ROSSBURG, Ohio — C.J. Leary stayed alive in the USAC Silver Crown National Championship points race by virtue of his pole position during Friday night’s Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying session at Eldora Speedway.
Leary will start from the first position in Saturday night’s 50-lap USAC Silver Crown season finale, part of the 43rd running of the 4-Crown Nationals Presented by NKTELCO at the half-mile dirt oval.
Entering Friday night, Leary needed to win the pole to remain mathematically eligible in the 2025 USAC Silver Crown title race. He did just that to earn the three bonus points after a qualifying run of 17.017 seconds in his Team AZ-Petty-Rossi Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – Apache Transportation/DRC/Stanton Chevy.
Leary has previously won with the USAC Silver Crown series at Eldora in 2018, and has now earned three pole awards at the track in 2021-2022-2025.
The top-20 qualifiers were locked into the feature through time trials. The remainder of the field competed for the final six transfer spots in an eight-lap qualifying race. Kyle Steffens led all eight laps to collect the victory.
