SURGICAL SWANSON DISSECTS USAC SILVER CROWN FIELD AT JENNERSTOWN

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Jennerstown, Pennsylvania (August 10, 2024)………Kody Swanson’s one and only previous visit to Pennsylvania’s Jennerstown Speedway came in a late model back in 2021 and concluded with an unsavory encounter with the outside wall and a torn up racecar to boot.

From famine to feast, the Kingsburg, California racer’s next trip to Jennerstown on Saturday night was about as polar opposite as it comes in the high stakes world of motorsports during the USAC Silver Crown debut at the .522-mile paved oval.

Swanson started from the pole position and led all 100 laps in succession after recently having surgery to remove two screws from his left foot following an offseason accident away from the racetrack.  It was Swanson’s record-extending 44th career USAC Silver Crown win and his fourth series triumph of the season.  In fact, 17 of his 44 career series victories have come after capturing the pole position and leading every lap.

On pavement tracks alone in his Silver Crown career, Swanson has now won 29 times at eight different venues in his USAC Silver Crown career.  Swanson’s mark of eight different pavement tracks won at are now tied for the most all-time alongside Dave Steele and Brian Tyler.

In adding another victory to his tally, Swanson also padded his current championship point lead to the tune of a 55-point margin.  Swanson’s first open wheel appearance at Jennerstown also resulted in the 15th different track he’s won at in his career with the series, dirt and pavement combined, which is already an all-time record.

“The beauty of Silver Crown racing is you’ve got to adapt, and I think that’s the part that’s most fun about it,” Swanson noted.  “We run dirt races, we run pavement, we run big tracks, we run little ones and tricky ones in between.  That’s the part I love.”

Interestingly enough, USAC’s most recent event held at Jennerstown came 55 years earlier in a 1969 midget race won by Bob Tattersall when the track surface was dirt.  Swanson’s path to victory on Saturday night was paved with $10,000 in rewards after starting from the pole position for the record-extending 52nd time of his career.

Swanson’s qualifying run provided him with a one-lap Silver Crown track record at eight different tracks: Kansas’ Belleville High Banks, Iowa Speedway, Illinois’ World Wide Technology Raceway, Wisconsin’s Madison International Speedway, Indiana’s Salem Speedway and Winchester Speedway, Ohio’s Toledo Speedway and now Pennsylvania’s Jennerstown Speedway.

For Swanson and his Doran-Binks Racing/Mission Foods – Wilke Orthodontics – Glenn Farms/Beast/Lanci Ford, it was a masterful turnaround from the practice session 24 hours earlier.  Swanson’s best lap of Friday’s test was a mere 18.314 seconds, which would’ve put him mid-pack in Saturday’s field.  Needless to say, there was nothing mid-pack about Swanson on when all was said and done.

“It was a mess yesterday and even today,” Swanson explained.  “We borrowed the series’ scales to check the thing on the lift and tried to just keep working on it.  These guys stuck with me and I’m really thankful it worked out.  You never know if it will be good or not.  When I was getting into the car to start the feature, I said, ‘I guess we’ll find out.’  I didn’t know if we were making the right decisions or not, but the effort was there and that’s all you can ask.  As a driver, it’s your job to put your helmet on and go out and try to get it with whatever kind of car you’ve got.  I’m really thankful tonight that this one was as good as it was.”

When the green flag dropped, Swanson established the early lead as Logan Seavey slotted into second and Dakoda Armstrong held strong in third.  However, early race troubles befell eighth running Kaylee Bryson on lap seven as she suddenly slowed with a clutch issue, ultimately coasting to a stop on the back straightaway on lap nine and finishing her night abruptly with a 15th place result.

The most major incident of the race occurred on lap 29 as the frontrunners began to bear down on the tail end of the field.  Entering turn one, sixth running Tyler Roahrig and 14th place Nathan Moore hooked bumpers, sending Moore spinning into the outside turn one wall, ending his evening with a 14th place result.

