinct to travel from his 25^th starting spot and into the top-five with 25 laps remaining.

Meanwhile, following an early-race pit stop that sent him to 28^th, Brady Bacon had been shot out of a cannon and drove into the top tier nearing the race’s end and into the top-five.

Thomas worked through lapped traffic once again, getting hung up ever so slightly, allowing Courtney to close the gap briefly while Thomas nudged ahead, yet Courtney remained within striking distance, chopping down Thomas’ lead to a half-second with nine to go.

With Thomas and Courtney’s battle set to rage on down the stretch, just in front of them in turn two was two-time ALMS champion Chris Dyson who banged the turn two wall and endured his own upside-down thrill ride from which he escaped injury.

During the open red flag, Joe Devin, chassis builder for Courtney’s Hans Lein-owned entry, came over and talked to my crew chief Greg Nelson and I told him I was lacking sidebite in the middle of the corner. So, we made a couple of adjustments that helped me a ton.”

It appeared the changes helped immensely when the green flag dropped on the lap 93 restart. Without lapped traffic on the horizon now, Courtney showed no hesitation whatsoever, aiming for the top and driving it into turn one harder than he had all night up to that point. Thomas showed no vital signs of reestablishing the top spot down the stretch as Courtney grew his lead by leaps and bounds to win his second career Silver Crown race, but first on one of the historic one-mile dirt ovals where he became the first driver won in all three USAC National divisions in 2019.

Contingency award winners Thursday night at the Indiana State Fairgrounds included Kevin Thomas, Jr. (Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier), KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Jason McDougal and Mike Haggenbottom (WIlwood Brakes 13^th Place Finisher).

USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: May 23, 2019 – Indiana State Fairgrounds – Indianapolis, Indiana – 64^th Hoosier Hundred

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: (Top-24 locked into the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 56, Foxco-32.929; 2. Chris Windom, 17, Goodnight/Byrd-33.011; 3. Tyler Courtney, 97, Lein-33.600; 4. Kody Swanson, 20, Nolen-33.671; 5. Brian Tyler, 12, Galas-33.810; 6. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-33.831; 7. Johnny Petrozelle, 8, Cornell/Petrozelle-33.884; 8. Brady Bacon, 6, Klatt-33.894; 9. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-33.973; 10. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-34.067; 11. Jacob Wilson, 07, WBR-34.099; 12. Dallas Hewitt, 57, Hewitt-34.140; 13. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-34.235; 14. Billy Puterbaugh, Jr., 22, Rice/PBR-34.298; 15. Jeff Swindell, 21, Swanson-34.434; 16. Jimmy Light, 123, Two-Three-34.519; 17. Steve Buckwalter, 53, Five Three-34.523; 18. Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-34.680; 19. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-34.682; 20. John Heydenreich, 43, Felker-34.757; 21. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-34.931; 22. Chris Dyson, 9, Dyson-34.953; 23. C.J. Leary, 10, DMW-35.061; 24. Chris Phillips, 4, Phillips/Nolen-35.075; 25. Jason McDougal, 27, Phillips-35.106; 26. Eric Gordon, 78, Armstrong/Slinkard-35.188; 27. Kyle Steffens, 08, Steffens-35.249; 28. Chad Kemenah, 15, Hampshire/Kemenah-35.267; 29. Chuck Leary, 30, Leary-35.294; 30. Dave Darland, 14, McQuinn-35.361; 31. Korey Weyant, 99, Weyant-35.665; 32. Austin Mundie, 47, Butler-36.034; 33. Bill Rose, 66, Rose-36.045; 34. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-38.013; 35. Casey Buckman, 74, C-Buck-NT; 36. Joey Schmidt, 25, Pierce-NT; 37. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-NT; 38. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-NT; 39. Shane Cockrum, 71, Hardy-NT.

QUALIFYING RACE: (12 laps, top-6 transfer) 1. McDougal, 2. Gordon, 3. Steffens, 4. Kemenah, 5. Darland, 6. Mundie, 7. C. Leary, 8. Weyant, 9. Rose, 10. Buckman, 11. Robbins, 12. Berkheimer. 7:16.97

FEATURE: (100 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Tyler Courtney (3), 2. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (1), 3. Kody Swanson (4), 4. Justin Grant (13), 5. Brady Bacon (8), 6. Jason McDougal (25), 7. David Byrne (6), 8. Steve Buckwalter (17), 9. Brian Tyler (5), 10. Jacob Wilson (11), 11. C.J. Leary (23), 12. Russ Gamester (10), 13. Mike Haggenbottom (18), 14. Jimmy Light (16), 15. Kyle Steffens (27), 16. Matt Goodnight (21), 17. Chris Phillips (24), 18. Dave Darland (29), 19. Chris Dyson (22), 20. Austin Nemire (9), 21. Kyle Robbins (31), 22. Eric Gordon (26), 23. Shane Cottle (19), 24. Chad Kemenah (28), 25. Jeff Swindell (15), 26. Billy Puterbaugh, Jr. (14), 27. Johnny Petrozelle (7), 28. Austin Mundie (30), 29. John Heydenreich (20), 30. Bill Rose (32), 31. Chris Windom (2), 32. Dallas Hewitt (12). NT

**Chris Windom flipped on lap 6 of the feature. Chris Dyson flipped on lap 92 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Chris Windom, Laps 6-92 Kevin Thomas Jr., Laps 93-100 Tyler Courtney.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Jason McDougal (25^th to 6^th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Mike Haggenbottom

NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-216, 2-Justin Grant-186, 3-Kevin Thomas Jr.-149, 4-Bobby Santos-134, 5-David Byrne-120, 6-Kyle Hamilton-116, 7-Joey Schmidt-114, 8-Mike Haggenbottom-113, 9-Ausetin Nemire-108, 10-Chris Dyson-102.

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HAMILTON HUSTLES TO BIG PAYDAY AT DAVE STEELE CARB NIGHT CLASSIC

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Brownsburg, Indiana (May 24, 2019)………One year ago, it was a May to forget for Kyle Hamilton. It seemed as if everywhere he turned, bad luck was staring back at him square in the eyes.

One year later, the May tide has turned in his favor. After putting his car on the front row for the “Little 500” the day before, Hamilton followed up on Friday night with his first career USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series victory in the Dave Steele “Carb Night Classic” at Lucas Oil Raceway, pocketing a cool $14,750 for his efforts.

“Last year, it didn’t seem like anything could go right mechanically,” Hamilton recalled. “Our ‘Little 500’ car broke, my teammate Brady (Bacon)’s dirt car broke, we broke right out the box here at (LOR) and had to start the race from the tail with no practice laps. This year, we’re on the front row of the ‘Little 500’ and we qualified third tonight at LOR. I thought, ‘well, this is going a lot better.’ But, honestly, tonight was the night I was a little bit more worried about being slow. We’ve always struggled here, and I didn’t want to disappoint my team, but I was a little nervous inside.

Truth is, the tide had turned for Hamilton before the month of May, overcoming circumstances that could’ve thwarted quality runs to finish fourth at Memphis and sixth at Toledo. On Friday, the Danville, Ind. driver put his Klatt Enterprises/Beast Chassis – Wilwood Disc Brakes/Beast/Ford on the outside of the front row for the 100-lapper at the .686-mile paved oval.

Meanwhile, up front was Kody Swanson who started from the pole after taking the Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier Award and $1,000 bonus from Mac and Carol Steele. Kody dominated the first half as he attempted to go three-for-three in pavement races on the season and extend his series-record of consecutive pavement Silver Crown wins to seven.

Four-time LOR Silver Crown winner Bobby Santos charged past Hamilton on the ninth lap with an inside turn one pass to move to second. From there, Santos began to reel in Kody and applied pressure for the lead as those two separated from Hamilton in third.

One of the major storylines developing throughout the race was Tanner Swanson’s decision to accept the “Come from the Back Challenge” during driver introductions. By doing so, he forfeited his outside front row spot to start from the tail and go for a $10,000 bonus by way of Legacy Motorsports and Gatekeeper Services. By lap 13, Tanner was already in the top-ten, and by lap 30, had entered the top-five, reminiscent of his 22^nd to 2^nd charge through the field one year prior.

On the 33^rd lap, Hamilton caught up to Santos, driving to the inside of Santos in turn one and going wheel-to-wheel, toe-to-toe before prevailing off turn two with the second spot, but trailing Kody in the lead by over a second.

Kody and Hamilton weaved their way through lapped traffic, Hamilton mimicking every Swanson move and not allowing the four-time Silver Crown champ to slip away just as Matt Goodnight stopped on the back straight away to bring out the caution just one lap short of halfway. Under yellow, fifth-running Tanner Swanson pitted to let air out of his left rear tire, to which he later admitted to using up too much of his tires early on.

With the yellow, that cleared the traffic situation for the time-being, although, for Hamilton in second, he couldn’t have imagined what occurred next when Kody failed to take off on the lap 54 restart, handing over the lead to Hamilton with a clear track ahead of him. Kody coasted around to the pit area with an apparent engine issue that put an end to the four-time LOR Silver Crown winner’s bid for five.

Hamilton continued to build his lead up through lap 63 when the caution came out for Chris Windom, who’s nightmarish 24 hours came to an end crumpled against the turn one wall after smoke poured from the back of the car entering one. Derek Bischak was also caught up in the incident, riding over Windom’s front end, putting an end to the evening for both drivers.

Windom rode out a hellacious flip during the “Hoosier Hundred” at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Thursday night, and rode out a frightening Indy Lights wreck on Carb Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Friday afternoon before smacking the turn one wall at LOR. He walked away once again uninjured.

On the lap 73 restart, Santos used a run on the inside of Hamilton, sliding up in front of Hamilton in turn one to secure the position as the pair exited turn two. One lap later, the roles were reversed, and Hamilton drove it hard into turn one underneath Santos to slot into the top spot.

Hamilton chalks up momentarily losing the lead to inexperience in this situation, making it doubly-tough with a driver like Santos making you pay. But Hamilton knew he had something and drove back by to reclaim the position.

“Honestly, I don’t have a ton of experience leading Silver Crown races,” Hamilton admitted. “I didn’t know how aggressive to be on the restart. I’d say Santos is one of the more aggressive guys and one of the best who does it. He sent it on down there and it stuck. Immediately, once I got behind him, I could tell I was really digging better than him coming off the corners. I had to throw another haymaker at him going into one and it stuck again.”

