MADISON, Ill. — Throughout Kody Swanson’s illustrious USAC Silver Crown career, he’s been known to produce “lights out” performances more often than not.
That description couldn’t have been more apt during Saturday night’s Ranken Technical College Route 66 Classic Presented by Welsch Heating & Cooling at World Wide Technology Raceway.
In a race that featured four lead changes, four different race leaders and two separate power outages, Swanson was the victor once more for the 46th occasion in his USAC Silver Crown career at the helm of his Doran Binks Racing/Mission Foods – Wilke Orthodontics – Glenn Farms/Beast/Lanci Ford.
The Kingsburg, California native’s series win tally is now officially twice as many as anyone else. Jack Hewitt ranks second all-time in USAC Silver Crown wins with 23, which is exactly 23 series wins behind Swanson’s grand total.
After leading twice for 35 circuits in the 66-lap race, Swanson led the final 22 trips around the 1.25-mile paved oval to earn his first victory of the season.
This particular win at WWT came in the fifth event on the 2025 USAC Silver Crown calendar, tied for the furthest into a season Swanson was able to grab his first win dating back to his initial series championship season of 2014. He also won in his fifth series start in 2022.
“It’s tough to get to June and to have not had one,” Swanson admitted. “But it wasn’t for a lack of effort. It’s just kind of been one of those years, and sometimes I’ve had some great runs and I’ve had some bad luck when we came here. I told (the crew) at the shop this week, “hey, this week, I think this time it’s going to flip the other way. We’re going to start having some good luck and maybe get one. We never gave up, even through the red flags, light outages, restarts and all that. We just kept after it and gave ourselves a chance.”
Swanson started from the No. 1 spot after earning his 56th career USAC Silver Crown pole position during the afternoon’s Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying.
But on the opening lap, Swanson was chewed up and spit out as he dropped from first all the way back to fifth while outside front row starter Santos jetted out to the opening lap lead and C.J. Leary slotted into second.
By lap three, Justin Grant was making the biggest moves. He raced down into turn one under Leary, then picked off Santos moments later, taking two spots in rapid fire succession to gain the lead from third.
On lap 17, Swanson pounced into the lead, driving to the inside of Grant off turn two to occupy the catbird seat just as Dakoda Armstrong followed suit into second place past Grant a lap later.
A crash on the 21st lap saw Jake Trainor slam the outside wall in turn one, leaving a long black tire streak against the SAFER barrier for the only on-track incident of the night.
Under the subsequent yellow, the nighttime sky unexpectedly became even darker when the lights along the front straightaway suddenly went dim, resulting in a red flag.
When the race resumed, Armstrong found daylight and charged passed Swanson and into the lead on the lap-30 restart.
Meanwhile, Leary, who had ran as high as second and was operating in sixth on lap 40, dramatically slowed in between turns three and four.
As the 45th lap came around, Swanson remained in the hunt, chasing Armstrong from his second-place vantage point. But when Swanson closed the gap via the draft on the back straightaway moments later, he shot to the bottom of Armstrong to reassert himself as the leader once more with 22 laps remaining.
On lap 47, the front straightaway track lights went dark for a second time, necessitating another red flag period in which drivers were instructed to park on pit lane once more.
Having one red flag period for drivers and teams to contemplate, strategize and adjust is a difficult aspect to navigate, especially when you’re the leader at a track in which the draft and slingshot is such a prevalent maneuver.
Swanson remembered the last “lights out” restart which was taken advantage of by Armstrong, but Swanson had a different plan the second time around.
“It was pretty tough,” Swanson acknowledged. “After the first red flag and that restart, Dakoda did a great job, and I knew Bobby Santos was coming and we had to race Justin Grant early. There are a bunch of great competitors in this series. If you give them another chance, they’re going to steal it from you because they want it too. Luckily, we were able to wrestle the lead back, then we had another red and had to refocus, and all I told them was that I was going to try something different.”
Swanson’s timing was impeccable and he was able to fend off Armstrong’s bid for the lead as he attempted to charge past Swanson on the front straight. However, Armstrong was able to pull completely alongside Swanson, Swanson was able to outpace him into turn one and managed to retain the spot.
Swanson continued to stretch his lead over the field, ultimately pacing under the checkered flag as the winner 2.509 seconds ahead of Armstrong.
Santos, Grant and Jackson Macenko completed the top five.
USAC Silver Crown National Championship, World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison, Ill., June 14, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran/Binks-30.797; 2. Bobby Santos, 98, DJ-30.978; 3. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi-30.994; 4. Dakoda Armstrong, 5, C & A-31.177; 5. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-31.321; 6. Mario Clouser, 92, Kazmark-31.349; 7. Kyle Steffens, 8, Steffens-31.396; 8. Jake Trainor, 6, Klatt-31.537; 9. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-31.708; 10. Nathan Byrd, 40, Meyer-31.762; 11. Jackson Macenko, 124, Hayes-31.930; 12. Billy Wease, 60, Meyer-32.163; 13. Derek Bischak, 22, Rice/Abacus-32.340; 14. Kaylee Bryson, 26, Pierce-32.422; 15. Tyler Roahrig, 41, Newman-32.459; 16. Matt Westfall, 54, 4 Kings-32.570; 17. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-34.335; 18. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-37.150.
FEATURE: (66 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (1), 2. Dakoda Armstrong (4), 3. Bobby Santos (2), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Jackson Macenko (11), 6. Kyle Steffens (7), 7. Mario Clouser (6), 8. Billy Wease (12), 9. Nathan Byrd (10), 10. Taylor Ferns (9), 11. Matt Westfall (16), 12. Kaylee Bryson (14), 13. Gregg Cory (17), 14. C.J. Leary (3), 15. Derek Bischak (13), 16. Jake Trainor (8), 17. Tyler Roahrig (15), 18. Dave Berkheimer (18).