On the ensuing lap 33 restart, Armstrong edged ahead of Seavey on the outside for the second position in turns one and two.  However, Seavey was able to shake off the pressure for the time being to recollect the spot.  Armstrong continued to press Seavey for the next nine circuits until lap 42 when he charged under Seavey on the back straight to elevate into the runner-up spot.

At the moment, Swanson remained 1.2 seconds ahead as the race hit the halfway point.  However, further back, 10th starting Taylor Ferns began to surge.  Running seventh on lap 50 of 100, she blitzed past Roahrig for sixth on lap 52, past C.J. Leary for fifth on lap 65 and by Justin Grant for fourth in turn two on lap 68.

With 30 to go, Swanson’s primary challenger was Armstrong, the only driver to deny Swanson a Silver Crown pavement victory through the first five events thus far in 2024.  Armstrong whittled Swanson’s lead down to three tenths while the pair navigated their way through traffic.  However, Swanson got the word from above that he had company, and thus, he took matters into his own hands.

“As Dakoda was coming, I’ve got a great spotter who said, ‘hey, he’s closing and he’s doing this different,’” Swanson recalled of his spotter/wife Jordan Swanson announcing into his two-way radio communication.  “Immediately, I knew what I had and what I was struggling with, so I started moving around.  That’s the fun part about tracks like this.  There are so many characteristics to them that you just move around and find something else you like.  I ran a line I hadn’t run in two days, but it seemed to work and it kind of stabilized for a little while.  It gave me a chance to figure out what I needed to do next and try to take advantage of lapped traffic to get away a little bit.”

In the aftermath, Swanson had broken open his lead to 1.27 seconds as he ably put fellow championship contenders Grant and Leary a lap down during the waning moments.  All the while, Swanson's lead ballooned to 2.149 seconds and never wavered from that moment onward.

At the finish line, Swanson crossed the line 3.907 seconds ahead of Dakoda Armstrong, Logan Seavey, Taylor Ferns and Bobby Santos who rounded out the top-five.

June 25, 2024 – Holly, Michigan – Must See Racing Sprint Series Presented by Perfit-Parts officials confirmed today that pavement sprint car guru Kody Swanson is one of the first entries for the July 5 event at Birch Run Speedway in Birch Run, Michigan. The single day event will also feature the Maxima Racing Oils Midwest Lights Series.

It will be the first time Swanson has competed in a winged asphalt sprint car since 2015.It is no surprise Swanson is set to return to winged asphalt sprint car competition as it is quickly becoming very popular, and big paydays are becoming regular occurrences for this sector of the sport.

Swanson is no stranger to MSR competition. In fact, he has one career victory with the series, but it wasn’t in winged competition. Swanson was victorious in the lone MSR non-winged event held at Indianapolis Raceway Park during the 2020 Indy Summer Nationals. Swanson’s last appearance in MSR winged competition occurred on May 23, 2012, at Anderson (IN) Speedway where he was runner-up to winner Jason Blonde.

Swanson will be aboard the potent Dick Myers owned #50m nicknamed the ‘Mopar Missile’. The Myers owned car is in the midst of a two-race podium finish. Canadian Aaron Willison found victory with the car this past Saturday at Owosso Speedway and was runner-up at Lancaster, New York June1 with the car.

“I had a couple conversations with Dick Myers in the spring about possibly running his car a time or two this summer during casual conversations. He knew I had an interest in doing a few winged shows this year. It was a matter of everything fitting together so we could come out and have some fun together this summer.

“He was the first guy who hired me to drive his car that I wasn’t close with already. I think he was the first guy to fire me too “laughs Swanson. “It’s all part of racing and I’m fortunate enough to have had a long career.”