Incredibly, Hamilton proceeded to reel off his best four laps of the race on laps 74-75-76-77. But on the move was Tanner who ripped around the outside of Santos in turn two on the 76^th lap. Tanner began to chip into Hamilton’s lead, cutting the interval down to less than a second as the two began to work lapped traffic with less than 20 laps remaining.

Hamilton’s spotter was brother and fellow racer Nick Hamilton who played it coy when speaking to Kyle over the radio, only giving him the basics and keeping Kyle focused on running his own race.

“I think he was trying to play it conservatively on the radio because I was running some good times,” Hamilton said. “He just kept telling me how many laps were left, but he didn’t say if there was any pressure from behind. So, I kept the hammer down. When we got to lapped traffic, I kind of figured when I looked up at the board that Tanner was going to be trying to make a run of some sort. He’s one of the best here. Nick never said how many car lengths back he was. But I think if he would’ve told me, I would’ve started to miss my marks.”

Hamilton dipped under the lappers down the stretch as Tanner tried everything he could to keep up the pace, but Hamilton’s car seemed to get better and better in the final laps, stretching out to a comfortable advantage that proved to be a tall and impossible task for his closest competition.

“As the laps went on, the car kept getting better and better,” Hamilton explained. “I have to give hats off to Bob East. He sure knows how to set up a car to get around here. We just kept working at it and working at it. It really wasn’t as much the setup as it was Bob’s coaching. He just kept telling me to keep my momentum up and explained to me how LOR is such a momentum track. We were able to roll the center a lot better than we’d ever have here.”

Hamilton closed out his winning performance with a victory margin of 4.186 over Tanner Swanson, Santos, Justin Grant and Eric Gordon, who picked up an extra $1,000 from Carl Edwards for his hard-charging performance from 16^th to 5^th.

With the win, Hamilton became the first “first-time” winner of a pavement USAC Silver Crown race since David Byrne at LOR in 2014. This win was special in a number of ways, though, for Hamilton, a local kid who grew up watching and idolizing Dave Steele perform his racing heroics at LOR, and now joins him as a Silver Crown winner at the very same track.

“I watched Dave Steele run here a lot growing up,” Hamilton remembered. “I raced over at the (Indiana State) Fairgrounds at Mini Indy when I was a kid and every night that the midgets, sprint cars or silver crown cars were at (LOR), we’d come out and watch. It seemed like Steele was either going for the win, challenging for the win or winning several of the races. He was one of my heroes I looked up to as a ‘pavement only’ driver.”

Contingency award winners Friday night at Lucas Oil Raceway included Kody Swanson (Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier & $1,000 Mac & Carol Steele Fast Qualifier Bonus), Tanner Swanson (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger), Eric Gordon (Carl Edwards $1,000 Hard Charger Bonus) and Mike Haggenbottom (Wilwood Brakes 13^th Place Finisher).

USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: May 24, 2019 – Lucas Oil Raceway – Brownsburg, Indiana – Dave Steele Carb Night Classic

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 20, Nolen-20.562; 2. Tanner Swanson, 02, Bowman/Elmore-20.678; 3. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-20.812; 4. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-20.983; 5. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ-21.105; 6. Chris Windom, 17, Goodnight/Byrd-21.272; 7. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-21.288; 8. Derek Bischak, 31, Bischak-21.670; 9. Cody Gallogly, 81, Williams-21.688; 10. Brian Gerster, 94, Ram-21.821; 11. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 11, DHR/Byrd-21.830; 12. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-21.841; 13. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-21.930; 14. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-22.033; 15. Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-22.164; 16. John Heydenreich, 43, Felker-22.263; 17. Eric Gordon, 78, Armstrong/Slinkard-NT.

FEATURE: (100 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Kyle Hamilton (2), 2. Tanner Swanson (17), 3. Bobby Santos (4), 4. Justin Grant (3), 5. Eric Gordon (16), 6. David Byrne (6), 7. Brian Gerster (9), 8. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (10), 9. Austin Nemire (12), 10. Cody Gallogly (8), 11. Kyle Robbins (11), 12. John Heydenreich (15), 13. Mike Haggenbottom (14), 14. Chris Windom (5), 15. Derek Bischak (7), 16. Kody Swanson (1), 17. Matt Goodnight (13). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-53 Kody Swanson, Laps 54-72 Kyle Hamilton, Lap 73 Bobby Santos, Laps 74-100 Kyle Hamilton.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Tanner Swanson (17^th to 2^nd)

CARL EDWARDS HARD CHARGER: Eric Gordon (16^th to 5^th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Mike Haggenbottom

NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-253, 2-Justin Grant-247, 3-Bobby Santos-198, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-198, 5-Kyle Hamilton-186, 6-David Byrne-175, 7-Eric Gordon-158, 8-Austin Nemire-154, 9-Mike Haggenbottom-150, 10-Kyle Robbins-139.

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BACON THE LAST MAN STANDING IN DRAMA-FILLED WILLIAMS GROVE 100

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (June 14, 2019)………For Brady Bacon, it was the best of times. For Steve Buckwalter and Chris Windom, in particular, it was the worst of times.

That about sums up the Helter Skelter roller coaster ride of emotions among the top-three drivers during the final laps of Friday’s “Williams Grove 100” USAC Silver Crown race at Williams Grove Speedway.

For Bacon, the times couldn’t have gotten any better as he avoided the misfortune in front of him. On the 100th and final lap, second-running Windom got into the rear bumper of Buckwalter, sending Buckwalter spinning out of the race lead.

On the ensuing restart, Windom, the new race leader, led the field into turn one on the final lap only to see his right rear tire give out, handing the lead to Bacon who ended the drama once-and-for-all by cruising the last three-quarters of a lap to capture his first career USAC Silver Crown win.

Bacon’s score came in his 23rd series start aboard his Beast Chassis – Wilwood Disc Brakes – Hoosier Racing Tire-sponsored Beast/Ford, the second-straight win for the Klatt Enterprises No. 6 following Kyle Hamilton’s victory on the pavement at Brownsburg, Indiana’s Lucas Oil Raceway in May.

Bacon, the two-time USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car champ out of Broken Arrow, Okla., started third, but dropped to sixth on the opening circuit which, though had him a tad worrisome, became an afterthought as he preserved his equipment and steadily moved up as the race wore on, running fourth as late as nine laps remaining with Buckwalter, Kody Swanson and Windom sitting ahead of him in the pecking order.

Following the lap 90 restart, Bacon surged from fourth to third to second between laps 91 and 93 and was challenging for the lead. Just a lap earlier, Swanson had slid by Buckwalter for the lead in turn one with just a bit too much gusto, sliding up just out of the bottom groove as Buckwalter didn’t fret and drove back by underneath.

That opened up the door exiting turn two, allowing Bacon to sweep past Swanson to second as the field passed under the legendary back straightaway bridge, while Windom presented an inside challenge to Swanson entering the third turn. Windom’s right front and Swanson’s left rear tangled not once, but twice in between turns three and four, forcing Swanson wide off turn four and allowing Windom to take the third position.

Bacon challenged Buckwalter for the lead entering the outside of turn three on three consecutive laps to no avail. With five to go and Bacon unable to make the lane up from the bottom work to his liking, Windom took advantage and skirted underneath on the low line to grab second.

“It took me a lap to get going before I could start trying to squeeze on the outside of turn three,” Bacon recalled. “But Buckwalter was really smart. He races a lot here, so he was keeping himself just far out enough to where I couldn’t get a run on him, and then I slid out.”

The top-four of Buckwalter, Windom, Bacon and Swanson ran practically nose-to-tail entering the conclusion. Heading into turn one on the final lap, though, local favorite Buckwalter from Royersford, Pa., a nine-time wing sprint car and five-time ARDC Midget winner at Williams Grove, seemed poised and primed to capture his first career Silver Crown victory in his 25th series start.

That’s when the complexion of the race, and seemingly the universe, turned on its figurative head. Second-running Windom entered turn one a couple car lengths behind Buckwalter. Windom tagged Buckwalter’s rear bumper with his own front bumper, turning Buckwalter sideways and, ultimately, to a stop in the middle of turn one. Windom barely escaped to the outside behind Buckwalter’s tail tank while third-running Bacon snuck by underneath without getting caught in the melee.

Buckwalter didn’t mince words in his thoughts of what happened just three-quarters of a lap away from payday.

“I knew I had to get in low and protect the bottom,” Buckwalter explained. “I was running as hard as I had to (in order) to make that happen. I just feel bad for all the PA fans. We had them beat. I don’t know what else to say. I guess he just didn’t want to get second, but he just drove through me.”

“You don’t get that many opportunities to win one of these,” Buckwalter continued. “We only run (Silver Crown Cars) four or five times a year. It’s kind of out of my element. These guys are driving non-wing sprint cars all the time and I maybe run half a dozen midget races a year. To get out there and drive from eighth to the lead, and not touch anybody, and on the last corner to have somebody drive through your rear bumper, it’s just heartbreaking.”

From Windom’s point of view, he admitted he just plainly misjudged the entry to turn one.

“I obviously misjudged it and I feel terrible about it,” Windom admitted. “I’d been battling brake issues the last 40 laps of the race and he got in so slow and low to protect the bottom. Once the white flag came out, I got excited going down the front stretch and I got in too hard. I had my left foot through the floor trying to slow the car down. I just knew at that point that I had gotten in way too hard. I tried to turn up at the last second, but it just ended up catching him even harder with the bumper and spun him. I can’t change it now. I had a bad misjudgment there.”

That set up a green-white-checker finish. Though there was a tad fretfulness at the beginning, Bacon’s car had come to life late. Once he gained a close-up look of the leader’s tire situation, he knew there was blood in the water.

“I knew we had a better car at the end,” Bacon noted. “I was a little worried when we weren’t very good at the beginning, then I saw some tire issues come about. Buckwalter’s tire was looking pretty bad and Windom’s was looking bad. Once they had that little altercation over there, that gave us an extra lap. I knew that wasn’t good for Windom because I could see his cords.”

At that point, it was all about hanging on, although Windom still had the feeling that despite all the indicators he was feeling, he would still be able to preserve enough rubber to make it to the end.

“I knew it was low; I could feel it shaking down the straightaway,” Windom remembered. “But I thought it was going to be enough to last to the end, but it just wasn’t.”

