SPEEDWAY, Ind. — At his family’s home on Christmas morning of 2023, Kody Swanson’s upcoming season and the entirety of his racing future hung in the balance.
MRIs, CT scans and multiple surgeries on his broken left foot came and went in the months to come, with Swanson having plates and screws installed shortly thereafter. The most positive prognosis had Swanson possibly returning to the cockpit by June at the earliest.
While still utilizing crutches, Swanson maintained a rigorous rehabilitation and physical therapy program. By March 4, just a little over two months since the accident, he took his first unaided steps without crutches. Therapy continued into the Spring, and ultimately, the walking boot finally came off just in time for the start of the USAC Silver Crown season on April 20 at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway, plenty of time ahead of schedule. But the question remained – was he ready?
How did Swanson respond? Similar to Pancho Carter’s heroic comeback to kick off the 1978 season, Swanson showed no signs of wear, tear or rust. Despite a slight limp in his gait, Swanson showed all the signs of the same ol’ Kody as he led the day off by taking the top time in practice, then laid down the fastest lap in qualifying and concluded the afternoon with a masterpiece driving performance in which he led all 100 laps in succession for his eighth career Silver Crown victory at Toledo, and sixth straight.
“I don’t know if I should’ve even raced this year,” Swanson remarked. “I shattered my foot pretty well over the winter and I can’t believe that God put so many special people in my life to give me a chance to walk like I can, to race again and to even make it back in time for the first race in the spring.”
As an encore, two weeks later at the Rich Vogler Classic on the high banks of Indiana’s Winchester Speedway, Swanson once again established the fastest time in practice before capturing the pole and going on to lead all 100 laps en route to his third consecutive Winchester USAC Silver Crown victory, the first driver to win three USAC features in a row at Winchester since Ryan Newman in 1999.
Swanson’s winning ways continued into the fourth round of the season in May as he once again led all 100 laps from the pole to earn a $26,000 payday and his fifth career Hoosier Hundred, his first on the pavement of Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park after scoring his first four on the dirt of the now shuttered Indiana State Fairgrounds in 2014-15-16-18.
In early August, Swanson had yet another surgery to remove two screws from his foot. In his first race back, during the series debut at Pennsylvania’s Jennerstown Speedway, Swanson was perfect once again, leading all 100 laps in succession from the pole.
Gripping a mere six-point edge in the standings over Justin Grant heading into October’s season finale at IRP, all Swanson needed was a top-three run to secure the title. However, yet again, he went above and beyond. Despite winning the pole position for an all-time single season series record seventh time, “domination” wasn’t exactly part of the equation. After leading early, Swanson fell back to third, then regrouped and worked his way back to the front to lead the final 38 laps on a record-setting night in which he became the track’s all-time winningest Silver Crown driver with his ninth win. To boot, his nine wins there are more than any other driver in series history at any single track.
Swanson’s eighth USAC Silver Crown title (2014-15-17-18-19-21-22-24) set a new record in terms of total championships earned by any one driver in a USAC national series. He had previously been tied with A.J. Foyt’s seven Indy Car crowns under the USAC banner as well as Mel Kenyon’s seven USAC National Midget championships.
The 2024 campaign also represented the fourth time in which Swanson won both the season finale and the USAC Silver Crown title on the same day. He’s now accomplished this feat in 2014-2015-2021-2024. Nobody else has done it more than twice.
In the process, Swanson drove the Doran Binks Racing team’s No. 77 to the entrant championship. Utilizing a Maxim/Hampshire Chevy combo on dirt and a Beast/Lanci Ford package on pavement, their Mission Foods – Wilke Orthodontics – Glenn Farms entry earned five wins in totality on the season en route to a 21-point spread between him and runner-up Grant in the final championship tally. For Kevin Doran, it’s his second USAC Silver Crown entrant title while, for Dan Binks, it’s his first.
“I’ve got an Army behind me, and I’m so fortunate for each and every one of them,” Swanson praised. “My wife, Jordan, she does so much for me personally as a wife, as a teammate and as a spotter.”
The 14 USAC Silver Crown events held in 2024 were the most since the 2006 season, and the second most all-time behind only the 1999 schedule which contested 15 races. For Swanson, it was a grueling task to master, but seemingly no matter how short or long the season is, Swanson is always there at the end with this being his 11th consecutive top-two finish in the series standings.
“This was a 14-race Silver Crown schedule and this was the first time we’ve completed that many races in my career,” Swanson noted. “It was a grueling year, and there were a lot of really strong contenders. I think of C.J. (Leary) having four podiums in a row at the beginning before trouble befell him, and Logan (Seavey) and Justin (Grant) doing the same. Each of those guys had great runs and were a part of the title fight. We had some unfortunate things on our end too, but it seemed like we were never out of it. I’m so thankful that certain things fell our way, and on other ones, we were able to overcome and just keep digging.
“With three races to go, running heads up and being in a really close title fight, coming out second on the two dirt miles was great except for Justin sweeping them both.”