JENNERSTOWN, Pa. — Kody Swanson started from the pole position and led all 100 laps during Saturday night’s debut of the USAC Silver Crown Series at Jennerstown Speedway.
It was Swanson’s record-extending 44th career USAC Silver Crown win and his fourth series triumph of the season. Seventeen of his 44 career series victories have come after leading every lap from the pole.
On pavement tracks alone, Swanson has now won 29 times at eight different venues in his USAC Silver Crown career. Swanson’s mark of eight different pavement tracks won at are now tied for the most all-time alongside Dave Steele and Brian Tyler.
In adding another victory to his tally, Swanson also padded his current championship point lead to the tune of a 55-point margin.
Swanson’s first open-wheel appearance at Jennerstown also resulted in the 15th different track he’s won at in his career with the series, dirt and pavement combined, which is already an all-time record.
“The beauty of Silver Crown racing is you’ve got to adapt, and I think that’s the part that’s most fun about it,” Swanson noted. “We run dirt races, we run pavement, we run big tracks, we run little ones and tricky ones in between. That’s the part I love.”
USAC’s most recent event held at Jennerstown came 55 years earlier in a 1969 midget race won by Bob Tattersall when the track surface was dirt.
Swanson’s path to victory on Saturday night was paved with $10,000 in rewards after starting from the pole position for the record-extending 52nd time of his career.
For Swanson and his Doran-Binks Racing/Mission Foods – Wilke Orthodontics – Glenn Farms/Beast/Lanci Ford, it was a masterful turnaround from the practice session 24 hours earlier. Swanson’s best lap of Friday’s test was a mere 18.314 seconds, which would’ve put him mid-pack in Saturday’s field.
“It was a mess yesterday and even today,” Swanson explained. “We borrowed the series’ scales to check the thing on the lift and tried to just keep working on it. These guys stuck with me and I’m really thankful it worked out. You never know if it will be good or not. When I was getting into the car to start the feature, I said, ‘I guess we’ll find out.’ I didn’t know if we were making the right decisions or not, but the effort was there and that’s all you can ask. As a driver, it’s your job to put your helmet on and go out and try to get it with whatever kind of car you’ve got. I’m really thankful tonight that this one was as good as it was.”
When the green flag waved Swanson established the early lead as Logan Seavey slotted into second and Dakoda Armstrong held strong in third. However, early race troubles befell eighth-running Kaylee Bryson on lap seven as she suddenly slowed with a clutch issue, ultimately coasting to a stop on the back straightaway on lap nine.
The most significant incident of the race occurred on lap 29 as the frontrunners began to bear down on the tail end of the field. Entering turn one, sixth running Tyler Roahrig and 14th-place Nathan Moore hooked bumpers, sending Moore spinning into the outside turn one wall.
On the ensuing lap-33 restart, Armstrong edged ahead of Seavey on the outside for the second position in turns one and two. However, Seavey was able to shake off the pressure for the time being to recollect the spot.
Armstrong continued to press Seavey for the next nine circuits until lap 42 when he charged under Seavey on the back straight to elevate into the runner-up spot.
Swanson remained 1.2 seconds ahead as the race hit the halfway point. However, further back, 10th starting Taylor Ferns began to surge. Running seventh on lap 50 of 100, she blitzed past Roahrig for sixth on lap 52, past C.J. Leary for fifth on lap 65 and by Justin Grant for fourth in turn two on lap 68.
With 30 to go, Swanson’s primary challenger was Armstrong, the only driver to deny Swanson a Silver Crown pavement victory through the first five events thus far in 2024.
Armstrong whittled Swanson’s lead down to three tenths while the pair navigated their way through traffic. However, Swanson got the word from above that he had company, and thus, he took matters into his own hands.
“As Dakoda was coming, I’ve got a great spotter who said, ‘Hey, he’s closing and he’s doing this different,’” Swanson recalled of his spotter/wife Jordan Swanson announcing into his two-way radio communication. “Immediately, I knew what I had and what I was struggling with, so I started moving around. That’s the fun part about tracks like this. There are so many characteristics to them that you just move around and find something else you like. I ran a line I hadn’t run in two days, but it seemed to work and it kind of stabilized for a little while. It gave me a chance to figure out what I needed to do next and try to take advantage of lapped traffic to get away a little bit.”
Swanson had broken open his lead to 1.27 seconds as he ably put fellow championship contenders Grant and Leary a lap down during the waning moments. Swanson’s lead ballooned to 2.149 seconds and never wavered from that moment onward.
At the finish line, Swanson crossed the line 3.907 seconds ahead of Dakoda Armstrong, Logan Seavey, Taylor Ferns and Bobby Santos.
Ferns put on a show at Jennerstown as she raced her way from her 10th starting spot to a fourth place finish.
USAC Silver Crown National Championship, Jennerstown Speedway, Jennerstown, Pa., Aug. 10, 2024
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran/Binks-18.019 (New Track Record); 2. Logan Seavey, 22, Rice/Abacus-18.033; 3. Dakoda Armstrong, 5, C & A-18.049; 4. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-18.062; 5. Tyler Roahrig, 41, Newman-18.088; 6. C.J. Leary, 6, Klatt-18.102; 7. Kaylee Bryson, 26, Pierce-18.163; 8. Bobby Santos, 98, DJ-18.176; 9. Nathan Byrd, 40, Legacy/Wilson-18.308; 10. Taylor Ferns, 555, Ferns-18.317; 11. Kyle Steffens, 08, Steffens-18.340; 12. Trey Osborne, 81, BCR-18.617; 13. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-18.991; 14. Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-19.614; 15. Nathan Moore, 48, Thomas/Moore-19.767; 16. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-27.633.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (1), 2. Dakoda Armstrong (3), 3. Logan Seavey (2), 4. Taylor Ferns (10), 5. Bobby Santos (8), 6. C.J. Leary (6), 7. Justin Grant (4), 8. Nathan Byrd (9), 9. Kyle Steffens (11), 10. Trey Osborne (12), 11. Mike Haggenbottom (14), 12. Gregg Cory (13), 13. Tyler Roahrig (5), 14. Nathan Moore (15), 15. Kaylee Bryson (7), 16. Dave Berkheimer (16).