As Windom’s tire went down, forcing him to slip up the racetrack in turn one, Bacon scooted underneath and it was in the books as Bacon drove away and got out of Dodge to claim one of the most drama-filled last laps in USAC Silver Crown history. Although confident, another yellow could’ve thrown a wrench into the deal for Bacon with tire wear weighing heavily on the mind and a hard-charging four-time champ in Swanson could have possibly resulted in a different outcome.

”Coming off turn two, maybe,” Bacon explained when he thought he had the win sewn up. “But then I’m like, there’s no telling who’s behind me. I don’t know how much I slowed down to miss (Windom), but I was pretty confident I had it. I was just hoping they didn’t throw the yellow. It feels like I should’ve won a couple of these, but glad to get my first one,” a cheerful Bacon said. “I love coming out here to PA. This is a really cool place to win a race.”

Swanson finished six-tenths of a second behind Bacon in the second spot ahead of Fatheadz Eyewear pole winner Justin Grant in third. KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Mike Haggenbottom earned a career-best fourth from the 15th starting spot while Eric Gordon rounded out the top-five.

The breakthrough win for Bacon comes following consecutive second-place finishes in Silver Crown competition at The Grove for the Klatt team, with drivers Bryan Clauson (2016) and Damion Gardner (2017). It’s the first Silver Crown win for a Klatt-owned car on dirt and the first of any kind on dirt in USAC National competition since a Sprint Car win with Bobby East an hour and a half east at Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Pa.

Friday’s win marked Bacon’s second career USAC-sanctioned win at Williams Grove following his ARDC Midget win in June of 2017.

Contingency award winners Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway included Justin Grant (Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier), Mike Haggenbottom (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Shane Cottle (WIlwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: June 14, 2019 – Williams Grove Speedway – Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania – Williams Grove 100

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-21.799; 2. Chris Windom, 17, Goodnight/Byrd-21.816; 3. Brady Bacon, 6, Klatt-21.863; 4. Tyler Courtney, 97, Lein-21.938; 5. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-22.123; 6. Kody Swanson, 20, Nolen-22.245; 7. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-22.325; 8. Steve Buckwalter, 53, Five Three-22.428; 9. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-22.441; 10. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-22.574; 11. Chad Kemenah, 15, Hampshire-22.586; 12. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-22.599; 13. John Heydenreich, 43, Felker-22.642; 14. Eric Gordon, 78, Armstrong/Slinkard-22.840; 15. Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-22.933; 16. Johnny Petrozelle, 8, Cornell/Petrozelle-23.021; 17. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-23.293; 18. Dallas Hewitt, 57, Hewitt-23.298; 19. C.J. Leary, 10, DMW-28.427.

FEATURE: (101 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (3), 2. Kody Swanson (6), 3. Justin Grant (1), 4. Mike Haggenbottom (15), 5. Eric Gordon (14), 6. Austin Nemire (5), 7. David Byrne (12), 8. Steve Buckwalter (8), 9. Chris Windom (2), 10. Matt Goodnight (10), 11. Chad Kemenah (11), 12. John Heydenreich (13), 13. Shane Cottle (7), 14. Dallas Hewitt (18), 15. Kyle Robbins (9), 16. Dave Berkheimer (17), 17. Tyler Courtney (4), 18. Johnny Petrozelle (16), 19. C.J. Leary (19). 1:01.52.305

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-47 Chris Windom, Laps 48-99 Steve Buckwalter, Lap 100 Chris Windom, Lap 101 Brady Bacon.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Mike Haggenbottom (15th to 4th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Shane Cottle

NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-320, 2-Justin Grant-314, 3-David Byrne-227, 4-Eric Gordon-216, 5-Mike Haggenbottom-211, 6-Austin Nemire-209, 7-Bobby Santos-198, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-198, 9-Kyle Hamilton-186, 10-Chris Windom-175.

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SWANSON’S STAGGERING SUCCESS CONTINUES WITH 2^ND STRAIGHT DAIRYLAND 100 WIN

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Oregon, Wisconsin (June 28, 2019)………There was a moment captured during practice of Friday’s Bytec “Dairyland 100” that perfectly encapsulated the character of Kody Swanson and his will to do what it takes to win.

With his helmet still strapped on, the four-time USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series titlist quickly exited his parked car in the infield and immediately brought out the tape measure to the stagger on his right rear.

A small gesture in the grand scheme of things? Perhaps to some, but not in the mind of Kody Swanson who is focused on going the extra meticulous mile to discover the finer details of what it takes to earn all the accolades he has throughout his Silver Crown career.

Swanson led the first 12 laps from the pole position, and then fell back to third where he’d run for the first half of the 100-lapper as David Byrne, then Kyle Hamilton took turns at the front. Swanson wasn’t sure a win on this day was in the cards. However, the Kingsburg, Calif. native kept grinding and working until he put himself in a position to pounce.

“Earlier, I didn’t know if I’d have anything for Kyle and David,” Swanson admitted. “Not only were they faster than me, they were able to do it with ease. That’s a disheartening feeling, but I love that they’re 100 laps. The track changes and your car changes. I just stayed with it and kept moving around. I like what dirt teaches you, that you need to move around and follow the racetrack so that you’re prepared for a position like that when you’re in traffic.”

At midway, though, the complexion of the race was altered on a variety of levels. On the 51^st lap, fourth-running Justin Grant’s car went up in smoke, dumping liquid and turning the surface in turn three into a skating ring, sending sixth-place Derek Bischak and eighth-place Travis Welpott sliding uncontrollably at the entrance of turn three. Welpott took the brunt of the impact, slamming the left side of his ride into the concrete, mangling his chassis. He walked away from the incident.

After the unplanned mid-race break, Swanson knew he had been able to preserve his equipment in the first half. The timing was now right to make a run, he felt.

“One of the biggest factors here is when you’re on the brakes,” Swanson explained. “No matter how fast you are, if you run out, you’re sunk. I felt like once we got in the second half, it was okay to try what I could to keep pace. I felt like the longer it went, the better we got.”

On lap 57, the timing was just right to set the first domino into motion. The top-three of Hamilton, Byrne and Swanson ran nearly nose-to-tail. Swanson hustled and forced Byrne into pressuring Hamilton, which opened the door on the bottom at the exit of turn four, where Swanson pulled even with Byrne near the end of the front straightaway before Byrne shut the door, albeit momentarily.

Byrne couldn’t quite hold the bottom line, drifted up off turn two, which allowed Swanson to stay the course underneath to drive away with the second spot on the back straight with Hamilton now the only contender left in his sight as the pair began to encounter major lapped traffic.

“When catching lapped cars, you never know what can happen at the end, or anytime,” Swanson reiterated. “You never know when you might be in a position to win one or not. With 12 to go at Williams Grove (two weeks ago), I thought I had a shot, but I made a mistake. We were battling issues. We all are. That’s what I love about Silver Crown. Nobody gets a perfect game. You’ve got to figure it out, but I didn’t. I missed it.”

Like an elephant’s memory, Swanson didn’t forget. It simply empowered him not to reenact that particular moment. He recalled that, in traffic, sometimes you have to be smart and follow versus risking your race and the competition’s race by putting yourself in a bad spot.

On the 77^th lap, Swanson was amidst this very situation heading down the back straight, but was sort of in the bystander role, waiting to see what Hamilton does and counter that move. Hamilton chose the high route and got clogged in by a group of three lapped cars at the exit of turn four. Hamilton was stuck, but Swanson had an open space on the bottom to stick his nose in and forge forward with the lead.

“I love when you catch them in a group like that…in second place,” Swanson clarified. “It’s a huge advantage there. It’s your job to take care of it. When you’re trying to decide whether to go high or low, you pretty much get to pick the lane he doesn’t. I was hoping he’d pick high personally just because the way I felt my car was rolling the bottom really well. I was able to make a move and get alongside and, from there, you have to capitalize on things like that. He’s good enough, if he gets back out front, there may not be enough time left to get another opportunity.

Yet, Swanson was more than eager to put this one on ice, where he opened up a near four second lead by the closing laps. That is, until Austin Nemire slipped sideways to a stop in turn four as Swanson was eying the checkered flag, necessitating a green-white-checkered finish.

“Here, we were within coasting distance of making it happen, but they say, ‘no dice,’” Swanson recalled. “On the radio, I was just quiet. What a bummer it really was, but I had to get focused and it’s like ‘hey you got to let it go.’ It is what it is. It’s our job to do the best two laps we can and finish this thing.”

Swanson had no trouble on the final two lap sprint, opening up a 1.678 gap at the finish to score his 27^th career series win, which is in a stratosphere all his own just one year following his Madison victory that tied him for the all-time win record. Hamilton hung on for second despite getting clipped in turn three by Byrne in a battle for the runner-up spot. Hamilton maintained the grip and hung on for second over Byrne, Bobby Santos and Eric Gordon.

It was a change of scenery for Swanson and the Nolen Racing team following their last pavement outing at Lucas Oil Raceway in May where they led for 53 laps before an engine let go on them while leading. Swanson credits the turnaround to the countless hours and sacrifices he and his team made to make sure everything was in order to give them a shot at winning, which they’ve been doing so much of in 2019 with three wins in six races already after the famed, yellow Nolen Racing No. 20 hadn’t been victorious in the decade prior to this year.

“We’ve been putting in a lot of hours,” Swanson explained. Not only my family and I, but a lot of guys that are part of this race team. Dale Latty and Rick Laughlin met my wife and I at the shop at 7am Wednesday so we could go to Salem (Ind.) Speedway to shake it down and make sure we had all the bugs worked out, but we weren’t sure. We came home, started at 7am and worked until 11 at night, and never gave up.”

“Yesterday, we did all our homework to make sure I was ready to deal whatever handling challenges were thrown at us,” Swanson continued. “It was a completely different racetrack to me than we had a year ago. We made changes all the way through driver introductions on the front stretch. I wasn’t sure if we had done it right, or if I had made the right calls, but the longer it went, we stayed in the hunt. You never know what’s going to happen in the end. Luckily for us, persistence kept us in it and gave us a chance.”

