TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Doran Binks Racing and driver Kody Swanson still lead the USAC Silver Crown point standings going into the season finale Oct. 19 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park after a 10th-place finish in the Sumar Classic Sunday night at the Terre Haute Action Track.
They have led the point standings all year since the season opener in April except for six days in May with their No. 77.
The Lebanon, Ohio-based team and the Indianapolis-based driver had a 27-point advantage over Hemelgarn Racing and Justin Grant going into Sunday’s race and a 91-point advantage over the third-place team and driver, Rice Motorsports-Abacus Racing and Logan Seavey.
By finishing third on Sunday, Grant is just six points behind, 785 to 779. By winning Sunday’s race, Seavey is now 64 points behind, 785 to 721. These three combinations are the only entities still in the running for the series’ 2024 entrant and driver championships with one race remaining.
There are 76 points up for grabs at each event: 70 for winning the race, three bonus points for being the fastest qualifier and three bonus points for leading the most laps of the race.
The possible scenarios are too numerous to relate, but it will all come down to what happens at IRP on Oct. 19.
Anything can happen in racing, but Swanson and Doran Binks Racing have been particularly successful on IRP’s 0.686-mile paved oval.
The Oct. 19 race will be the series’ second of the year there. On May 25 at IRP, Swanson qualified first and led all 100 laps en route to victory in the Hoosier Hundred. It was Swanson’s fifth victory in that race and his eighth Silver Crown win at that track, tying his now-retired brother, Tanner, for No. 1 all time.
IRP was also the track where Doran-Dyson Racing clinched the 2022 series title, which was an unprecedented seventh for Swanson. He is the winningest driver in series history with 44 victories and 53 pole positions. He has more victories so far this year (four) and more poles so far this year (six) than anyone else as well.
Swanson, a native of Kingsburg, Calif., qualified third Sunday at Terre Haute, just 0.162 off the 21.414-second lap Brady Bacon set to win the pole. Driving a Maxim with a Hampshire-prepared Chevy engine the team uses for dirt-track races, Swanson passed the driver who qualified second, Daison Pursley, in turn one on the first lap. Pursley got him back on the following circuit around the half-mile dirt oval, however.
It quickly became evident that Swanson was dealing with some issues, which turned out to be handling problems. He dropped as far back as 12th, but gained two positions near the end of the 100-lapper to finish 10th. He set his fastest lap of the race on lap 17. He remained on the lead lap throughout, and he had a good battle with Mario Clouser in the late stages of the race. Clouser qualified right behind Swanson in fourth and finished 12th.
There were five caution flags, but Swanson was not involved in any of the incidents.
“We just missed the setup a little,” Swanson said after the race. “The track changed a lot, and it just wasn’t our night. The title will come down to IRP, and all we can do is try our best. Thanks again to Mission Foods, Wilke Orthodontics, Glenn Farms, and everyone who keeps us on the track, and gives us the chance to go out and compete for wins and titles.”
Sunday’s 100-lapper at Terre Haute was postponed from July 4 due to rain.