Silver Crown Cars at Iowa Speedway June 20; Swansons Share Indy Silver Crown Glory
Kody Swanson (Left) and brother Tanner Swanson (Right) collected victories in USAC Silver Crown action last week. Kody won his second consecutive “Hoosier Hundred” on Thursday night while Tanner picked up his third win in the previous four races at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis after winningSaturday’s “Day Before the 500.”
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The Swanson brothers swept to victories in last week’s USAC Silver Crown races and Kody takes a 33-point lead over Aaron Pierce into round four of the series June 20 at Iowa Speedway in Newton. Kody, last year’s series champion, won Thursday night’s “Hoosier Hundred” at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, while Tanner dominated Saturdayafternoon’s “Day Before the 500” at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg, Ind. Kody trailed A.J. Fike for the first 67 circuits around the one-mile fairgrounds ovalThursday, then led the final 33 miles in his Radio Hospital/Hampshire Racing Engines Maxim/Chevy. Tanner led all 100 laps of Saturday’s race at Lucas Oil Raceway in his Banjo Liquid Handling Products/Bowman Elmore Beast/Chevy. Pierce finished second to Kody in the “Hoosier Hundred” and was fifth in Satuday’s race. Brian Tyler was spectacular in his third-place finish at the fairgrounds in a “borrowed” car! He subbed for driver Randy Bateman, started last and ended up on the podium after a stirring drive. Fike was fourth and Justin Grant fifth. Brady Bacon won the “Rookie of the Race” award. Tanner nearly lapped the field Saturday as Kody took second and lapped drivers Bobby Santos, Jerry Coons Jr. and Pierce rounded out the top-five at the checkered flag. —————————— RACE RECAP Brownsburg, Indiana……Tanner Swanson of Kingsburg, California reclaimed his throne as dominator of USAC Silver Crown events at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis, picking up his third victory in the last four series events at the .686 mile paved oval in Saturday afternoon’s “Day Before the 500.”
Tanner is familiar with running up front at the track, leading 385 of the last 386 laps of competition in the series at Lucas Oil Raceway dating back to July of 2013.
After a heartbreaking last lap defeat at the hands of David Byrne in last July’s Silver Crown event at the track, Tanner decimated the field in his Bowman Racing/Banjo Liquid Handling Products – Bowman Elmore/Beast/Chevy, leading all 100 laps and lapping every driver in the field except older brother and 2nd place finisher Kody Swanson. The #02 car that Tanner sat behind the wheel of was a “backup” to Tanner’s traditional #11 mount that was damaged in a scary incident in the series’ season opening event at Toledo on May 1.
At the start, fast qualifier and pole sitter, Tanner, jumped out to the lead, but a lap two caution brought the action to an early halt when Jimmy Parsons’ car came to a stop on the backstretch. After the restart, Tanner was able to continually extend his race lead with each ensuing lap.
The afternoon Indiana heat took a toll as the track temperatures climbed and a handful of cars in the 18-car starting field had dropped out of the race by the midway point as Tanner kept pace ahead of Bobby Santos, Kody Swanson, A.J. Fike, and Aaron Pierce.
Kody Swanson and Santos engaged in a lap-after-lap war, but on lap 61, Swanson was able to clear Santos with an outside pass to take the 2nd spot. Just four laps later, Jerry Coons, Jr. made an inside pass on Fike for fourth and Pierce got by Fike on the outside of turn two to get to fifth on the ensuing lap.
Up front, Tanner was never challenged, going on to win the 100-lap event by an astonishing 16.685 seconds over K. Swanson, Santos, Coons, Pierce, Fike, Hines, Byrne, Leary, and Nemire rounding out the top ten.
It was quite a return for Tanner after his spectacular somersault down Toledo Speedway’s front straightaway just three weeks ago. The unknowns played into Tanner’s mind, yet he still remained confident making his series return.
“The main thing was the unknown,” Tanner admitted. “I was running the backup car and was just worried about how it would handle compared to our primary car.”
The race was different for most of the Silver Crown competitors at Lucas Oil Raceway on this day as the traditional racing under the lights was replaced with racing under the sun; the first mid-day Silver Crown event at the track since August of 2000. Despite that fact, Tanner felt that the heat did not play a huge role.
“It was actually a lot like the night races here,” Tanner proclaimed. “Of course, tire wear was a concern and my feet and knees definitely felt the effects of the sun, but the handling on my car didn’t change much at all; it stayed consistent all day.”
