CLERMONT, Ind. – Even when he’s not racing for a championship, Kody Swanson is still the undisputed king of the USAC Silver Crown Series.
Swanson took his new team, Doran Racing, to a win in the pairing’s first start together Saturday morning during the 100-lap Silver Crown feature that opened the rain-postponed Carb Night Classic program at Lucas Oil Raceway.
A five-time Silver Crown champion, Swanson will only run the pavement portion of the tour’s schedule this season due to other obligations in late models.
After lying in wait for the first third of the race, Swanson began plotting his move to the front just before the lap-40 benchmark. He overhauled Justin Grant with an inside swoop at lap 39 and then spent the next 20 laps riding behind leader Bobby Santos III before methodically closing the deficit.
After a failed look to the low lane on lap 62, Swanson made the move stick two circuits later and took a lead he would never relinquish. Swanson led the final 37 laps for his record 31st career Silver Crown win.
Despite cautions with 27 and 15 laps to go, respectively, for the spun car of Bryan Gossel, Swanson pulled away from Santos on both ensuing restarts en route to victory lane.
It was Swanson’s third time winning the Carb Night Classic, setting an event record in the annual pre-Indianapolis 500 spectacular at “the short track down the road” from the 2.5-mile IMS oval.
“Bobby Santos is an incredible racer, and he looked like he had a really good car early today,” Swanson said in victory lane. “I hate that misfortune happened for my brother, Tanner, because he’s awesome here too. What makes these races so special is that you have to beat some of the best in the country in any type of racing. Bobby could be anywhere, whether he was in NASCAR or open-wheel … he’s that caliber of a driver. I think the same thing about my brother.
“We have a great race team here and this was a great first time with Doran Racing in the Silver Crown Series,” Swanson added. “They’ve been working their tails off to make this thing better every time. They didn’t give up, even through this morning’s warmup, because I didn’t think I had the car to keep up with Santos and Grant for 100 [laps]. I just had to hope that maybe we’d have a chance at the end.
“Luckily, with traffic and the track changing through the race, it came to us a bit and gave us a chance.”
Swanson is hoping to run the table in Indiana Saturday with a sweep of pavement Silver Crown, midget and sprint car features all in the same day – a feat that has never been done on the blacktop.
He’ll compete in the midget at LOR before heading to Anderson (Ind.) Speedway to race the 73rd Pay Less Little 500 – a 500-lap non-winged sprint car event – during the nighttime hours.
Santos was succinct in his summation of Saturday’s race, ending up 4.219 seconds adrift of Swanson at the checkered flag after taking the lead on the start and pacing the first 63 laps uncontested.
“We just weren’t good enough,” the past NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion lamented. “I’m honestly not sure what we could have done differently. We just have to get better.”
David Byrne rallied from a dismal 2020 season, where he completed only 16 laps in Silver Crown competition, with a podium finish some 6.4 seconds back of Swanson in the end.
Grant faded to fourth in the final laps, with Taylor Ferns filling out the top five in her first Silver Crown start since 2014. Jim Anderson was the final car on the lead lap, crossing the line sixth.
Rookie-of-the-year contender Logan Seavey, Shane Cottle, Patrick Lawson and Austin Nemire closed the top 10.
Other than Gossel’s two spins, a caution waved on lap 17 for a two-car crash in turn four that eliminated fast qualifier Tanner Swanson and Jake Day from the race.
The elder Swanson brother crashed during group qualifying Friday night after setting the pole time, then was unable to join the race until four laps in due to a furious repair effort from his Bowman Racing crew.
A red-flag stoppage on the fourth lap, for a flip on the fronstretch that saw 21-year-old Nathan Byrd get upside down briefly before coming back down on all four wheels, allowed Swanson the time he needed to get out on-track Saturday before things went sideways shortly after that.
Of note, Byrd climbed from his car after his incident, uninjured in the wild early shunt.
The USAC Silver Crown Series season continues June 18 at Pennsylvania’s Williams Grove Speedway.
USAC Silver Crown Series; Carb Night Classic; Lucas Oil Raceway; Brownsburg, Ind.; May 29, 2021
Qualifying (held Friday): 1. Tanner Swanson, 02, Bowman-20.714; 2. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran-20.821; 3. Bobby Santos, 22, DJ-20.831; 4. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-21.111; 5. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-21.115; 6. Jim Anderson, 92, Kazmark-21.149; 7. Shane Cottle, 81, BCR-21.189; 8. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-21.226; 9. Nathan Byrd, 11, Hamilton/Byrd-21.292; 10. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-21.295; 11. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott-21.309; 12. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-21.354; 13. Eric Gordon, 99, Armstrong-21.397; 14. Derek Bischak, 131, Bischak-21.455; 15. Logan Seavey, 222, Rice-21.496; 16. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-21.586; 17. Kyle O’Gara, 1, SFHR-21.598; 18. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-21.667; 19. Bryan Gossel, 06, Gossel-21.736; 20. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-21.796; 21. Annie Breidinger, 80, Breidinger-21.827; 22. Brian Gerster, 94, Myers-22.131; 23. Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-22.251; 24. Brent Yarnal, 29, Yarnal-24.806; 25. Jake Day, 42, Day-25.884; 26. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-NT.
Feature (100 laps): 1. 77-Kody Swanson, 2. 22-Bobby Santos III, 3. 40-David Byrne, 4. 91-Justin Grant, 5. 55-Taylor Ferns, 6. 92-Jim Anderson, 7. 222-Logan Seavey, 8. 81-Shane Cottle, 9. 2-Patrick Lawson, 10. 16-Austin Nemire, 11. 7-Kyle Robbins, 12. 1-Kyle O’Gara, 13. 06-Bryan Gossel, 14. 24-Mike Haggenbottom, 15. 99-Eric Gordon, 16. 39-Matt Goodnight, 17. 80-Annie Breidinger, 18. 42-Jake Day, 19. 02-Tanner Swanson, 20. 18-Travis Welpott, 21. 11-Nathan Byrd, 22. 31-Dave Berkheimer (DNS), 23. 29-Brent Yarnal (DNS).