ANDERSON, Ind. — Kody Swanson took advantage of an opening in the low groove to win the sprint car feature at Anderson Speedway.
Swanson chased early race leader Aaron Pierce for more than 100 circuits on UAW night on Saturday and finally prevailed with the inside pass helped by lapped traffic.
Pierce started on the front row following the inversion from qualifying which saw Swanson, the fast qualifier starting sixth in the field.
As expected Pierce grabbed the early lead chased by Joe Liguori and Chris Neuenschwander.
Swanson, the winner of the Pay Less Little 500 in May, rapidly climbed through the field and by the tenth lap was running second.
For the next 103 laps Swanson stayed glued to Pierce’s rear nerf bar but was never able to make a run on the inside to take the lead.
With the race going green to checkers Pierce’s tires started to lose their grip with 25 laps remaining that allowed Swanson to turn up the pressure.
On lap 113 the two leaders encountered the lapped car of Nick Hamilton coming off the fourth corner. Swanson was able to get inside of Hamilton while Pierce was forced to the outside.
From that point Swanson pulled away to win by seven-tenths of a second over Pierce with Tyler Roahrig, Bobby Santos and Kyle O’Gara rounding out the top five.
“It was great racing,” Swanson said in the Star Financial Winner’s Circle. “My car was better at some points on the track and Aaron’s (Pierce) was in other places. I was fortunate the opening came and I got take advantage of it.
“Thanks to Anderson Speedway for keeping pavement sprint car racing alive,” he said.
Pierce said the tires on his ride went away at the end forcing him to run a higher line through the corners.
“If not for the lapped traffic, I think I could have held him off,” he said. “Right now, Kody is the best driver on pavement. That was fun.”
Roahrig made a late race charge to be in a position to threaten for the win after starting fifth in the field.
“To finish third behind Kody and Aaron is an honor,” he said. “We’re getting better every time and we’ll keep working on it.”
The finish:
1) Kody Swanson; 2) Aaron Pierce; 3) Tyler Roahrig; 4) Bobby Santos III; 5) Kyle O’Gara; 6) Nick Hamilton; 7) Chris Neuenschwander; 8) Tony Main; 9) Brian Vaughn; 10) Trey Osborne; 11) Travis Welpott; 12) Doug Dietsch; 13) Christian Koehler; 14) Teddy Alberts; 15) Jimmy McCune; 16) Joe Liguori; 17) Geoff Kaiser; 18) Billy Wease