Contingency award winners Friday night at Madison International Speedway included Kody Swanson (Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier), Kyle Robbins (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Mike Haggenbottom (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: June 28, 2019 – Madison International Speedway – Oregon, Wisconsin – Bytec Dairyland 100

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 20, Nolen-16.852 (New Track Record); 2. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-16.961; 3. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-17.055; 4. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-17.156; 5. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ-17.174; 6. Derek Bischak, 31, Bischak-17.233; 7. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-17.309; 8. Cody Gallogly, 81, Williams-17.322; 9. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-17.368; 10. Eric Gordon, 78, Armstrong/Slinkard-17.400; 11. Jim Anderson, 92, Kazmark-17.470; 12. Chris Windom, 17, Goodnight/Byrd-17.531; 13. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 11, DHR/Byrd-17.573; 14. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-17.737; 15. Toni Breidinger, 80, Breidinger-17.761; 16. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-17.766; 17. Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-18.091; 18. Cody Gerhardt, 60, Gerhardt-18.127; 19. Chris Dyson, 9, Dyson-18.189; 20. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-NT; 21. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-NT; 22. Brian Gerster, 94, Ram-NT.

FEATURE: (100 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (1), 2. Kyle Hamilton (3), 3. David Byrne (2), 4. Bobby Santos (5), 5. Eric Gordon (10), 6. Jim Anderson (11), 7. Cody Gallogly (8), 8. Derek Bischak (6), 9. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (13), 10. Russ Gamester (14), 11. Toni Breidinger (15), 12. Kyle Robbins (20), 13. Mike Haggenbottom (17), 14. Chris Windom (12), 15. Cody Gerhardt (18), 16. Austin Nemire (9), 17. Justin Grant (4), 18. Travis Welpott (7), 19. Patrick Lawson (21), 20. Matt Goodnight (16), 21. Chris Dyson (19). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Kody Swanson, Laps 13-24 David Byrne, Laps 25-76 Kyle Hamilton, Laps 77-100 Kody Swanson.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Kyle Robbins (20^th to 12^th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Mike Haggenbottom

NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-393, 2-Justin Grant-343, 3-David Byrne-291, 4-Eric Gordon-274, 5-Bobby Santos-259, 6-Kyle Hamilton-256, 7-Mike Haggenbottom-248, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-244, 9-Austin Nemire-240, 10-Kyle Robbins-211.

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SWANSON SCORES 4TH STRAIGHT JOE JAMES/PAT O’CONNOR MEMORIAL

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Salem, Indiana (August 10, 2019)………Time and time again, it seems that whenever Kody Swanson comes face-to-face with adversity, it’s a near guarantee that adversity has no fighting chance.

Twas the case Saturday night in round seven of the USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series season at Salem Speedway where the Kingsburg, Calif. native had to jump into his backup car early after engine issues befell his primary Nolen Racing ride during practice. Swanson jumped into the secondary car, promptly put it on the pole and led wire-to-wire to capture his fourth consecutive Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial victory, equaling a feat previously only accomplished by Pancho Carter in 1974-75-76-77.

In fact, it’s the second time this year Swanson was thrust into this scenario. He encountered mechanical trouble with the primary in the opener at Memphis before sitting on the pole and winning the main event.

It’s not an easy scenario for any individual to overcome, but Swanson just makes it appear easy. The reality is, without the amount of preparation they put into it, their night could’ve been toast before it even began. Instead, Swanson and Nolen get to once again enjoy the spoils of victory for the fourth time in seven races in 2019.

“Obviously, it was not part of the plan,” Swanson admitted. “We practiced with the primary car, I picked out my best shocks and springs and did all the homework I could on that one and was really happy with where we were for running on used tires.”

Right before the second round of practice started, crew member Chris Phillips noticed that water was coming through one of the nozzle filters. Engine builder Bill Tranter noticed it was a big issue as well, and Swanson was forced to hop out of the primary while the team quickly retrieved the backup car. Crew members Rick Laughlin and Dale Latty had worked on the backup car leading up to the event to make sure it was ready just in case it was needed.

Swanson described his qualifying run as an uncomfortable two laps. Yet, it was good enough for the four-time series champ to win the pole by more than three tenths of a second. Despite all that, Swanson had the hunger for more.

Swanson edged ahead at the start of the 75-lap race with outside front row starter Bobby Santos delivering a challenge to the right rear hip pocket of Swanson exiting the second turn, which would develop into a five car breakaway led by Swanson, followed by Santos, David Byrne, Aaron Pierce and Kyle Hamilton in the opening five laps.

Austin Nemire slowed to bring out the first yellow flag on lap 8, pouring smoke and then fluid on the surface to force an early conclusion to his night.

On the lap 14 restart, Byrne used a big run on the front straightaway to slip underneath Santos for second, then began to hustle to present a challenge toward Swanson. By lap 20, however, Swanson had broken away from Byrne to nearly a second as Byrne fronted a conga line ahead of Santos, Pierce and Hamilton.

Following a yellow flag for 2016 series champ Chris Windom who slowed before pulling into the pits and climbing out on lap 32, Swanson was stopped by race officials to see if he was leaking fluid. Everything checked out in order and Swanson resumed his race from the head of the pack.

Once racing returned to green, Swanson went into full decimation mode, opening up a half-straightaway lead by lap 40 and then a full-straightaway advantage by lap 50. As Swanson entered the clear, he was cruising as much as one possibly car at a place like Salem with its daunting 33-degree banking.

Behind him, though, a tight scramble for position ensued, allowing Swanson to open up the interval even more as second-running Byrne encountered the lapped car of Mike Haggenbottom. Byrne drifted high in turn two on lap 55, allowing Santos to rip by underneath to return to second. Hamilton slid up in front of Byrne in turn one three laps later for third while Pierce followed suit on the next lap in turn one by Byrne for fourth.

With ten laps remaining and tussling in traffic, Hamilton got hung up behind a lapped car, forcing him high at the exit of turn four, which Pierce took full advantage of, diving to the inside of Hamilton to take third.

With six laps remaining, five-time Indianapolis 500 starter James Davison tagged the turn four wall, slowing briefly to bring out the final caution period of the night. He continued on to finish an impressive ninth in his USAC Silver Crown debut.

The yellow erased a seven-plus second lead for Swanson who now had to endure a two-lap rendezvous to secure the win. Santos took a peek under Swanson as soon as the green flag appeared on lap 74. Swanson answered the challenge, protecting his line into turn one, before stretching his lead to 0.914 of a second by race’s end, closing out his record-extending 28th career series victory over Santos, Pierce, Hamilton and Byrne.

The victory arrived on the same night Swanson became the 19th driver to join the 100-start club in the USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series, and in the process, equaled a mark set by USAC Hall of Famer Pancho Carter by winning four-straight in the Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial.

“Pancho is legendary in our sport,” Swanson admired. “It’s just plain cool to share the torch with Pancho at one of the toughest places we tackle. To come out on top, you’ve got to beat the racetrack and everybody else and there are countless great competitors here.”

Swanson’s victory in his Nolen Racing/KECO Coatings – Goodridge – K & N Filters/Beast/Tranter Chevy was reminiscent of the arrival of the Silver Crown division to Salem in 1988 where a strikingly similar-appearing yellow No. 20 was victorious with driver Bob Frey.

Swanson dedicated his win to the memory of USAC Media/Public Relations/Vice President Dick Jordan, who passed away the day before, on Friday, August 9.

“I’m thinking of our friend, D.J., Swanson said. “I shared the race with him today from qualifying through all 75 laps. He’s been riding along with me since Wednesday. For whatever reason, I had “50s on 5” on the radio. I can’t explain why, but it all makes sense. Certainly, I’ll miss him, but I’m certainly glad to win this one in his memory.”

Contingency award winners Saturday night at Salem Speedway included Kody Swanson (Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier), Patrick Lawson (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Joe Liguori (WIlwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: August 10, 2019 – Salem Speedway Fueled by the Hoosier Lottery – Salem, Indiana – Discover Scott County Joe James-Pat O’Connor Memorial presented by the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 20, Nolen-16.001; 2. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ-16.322; 3. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-16.392; 4. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-16.450; 5. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-16.451; 6. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-16.488; 7. Chris Windom, 17, Goodnight/Byrd-16.617; 8. Eric Gordon, 78, Armstrong/Slinkard-16.681; 9. Derek Bischak, 131, Bischak-16.856; 10. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-16.904; 11. Joe Liguori, 32, Williams/Wright-17.074; 12. James Davison, 11, DHR/Byrd-17.108; 13. Cody Gallogly, 81, Williams-17.184; 14. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-17.222; 15. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-17.295; 16. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-17.536; 17. Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-17.684; 18. Ronnie Gardner, 43, Felker-18.433; 19. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-21.348.

FEATURE: (75 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (1), 2. Bobby Santos (2), 3. Aaron Pierce (3), 4. Kyle Hamilton (6), 5. David Byrne (4), 6. Justin Grant (5), 7. Eric Gordon (8), 8. Derek Bischak (9), 9. James Davison (12), 10. Kyle Robbins (10), 11. Cody Gallogly (13), 12. Patrick Lawson (16), 13. Joe Liguori (11), 14. Mike Haggenbottom (17), 15. Matt Goodnight (15), 16. Chris Windom (7), 17. Ronnie Gardner (18), 18. Austin Nemire (14), 19. Dave Berkheimer (19). 28:21.258

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-75 Kody Swanson.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Patrick Lawson (16th to 12th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Joe Liguori

NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-469, 2-Justin Grant-398, 3-David Byrne-349, 4-Bobby Santos-326, 5-Eric Gordon-326, 6-Kyle Hamilton-317, 7-Mike Haggenbottom-283, 8-Austin Nemire-267, 9-Kyle Robbins-254, 10-Kevin Thomas, Jr.-244.

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WILSON WHEELS TO FIRST SILVER CROWN WIN IN Du QUOIN

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Du Quoin, Illinois (September 1, 2019)………For the majority of his career, Jacob Wilson has been deemed a “pavement guy.”

While that’s certainly a testament to his skills on the asphalt where he’s earned victories in the Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial once and the Little 500 twice, most notably, it was a label that Wilson was anxious to shed.

Nevermind that he’s been consistent on the dirt in recent years and even won the pole in his most recent appearance at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in 2018.

The Crawfordsville, Ind. driver erased the label Sunday night with a dominant victory on the dirt in the Ted Horn 100 at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds, his first career triumph in the USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series in his 53rd career series start, leading the final 59 laps to notch the win 11 years following his lone career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory on the Salem, Ind. high banks.

