BROWNSBURG, Ind. — Figuring out the arithmetic for the USAC Silver Crown finale is as easy as one-two-three.
One race. Two title contenders. Three points of separation.
That’s what the USAC Silver Crown championship race comes down to this Saturday, Oct. 22, at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. Logan Seavey and Kody Swanson are engrossed in one of the tightest point battles in USAC Silver Crown history with Seavey holding a three-point edge entering the 100-lap event on the .686-mile paved oval.
The race to the crown has been practically even throughout the first 10 events of the season. To demonstrate how close the championship fight is going into this weekend’s race, consider this stat line and evaluate whose resume you think this belongs to.
This Californian owns three wins, one runner-up finish, a single third-place result and two fourth place runs in addition to nine top-10s in 10 starts. This driver also has a worst finish of eighth when still running at the finish of the race.
Is it Seavey? Could it be Swanson? Nope. Actually, it’s both.
Seavey and Swanson carry the exact same statistics thus far at this point in the year.
So, who holds the edge? Well, it’s certainly no secret that Swanson (Kingsburg, Calif.) holds the upper hand at IRP. In fact, he holds the upper hand over everybody who’s ever sat in the seat of a champ car at IRP. His seven victories and nine poles in Silver Crown competition at the track are both records.
In fact, he’s finished inside the top-two in 15 of his 21 career series starts at IRP. Furthermore, he’s been victorious in the last four pavement races on the schedule, including the non-points, 25-lap special event in June at IRP.
Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) has been stellar on the dirt all year long, picking up all three of his victories on dirt. However, he’s upped his game on the asphalt this year, finishing as high as second at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway while also grabbing a stellar fifth at IRP in May’s Carb Night Classic.
In 2021 at IRP, he also collected a seventh and eighth.
Every point is crucial from the word “go,” from qualifying to laps led to where a driver crosses the stripe when the checkered flag is waved one last time. Three bonus points are up for grabs for the pole winner. Three more are available to the driver who leads the most laps.
However, the bulk of the points are made at the finish line with the winner receiving 70 points while each position’s point total decreases by three throughout the top-10 with tenth earning 43 points. From 10th to 20th in the final running order, the points decrease by two for each position with 20th collecting 23 points. Beyond 20th, the points situation decreases by one for each spot through the balance of the field.
The least amount any driver can gain is 13 for the event. Ten points are awarded to any driver not starting the event.
In addition to the championship battle between the drivers are their teams. The entrant title battle is currently separated by the same three-point margin with Seavey’s Rice Motorsports No. 222 standing atop the pylon ahead of the combined team effort of Doran-Dyson Motorsports for Swanson’s No. 1.
For Rice, it would be his second consecutive entrant title while for Doran-Dyson, it would be both the first for either department.
With all that said, there’s a big score still yet to be settled between an array of talent throughout the field who possesses 12 IRP Silver Crown victories between themselves. Bobby Santos captured the most recent Silver Crown points race in May, which was his fifth win overall with the series at the track after earlier winning the pole position for the race.
Tanner Swanson owns six IRP Silver Crown wins in his career, second only to his brother, Kody. Tanner has also set quick time on another five occasions, and like Santos and Kody, he is one of the few and the proud who can lay claim to victories in a sprint car, midget and Silver Crown car at IRP.
Brian Tyler made his IRP Silver Crown debut back in 1996 for master mechanic and car owner Jack Steck. His lone IRP Silver Crown winning performance came in the “New Generation” machine during the 2006 season.
In the traditional champ car, Tyler won the pole for the 2001 IRP race and went on to finish second. The two-time USAC National Sprint Car driving champion can also boast IRP Silver Crown finishes of third in 1999 and 2003 as well as a fifth in 2000.
Two-time Little 500 winner Tyler Roahrig returns to Silver Crown competition for the first time this year after finishing as the runner-up last August at IRP. He’ll pilot a brand new Legacy chassis built by Legacy Autosport who is making its first foray into Silver Crown racing.
Both have winning experience at IRP in other divisions. Roahrig captured a 500 Sprint Car Tour win this past August while Legacy Autosport scored an Indy Pro 2000 win in 2020 with driver Kody Swanson.
Taylor Ferns made history in May at IRP when she became the first woman to finish on the podium of a Silver Crown race, taking a career-best third with her effort. She also finished inside the top-five with a fifth in early 2021.
Two past USAC National champions have previously risen to the occasion at IRP. Justin Grant, the 2020 Silver Crown champ, has recorded three top-five results in his Silver Crown career at IRP with a fourth in both 2019 and 2021, plus a fifth in 2021. C.J. Leary, the 2019 USAC National Sprint Car titlist, tallied a best pavement run of fourth this past May. His father, Chuck Leary, won the Silver Crown pole at IRP in 1999.
Mario Clouser made the biggest position advancement of any driver this season when he charged from 24th to seventh at IRP in May in what was his first career Silver Crown start. Patrick Lawson has a been a traveling man of late at IRP, moving from 21st to a career-best seventh in 2020 and from 17th to ninth in 2021.
Davey Hamilton Jr. was very nearly a first-time winner in his last Silver Crown outing in Madison, Ill. where he finished a career-best second. At IRP, he’s completed the task eighth in 2022 and ninth in 2017.
Kyle Robbins, Travis Welpott and Gregg Cory have all been top-10 finishers in their Silver Crown careers at IRP. Robbins snagged a 10th in 2019 with Welpott grabbing 10th in 2021 and Cory earning his best career result of 10th in 2022. Cory is well on his way to collecting series Rookie of the Year honors with the series this year.
Returning to IRP action this Saturday are Silver Crown combatants looking to up their performances from years past in Silver Crown competition at the track, a list which includes Nathan Byrd, 2020 Rookie of the Year Bryan Gossel, 2019 Rookie of the Year Derek Bischak, as well as Nick Hamilton, Jake Day, Dave Berkheimer and Mike McVetta who pulled off a Midwest Supermodified feature victory at IRP in 2018.
Two drivers will be making their IRP Silver Crown debuts.
Kaylee Bryson turned the world on its collective ear with her performance during last Saturday’s event on the one-mile dirt oval at the Illinois State Fairgrounds where she led 72 of the 100 laps and finished a career-best fifth. Her car — the Sam Pierce Racing No. 26 — won the pole for a Silver Crown round at IRP in 2015 with driver Aaron Pierce.
Series Rookie Tom Paterson, the 2021 Auto Value Super Sprint Series champion driver, will make his first go with the big cars at IRP in his familiar yellow No. 111.