LEBANON, Ohio — Five-time USAC Silver Crown Series champion Kody Swanson will join Doran Racing for the asphalt portion of the USAC Silver Crown schedule next year as well as select asphalt sprint car events.
As part of his schedule with Doran Racing, Swanson will compete in the Pay Less Little 500 at Anderson (Ind.) Speedway with the team. Swanson, a native of Kingsburg, Calif., now living in Zionsville, Ind., is a three-time winner of the Little 500.
He has virtually rewritten the USAC Silver Crown history book, earning 30 victories in USAC’s premier division. He won the series’ driver championship in 2014, ’15, ’17, ’18 and ’19, and finished second this year in an abbreviated season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and rain.
Swanson most recently competed in the USAC Silver Crown Series and select asphalt sprint car events for Nolen Racing.
The association is not new, as Swanson has run select sprint car and sports car events for the Lebanon, Ohio-based Doran Racing team in the past. Swanson and Brad Jaeger will co-drive the Doran Racing 2008 Ford GT in the Historic Sportscar Racing Classic Daytona presented by IMSA Nov. 4-8 at Daytona Int’l Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. The pair won their class in the same car at that event last year, and finished third in GT.
“We plan to run 10-14 races in 2021 with Kody between the pavement USAC Silver Crown schedule and selected asphalt sprint car races,” said Kevin Doran, head of Doran Racing.
“We’ll compete in the Silver Crown and sprint car races at Lucas Oil Raceway [Brownsburg, Ind.], and of course the Little 500 at Anderson Speedway,” he added. “We’ll likely do a couple of the other sprint car races at Anderson next year too. We’ll look closely at all the big-event pavement sprint car races to add in as the 2021 schedule firms up.
“We may run the sprint car race at Showtime Speedway [Pinellas Park, Fla.] in February,” he added.
Swanson drove a Doran Racing sprint car to victory in the Dave Steele World Non-Wing Sprint Car Championship 125 at Showtime Speedway last February.
The team is sponsored in part by Glenn Farms of Woodland, Ga.
Doran Racing has prepared and fielded race cars in a wide variety of series for many years, from Indy cars to NASCAR trucks, and it is extremely well-known in sports car racing. Kevin Doran has won the Rolex 24 at Daytona as a crewmember, a chief mechanic, a crew chief, a team owner and even as a car manufacturer.
“I’m very excited to join the Doran Racing team, and appreciate the opportunities we’ve had to race together already,” Swanson said. “They have had success in several racing series and bring a unique perspective to short-track racing. They have a great team and a professional approach, and I believe they will help me continue to improve as a driver as we venture into additional types of racing. I’m looking forward to racing together in the Silver Crown and sprint car divisions, continuing with their sports car program, and anything else that next year has in store for us.”