“I’m still a pavement guy, right,” Wilson said with a grin. “We still joke about that. It became more apparent the last couple years that, if we did get our first win, it was going to be on the dirt, which is kind of weird. The pavement’s still what I love but we just don’t have as good of runs anymore.”

“Man, this one is special,” Wilson continued. “There’s so many people that put effort into this thing. To get my brother his first win as a crew chief, to get (Matt) Hummel a win on this thing, my entire family and all the guys, it’s special, that’s for sure.”

Wilson started from the sixth position to begin the 100-miler, which at first, became the race that just couldn’t get going. Austin Nemire’s car refused to turn on the first turn of the opening lap, sending the Sylvania, Ohio native helplessly into the outside wall. On the lap six restart, Levittown, Pennsylvania’s Mike Haggenbottom tagged the turn two wall, sending him into a series of flips. Both drivers walked away from their incidents.

The third try was the charm as the race got into full swing with pole winner Tyler Courtney leading the way and Brady Bacon giving chase, both of whom have won with the series on dirt this year and were both in contention to win last year's Ted Horn 100.

Bacon applied constant pressure to Courtney until sailing around the outside of May Hoosier Hundred winner Tyler Courtney on the outside of turn two on the 19th lap for the race lead as Wilson pulled along to mount a challenge to Courtney for the runner-up spot before falling back into line in third.

Wilson stuck with Courtney for second, and on lap 26, threw his machine past the reigning USAC Sprint champ in turn one for the spot. Bacon’s advantage held at five car lengths ahead of Wilson with a quarter of the race in the history books.

Nearing midway, Bacon and Wilson led a two-car breakaway to separate themselves from the pack. On lap 42, Wilson made his move, riding to the outside of Bacon off the fourth turn as the two went wheel to wheel under the flag stand. It became a case of who was going to be the last one to lift, with Wilson gaining the upper hand up top to drive around Bacon and open up a more than two second lead at the crossed flags as he invaded lap traffic.

“This thing was stuck so good, I knew we were going to be able to drive in deeper than Brady,” Wilson explained. “It was just one of those deals where if he’d try to drive it in as well, it was a battle of who could get to the cushion and then who could get through the first corner first.”

In the second half, Silver Crown races become a questioning of whether enough was saved on your end and whether others have saved fuel and tire-wise to make a run at you down the stretch. Wilson grappled with that as the field endured a long green flag run. In the midst of it, Courtney came alive on the 65th lap, ripping around Bacon in turns one and two for the second spot and cutting the gap to Wilson nearly in half, down to 2.4 seconds.

Despite that, Wilson was cruising with ease, on rails, with his Wilson Brothers Racing/D.D. Eyes – FK Indy/Maxim/Claxton Chevy whoa’d down to 80 percent of its full capability yet was still pulling away from the field. There’s good and there’s “too good.” It’s something which actually caused a bit of stress on the mind of Wilson.

“When you have a car this good, you never win with it,” Wilson said. “Something always happens. You run out of fuel, you blow a tire, you lose an engine. There’s always something that happens.”

However, the team felt they had an ace up their sleeve, which worked in their favor.

“(Crew chief and brother) Clint (Wilson) made the call to go with the hard compound, which not a lot people did, I don’t think,” Wilson explained. “It allowed me to kick it down once we needed to later in the race if I gapped back up. I could kick it down and not have to worry about the tires blowing off of it, just conserve fuel.”

But there were several steps along the way to get to that point, namely traffic, where Wilson saw his advantage shrink from nearly three seconds to a second-and-a-half in a two-lap span at the start of the final quarter of the race as he navigated his way by the lapped cars of Chris Urish, Kody Swanson and Austin Mundie.

Wilson was patient, never forcing anything despite the closing deficit and was ultimately able to clear them all as Courtney walked the tightrope on the high line around the traffic, while Wilson gradually reconstructed his lead to three-plus seconds and Courtney became bound up in the throes of gridlock.

Eighth-running Brian Tyler, a 2008 Ted Horn 100 winner, went up in smoke with 14 laps remaining to bring out the yellow, erasing Wilson’s gap in a sense, although four lapped cars remained between he and Courtney. With a clear track, Wilson tipped his cap and drove away once again, showing no ill effects from the breaking of his half-race-long stride.

“Once I took back off and (my spotter) had me at 20 car lengths at the end of the first lap, it kind of started to sink in there,” Wilson remembered. “Then you start hearing every little noise in it, every little vibration, what’s going to let go.”

Behind Wilson, Courtney and Bacon swapped second back-and-forth on laps 92 and 93 before regaining the upper hand on lap 94. However, Justin Grant was the man on the move on the final restart, willing himself from eighth to fifth between laps 91 and 95, and an amazing fifth to second run in one fell swoop exiting turn two on lap 96.

Up front, Wilson sealed the deal, running seemingly half-throttle in preservation mode during the final laps, just in case. Yet, the gap widened as all his potential challengers were knee-deep in a scintillating battle for second.

Wilson closed it out to win by 6.330 seconds over Grant, Courtney, 1990 Du Quoin winner Jeff Swindell and Bacon. Wilson became the third first-time winner of the 2019 USAC Silver Crown season following Kyle Hamilton and Bacon.

Meanwhile, the point race tightened up following point leader Kody Swanson’s mechanical gremlins throughout the night. His Nolen Racing team lost power to two different engines during practice. Patrick Lawson gave up his ride to Swanson for the main event where the four-time series champ charged from 29th to 14th to earn KSE Racing Products Hard Charger honors.

Tanner Thorson, in his first USAC Silver Crown appearance since 2015, walked away from a vicious accident on the back straightway during practice in which his steering broke, sending him into the inside guardrail and practically splitting the car in half from the dash forward. He walked away uninjured.

Contingency award winners Sunday night at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds included Tyler Courtney (Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier), Kody Swanson (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Kyle Steffens (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: September 1, 2019 – Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Du Quoin, Illinois – Ted Horn 100

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Tyler Courtney, 97, Lein-30.627; 2. Brady Bacon, 6, Klatt-30.797; 3. Shane Cockrum, 71, Hardy-30.845; 4. Jerry Coons, Jr., 55, Bateman-31.100; 5. Chad Kemenah, 15, Hampshire/Kemenah-31.123; 6. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 56, Foxco-31.182; 7. Jacob Wilson, 07, WBR-31.454; 8. Chris Urish, 77, Urish-31.496; 9. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-31.617; 10. Chris Windom, 17, Goodnight/Byrd-31.677; 11. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-31.715; 12. Jimmy Light, 123, Two-Three-31.857; 13. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-31.886; 14. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-31.923; 15. Jeff Swindell, 21, Swanson-31.932; 16. Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-32.058; 17. Casey Buckman, 74, C-Buck-32.074; 18. Eric Gordon, 78, Armstrong/Slinkard-32.333; 19. Austin Mundie, 47, Butler-32.365; 20. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-32.409; 21. Brian Tyler, 12, Galas-32.410; 22. Dallas Hewitt, 57, Hewitt-32.467; 23. Bill Rose, 66, Rose-32.628; 24. A.J. Fike, 14, McQuinn-32.772; 25. Kyle Steffens, 08, Steffens-32.773; 26. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-32.911; 27. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-32.937; 28. Ronnie Wuerdeman, 33, Wuerdeman-33.125; 29. Terry Babb, 34, Morford-33.442; 30. John Heydenreich, 43, Felker-33.624; 31. Danny Long, 44, Long-34.571; 32. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-35.283; 33. Steve Buckwalter, 53, Five Three-NT; 34. C.J. Leary, 10, DMW-NT; 35. Kody Swanson, 20, Nolen-NT; 36. Korey Weyant, 99, Weyant-NT; 37. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-NT; 38. Tanner Thorson, 9, Dyson-NT.

FEATURE: (100 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Jacob Wilson (6), 2. Justin Grant (8), 3. Tyler Courtney (1), 4. Jeff Swindell (13), 5. Brady Bacon (2), 6. Chris Windom (9), 7. David Byrne (10), 8. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (5), 9. Chad Kemenah (4), 10. Matt Goodnight (12), 11. Casey Buckman (15), 12. Jimmy Light (11), 13. Kyle Steffens (22), 14. Kody Swanson (#2 Lawson) (29), 15. Austin Mundie (17), 16. Chris Urish (7), 17. John Heydenreich (25), 18. A.J. Fike (21), 19. Travis Welpott (18), 20. Kyle Robbins (23), 21. Brian Tyler (19), 22. Bill Rose (28), 23. Jerry Coons, Jr. (3), 24. Dallas Hewitt (20), 25. Eric Gordon (16), 26. Ronnie Wuerdeman (31), 27. Mike Haggenbottom (14), 28. Terry Babb (24), 29. Dave Berkheimer (26), 30. C.J. Leary (30), 31. Austin Nemire (27). NT

**Tanner Thorson flipped during practice. Mike Haggenbottom flipped on lap 6 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-18 Tyler Courtney, Laps 19-41 Brady Bacon, Laps 42-100 Jacob Wilson.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Kody Swanson (29th to 14th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Kyle Steffens

NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-504, 2-Justin Grant-465, 3-David Byrne-401, 4-Eric Gordon-344, 5-Bobby Santos-326, 6-Kyle Hamilton-317, 7-Mike Haggenbottom-299, 8-Chris Windom-296, 9-Kevin Thomas, Jr.-293, 10-Austin Nemire-280.

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KODY SWANSON A SMOOTH OPERATOR AT VOGLER CLASSIC

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Brownsburg, Indiana (September 7, 2019)………In a championship race that Kody Swanson has led since day one, it seems inconceivable the number of peaks and valleys he and Nolen Racing have endured and overcome throughout the season.

Six days earlier at Du Quoin, the team had not one, but two engines go south on them in practice and qualifying, forcing Swanson into another team’s car that he had never set foot in prior to the green flag, riding to a 14th place finish.

Six days later, the story was written in reverse as Swanson and Nolen executed their smoothest night of the year. No backup cars, no engine changes, just back to the basics – racing and winning, which they did again for the fifth time this year in nine races, Saturday night under the lights of Lucas Oil Raceway at the Rich Vogler Classic.