“I think the last time I ran a winged pavement car was at Toledo in June of 2015, so it’s been a while” explained Swanson. “We blew up running second for Tom Brewer” Swanson remembers. “We qualified well and came from sixth to second pretty quickly. We ended up losing the motor and did a half spin in front of Aaron Pierce. We collected him and that was the last of that.”

Swanson does have one career winged pavement victory with the now defunct Hoosier Outlaw Sprint Series (HOSS) at Jones, Michigan in 2013 driving for Brewer. He’s hoping his most recent start will have the success he found at Jones, Michigan in 2013.

“At that point in time, I had a lot of opportunities with Tom Brewer to run some winged stuff. For one reason or another we always had tough luck or didn’t get the finish we wanted. But at that time, I was trying not to just be a pavement guy. In 2014 I was still chasing that first USAC Silver Crown title”.

“Instead of running so many winged races I ended up trying to run more dirt sprint car races. It really helped me with what I was missing to be a championship USAC Silver Crown contender. For a few years the schedule was seventy percent dirt. That’s why it’s been so long since I’ve really done any winged stuff. I have a lot of interest in winged stuff now, knowing that the two Open Wheel Showdown events are coming up at the end of the year.”

“I’m excited about it. I certainly haven’t done a lot of it, or a lot of it lately. I know there is an opportunity for me to get comfortable, but I need to improve. I’m excited to get that part started. If more opportunities like this come up to run that type of car, and you can do it more often, you’re only gonna get better at it. I’m excited to work with Dick again, be competitive, and tackle Must See Racing competition. Hopefully I can get caught up quickly and we can have a good day at Birch Run” finished Swanson.

For more info on Must See Racing and the July 5 Birch Run Speedway event please visit http://www.mustseeracing.com 

Attached Photo Credit: David Sink Photo

PORT ROYAL, Pa., June 17 — Thanks to a solid top-five finish in Saturday night’s USAC Silver Crown race at Port Royal Speedway, Kody Swanson and Doran Binks Racing remain in the lead in the series’ driver and entrant point standings with a third of the season complete.

Driving Doran Binks Racing’s dirt Silver Crown car, which is a Maxim chassis powered by a Hampshire Chevrolet engine, Swanson qualified third for the 50-lap race for sponsors that include Mission Foods, Glenn Farms, and Wilke Orthodontics. He was only 0.127 of a second off the new track record of 19.816 seconds that Brady Bacon set to better the mark Mitchel Moles established here last year and earn the pole. Daison Pursley, who ended up winning the race on the last lap, qualified second. 

Logan Seavey, who won the two previous USAC Silver Crown races on Port Royal’s half-mile dirt oval, and Justin Grant managed to pass Swanson on the first lap before the first of two caution flags waved with one lap down for C.J. Leary and Nathan Moore, who crashed low in Turn 4. 

For most of the race Swanson had his hands full defending his position from Matt Westfall, who hounded him almost constantly. Swanson tried both the high and the low grooves to spurt away from Westfall, who preferred the low groove. 

Westfall made a pass stick working lap 13 to push Swanson, a native of Kingsburg, Calif., who now lives in Indianapolis, to sixth. However, seconds later Seavey, who had been third behind Bacon and Pursley, went into the infield with a mechanical issue that caused his car to lose fuel. After a stop in the work area he reported to the tail and went on to finish tenth, but his issue put Swanson back in fifth place for the restart. Caution flag laps didn’t count on Saturday. 

Moles threatened to pass Swanson around lap 18, but Swanson hung tough in fifth place. At the halfway point he was 1.134 seconds behind Westfall and 1.174 ahead of Moles, and three laps later he set his fastest lap of the race.

Grant passed Bacon for the lead on lap 30 in Turn 1 and two laps later Swanson got by Westfall for fourth place. Westfall stuck to him like glue, however, and he passed Swanson on lap 40 to push Swanson, who is the winningest driver in series history, back to fifth.

