SWANSON’S 8TH USAC SILVER CROWN TITLE

Kingsburg, California’s Kody Swanson celebrated both a victory and an eighth career USAC Silver Crown championship during Championship Saturday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. (Indy Racing Images Photo)

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Brownsburg, Indiana (October 19, 2024)………It couldn’t have been a more perfect Championship Saturday for Kody Swanson and his Doran Binks Racing team in the United States Auto Club (USAC) Silver Crown season finale at Brownsburg, Indiana’s Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

That is, outside of “only” leading 49 of the 100 laps.

Swanson (Kingsburg, California) shook off a near racelong battle with Bobby Santos, and for a brief stretch with Tyler Roahrig, before taking the lead for good on lap 63 to score the win at the .686-mile paved oval while also notching his record-extending eighth career series championship in his Doran Binks Racing/Mission Foods – Wilke Orthodontics – Glenn Farms/Beast/Lanci Ford.

Where do we possibly begin with the accolades the 36-year-old racer earned in one night? Swanson’s eighth USAC Silver Crown title (2014-15-17-18-19-21-22-24) set a new record in terms of total championships earned by any one driver in a USAC national series. He had previously been tied with AJ Foyt’s seven Indy Car crowns under the USAC banner as well as Mel Kenyon’s seven USAC National Midget Championships.

Furthermore, Kody’s ninth career IRP Silver Crown victory set a new record for wins in the series at the track. Of all people, he surpassed the record of eight that he had previously shared with his brother, Tanner Swanson. With his latest win, Kody also moved to the top line in terms of overall USAC sanctioned wins at IRP with his 15th, tying Tracy Hines and Bobby Santos for number one all-time.

In fact, Kody’s dominance of IRP extends even further. He is now the record holder for most wins by any driver at any track in USAC Silver Crown history. His ninth at IRP surpassed Jack Hewitt’s eight at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway and Tanner Swanson’s aforementioned eight at IRP.

To begin the night, Kody even earned his seventh pole position of 2024, setting a new USAC Silver Crown single season mark in the process. Who’s record did he break, you might ask? Of course, it was his own record that he broke. He earned six pole positions in both the 2015 and 2023 seasons.

This night also marked the fourth time in which Kody won both the season finale and the USAC Silver Crown title on the same day.  He’s now accomplished this feat in 2014-2015-2021-2024. Nobody else has done it more than twice, including Al Unser (1973), Bobby Olivero (1979), Gary Bettenhausen (1980), Jack Hewitt (1986), Steve Butler (1992), Jimmy Sills (1996), JJ Yeley (2002-03), Bobby East (2012) and Chris Windom (2016).

Needless to say, Swanson has firmly established himself as the king of USAC Silver Crown racing. We already knew that, but he proved it once again on Saturday night in earning himself yet another driving crown while also securing the Doran Binks Racing partnership its first ever series entrant championship. For Doran Racing, it’s their second career USAC Silver Crown title with Swanson after previously winning it all in 2022 in a split effort with Chris Dyson Racing. That year, Doran handled the pavement side of the team while Dyson spearheaded the dirt portion. For 2024, the Doran Binks combo was a true all-in performance by the team on both dirt and pavement.

As far as the race itself is concerned, unlike May’s Hoosier Hundred where he led 100 laps from start to finish, Kody found himself chasing the rabbit throughout the majority of the 100-lap, 68.6-mile distance en route to his 45th career USAC Silver Crown win. Carrying a nine-point lead over Justin Grant into the race, a third-place finish or better was a deal-sealer for Kody and his title hopes, and that’s exactly where he fell to for a time during the early stages of the race.

Initially, six-time IRP Silver Crown winner Santos got the upper hand around the outside of Swanson to edge him for the lead by the length of his chrome front bumper at the conclusion of lap one. However, Swanson muscled his way back by Santos as he worked the middle groove underneath Santos in turns three and four to slot himself into the lead by lap two.

A yellow flag brought about by the stopped car of 21st running Nathan Moore necessitated a caution and a restart in which Santos took full advantage of. One lap after the resumption on the 13th circuit, Santos surged back around the outside of Swanson in turns three and four to once again reclaim the top spot.

Soon, it became a three-car tussle at the front as Santos, Swanson and the emerging Tyler Roahrig all ran nose-to-tail. Roahrig made his run at Swanson on the 19th lap when he powered past in turns one and two to gain the second the second position and then went to work on Santos for the race lead. The pair went side-by-side for multiple laps on the 28th and 29th go around with mere inches separating the two as they crossed the stripe. Both Santos and Roahrig had already tasted victory on the night with Santos capturing the accompanying Brown’s Oil Service Midget feature and Roahrig pocketing the 500 Sprint Car Tour main.

With the championship weighing on his mind, Swanson had to teeter on that delicate balance between racing for points and racing for the win. Swanson freely acknowledged that, in that moment, it was practically impossible to discard any thoughts on the points aspect.

“When your helmet’s on, your only job is to try and win the race,” Swanson confessed. “But I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that those thoughts are in there and I try to be aware.”

Additionally, in Silver Crown racing, three bonus points are issued to the driver and team leading the most laps. So getting to the lead and staying there was just as imperative in both the race and the title fight for Swanson.

“I tried really hard to get the lead because I wanted the lead,” Swanson stated. “I hope I left Bobby enough room. I was trying to do that, and I was still trying to race hard for it. He got a great run after that restart, and he got a great entry into three, so I was going to have to be second for a little while.  After that, Tyler came up through there, and at that point, I knew it would be hard to get the lead. Bobby is a champion racer and he’s not going to give you the lead for nothing. I don’t blame him. We race really hard a lot and I have great respect for him.”

