DUQUOIN, Ill. – In Brian Tyler’s storied USAC Silver Crown career, which has spanned three decades and 199 starts, perhaps none were more improbable than his performance Monday afternoon at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds.
In his first race in the No. 81 BCR Group car after the team parted ways with Shane Cottle, Tyler stormed from 11th to first to win the Ted Horn 100 for the second time in his career. The victory comes two years since he last sat in a USAC Silver Crown car and 10 years since his last USAC triumph. It was his 18th Silver Crown victory.
Tyler used a mid-race snooker of Kody Swanson to steal the lead then thwarted repeated challenges from Logan Seavey down the stretch to hold on to the win. Tyler’s stretch of 10 years and 17 days between USAC Silver Crown wins is the second longest gap in series history. Cottle set the record in 2020 at 12 years, 11 months and 7 days, and achieved the feat in the same BCR Group No. 81 that Tyler won with at DuQuoin on Monday afternoon.
In doing so, at 53 years, 10 months and 10 days old, Tyler became USAC Silver Crown’s oldest race winner, surpassing the record of Chet Fillip, who was 51 years, 2 months and 25 days when he won at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway in 2008.
“They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but I think we still got it,” Tyler smirked. “I got to thank the guys on the 81 car. They gave me a really good car. I’ve taken a couple years off, but not by choice. It’s just under circumstances of what’s been going on. It feels really good to be back and I love the miles anyhow.”
After winning his 35th career USAC Silver Crown Fatheadz pole award, series point leader Swanson jetted off with the lead and controlled the early stages, only being slightly pestered by fellow two-time Ted Horn 100 winner Shane Cockrum.
Meanwhile, a tad further back, Tyler was already knifing his way under and around the frontrunners, peeking into the top-five by lap 16 as he followed the path of Jake Swanson to move past Matt Westfall. Two laps later, Tyler cashed in a two-for-one deal as he blasted by J. Swanson on the bottom entering turn three for fourth, then found the path to overtake Seavey for third mere seconds later exiting the fourth turn.
On the lap 22 restart, Tyler blasted by Cockrum underneath to slot into second off turn two. J. Swanson and Seavey both shot by Cockrum for third and fourth, respectively, as Cockrum dropped all the way back to fifth with a deflating right rear tire.
A caution for the stopped car of Korey Weyant in turn four on lap 24 provided Cockrum a bit of a break as his crew changed the tire under the yellow flag period and returned him to action where he drove all the way back from the tail to finish fifth in the final tally.
On Cockrum’s path back to the front, the afternoon’s lone red flag was displayed on the 32nd lap when contact between Travis Welpott and Cockrum for the 21st spot resulted in Welpott smashing into the outside turn one wall, which sent him flipping over twice. Welpott walked away from the incident.
With the two breaking away at the midway point and working traffic, Tyler took advantage of Swanson’s check up in turn two as he approached 21st running Jason McDougal. As Swanson whoa’d up, that presented Tyler the red carpet on the bottom to roar underneath and assume the position at the top of the leaderboard.
“I’ve raced with Kody a long time along with some of these other guys,” Tyler said. “I knew if I could keep the pressure on Kody, sooner or later, he was going to make a mistake. Once I got the lead, the biggest thing I did was concentrate on hitting my marks and trying not to make that same mistake. I knew the boys were champing at the rear bumper. I just had to be smooth and straight try not to make any mistakes.”
As Tyler opened up a 4.396 second lead, second running Kody Swanson’s afternoon went to shambles as his ignition box faltered, forcing him to slow and stop on the back straightaway on lap 59. K. Swanson returned to the fray, albeit four laps down and finishing a season-worst 17th.
As Tyler upped his lead throughout the second half back up to three seconds, Seavey prevailed in his tussle with J. Swanson as he slipped into second on the low line in turn two on lap 74. Cutting right to the quick, Seavey sliced Tyler’s lead majorly from three seconds to two to 1.4 when the yellow fell for 12th running Aaron Pierce who slammed the outside wall in turn four. Also under the yellow, Dave Berkheimer’s day ended when his car caught fire just before the entrance to the pits in turn four.
Tyler nailed the lap 81 restart to build a solid five car length gap over Seavey. However, Seavey steadily began to claw his way back into Tyler’s consciousness by shaving off two of those lengths over the next lap as it became a battle between the most experienced Ted Horn 100 driver in the field in Tyler (19 starts) and a Ted Horn 100 Rookie, Seavey, who also does happen to own an ARCA Stock Car victory in 2018.
Seavey stalked his potential prey and took a look to the outside of Tyler off turn four on lap 93 to no avail as Tyler maintained and even slightly extended his lead to eight tenths. Gnashing his teeth to get one more shot on lap 98, Seavey drifted high at the entry to turn one and lost substantial ground, allowing Tyler to gain another half second.
Tyler put a stake in the ground and powered away to a .915-second victory over runner-up Seavey, Jake Swanson in third and KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Jerry Coons Jr. in fourth after starting 19th. Local racing hero Shane Cockrum rounded out the top-five with a fifth-place finish.
With it being the first daytime USAC Silver Crown race held at DuQuoin since 2002, Tyler felt he might have had an upper hand in that department over all challengers.
“I’ve raced at DuQuoin when it was a day show probably before most of these kids were born,” said Tyler, who made his first Ted Horn 100 start under the sun in 1996. “So, I think I might’ve had the upper hand on them.”
It was second again on a dirt mile for Seavey as he finished in the runner-up spot for the second consecutive time with the series in his Rice Motorsports/Fatheadz Eyewear – STIDA.com – Lucas Oil/DRC/Pink Foxco Chevy. However, his solid finish coupled with K. Swanson’s woes put Seavey within 16 points in the championship race with just two events remaining.
J. Swanson scored his best run on a dirt mile, and equaled his best career series finish, with a third on Monday at DuQuoin, making it two series Rookies on the podium with he and Seavey. Swanson piloted the DMW Motorsports/Advanced Materials Technologies – US Auto Cure – Phoenix Pavers/DRC/Wilcox Chevy in his DuQuoin debut.
The finish:
1. Brian Tyler (11), 2. Logan Seavey (4), 3. Jake Swanson (9), 4. Jerry Coons Jr. (19), 5. Shane Cockrum (2), 6. Shane Cottle (7), 7. David Byrne (10), 8. Kyle Robbins (5), 9. Matt Goodnight (15), 10. Terry Babb (13), 11. Carmen Perigo (22), 12. Patrick Lawson (21), 13. Kyle Steffens (18), 14. Casey Buckman (16), 15. Kyle Cummins (20), 16. Nick Bilbee (25), 17. Kody Swanson (1), 18. Aaron Pierce (12), 19. Dave Berkheimer (27), 20. Matt Westfall (6), 21. Ken Schrader (14), 22. Dallas Hewitt (3), 23. Jason McDougal (17), 24. Travis Welpott (23), 25. Korey Weyant (24), 26. Austin Nemire (8), 27. Danny Long (26), 28. Chris Fetter (28), 29. Justin Grant (29).