Pursley passed Bacon for second on lap 33 and then he drove around the outside of Grant in Turn 4 on the last lap for his first career USAC Silver Crown victory. Grant finished second and Bacon placed third for the third year in a row. Westfall was fourth and Swanson finished fifth for the second year in a row. 

Chase Dietz passed Moles for sixth on lap 49. Alex Bright, Briggs Danner, and Seavey rounded out the top 10. 

The time of the race was 28:53.852, so Pursley broke Seavey’s 50-lap USAC Silver Crown record of 29.32.10 for this track. 

“Last year we were loose here and this time we were too tight,” Swanson said afterwards. “I need to get better at helping to figure out how to be more in the middle next year set-up wise. The drivers and teams in this series are so good. It’s hard just trying to figure out the best set-up and how the track will change as the race progresses. 

“But I’m grateful for all the work the Doran Binks guys do to keep us in the hunt and give us a chance,” he added. “And we’re all grateful for the support of our sponsors like Mission Foods, Glenn Farms, and Wilke Orthodontics.

 “I moved around and tried all the lines trying to find out where we could be faster,” he added. “Sometimes when I was high on the cushion in Turn 3, I only had one wheel on the ground, but then the others came back down so that was all good. We’ll just try again another day.”

Paul Arch photo.

SUNDAY SWEEP: SWANSON SCORES 3RD STRAIGHT VOGLER CLASSIC AT WINCHESTER

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Winchester, Indiana (May 5, 2024)………In his younger days, Kody Swanson was so inspired by the path Ryan Newman took on his way to racing stardom, that in some respects, Kody followed in his footsteps, and that even extended to his education off the racetrack.

Now firmly entrenched as the most successful USAC Silver Crown competitor of all-time, Swanson (Kingsburg, Calif.) has followed in Newman’s path on the racetrack as well, and like Newman, has become a dominator of the hallowed 37-degree banks of Indiana’s Winchester Speedway.

On Sunday afternoon, Swanson swept the entire program during the 33rd running of the Rich Vogler Classic, establishing the fastest time in practice, then capturing the pole in qualifying before leading all 100 laps around the half-mile paved oval in his Doran-Binks Racing/Mission Foods – Wilke Orthodontics – Glenn Farms/Beast/Lanci Ford en route to his third consecutive Winchester USAC Silver Crown victory after scoring the previous two editions in 2022 and 2023.

That brings in the connection with Newman who, before Swanson on Sunday, was the most recent driver to score three-straight USAC wins at Winchester, achieving the feat entirely within the 1999 season by collecting a sprint car win followed by two additional triumphs in the midgets.  In 2000, Newman also swept both the sprint car and midget portion of the Vogler Classic at Winchester, which was sanctioned by NAMARS during that particular year.

“That’s really special because I remember how good Ryan was and how strong he was here,” Swanson said.  “When I was growing up and getting into racing, I took a year of mechanical engineering because Ryan Newman did.  He made his career by winning big races.  He won on the high banks; he had a degree and he understood how to communicate with crew chiefs.  I wanted to try and do that to see if I could make it very far.  I sure am thankful that I have made it all the way to USAC, especially the Silver Crown division.”

Swanson’s fifth career Vogler Classic triumph (2016-19-22-23-24) spans across two venues – Indianapolis Raceway Park and Winchester – and now has him just one shy of Tracy Hines’ all-time win record of six in the event, which was set between 1996 and 2013.  Furthermore, Swanson has jetted out to victories in the opening two races of the 2024 USAC Silver Crown season following his win in April’s opener at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway.  It’s the third occasion in which he’s won the opening two rounds of the series (2015-19-24), and the previous two resulted in series championships.

Gridded alongside first time Silver Crown front row starter Dakoda Armstrong, Swanson gained the upper hand right from the start, establishing a healthy full second lead before the first stoppage on lap 16 as 12th running Travis Welpott made heavy contact against the outside wall in turns three and four before grinding to a halt with extensive damage on the right front of his familiar orange and white machine.  Welpott, a middle school teacher and wrestling coach by day, walked away from the incident.

