Two-time and defending USAC Silver Crown champion Kody Swanson has been the beacon of excellence in the series over the past two-plus seasons, but on Saturday night, the Kingsburg, California native added yet another amazing feat on his ever-growing resume by etching his name in “Hoosier Hundred” lore, earning the victory in the 62nd edition of the prestigious event at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, joining Indianapolis 500 winners Jimmy Bryan (1954-56) and Al Unser (1970-73) as the only wheelmen to claim three straight “Hoosier Hundred” victories.
Swanson stayed in the hunt all race long, but just as he did one year ago, Swanson decided it was go-time near the two-thirds mark of the 100-lap event. In 2015, Swanson took the lead from A.J. Fike with 33 laps to go. This year, Swanson took care of business one lap earlier, sailing past Cottle with 34 to go before holding off multiple challenges from Cottle down the stretch to take his 13th career series victory, surpassing three-time Silver Crown champ Jimmy Sills and placing himself 7th on the all-time win list.
In the first quarter of the race, all eyes were on the battle at the front between Jerry Coons, Jr. and Brady Bacon. At the start, pole-sitter Bacon was overtaken by Coons for the lead, before shooting back to the top spot on lap two. On the 27th circuit, just two laps after a restart, Coons squeezed between Bacon and the outside wall, outdueling Bacon for the lead in a drag race into turn one.
Meanwhile, Cottle began his charge, entering the top-five with a pass on Justin Grant in the first turn. By lap 44, Cottle had assumed second with an inside maneuver on Bacon as Coons, Cottle and Swanson ran nose-to-tail.
On lap 58, Cottle’s persistence paid off as he ran down Coons for the lead with Swanson and Grant in hot pursuit, while Coons slipped to 4th.
With 35 laps to go, longtime series veteran Russ Gamester went for a wild end-over-end ride in turn two, bringing out the night’s first red flag. On the ensuing restart, Swanson turned up the wick, eventually clamping down on leader Cottle using his patented patient, calculating, methodical approach, overpowering Cottle for the top spot on lap 67.
Swanson’s prowess on the dirt-miles wasn’t able to force Cottle into submission during the final stretch. With 15 laps remaining, Cottle flexed his muscle by attempting to split between Swanson and the lapped car of Terry James, nearly colliding with each other as the pack trekked down the front straightaway.
Cottle refused to go away quietly, giving it one more shot with just nine laps to go, pulling to within a tail tanks’ length of Swanson as the pair stormed into turn one. Catching and passing were proven to be two completely separate scenarios, as Cottle could only reel Swanson in briefly on occasion, but Swanson was simply too strong down the stretch, pulling away for the landmark win over Cottle, Coons, Indy 500 competitor Bryan Clauson and Chris Windom, who took over the seat of scheduled driver Brian Tyler in the McQuinn no. 14 after his primary ride, the RPM/Fred Gormly no. 98 suffered mechanical issues in practice.
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 26, 2016 – Indianapolis, Indiana – Indiana State Fairgrounds – 62nd “Hoosier Hundred”
QUALIFYING: 1. Brady Bacon, 48, Martens-34.396; 2. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-34.402; 3. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-34.910; 4. Bryan Clauson, 6, Klatt-35.130; 5. Austin Nemire, 91. Hemelgarn-35.272; 6. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-35.583; 7. Dave Darland, 17, Dutcher-35.589; 8. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-35.747; 9. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary/6R-35.842; 10. A.J. Fike, 3, RFMS-35.862; 11. Chris Windom, 14, McQuinn-35.907; 12. Billy Puterbaugh Jr., 27, Phillips-36.058; 13. Joey Moughan, 29, Moughan-36.060; 14. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-36.135; 15. Mark Smith, 99, RPM/Gormly-36.135; 16. Justin Grant, 8, Carli-36.205; 17. Casey Shuman, 55, Bateman-36.288; 18. Davey Ray, 25, Sachs-36.292; 19. Jacob Wilson, 07, WBR-36.317; 20. Shane Cockrum, 71, Hardy-36.355; 21. Terry Babb, 00, Babb-36.659; 22. Joe Liguori, 58, Liguori-36.712; 23. Neil Shepherd, 7, Shepherd-36.972; 24. Steve Buckwalter, 53, SET-37.033; 25. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-37.061; 26. Danny Long, 44, Long-38.779; 27. Terry James, 23, Satterthwaite-41.994; 28. Jeff Swindell, 21, Swanson (Time of 25.418 disallowed), 29. Mitch Wissmiller, 0, Barker/Thackery-NT; 30. Chris Windom, 98, RPM/Gormly-NT; 31. Chris Fetter, 88, Fetter-NT; 32. J.C. Bland, 5, Bland-NT; 33. Tad Roach, 84, Spivey-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps) 1. Kody Swanson, 2. Shane Cottle, 3. Jerry Coons Jr., 4. Bryan Clauson, 5. C.J. Leary, 6. Chris Windom, 7. David Byrne, 8. Davey Ray, 9. Mark Smith, 10. Dave Darland, 11. Jacob Wilson, 12. Casey Shuman, 13. Austin Nemire, 14. Terry James, 15. Billy Puterbaugh Jr., 16. Justin Grant, 17. Jeff Swindell, 18. Brady Bacon, 19. Russ Gamester, 20. Shane Cockrum, 21. Neil Shepherd, 22. Aaron Pierce, 23. Steve Buckwalter, 24. Terry Babb, 25. Joey Moughan, 26. Joe Liguori, 27. A.J. Fike, 28. Danny Long, 29. Mitch Wissmiller, 30. J.C. Bland. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Coons, Laps 2-26 Bacon, Laps 27-57 Coons, laps 58-66 Cottle, Laps 67-100 Swanson.