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USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 23, 2015 – Brownsburg, Indiana – Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis – “Day Before the 500”
QUALIFYING: 1. Tanner Swanson, 11, Bowman-21.241; 2. A.J. Fike, 3, RFMS-21.336; 3. Tracy Hines, 98, RPM/Gormly-21.374; 4. Bobby Santos, 122, DJ-21.380; 5. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-21.433; 6. Jacob Wilson, 07, Wilson-21.589; 7. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-21.617; 8. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-21.690; 9. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary/Six R-21.843; 10. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-21.880; 11. Jarett Andretti, 4, Andretti-22.072; 12. Austin Nemire, 91, Hemelgarn-22.210; 13. Rex Norris III, 16, Norris-22.395; 14. Dave Baumgartner, 15, Baumgartner-22.645; 15. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-22.899; 16. Tad Roach, 84, Spivey-27.987; 17. Jimmy Parsons, 116, Logan-29.139; 18. Davey Ray, 25, Sachs-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps) 1. Tanner Swanson, 2. Kody Swanson, 3. Bobby Santos, 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 5. Aaron Pierce, 6. A.J. Fike, 7. Tracy Hines, 8. David Byrne, 9. C.J. Leary, 10. Austin Nemire, 11. Jarett Andretti, 12. Rex Norris III, 13. Jacob Wilson, 14. Dave Baumgartner, 15. Patrick Lawson, 16. Davey Ray, 17. Tad Roach, 18. Jimmy Parsons. 40:23.16 —————————— FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-100 T.Swanson. |
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UPCOMING EVENT INFO
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2015 USAC SILVER CROWN
SCHEDULE & RESULTS
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2015 USAC SILVER CROWN
POINT STANDINGS
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2015 USAC SILVER CROWN FEATURE WINNERS
Kody Swanson – 2 (Toledo Speedway on May 1 & Indiana State Fairgrounds on May 21)Tanner Swanson – 1 (Lucas Oil Raceway at May 23)
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2015 USAC SILVER CROWN STATISTICS
FEATURE WINS:
1. Kody Swanson – 2 2. Tanner Swanson – 1FEATURE LAPS LED 1. Kody Swanson – 133 1. A.J. Fike – 3 |
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2015 USAC SILVER CROWN HARD CHARGERS
5/1: Toledo Speedway – A.J. Fike (14 positions)
5/21: Indiana State Fairgrounds – Brian Tyler (24 positions) 5/23: Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis – Kody Swanson (3 positions) |
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2015 USAC SILVER CROWN
B&W AUTO MART “ROOKIE OF THE RACE” 5/1: Toledo Speedway – Austin Nemire
5/21: Indiana State Fairgrounds – Brady Bacon 5/23: Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis – C.J. Leary |
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ALL-TIME USAC SILVER CROWN WINNERS
1. [23 wins] Jack Hewitt
2. [17 wins] Brian Tyler
3. [16 wins] Dave Steele
4. [15 wins] J.J. Yeley
5. [14 wins] Dave Darland & Chuck Gurney
7. [12 wins] Jimmy Sills 8. [11 wins] Bobby East
9. [10 wins] Gary Bettenhausen, Mike Bliss & Kody Swanson
12. [9 wins] Tracy Hines
13. [7 wins] Jerry Coons Jr., Rick Hood & George Snider
16. [6 wins] Tom Bigelow, Russ Gamester, Kenny Irwin Jr., Jason Leffler, Ken Schrader & Al Unser
22. [5 wins] Mario Andretti, Donnie Beechler, Pancho Carter, Jay Drake, Tony Elliott, Bud Kaeding, Sheldon Kinser, Larry Rice & Bobby Santos
31. [4 wins]Tanner Swanson, Jeff Swindell & Rich Vogler 34. [3 wins] Steve Butler, Cameron Dodson, A.J. Fike, Levi Jones, Kasey Kahne, Jim Keeker, Steve Kinser, Bobby Olivero, Johnny Parsons, Aaron Pierce, Ron Shuman, Tony Stewart, Tyler Walker & Paul White 48. [2 wins] Pat Abold, Steve Chassey, Bryan Clauson, Larry Dickson, Bill Engelhart, A.J. Foyt, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Larson, Jim McElreath, Ryan Newman, Joe Saldana, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Cole Whitt, Josh Wise & Doug Wolfgang 63. [1 win] Teddy Beach, Jeff Bloom, David Byrne, Marvin Carman, Shane Carson, Bob Cicconi, Shane Cockrum, Herb Copeland, Shane Cottle, Bruce Field, Aaron Fike, Chet Fillip, Bob Frey, Eric Gordon, John Heydenreich, Gary Hieber, Shane Hmiel, Shane Hollingsworth, Jimmy Horton, Jackie Howerton, Kevin Huntley, Kenny Jacobs, Bubby Jones, Keith Kauffman, Jimmy Kite, Chuck Leary, Eddie Leavitt, Jason McCord, Lealand McSpadden, Mat Neely, Brad Noffsinger, Stevie Reeves, Wayne Reutimann Jr., Danny Smith, Kevin Thomas, Rich Tobias Jr., Chris Urish, Billy Vukovich & Chris Windom |
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ALL-TIME USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONS
1971: George Snider 1972: A.J. Foyt 1973: Al Unser 1974: Mario Andretti 1975: Jimmy Caruthers 1976: Billy Cassella 1977: Larry Rice 1978: Pancho Carter 1979: Bobby Olivero 1980: Gary Bettenhausen 1981: Larry Rice 1982: Ken Schrader 1983: Gary Bettenhausen 1984: Dave Blaney 1985: Rick Hood 1986: Jack Hewitt 1987: Jack Hewitt 1988: Steve Butler 1989: Chuck Gurney 1990: Jimmy Sills 1991: Jeff Gordon 1992: Steve Butler 1993: Mike Bliss 1994: Jimmy Sills 1995: Tony Stewart 1996: Jimmy Sills 1997: Dave Darland 1998: Jason Leffler 1999: Ryan Newman 2000: Tracy Hines 2001: Paul White 2002: J.J. Yeley2003: J.J. Yeley 2004: Dave Steele 2005: Dave Steele 2006: Bud Kaeding 2007: Bud Kaeding 2008: Jerry Coons Jr. 2009: Bud Kaeding 2010: Levi Jones 2011: Levi Jones 2012: Bobby East 2013: Bobby East 2014: Kody Swanson |