Throughout the first half of the contest, Armstrong kept Swanson relatively in check as he held steady in the second spot, far and away his best performance thus far with the series.  In the back of Swanson’s mind was the notion that he wasn’t yet seeing the full scope of what his competition had to offer, and that they might be saving their equipment for a final push in the latter stages.

“These races are hard because not everybody shows their hand all the time,” Swanson explained.  “Part of that is trying to figure out where you really stand.  Bobby Santos comes through the field and he’s so good at it.  C.J. came with him and Dakoda was really strong too.  There are a bunch of good cars in this series, so you’re never really know until the end.”

One of those drivers who may have had something for him down the stretch was Armstrong.  However, on lap 58, shortly after the yellow was displayed for the stalled car of 13th running Kyle Steffens, heartbreak befell Armstrong who was summoned to the pits by his fellow competitors and race officials who were signaling to him that his left rear wheel nut had come off.  Remarkably, the wheel stayed on, and he was able to drive it back to the pits.  But after surrendering the second spot, he returned to finish a disappointing 14th.

With Armstrong’s absence, Santos moved up to second while C.J. Leary slotted into third.  Meanwhile, Swanson dropped the hammer and pulled out to a 2.865 second lead over Santos, and soon enough, that fact was carved into stone.  In the end, Swanson merely had to navigate smoothly under and around a smidge of lapped traffic, which proved to be of no resistance as Swanson crossed under chief starter Jake Croxton’s checkered flag 5.554 seconds ahead of the field.

Bobby Santos took second in the final running order ahead of C.J. Leary while 2021 Vogler Classic winner Justin Grant made one last ditch effort around the outside of Taylor Ferns off the final turn to swipe the fourth spot just in the nick of time while Ferns rounded out the top-five.

As for Swanson, winning the Vogler Classic is always special, and this one in particular was special in its own way.

“The Rich Vogler Classic sure means an awful lot to me,” Swanson stated.  “It means even more if you can see the FloRacing documentary and see all the little details about him.  I hate that Eleanor (Rich Vogler’s mother) couldn’t be here but I’m glad to know she’s checking in on us.  Plus, my grandfather turned 88 on Friday and he’s always been a good luck charm for me on his birthday weekend.  It's a special weekend.”

In three of his four career USAC Silver Crown starts at Winchester, Bobby Santos (Franklin, Mass.) has stood on the podium as one of the top-three finishers.  A third in 2021 was followed by a second in 2023 and yet another second on Sunday in his DJ Racing/Brown & Miller Racing Solutions – Simpson Race Products/Beast/Speedway Chevy.

“We’ve just got to get our car a little bit better here,” Santos noted.  “We’re close but we’ve just got to keep working on it.  C.J. raced me clean there and they were probably a little better than we were at the end, and I was probably holding them up a little bit.”

After consecutive fourth place finishes in his first two Winchester Silver Crown starts in 2022-23, C.J. Leary (Greenfield, Ind.) set a new benchmark on Sunday with a third-place result in his Klatt Enterprises/Wilwood Disc Brakes – Brown & Miller Racing Solutions – Penske – Hoosier Tire/Beast/Ford.  It’s a fine start to his Silver Crown season as he recorded his second consecutive third-place result after finishing in the same spot at Toledo two weeks earlier.

“I had a spirited battle there with Bobby and I think we might’ve been a little bit better, but I just got sloppy at the end,” Leary admitted.  “We were struggling on the restart and had a little bit of a stumble.  It took me three or four laps to run him back down and get our tires hot.  I was just going for it there at the end but didn’t get it done.”

Each successive Silver Crown start seemingly results in another record extending performance.  Sunday marked his 49th career pole position with the series while his victory was his 42nd, both head and shoulders above the fray in the record books.

