DU QUOIN, Ill. — C.J. Leary delivered on the promise he made prior to Saturday afternoon’s 72nd running of the Ted Horn 100 at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in southern Illinois.
“If we win again this year, we’re getting in the pond again,” he stated.
The Greenfield, Indiana native made certain of both of those things – no ifs, ands, or buts about it – as he led all 100 laps to capture a USAC Silver Crown victory on the Magic Mile for the second consecutive season at the controls of his Team AZ / Petty-Rossi / Curb-Agajanian Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – Curb Records/DRC/Stanton Chevy No. 21.
Leary had his gameplan prepared. He brought an extra pair of clothes (and dry socks) with him to the track, unlike last year when he had to pressure wash his firesuit.
When all was said and done, he and his crew took the leap into the infield pond, which was extra refreshing on this particular day in which the temperatures hovered around 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
For Leary, it’s his eighth career USAC Silver Crown win, tying him with Chris Windom for 17th place on the all-time series win list. Two of those have now come at the Du Quoin mile.
“This is super special,” Leary reacted. “Winning on these miles is so much fun. I tried for a really long time before I got my first one. I would have really liked to get Springfield, but we’ll take Du Quoin two years in a row.”
Once Leary got the lead on the start from polesitter Chase Stockon, the race was in his hands from start to finish, even after a caution and subsequent restart with seven laps remaining that erased his four second advantage. Through it all, Leary still had ‘em covered.
“That was an easy 100 laps, honestly,” Leary admitted. “I was just on cruise control trying to save tires. With how hot it was, we knew that the rubber was going to be pretty heavy. But getting a jump on Chase (Stockon) was probably the race winning move. From there, I was able to get out front and run my own race.”
Dating back to last year, Leary has now paced 195 out of the past 200 laps of USAC racing at Du Quoin. He knew what kind of piece he had last year when he passed Stockon for the lead on lap six. This time, Leary got Stockon at the start and went on his merry way to join the multi-time Ted Horn 100 winners club.
“Man, that was epic,” Leary exclaimed. “Everybody on this team did a fabulous job. I knew after last year that our car was going to be really good here and it was. We qualified really well and we had a bit of a brake issue in practice. We didn’t get a bunch of practice laps, but it really didn’t matter. We were kind of waiting for the track to take rubber so we could work on it from there.”
Top of mind for Leary is the pursuit of his first career USAC Silver Crown championship. With his third victory of the series season on Saturday at Du Quoin, Leary increased his lead from 69 to 81 with just two races remaining and now sits squarely in the driver’s seat of the title race.
On top of it all, Leary’s latest result was also his 14th consecutive top five finish in USAC Silver Crown competition. That surpassed the former record of 13 set by Chris Windom (2015-2017) and Kody Swanson (2016-2017). Leary’s streak of 14 straight has continuously run since the July 19, 2025, round at the Kansas State Fairgrounds. All of that has bolstered him and his championship aspirations.
“It’s everything,” Leary reflected. “Especially when there’s only 11 or 12 races. you can’t have one bad night or two bad nights and expect to overcome a bad night. Justin (Grant) has been really good at being consistent, winning races, and just getting out front and doing his thing. I feel like that’s kind of what we’ve been doing this year. We want this championship really bad.”
Leary’s final margin of victory for the 100 miles was 1.840 seconds over Stockon, repeating the same top two finishers at Du Quoin from a year ago. Briggs Danner advanced 13 positions to equal his best career Du Quoin finish of third. Justin Grant grabbed fourth while Jake Swanson completed the top five.
USAC Silver Crown Series, Du Quoin State Fairgrounds, Du Quoin, Illinois, Sept. 5, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-30.125; 2. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-30.365; 3. Saban Bibent, 88, Fetter-30.495; 4. Mitchel Moles, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-30.609; 5. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-30.662; 6. Jake Swanson, 6, Klatt-30.866; 7. Trey Osborne, 27, Wood-30.891; 8. Jimmy Light, 118, Thomas-31.042; 9. Carmen Perigo, 52, Stehman-31.045; 10. Mario Clouser, 20, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-31.269; 11. Kaylee Bryson, 11, Abacus/Droplight-31.709; 12. Chelby Hinton, 62, Klatt-31.771; 13. Hayden Reinbold, 119, Reinbold/Underwood-31.854; 14. Brian Tyler, 81, BCR-32.126; 15. Steve Gennetten, 64, GGR-32.551; 16. Chris Fetter, 15, Fetter-32.635; 17. Briggs Danner, 10, DMW-32.723; 18. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-33.772; 19. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-NT; 20. Aric Gentry, 3, Simmons-NT; 21. Chase Cabre, 26, Pierce-NT; 22. Shane Cockrum, 97, Lein-NT; 23. Shane Cockrum, 60, Hughes-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. C.J. Leary (2), 2. Chase Stockon (1), 3. Briggs Danner (16), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Jake Swanson (6), 6. Chelby Hinton (12), 7. Steve Gennetten (14), 8. Chris Fetter (15), 9. Gregg Cory (17), 10. Trey Osborne (7), 11. Mario Clouser (10), 12. Kaylee Bryson (11), 13. Carmen Perigo (9), 14. Dave Berkheimer (18), 15. Shane Cockrum (19) (#60), 16. Saban Bibent (3), 17. Hayden Reinbold (13), 18. Mitchel Moles (4), 19. Jimmy Light (8), 20. Brian Tyler (20).