“It’s tough, on top of a short week to do it. It would’ve been a tough week anyway, let alone when you’re down and trying to get going,” Kody explained. “You can either wait for something good to happen to you or you can put the work in and try to help. I haven’t been to my day job since Wednesday morning, gutting it out with the guys in the shop. Everyone who’s a part of it has continued to give everything they could.”

Swanson’s victory, the record-extending 29th of his USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series career, came after circumstances with the engine befell the team at Salem less than a month ago in the most recent pavement race. It was at Salem this week where the team made a decisive choice on the package they were going to bring to Lucas Oil Raceway.

“We had to pull (an engine) out from under the bench and put it in the backup car,” Swanson said. “I’ve been part of a gentleman’s agreement this year not to test at the places we’re going to. We went to Salem, that’s close to the shop and we’re already done racing there, just to try to shake it down and make sure this one is still good. Afterward, we felt like our backup car was the better choice of the two. It was really good on starts and that’s what we needed to try it.”

Kody was knocked off the pole position by the final contestant of the Fatheadz Eyewear qualifying session, his younger brother Tanner Swanson, pitting the Kingsburg, Calif. siblings on the front row at the .686-mile paved oval where the two have had many a battle at the front of the pack for the past decade.

“We grew up together, so he knows all my tricks,” Kody said of his younger brother. “He doesn’t get rattled and everyone knows, when he comes to town, he’s going to be a contender and probably the biggest threat.”

Kody didn’t allow Tanner to get an advantage in edgewise as he drove around Tanner in turns one and two on the opening lap to secure the lead. Back behind the brothers Swanson, May LOR winner Kyle Hamilton slid up in front of Justin Grant in the first turn to snare the third position.

The first and heaviest incident of the night came on the ninth lap when a rear end issue on the car of Cody Gallogly sent him hard into the turn two wall, resulting in his left rear wheel bouncing down the back straightaway without abandon before coming to a rest more than a half-straightaway in front of his damaged machine.

Through much of the first half of the 100-lapper, Tanner and Hamilton were locked down just a few car lengths behind Kody with the trio breaking away from the fourth-place car of Justin Grant by nearly half a lap as the top-three entered the throes of traffic. Swanson was the first to navigate between, under and around the traffic with precision, but Tanner and Hamilton cut through the chase to remain within a stone’s throw of Kody.

On the 43rd lap, Annie Breidinger, making her first series start in over two years, spun exiting turn two. With Breidinger stopped, the trailing car of eighth-running Ryan Newman clipped his left front wheel into the left side of Breidinger’s tail tank, heavily damaging Newman’s front end and tearing off the rear bumper off Breidinger’s machine. Breidinger restarted, but Newman, the 1999 Silver Crown champ, 2008 Daytona 500 winner and 2013 Brickyard 400 victor, was finished for the evening.

The most recent occasion Kody was in this exact position, leading a restart near the halfway point at LOR in May, his engine let go on him, putting him out of the race. This time around, Swanson was like match on a fire, extending his lead lap-after-lap from the lap 48 restart onward. Between laps 58 and 60 alone, Kody upped the interval between he and Tanner a half-second as traffic loomed once again. A Breidinger turn one spin resulted in a lap 69 restart for Kody which bunched up the field and would wind up being the closest the competition would get for the remaining 31 laps of the green flag run to the conclusion.

It seemed as if the longer the race went, the more Kody’s car was changing and the more on top of it he became.

“Every stint, I drove the car a little bit different, using the throttle and the brake a little different and using the banking of the racetrack a little different, just trying to help my car be the best it could to try to get and keep the lead,” Kody said.

Kody opened up the can to two seconds almost immediately, running away as he extended it to over three seconds by lap 84, then four, then five and, finally, 6.165 seconds when the checkered flag flew to score his second career Rich Vogler Classic victory, and first since 2016, over Tanner Swanson, Kyle Hamilton, Jim Anderson and a career-best fifth-place finish for five-time Indianapolis 500 veteran James Davison in his second career series start.

Kody’s fifth career LOR Silver Crown victory moved him into a three-way tie with Mike Bliss and brother Tanner Swanson for the most wins in series history at the track. It also marked Nolen Racing’s third career USAC Silver Crown victory at LOR, and first since 1995 with Jim Keeker as the pilot. Nolen also won with Johnny Parsons in 1991.

“What a part of history in the United States Auto Club this track has played, let alone to tie someone like Mike Bliss, who had the ultimate stranglehold on this place for so long and Tanner did too for a number of years,” Kody exclaimed. I finally had to get better or (Tanner) was just going to continue to beat me all the time. I’m thankful to pick off a few whenever we could to make it up. To tie them with five is pretty special.”

It’s the ninth time the Swanson brothers have finished first and second in a USAC Silver Crown event, eight of which have come at LOR. Tanner won the first six of the Swanson one-two sweeps, while Kody has owned the upper hand in the last three.

Contingency award winners Saturday night at Lucas Oil Raceway included Tanner Swanson (Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier), Kyle Robbins (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Annie Breidinger (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: September 7, 2019 – Lucas Oil Raceway – Brownsburg, Indiana – Rich Vogler Classic

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Tanner Swanson, 02, Bowman-20.574; 2. Kody Swanson, 20, Nolen-20.633; 3. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ-20.668; 4. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-20.805; 5. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-20.818; 6. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-20.860; 7. Ryan Newman, 2v, Bowman/Vance-20.876; 8. Eric Gordon, 78, Armstrong/Slinkard-20.908; 9. James Davison, 11, DHR/Byrd-21.059; 10. Jim Anderson, 92, Kazmark-21.218; 11. Chris Windom, 17, Goodnight/Byrd-21.268; 12. Joe Liguori, 32, Williams & Wright-21.323; 13. Brian Gerster, 94, Ram-21.350; 14. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-21.591; 15. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-21.605; 16. Cody Gallogly, 81, Williams-21.621; 17. Cameron Dodson, 25, Pierce-21.722; 18. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-21.781; 19. Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-21.852; 20. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-21.926; 21. John Heydenreich, 43, Felker-22.668; 22. Annie Breidinger, 80, Breidinger-22.720; 23. Kyle O’Gara, 1, SFHR-NT; 24. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-NT; 25. Derek Bischak, 131, Bischak-NT.

FEATURE: (100 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (2), 2. Tanner Swanson (1), 3. Kyle Hamilton (6), 4. Jim Anderson (10), 5. James Davison (9), 6. David Byrne (5), 7. Bobby Santos (3), 8. Justin Grant (4), 9. Chris Windom (11), 10. Kyle Robbins (20), 11. Joe Liguori (12), 12. Patrick Lawson (18), 13. Annie Breidinger (22), 14. Austin Nemire (14), 15. Matt Goodnight (15), 16. Eric Gordon (8), 17. Mike Haggenbottom (19), 18. John Heydenreich (21), 19. Ryan Newman (7), 20. Cameron Dodson (17), 21. Derek Bischak (23), 22. Cody Gallogly (16), 23. Brian Gerster (13), 24. Dave Berkheimer (24). 50:56.46

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-100 Kody Swanson

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Kyle Robbins (20th to 10th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Annie Breidinger

NEW USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-577, 2-Justin Grant-514, 3-David Byrne-456, 4-Kyle Hamilton-381, 5-Bobby Santos-378, 6-Eric Gordon-375, 7-Chris Windom-342, 8-Mike Haggenbottom-328, 9-Kyle Robbins-320, 10-Austin Nemire-315.

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BACON BOLTS TO ELDORA SILVER CROWN TRIUMPH

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Rossburg, Ohio (September 28, 2019)………Entering Saturday’s USAC Silver Crown season finale at Eldora Speedway, the formula was simple. A 4th place finish or better by Brady Bacon was what he needed to secure Klatt Enterprises’ first series owner title.

Bacon defied all notions of running “just good enough.” His intentions were fully set on winning and closing the curtain on a banner year for himself and the Klatt team by capturing his second series victory of the season, and his career, leading the final 10 laps to sweep both victories on half-mile dirt tracks (Eldora and Williams Grove) on the Silver Crown schedule in 2019.

“We kind of struggled and everything else, so it was good to get a win here and get an owner’s championship for these guys,” Bacon said. “They worked hard to make huge improvements over the last year and we won two races this year. We were in the hunt every time. I’m really happy for them, and hopefully, we can keep winning these races the next few years.”

The Broken Arrow, Okla. native started 4th in the 27-car field, the largest car count for a Silver Crown race at Eldora since 2008. However, pole winner Kevin Thomas, Jr., making his debut run in Chris Dyson Racing’s mount, emerged with the lead on a first lap that saw the top-three of Thomas, Kody Swanson and Bacon battle three-wide off turn four.

Thomas, a 2nd place finisher in the previous year’s 4-Crown Silver Crown feature, checked out in the early stages, building up a two second lead over Bacon and Swanson, who locked up an unprecedented fifth series driving title by starting the night’s main event.

The first incident of the night occurred in turn one the ninth lap when Steve Buckwalter climbed the outside wall, creating heavy damage to the right front. The trailing John Heydenreich had nowhere to roam and slid sideways into Buckwalter who was at rest up against the outside wall. Both drivers were okay, but their cars were finished for the remainder of the evening.

On the ensuing restart, the game changed as Bacon began working the middle and was able to remain within arm’s reach of Thomas. Just moments later, though, on lap 12, 6th running Jason McDougal looped his ride at the entrance of turn one. As McDougal sat helplessly in the middle of the racing surface, Midget and Sprint feature winner Tyler Courtney clobbered McDougal with his right rear wheel, seriously damaging both machines and ending both driver’s nights and Courtney’s bid for a USAC sweep at the 4-Crown.

With 13 laps remaining, Bacon tested the waters and slid through the middle to show a nose to the high-riding Thomas in turn one and then turn three as well. Bacon tried again two laps later in turn one, making up a bit of ground, but there wasn’t enough zip to make the slide stick.

Entering the final 10 laps, Thomas clung to a three-car length lead over Bacon, until scraping his right-side wheels off the outside wall between turns three and four. As Thomas fought to break free from the wall’s grasp, Bacon shot under and raced away scot-free with the lead and an eventual 1.931 second triumph over Thomas, Justin Grant, Swanson and Shane Cottle, who started all the way back in 24th.