By:  Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications 

ANDERSON, Ind., April 15 —Doran Binks Racing and driver Kody Swanson got the 2024 season off to a great start Sunday afternoon when Swanson was the fastest qualifier in the Mission Foods/Glenn Farms No. 77, led a third of the 100-lap Glen Niebel Classic, and finished a solid second in the 500 Sprint Car Tour season opener at Anderson Speedway. 

After earning the pole when the inversion was a one, Swanson led the first 34 laps as the 21-car field sped around the quarter-mile paved oval. Dakoda Armstrong used lapped traffic to help him vault from third to first in Turn 2 on lap 35, and he went on to win the race with Swanson in hot pursuit. The winner’s cousin, Caleb Armstrong, placed third followed by the defending race winner, Kyle O’Gara, and Taylor Ferns. 

It was the second year in a row that Swanson was the fastest qualifier for this particular event, which was its 24th edition. After running third and first in the two practice sessions Sunday afternoon, he topped the field in qualifying with a time of 11.274 seconds with the No. 77, which is powered by a Dan Binks-prepared Chevrolet V8 engine. Defending series champion Tyler Roahrig qualified second followed by Dakoda and Caleb Armstrong and Bobby Santos III. 

Roahrig pressured Swanson incessantly right from the start, with Dakoda Armstrong right behind him. The top three broke away from the pack slightly in the early going, but they had their hands full with lapped traffic quickly.

Dakoda Armstrong used double-wide lapped traffic to help him pass both Swanson and Roahrig on lap 35, and Swanson chased him the rest of the way in pursuit of his third victory in this particular race, as he won it in 2018 and 2021. 

There were only two cautions, and yellow-flag laps didn’t count. The first yellow flew with 67 laps down when Billy Wease spun low on the frontstretch while running seventh. That allowed Swanson to close up behind Dakoda Armstrong for the restart, but Armstrong was able to spurt away when the green waved again.

Roahrig experienced a mechanical issue shortly thereafter and fell back to sixth before retiring with 71 laps complete, which moved Caleb Armstrong into third. On the next lap the second and final yellow waved with 72 laps down when Shane Butler spun in Turn 4 while running tenth.

Dakoda Armstrong set the fastest lap of the race with a 11.525 on lap three. Roahrig was second in that category with a 11.538 on the same lap, and Swanson was third with a 11.541 on lap five. 

The next 500 Sprint Car Tour race is its premier event, the 76th Little 500 at Anderson on Saturday, May 25, but before that the Doran Binks crew will turn its attention to the USAC Silver Crown season opener this coming Saturday, April 20, at Toledo (Ohio) Speedway. Last year Swanson won an unprecedented fifth straight USAC Silver Crown race at Toledo Speedway and his seventh there in all. The Kingsburg, Calif., native who now lives in Indianapolis also won the 500 Sprint Car Tour race there last year. 

“Anderson is challenging; it’s always a little different every time, and this time it struggled to build up rubber and I got looser and looser all race,” Swanson said after Sunday’s race. “Dakoda had a little better handling car, which helped him in lapped traffic. We’ll work on that and try to be better next time.” 

Swanson said that he had several close calls with lapped traffic, but added “that’s part of the challenge here; we’ll have even more when we come back here in May for the Little 500.

“To set quick time and finish second in the first race of the year, I think we’re off to a good start,” added Swanson, who suffered a broken left foot in a non-racing accident on Christmas Day. “My foot is OK; it didn’t affect me at all in the race,” he said. 

“I want to thank the Doran Binks crew for their hard work, and Mission Foods and Glenn Farms for their support,” he concluded.

BROWNBURG, Ind., Oct. 16 — Doran Binks Racing and driver Kody Swanson finished fourth in the USAC Silver Crown series’ 100-lap season finale Sunday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park with their Mission Foods/Glenn Farms No. 77. They placed second in the series’ point standings for 2023, coming up just seven points shy of repeating as the series’ champions.