The battle at the front was stifled on lap 30 when fifth running Dakoda Armstrong slowed to a stop in turn three. However, the upcoming lap 34 restart proved to be most detrimental to second place running Roahrig. As the field was rolling through turn four with the green flag in sight, Roahrig’s car failed to take off and began to coast down the straightaway before completely stopping in turn one. The culprit was a magneto issue, which ended Roahrig’s bid for a first career USAC Silver Crown victory.

For the next nearly 30 laps, Santos remained in control with Swanson lurking in the shadows a few car lengths behind. By lap 62, Swanson was in position to make a move. Pulling even with Santos in turns one and two, the two remained in lockstep throughout the entirety of the lap with Santos nipping Swanson at the stripe by a half car length. Less than a half lap later, Swanson had fully moved ahead as he cleared Santos for the number one spot for good by the time the pair exited turn two.

From that point forward, Swanson burst away from Santos to the tune of two to three seconds while defending series champ Logan Seavey made a late surge from fifth to second between laps 67-75 to earn himself a runner-up finish 2.362 seconds behind Swanson at the finish line. Santos came home third with CJ Leary fourth and Grant rounding out the top-five but coming up 21 points short in the final championship tally.

In the end, Swanson didn’t get those three bonus points for most laps led after pacing the field for 49 while Santos controlled the pace for 51 of the 100. Nonetheless, Swanson led the laps that led him to another historic night.

“I just had to hope that maybe the race would go long enough that it would swing back in our favor,” Swanson explained. “Luckily, on a longer run, we were really good. Logan was coming late, and the beauty of Silver Crown racing is that my wife (and spotter) does a great job on keeping me up to speed on what’s happening and let me know that I had a little gap there to be careful through that lapped traffic at the end to make sure we finished it. I sure didn’t want to waste it, and I appreciate the chance just to give it a shot.”

Logan Seavey (Sutter, California) once again equaled his best career pavement USAC Silver Crown result with a second in his Rice Motorsports-Abacus Racing/DiaEdge Mitsubishi Materials – STIDA.com/Beast/Felker Chevy. At IRP alone, it’s his third career runner-up finish with the series at the track, and the third time he’s done so in his four most recent starts.

En route to a third place result, Bobby Santos (Franklin, Mass.) led a race high 51 laps in his DJ Racing/Brown & Miller Racing Solutions – Simpson Race Products/Beast/Speedway Chevy. For that, he earned the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night. Despite not notching a series victory for the first time since 2021, Santos was, perhaps, the most consistent driver in the series with seven top-fives in seven starts, all on the pavement.

Trey Osborne (Columbus, Ohio) had quite a night for himself and his BCR Group/Flint Trucking & Truck Service – Duncan Oil – QS Components/Beast/Kercher Chevy. First, he raced from 12th to 6th to earn a $200 bonus as the Hard Charger courtesy of Hoosier Auto Racing Fans in memory of the late Eleanor Vogler who recently passed away. Osborne also wrapped up USAC Silver Crown Rookie of the Year honors for 2024.

USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 19, 2024 – Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park – Brownsburg, Indiana – .686-Mile Paved Oval – Championship Saturday

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran/Binks-20.892; 2. Bobby Santos, 98, DJ-21.120; 3. Tyler Roahrig, 41, Newman-21.147; 4. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-21.169; 5. Logan Seavey, 22, Rice/Abacus-21.189; 6. C.J. Leary, 6, Klatt-21.278; 7. Dakoda Armstrong, 5, C & A-21.282; 8. Nathan Byrd, 40, Legacy/Wilson-21.395; 9. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-21.413; 10. Kaylee Bryson, 26, Pierce-21.621; 11. Kyle Steffens, 08, Steffens-21.648; 12. Trey Osborne, 81, BCR-21.672; 13. Jake Trainor, 126, Pierce-21.728; 14. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-21.752; 15. Cody Gerhardt, 14, Hamilton-21.928; 16. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-23.224; 17. Nathan Moore, 48, Thomas/Moore-24.799; 18. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-NT.

FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (1), 2. Logan Seavey (5), 3. Bobby Santos (2), 4. C.J. Leary (6), 5. Justin Grant (4), 6. Trey Osborne (12), 7. Nathan Byrd (8), 8. Russ Gamester (9), 9. Kyle Robbins (13), 10. Kaylee Bryson (10), 11. Gregg Cory (15), 12. Tyler Roahrig (3), 13. Dakoda Armstrong (7), 14. Kyle Steffens (11), 15. Cody Gerhardt (14), 16. Dave Berkheimer (17), 17. Nathan Moore (16). 42:40.183

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Bobby Santos, Laps 2-12 Kody Swanson, Laps 13-62 Bobby Santos, Laps 63-100 Kody Swanson.

FINAL USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-858, 2-Justin Grant-837, 3-Logan Seavey-788, 4-C.J. Leary-690, 5-Kyle Steffens-528, 6-Trey Osborne-468, 7-Kaylee Bryson-454, 8-Gregg Cory-452, 9-Bobby Santos-366, 10-Nathan Moore-367.

USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-199, 2-Logan Seavey-195, 3-Robert Ballou-149, 4-Justin Grant-142, 5-C.J. Leary-130, 6-Chase Stockon-126, 7-Kyle Cummins-124, 8-Brady Bacon-115, 9-Matt Westfall-109, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-107.

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: Kody Swanson (21.074)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Kody Swanson (20.892)

Hoosier Auto Racing Fans Hard Charger in Memory of Eleanor Vogler: Trey Osborne (12th to 6th)

Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Race: Bobby Santos