For Thomas, it was another heartbreak for a driver who’s been on the cusp of a first USAC Silver Crown victory for two consecutive seasons now. In fact, his result on Saturday was the fifth 2nd place finish of his Silver Crown career, moving him into the distinction as the driver with the most runner-up finishes without a series win, passing Dave Blaney, Pablo Donoso and Arnie Knepper on the list.

“We had a good chance of winning the sprint car race too, plugged it in the fence and broke a front end,” Thomas recalled. “Luckily, we finished 4th there. And then we did it again. I don’t ever run the fence, so I’m actually glad that I was at least up there to plug it in the fence. It was a long day, but it was a fun day. I think we got a 5th, a 4th and a 2nd. For somebody who’s not very good here, I’ll take it.”

Contingency award winners Friday and Saturday night at Eldora Speedway were Kevin Thomas, Jr. (Fatheadz Eyewear/ProSource Fast Qualifier), Matt Westfall (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger/Larry Rice High Performance Award & Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race) and Ronnie Wuerdeman (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: September 28, 2019 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 38th 4-Crown Nationals presented by NKT.tv

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR/PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: (Completed on September 27) 1. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9, Dyson-16.054; 2. Jason McDougal, 56, Foxco-16.070; 3. Kody Swanson, 20, Nolen-16.176; 4. Brady Bacon, 6, Klatt-16.250; 5. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-16.321; 6. Chris Windom, 17, Goodnight/Byrd-16.366; 7. Chad Kemenah, 15, Hampshire/Kemenah-16.445; 8. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-16.483; 9. Ronnie Wuerdeman, 33, Wuerdeman-16.523; 10. C.J. Leary, 10, DMW-16.548; 11. Tyler Courtney, 97, Lein-16.562; 12. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-16.992; 13. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-17.048; 14. Jimmy Light, 123, Two-Three-17.074; 15. Steve Buckwalter, 53, Five Three-17.078; 16. Bill Rose, 66, Rose-17.094; 17. Dallas Hewitt, 57, Hewitt-17.138; 18. Austin Mundie, 47, Butler-17.143; 19. Eric Gordon, 78, Armstrong/Slinkard-17.192; 20. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-17.272; 21 Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-17.279; 22. Terry Babb, 34, Morford-17.378; 23. John Heydenreich, 43, Felker-17.448; 24. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-17.456; 25. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-17.569; 26. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-18.941; 27. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall/Marshall-NT.

FEATURE: (50 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (4), 2. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (1), 3. Justin Grant (5), 4. Kody Swanson (3), 5. Shane Cottle (24), 6. Chris Windom (6), 7. Matt Westfall (27), 8. C.J. Leary (10), 9. Matt Goodnight (25), 10. Eric Gordon (19), 11. Chad Kemenah (7), 12. Jimmy Light (14), 13. Ronnie Wuerdeman (9), 14. Kyle Robbins (8), 15. David Byrne (13), 16. Bill Rose (16), 17. Mike Haggenbottom (21), 18. Travis Welpott (12), 19. Austin Mundie (18), 20. Terry Babb (22), 21. Austin Nemire (20), 22. Dave Berkheimer (26), 23. Jason McDougal (2), 24. Tyler Courtney (11), 25. Dallas Hewitt (17), 26. Steve Buckwalter (15), 27. John Heydenreich (23). 23:29.46

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-40 Kevin Thomas, Jr., Laps 41-50 Brady Bacon.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS/LARRY RICE HIGH PERFORMANCE AWARD HARD CHARGER: Matt Westfall (27th to 7th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Ronnie Wuerdeman

ROSEWOOD MACHINE & TOOL PRECISION MOVE OF THE RACE: Matt Westfall

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2019 USAC SILVER CROWN DRIVER POINTS

1. (638) Kody Swanson, Kingsburg, Calif.

2. (578) Justin Grant, Ione, Calif.

3. (489) David Byrne, Shullsburg, Wisc.

4. (418) Eric Gordon, Indianapolis, Ind.

5. (397) Chris Windom, Canton, Ill.

6. (381) Kyle Hamilton, Danville, Ind.

7. (378) Bobby Santos, Franklin, Mass.

8. (366) Kevin Thomas, Jr., Cullman, Ala.

9. (357) Mike Haggenbottom, Levittown, Pa.

10. (355) Kyle Robbins, New Castle, Ind.

11. (337) Austin Nemire, Sylvania, Ohio

12. (331) Matt Goodnight, Winchester, Ind.

13. (256) Brady Bacon, Broken Arrow, Okla.

14. (254) ®Derek Bischak, Angola, Ind.

15. (222) ®Cody Gallogly, Pataskala, Ohio

16. (185) Tyler Courtney, Indianapolis, Ind.

17. (179) C.J. Leary, Greenfield, Ind.

18. (165) Aaron Pierce, Muncie, Ind.

19. (164) John Heydenreich, Bloomsburg, Pa.

20. (147) ®Chad Kemenah, Alvada, Ohio

21. (146) ®Jim Anderson, Joliet, Ill.

22. (137) Tanner Swanson, Kingsburg, Calif.

23. (130) ®Dave Berkheimer, Mechanicsburg, Pa.

24. (128) Steve Buckwalter, Royersford, Pa.

25. (125) Brian Gerster, Indianapolis, Ind.

26. (125) Shane Cottle, Kansas, Ill.

27. (124) ®Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, N.Y.

28. (123) Russ Gamester, Peru, Ind.

29. (116) Jacob Wilson, Crawfordsville, Ind.

30. (114) ®Joey Schmidt, Ellisville, Miss.

31. (113) Patrick Lawson, Edwardsville, Ill.

32. (113) ®Jimmy Light, West Springfield, Pa.

33. (110) Travis Welpott, Pendleton, Ind.

34. (109) ®Cody Gerhardt, Fresno, Calif.

35. (104) ®James Davison, Melbourne, Vic.

36. (90) Bill Rose, Plainfield, Ind.

37. (85) ®Dallas Hewitt, Troy, Ohio

38. (79) Jeff Swindell, Germantown, Tenn.

39. (78) Joe Liguori, Tampa, Fla.

40. (75) ®Jason McDougal, Broken Arrow, Okla.

41. (73) ®Austin Mundie, Dallas, Texas

42. (70) Kyle Steffens, St. Louis, Mo.

43. (68) Brian Tyler, Parma, Mich.

44. (54) ®Ronnie Wuerdeman, Cincinnati, Ohio

45. (52) Matt Westfall, Pleasant Hill, Ohio

46. (51) ®Casey Buckman, Chandler, Ariz.

47. (45) ®Jason Conn, Prince George, BC

48. (43) Johnny Petrozelle, Denton, N.C.

49. (41) Toni Breidinger, Hillsborough, Calif.

50. (38) Terry Babb, Decatur, Ill.

51. (37) ®Annie Breidinger, Hillsborough, Calif.

52. (31) Chris Urish, Elkhart, Ill.

53. (29) ®Chris Phillips, Plainfield, Ind.

54. (29) ®Ronnie Gardner, Riverside, Calif.

55. (27) Dave Darland, Lincoln, Ind.

56. (27) A.J. Fike, Galesburg, Ill.

57. (25) Ryan Newman, South Bend, Ind.

58. (23) Cameron Dodson, Greenfield, Ind.

59. (20) Shane Cockrum, Benton, Ill.

60. (20) ®Korey Weyant, Springfield, Ill.

61. (20) Jerry Coons, Jr., Tucson, Ariz.

62. (17) Billy Puterbaugh, Jr., Brownsburg, Ind.

63. (10) Chuck Leary, Greenfield, Ind.

64. (10) ®Tanner Thorson, Minden, Nev.

65. (10) Danny Long, Bonne Terre, Mo.

66. (10) ®Kyle O'Gara, Beech Grove, Ind.

2019 USAC SILVER CROWN ENTRANT POINTS

1. (637) Klatt Enterprises, Hastings, Neb. (#6)

2. (613) Nolen Racing, Greenfield, Ind. (#20)

3. (578) Hemelgarn Racing, Toledo, Ohio (#91)

4. (489) Byrne Racing, Brownsburg, Ind. (#40)

5. (418) Armstrong-Slinkard Racing, New Palestine, Ind. (#78)

6. (397) Goodnight-Byrd Racing, Hartford City, Ind. (#17)

7. (378) DJ Racing, Brownsburg, Ind. (#22)

8. (357) John Haggenbottom, Bristol, PA (#24)

9. (355) KR Racing, Greenfield, Ind. (#7)

10. (347) Curtis Williams, Springfield, Ohio (#81)

11. (337) Nemire-Lesko Racing, Toledo, Ohio (#16)

12. (331) Goodnight Racing, Hartford City, Ind. (#39)

13. (275) DHR-Byrd Racing, Jamestown, Ind. (#11)

14. (254) Derek Bischak, Indianapolis, Ind. (#131)

15. (207) Chris Dyson Racing, Pleasant Valley, N.Y. (#9)

16. (193) A.J. Felker Racing, Jeffersonville, Ind. (#43)

17. (185) Hans Lein, Edgerton, Wisc. (#97)

18. (179) DMW Motorsports, Phoenix, Ariz. (#10)

19. (165) Sam Pierce, Daleville, Ind. (#26)

20. (147) Hampshire-Kemenah Racing, Alvada, Ohio (#15)

21. (146) Kazmark Motorsports, Joliet, Ill. (#92)

22. (142) Foxco Racing, Bloomington, Ind. (#56)

23. (138) Patrick Lawson, Edwardsville, Ill. (#2)

24. (137) Sam Pierce, Daleville, Ind. (#25)

25. (137) Bowman Racing, Brownsburg, Ind. (#02)

26. (130) Berkheimer Racing, Mechanicsburg, Pa. (#31)

27. (128) Five Three Motorsports, Joliet, Ill. (#53)

28. (125) Ram Engineering, Waterford, Mich. (#94)

29. (123) Gamester Racing, Peru, Ind. (#51)

30. (116) Wilson Brothers Racing, Crawfordsville, Ind. (#07)

31. (113) Two-Three Motorsports, Lizton, Ind. (#123)

32. (110) Travis Welpott-Ernie Gorman Racing, Pendleton, Ind. (#18)

33. (109) Cody Gerhardt, Fresno, Calif. (#60)

34. (90) Bill Rose, Plainfield, Ind. (#66)

35. (85) Dallas Hewitt, Fletcher, Ohio (#57)

36. (79) Mark Swanson Encore Team, Des Moines, Iowa (#21)