The slim margin underscores how competitive the championship was. Driver Logan Seavey and the Rice Motorsports/Abacus Racing team won the title in USAC’s top class with 676 points to Swanson and Doran Binks Racing’s 669. A total of 836 points were up for grabs in the series’ 11 races.

Doran Binks Racing and Swanson also finished second in the 2023 edition of the 500 Sprint Car Tour Presented by Auto Value Bumper to Bumper Parts Stores after also winning that series’ inaugural championship last year. They had an eighth-place finish in the 500 Sprint Car Tour’s 40-lap race on Sunday at IRP. That championship’s margin was larger at 58 points, as Tyler Roahrig won the title with 1,818 points to Swanson’s 1,760 after nine races, unofficially.

 Swanson guided the Mission Foods/Glenn Farms No. 77 to five victories in 2023 within the two series, which started in April. In a combined total of 20 races within the two series, he was only out of the top five three times, which is a remarkable accomplishment for the Kingsburg, Calif., native and the team based in Lebanon, Ohio.

The team used two different engine manufacturers during the year. A Lanci-prepped Ford powered the Silver Crown car at IRP while the sprint car’s powerplant was a Binks-prepped Chevrolet.

USAC Silver Crown

The weekend’s races at IRP, which also included a midget feature that Swanson won driving for Bertrand Motorsports, were supposed to be held on Saturday. Practice and qualifying were completed on Saturday but the three main events of the program, which was sponsored by the Howard Companies, were pushed to Sunday afternoon due to rain.

On Saturday Swanson won the pole for the USAC Silver Crown race with a time of 20.838 seconds for the 0.686-mile asphalt oval. That was worth three bonus points, and it also extended his record for the most poles in the history of the series to 46. Bobby Santos III qualified second followed by Kody’s brother, Tanner Swanson; Justin Grant and Seavey in the 23-car field.

Kody Swanson and Santos were side by side entering Turn 1 on the first lap, but Swanson had the advantage as they exited the turn and he held the lead for almost a quarter of the race while Seavey slipped to seventh place. In the early going Kody Swanson set the fastest lap run by anyone in the race with a time of 21.289 on lap two, and on lap 17 he had a 0.810-second lead over Santos.

Around that point he was having some issues, however. “It got really tight out of nowhere around lap 20,” he related afterwards, and on lap 24 both his brother and Santos got around him to push him to third.

Tanner Swanson was never again headed, and he won the race by a whopping 9.799 seconds over Santos, Grant, Kody Swanson and C.J. Leary. His victory was his eighth USAC Silver Crown win at IRP, making him the series’ winningest driver at this track and edging Kody, who has seven Silver Crown triumphs at IRP.

Although Tanner had things going his way up front, his brother’s race was getting more complicated. On lap 26 Grant and Leary passed him to push him to fifth, and he remained in fifth through lap 47. That included a yellow-flag period from laps 45 through 53 when Trey Burke’s car began smoking. Although Kody was in fifth place before the yellow, he was some 4.462 seconds ahead of the only driver still in contention for the title, point leader Seavey, who ran in sixth. This was despite the fact Kody had hit the wall slightly in Turn 1 once due to handling issues.

That margin disappeared when Kody pulled off the track and went to the work area on lap 47 and lap 50 under yellow, hoping to make some adjustments to improve the car for a better chance at a good finish. He dropped from fifth to 11th place due to the stops, but he did not lose a lap due to the crew’s quick work.

The green waved again on lap 54, but it was short lived. When Kody entered Turn 1 the car wouldn’t turn properly and he hit the wall between Turns 1 and 2, unfortunately collecting the 15th-place car of Derek Bischak. Kody was able to continue but Bischak’s day was done. The yellow was the final one of the race, and it lasted from laps 55 through 60.

Although the handling of his car was still compromised, Kody was determined to do everything he could to gain every position possible and keep his title hopes alive. That resulted in a valiant effort that was definitely memorable.

