NEWTON, Iowa — When it comes to the two biggest and fastest pavement tracks on the USAC Silver Crown trail, C.J. Leary has had the upper hand.
After winning at the 1.25-mile WWT Raceway in June, Leary added the seven-eighths-mile Iowa Speedway to his win list in what was his first visit to the track during Saturday night’s Iowa 100.
Leary started fifth but found his way to fourth on the opening lap, then to third on the second circuit before taking over second on the 24th trip. On lap 47, he pounced when leader Chase Cabre’s engine shut off with an apparent ignition issue.
From there, Leary controlled the pace the rest of the way, leading the final 54 laps while also withstanding a late-race challenge from Mario Clouser to front a one-two Team AZ Racing/Petty-Rossi/Curb-Agajanian result.
Leary bumped his USAC Silver Crown Championship point lead from 36 to 45 as he seeks his first career series title. Furthermore, he’s now run his streak to six podium finishes in six starts this season, plus 12 consecutive top five finishes with the series dating back to 2025. He’s been exceptionally strong on the pavement, which has netted him finishes of fourth, first, first, second, third and first in his past six asphalt appearances, with the latest victories coming at the two biggest pavement circuits on the slate.
“I think these two big fast race tracks play a little bit into my hands,” Leary said. “I don’t know if it’s from my dad (Chuck Leary) or what, but I know he was riding along with me there because he was always good on these big fast race tracks where you just kind of let it all hang out.”
Leary’s Iowa victory came in his very first visit to the track, which also just happened to be the first USAC Silver Crown event at the track since 2015, more than 11 years ago. Just five of the 18 drivers in Saturday’s lineup possessed previous Iowa Speedway experience of some sort.
“It’s my first time here,” Leary revealed. “This place is really, really cool. It’s on a really good stage. Hats off to USAC and (series director) Kody Swanson, and everybody who got the Silver Crown series back to Iowa. This was one that was on the bucket list to win this year and we did it.”
To start off the day, Cabre made history in what was his first USAC Silver Crown appearance, turning the fastest lap during qualifying. He became just the sixth driver to win the pole in his USAC Silver Crown debut.
Cabre promptly became the dominant figure of the race as well, pulling out to a whopping 10 second lead by the 47th lap when, all of a sudden, he dropped off the pace, handing the lead over to Leary who now commandeered control just four laps shy of the halfway point. In a cruel twist, after Cabre coasted into the pits without power to his car, the team fired up the engine and it started fine, with the team suspecting an ignition issue as the culprit.
While Leary maintained an advantage of one second or so throughout the balance of the race, several other challengers emerged to dethrone him. Briggs Danner ran in the “place” position until Jackson Macenko shot up to second under Danner in turn one on the 59th lap. Clouser then ripped around the outside of Danner for third a half lap later, while Justin Grant followed suit past Danner into fourth.
Clouser worked his way past Macenko with a low side maneuver in turns three and four on lap 66 to slot into second behind his teammate, Leary, with 34 laps to go and just seven tenths of a second separating the two. Grant charged inside of Macenko on the front stretch to get the third spot on lap 76.
In a race chockfull of heavy attrition, just five cars were left running at the checkered. Thirteen drivers exited the stage, ending solid performances, including fourth running Macenko on lap 82, fifth running Kyle Hamilton on lap 86, and the aforementioned Danner on lap 89 while he was running fourth.
The last 19 laps ran under green as Leary kept Clouser at bay throughout to earn his seventh career USAC Silver Crown victory, tying Jerry Coons Jr., Rick Hood, and George Snider for 18th place on the all-time list. Leary also led the final 54 laps en route to victory, and as the leader of the most laps, he earned the K & N Filters Clean Air Award.
“Tyler Kramer called a hell of a race up there on the spotter stand,” Leary praised. “He kept me just where I needed to be and talked me through the whole race. It definitely pays dividends to have a good guy up there on the spotter box.
“And I can’t say enough about Joe Devin. To go one-two here is really special. Joe just puts his heart and soul into this thing. He’s tinkering on it and laying on the ground and he’s doing all the stuff that a good crew chief should do, which makes my job easy.”
Mario Clouser crossed the stripe 0.895 seconds behind Leary in the second position, while Justin Grant took third. For Clouser, it was the third time he’s finished as the runner-up at Iowa Speedway. He was also second with the USAC National Midgets at Iowa in both 2011 and 2012. On Saturday, he was just one spot shy again of earning his first career USAC national victory.
Nathan Byrd became the first driver since J.J. Yeley 19 years ago in 2007 at Kansas Speedway to compete in both a USAC Silver Crown and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts race on the same day at the same track. Byrd finished fourth in the USAC race and 25th in the NASCAR event.
USAC Silver Crown Championship, Iowa Speedway, Newton, Iowa, August 8, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Cabre, 26, Pierce-21.963; 2. Mario Clouser, 20, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-22.112; 3. Bobby Santos, 98, DJ-22.139; 4. Davey Hamilton Jr., 14, Hamilton/DB-22.140; 5. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-22.157; 6. Dakoda Armstrong, 5, C & A-22.382; 7. Briggs Danner, 77, Doran/Swanson-22.389; 8. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-22.389; 9. Kyle Steffens, 8, Steffens-22.399; 10. Jackson Macenko, 124, Hayes-22.528; 11. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-22.594; 12. Chelby Hinton, 80, Breidinger-22.720; 13. Kaylee Bryson, 11, Abacus/Droplight-22.761; 14. Nathan Byrd, 40, Meyer/Byrd/Tosti-22.902; 15. Robert Tyler, 75, Tyler-23.543; 16. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-24.428; 17. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-26.241; 18. Scott Hampton, 211, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. C.J. Leary (5), 2. Mario Clouser (2), 3. Justin Grant (10), 4. Nathan Byrd (13), 5. Gregg Cory (15), 6. Briggs Danner (7), 7. Kyle Hamilton (8), 8. Jackson Macenko (9), 9. Chelby Hinton (11), 10. Bobby Santos (3), 11. Dave Berkheimer (16), 12. Kaylee Bryson (12), 13. Chase Cabre (1), 14. Davey Hamilton Jr. (4), 15. Robert Tyler (14), 16. Dakoda Armstrong (6), 17. Scott Hampton (17). 44:18.389