37. (78) Breidinger Motorsports, Hillsborough, Calif. (#80)

38. (78) Williams & Wright Racing, St. Paul, Ind. (#32)

39. (73) Les Butler, Kaufman, Texas (#47)

40. (70) Kyle Steffens, St. Charles, Mo. (#08)

41. (68) Galas Motorsports, O'Fallon, Ill. (#12)

42. (55) Daigh/Phillips Motorsports, Indianapolis, Ind. (#27)

43. (54) Dennis & Dave McQuinn, Springfield, Ill. (#14)

44. (54) Ronnie Wuerdeman, Cincinnati, Ohio (#33)

45. (52) Westfall-Marshall Motorsports, Forest, Ohio (#54)

46. (51) C-Buck Motorsports, Chandler, Ariz. (#74)

47. (45) Davey Hamilton Racing, Jamestown, Ind. (#88)

48. (43) Cornell-Petrozelle Racing, Monee, Ill. (#8)

49. (38) Ken Morford, Decatur, Ill. (#34)

50. (31) Chris Urish, Lincoln, Ill. (#77)

51. (29) Nolen-Phillips Racing, Greenfield, Ind. (#4)

52. (25) Bowman-Vance Racing, Brownsburg, Ind. (#2v)

53. (20) Patty Bateman, Decatur, Ill. (#55)

54. (20) Hardy Boys Motorsports, Springfield, Ill. (#71)

55. (20) Scott Weyant, Murphysboro, Ill. (#99)

56. (17) Robbie Rice-PBR Motorsports, Brownsburg, Ind. (#222)

57. (10) SFHR Development, Greenfield, Ind. (#1)

58. (10) Danny Long, Bonne Terre, Mo. (#44)

59. (10) Leary Racing, Speedway, Ind. (#30)

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2019 USAC SILVER CROWN STAT LEADERS

Most Wins: (5) Kody Swanson

Driver Champion: Kody Swanson

Owner Champion: Klatt Enterprises #6

Leading Rookie Driver: Derek Bischak

Laps Led: (404) Kody Swanson

Top-Fives: (8) Kody Swanson

Top-Tens: (9) Justin Grant

Fatheadz Eyewear Pole Awards: (5) Kody Swanson

Feature Starts: (10) 9 different drivers

Top Rookie Finisher: (4^th) Jim Anderson at Lucas Oil Raceway

Most Positions Advanced: Matt Westfall (27^th to 7^th on 9/28 at Eldora)

Most Wilwood Brakes 13^th Place Finishes: (4) Mike Haggenbottom

2019 USAC SILVER CROWN SCHEDULE & RESULTS

Mar 23: (P) (#) Millington, TN – Memphis International Raceway – WINNER: Kody Swanson (Nolen Racing #20)

Apr 28: (P) Toledo, OH – Toledo Speedway – WINNER: Kody Swanson (Nolen Racing #20)

May 23: (D) Indianapolis, IN – Indiana State Fairgrounds – WINNER: Tyler Courtney (Hans Lein #97)

May 24: (P) Brownsburg, IN – Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis – WINNER: Kyle Hamilton (Klatt Enterprises #6)

Jun 14: (D) Mechanicsburg, PA – Williams Grove Speedway – WINNER: Brady Bacon (Klatt Enterprises #6)

Jun 28: (P) Oregon, WI – Madison International Speedway – WINNER: Kody Swanson (Nolen Racing #20)

Aug 10: (P) Salem, IN - Salem Speedway Fueled by the Hoosier Lottery – WINNER: Kody Swanson (Nolen Racing #20)

Sep 1: (D) Du Quoin, IL – Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – WINNER: Jacob Wilson (Wilson Brothers Racing #07)

Sep 7: (P) Brownsburg, IN – Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis – WINNER: Kody Swanson (Nolen Racing #20)

Sep 28: (D) Rossburg, OH - Eldora Speedway – WINNER: Brady Bacon (Klatt Enterprises #6)

------------------------ KEY DEFINITIONS -------------------------

(D) represents a dirt event

(P) represents a pavement event

# represents a daytime event

FEATURE WINS

(5) Kody Swanson (Mar 23 at Memphis International Raceway, Apr 28 at Toledo Speedway, Jun 28 at Madison International Raceway, Aug 10 at Salem Speedway & Sep 7 at Lucas Oil Raceway)

(2) Brady Bacon (Jun 14 at Williams Grove Speedway & Sep 28 at Eldora Speedway)

(1) Tyler Courtney (May 23 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds)

(1) Kyle Hamilton (May 24 at Lucas Oil Raceway)

(1) Jacob Wilson (Sep 1 at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds)

FEATURE LAPS LED

(404) Kody Swanson

(127) Kevin Thomas, Jr.

(98) Kyle Hamilton

(59) Jacob Wilson

(53) Chris Windom

(52) Steve Buckwalter

(34) Brady Bacon

(32) David Byrne

(31) Bobby Santos

(26) Tyler Courtney

(10) Aaron Pierce

TOP-FIVE FINISHES

(8) Kody Swanson

(7) Justin Grant

(5) Kyle Hamilton & Bobby Santos

(4) Brady Bacon

(3) Eric Gordon

(2) David Byrne, Tyler Courtney, Aaron Pierce, Tanner Swanson & Kevin Thomas, Jr.

(1) Jim Anderson, Shane Cottle, James Davison, Mike Haggenbottom, Joey Schmidt, Jeff Swindell, Jacob Wilson & Chris Windom

TOP-TEN FINISHES

(9) Justin Grant

(8) David Byrne & Kody Swanson

(6) Eric Gordon, Kyle Hamilton, Bobby Santos & Kevin Thomas, Jr.

(5) Chris Windom

(4) Brady Bacon & Derek Bischak

(3) Matt Goodnight & Austin Nemire

(2) Jim Anderson, Steve Buckwalter, Tyler Courtney, James Davison, Cody Gallogly, Brian Gerster, Aaron Pierce, Kyle Robbins, Joey Schmidt, Tanner Swanson & Jacob Wilson

(1) Shane Cottle Chris Dyson, Russ Gamester, Mike Haggenbottom, Chad Kemenah, C.J. Leary, Jason McDougal, Jeff Swindell, Brian Tyler & Matt Westfall

FEATURE STARTS

(10) David Byrne, Matt Goodnight, Eric Gordon, Justin Grant, Mike Haggenbottom, Austin Nemire, Kyle Robbins, Kody Swanson & Chris Windom

(7) Kevin Thomas, Jr.

(6) Derek Bischak, Cody Gallogly, Kyle Hamilton, John Heydenreich, C.J. Leary & Bobby Santos

(5) Dave Berkheimer

(4) Brady Bacon, Tyler Courtney, Chris Dyson, Dallas Hewitt, Chad Kemenah, Bill Rose & Travis Welpott

(3) Jim Anderson, Steve Buckwalter, Shane Cottle, Jimmy Light, Russ Gamester, Cody Gerhardt, Brian Gerster, Patrick Lawson, Austin Mundie & Aaron Pierce

(2) Terry Babb, Jason Conn, James Davison, Joe Liguori, Jason McDougal, Johnny Petrozelle, Joey Schmidt, Kyle Steffens, Tanner Swanson, Jeff Swindell, Brian Tyler, Jacob Wilson & Ronnie Wuerdeman

(1) Annie Breidinger, Toni Breidinger, Casey Buckman, Jerry Coons, Jr., Dave Darland, Cameron Dodson, A.J. Fike, Ronnie Gardner, Ryan Newman, Chris Phillips, Billy Puterbaugh, Jr., Chris Urish & Matt Westfall

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR FAST QUALIFYING TIMES

(5) Kody Swanson

(2) Kevin Thomas, Jr.

(1) Tyler Courtney, Justin Grant & Tanner Swanson

TOP ROOKIE FINISHER OF THE RACE

Mar 23: Memphis International Raceway – Joey Schmidt (5^th)

Apr 28: Toledo Speedway – Derek Bischak (8^th)

May 23: Indiana State Fairgrounds – Jason McDougal (6^th)

May 24: Lucas Oil Raceway – Cody Gallogly (10^th)

Jun 14: Williams Grove Speedway – Chad Kemenah (11^th)

Jun 28: Madison International Speedway – Jim Anderson (6^th)

Aug 10: Salem Speedway – Derek Bischak (8^th)

Sep 1: Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Chad Kemenah (9^th)

Sep 7: Lucas Oil Raceway – Jim Anderson (4^th)

Sep 28: Eldora Speedway – Chad Kemenah (11^th)

KSE RACING PRODUCTS “HARD CHARGER” OF THE RACE

Mar 23: Memphis International Raceway – Bobby Santos (21^st to 2^nd)

Apr 28: Toledo Speedway – Austin Nemire (20^th to 7^th)

May 23: Indiana State Fairgrounds – Jason McDougal (25^th to 6^th)

May 24: Lucas Oil Raceway – Tanner Swanson (17^th to 2^nd)

Jun 14: Williams Grove Speedway – Mike Haggenbottom (15^th to 4^th)

Jun 28: Madison International Speedway – Kyle Robbins (20^th to 12^th)

Aug 10: Salem Speedway – Patrick Lawson (16^th to 12^th)

Sep 1: Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Kody Swanson (29^th to 14^th)

Sep 7: Lucas Oil Raceway – Kyle Robbins (20^th to 10^th)

Sep 28: Eldora Speedway – Matt Westfall (27^th to 7^th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER

Mar 23: Memphis International Raceway – Mike Haggenbottom

Apr 28: Toledo Speedway – Cody Gerhardt

May 23: Indiana State Fairgrounds – Mike Haggenbottom

May 24: Lucas Oil Raceway – Mike Haggenbottom

Jun 14: Williams Grove Speedway – Shane Cottle

Jun 28: Madison International Speedway – Mike Haggenbottom

Aug 10: Salem Speedway – Joe Liguori

Sep 1: Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Kyle Steffens

Sep 7: Lucas Oil Raceway – Annie Breidinger

Sep 28: Eldora Speedway – Ronnie Wuerdeman

More in this category: « 2018 USAC SILVER CROWN SEASON MADISON SILVER CROWN RACE POSTPONED »

2019: A SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP UNLIKE ANY OTHER FOR SWANSON

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2019: A SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP UNLIKE ANY OTHER FOR SWANSON

Race Division

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