He rose from 11th to ninth on lap 63 by passing Dakoda Armstrong and Kyle O’Gara. Two laps later he moved into eighth place by passing Kaylee Bryson, the series’ Rookie of the Year. Two laps after that he got seventh by passing Mario Clouser, and on lap 73 he moved into sixth by passing Davey Hamilton Jr.

The rest of the race was a battle royale for fourth between Seavey, Leary and Kody.

Kody pulled abreast of Seavey several times in Turn 1 and Turn 4 but couldn’t make a pass stick. But on lap 98 of 100 Kody passed Seavey on the backstretch and Leary going into Turn 3 to rise to fourth, which is where he finished.

 “Our car was really good for a while,” Kody said after the race. “We changed the rear end before the race, and we had brake problems off and on all weekend. I got into the wall once in Turn 1. Then on the restart the same thing happened in the same turn as the car just wouldn’t turn, and Derek Bischak got collected in it. I hate to have made a mistake that put him out of the race.

“The car was a handful but I kept trying because it was the only chance we had. I kept moving around the track to try to find a line that would give us a chance.

 “I want to congratulate Logan Seavey and his team for winning the championship. I also want to thank the Doran Binks crew for all their hard work this year. We came really close. I also want to thank all our sponsors, especially Mission Foods and Glenn Farms, for their support.”

500 Sprint Car Tour

Kody Swanson entered the weekend second to Roahrig by 13 points in the 500 Sprint Car Tour point standings. In addition to Roahrig and Swanson, Armstrong, O’Gara and Santos were still in the running for the title at the season finale.

Swanson qualified fourth on Saturday with a time of 20.536 seconds, just 0.225 off Roahrig’s fast time. The inversion was a six, so Swanson started third in the 23-car field for the 40-lapper, which was the 64th running of the Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial. Tanner Swanson started on the pole with Santos alongside him. Billy Wease started beside Kody, while Jake Trainor started fifth next to Roahrig.

Kody Swanson went low at the drop of the green. The Swanson brothers and Santos were three wide in Turn 2 but Kody had the lead by Turn 4 of the first lap with Santos second, while Wease edged ahead of Tanner Swanson for third.

Santos dropped from second to sixth on lap two, so the top five at that point were Kody Swanson, Wease, Tanner Swanson, Roahrig and Trainor.

Kody was able to build up a half-second lead over Wease by lap five. Two laps later Roahrig passed Tanner for third, and then Tanner dropped back to sixth.

Roahrig passed Wease for second place on lap 11, and then he got under Kody in Turn 4 for the lead working lap 13. Roahrig led the rest of the way.

O’Gara passed Wease for third on lap 17 and Kody for second on lap 18, and he ran in second place the rest of the race.

Yellow-flag laps didn’t count and there was only one caution, which came out with 18 laps down when the car that was 10th, driven by Bryan Gossel, started to smoke and he pitted. Santos also pitted at that point and he also retired.

Swanson kept up with Roahrig and O’Gara on the restart but on lap 20 he dropped from third to fifth when Wease and Tanner Swanson passed him. On the following lap he dropped to eighth when Trainor, Taylor Ferns and Jackson Macenko, the series’ Rookie of the Year, also got by, and that’s where he finished.

Roahrig had a 3.284-second margin of victory over O’Gara. Tanner Swanson was third followed by Wease, Ferns, Trainor and Macenko. Kody was pressured in the late stages by Nick Hamilton, but he held on for eighth. Brian Gerster rounded out the top 10.

“We struggled to get our car to handle,” Kody said afterwards. “We thought we had it closer, but it got way too tight.

“Congratulations to Tyler and his team for winning the title,” he said. “We had a good season, and I want to thank all the men and women on our team and our sponsors for their support.”

The weekend’s races were streamed live on Flo Racing.

For more information see DoranRacing.com.