SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Through personal loss, love, pain and joy, C.J. Leary continued to race on over the past year and a half.
And after finishing the USAC Silver Crown Championship points third, fourth, fourth and second over the past four seasons, a title was just within reach.
In 2026, after 12 years after making his series debut, the Greenfield, Indiana native finally made it to the top once again, this time as a USAC Silver Crown champion.
Leary’s Silver Crown title is his first with the series and the second of his USAC national career after also grabbing the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship back in 2019. This one required near perfection as he finished inside the top five in all but one of the 10 rounds while also tallying three wins.
He picked up two wins on the pavement at WWT Raceway and Iowa Speedway, both of which Leary admitted were “bucket list” tracks for him to win at. A repeat victory on the dirt at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds and a ceremonial swim in the infield pond / lake followed in September, to go along with a series-leading 204 laps led, and no finish worse than eighth throughout the season.
By September, he had achieved a brand new series record of 15 consecutive top five finishes dating back to mid-2025.
The 105-point margin of Leary’s was the series’ largest since the 2015 season, while completing every single one of the 911 laps contested during the 2026 campaign.
His quest to the 2026 USAC Silver Crown driving championship has spanned for nearly half of his 30 years on this earth, and this was about as perfect of a year he could’ve possibly had on the racetrack as the team finished every single race without a single DNF.
“Over half the battle of Silver Crown racing is making sure that your car runs the full 100 laps and finishes the races,” Leary stated. “If you can do that, you’re going to be top 10 for sure, top five maybe even. We’ve had no failures the last two years, which has been just unbelievable. I owe that all to those guys for spending the time in the shop and providing us with all the right parts and pieces. It makes my job easy to show up to track and give them 100 percent.”
For Leary, it’s a journey to the championship that debuted in 2014. After going full-time in 2015 in the family-owned No. 30, Leary first raced to victory in USAC national competition in 2016 at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track, celebrating alongside his dad, 1997 Hoosier Hundred winner Chuck Leary, as they became the first father and son to win USAC Silver Crown races as drivers.
C.J.’s 2018 champ car score at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway is widely regarded as one of the best races in USAC Silver Crown history, one that C.J. cites put him “on the map” to where teams were calling him to drive their cars on a full-time basis.
After a run with the Klatt Enterprises team and Bob East in the forthcoming years, Leary notched another series win in 2022. But after vacating that seat in 2024, Leary joined the Team AZ Racing / Petty-Rossi / Curb-Agajanian team for 2025.
Their goals were clear: win races and win championships. Despite a new pavement car, no notebook, and a new combo, they won twice and finished second in the standings for 2025. In 2026, they got even better, attaining their goals by year two in their Avanti Windows & Doors – Curb Records/DRC/Stanton Chevy No. 21.
At times, it takes a village to operate at an optimum level, and the 21 bunch sure has its share, becoming quite possibly the first four owner operation to earn a USAC championship, with a team that consists of Mike Burkhart, Craig Burkhart, Eric and Windy Wilkins, Justin Grau, Joe Devin of DRC, Eric Stanton of Stanton Racing Engines, Jerry Petty of Avanti Windows & Doors, Phil Rossi of Apache Transport, and Mike Curb, all of whom can now claim the 2026 Silver Crown title as their very own.
“It’s about the people really,” Leary tipped his cap. “I think it’s about the people you surround yourself with. And if you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, why are you doing it? There are a lot of other things out there that we could all be doing, but racing has brought us all together in the sport that we love.”
But amid the pursuit of accomplishing the task of capturing a USAC Silver Crown title, away from the track, Leary’s experiences were anything but perfect.
An emotional roller coaster over the span of the past year and a half saw his dad pass away unexpectedly in March 2025 at the age of 59. Not only was he his dad, his mentor, and his crew chief, he was his best friend.
“Losing my dad was the hardest thing I’ve ever endured and I still struggle with it today. I don’t know if it’s something I’ll ever really truly get over,” Leary said. “He was my best friend and my crew chief and he was sometimes even my worst enemy. We butted heads a lot, but I sure do wish he was here to have witnessed this season and get to celebrate this championship with us. I know that he was watching over me at all those races.”
In December 2025, Leary married his longtime girlfriend, Kristy Bemmes. In 2026, C.J.’s trusty sidekick, Charlie the Black Lab, who traveled up and down the road to every one of C.J.’s USAC races going back more than a decade, passed away.
Soon after, C.J. and Kristy announced that they would soon become the proud new parents of a baby boy in early 2027.
“I don’t know if it gets any cooler getting to win a USAC Silver Crown championship and to have a son all in the same year,” Leary beamed. “I’m really looking forward to becoming a dad. I think I’ve learned a lot from my dad and I just hope that I’m as good as he was. I think he’ll be the seventh generation of Charles Leary. That’s really cool for my family and really cool for Kristy. I think she’s going to be a great mom.”
