By Richie Murray
Speedway, Indiana (September 23, 2020)………The mark of consistency requires agility and performance night-in, night-out throughout the entirety of a marathon of a season.
For one who occupies full-time seats in all three USAC National series such as Chris Windom, the season is a constant test with three different types of cars for three different car owners. He’s found success in all three types of cars in his career but not on the level he has produced thus far this season between the three.
The Canton, Ill. driver leads tight points races in both the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car and USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget standings entering this weekend’s Indiana Donor Network Driven2SaveLives Double Double, Friday, Sept. 25 at Gas City (Ind.) I-69 Speedway and Saturday, Sept. 26 at Kokomo Speedway.
The 2016 Silver Crown and 2017 National Sprint champion’s current point lead stands at eight over Brady Bacon in the Sprints and at 34 over Tyler Courtney in the Midgets. He’s also 5th in Silver Crown points to boot, 33 points out of the lead.
That brought to mind how many times over the years that a driver has finished inside the top-five of the point standings in all three of USAC’s National divisions in the same year. In fact, only nine previous drivers have done so since the advent of the Silver Crown/Dirt Championship division in 1971.
For many years, from the infancy of USAC through the 1950s, 60s and 70s, USAC’s Sprint and Midget schedules quite often overlapped with several events from each division taking place on the same day, making it practically impossible for a driver to simultaneously contend for both titles.
The dawn of the 1980s brought along more cooperation between the series schedules, with minimal overlapping, and drivers began finding full-time seats in all three divisions. In 1980, Rich Vogler not only became the first driver to finish inside the top-five of all three divisions in a single year, he was the first to win Sprint and Midget titles in the same season, while also finishing 5th in the Silver Crown points.
Vogler repeated the feat of finishing inside the top-five in all three series’ points in both 1981 and 1986. Tracy Hines remains the only driver to do this on four occasions, in 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2011.
While Tony Stewart became the first to finish first with all three divisions in 1995, J.J. Yeley became the second to do so in 2003. Yeley became the first driver to finish inside the top-five of all three in three consecutive seasons in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
The contingent who finished inside the top-five in Sprint, Midget and Silver Crown all in one year includes a myriad of drivers who done the deed once in their careers, Ken Schrader (1983), Josh Wise (2005), Bryan Clauson (2010) and Jerry Coons Jr. (2010) with Justin Grant being the most recent in 2017.
Windom very well could be the next as he also chases multiple USAC National titles within a single year, something only done nine times previously by eight drivers: Rich Vogler (1980 Sprint & Midget), Rick Hood (1985 Silver Crown & Sprint), Steve Butler (1988 Silver Crown & Sprint), Tony Stewart (1995 all three), Jason Leffler (1998 Silver Crown & Midget), J.J. Yeley (2003 all three), Jerry Coons Jr. (2008 Silver Crown & Sprint) and Levi Jones twice (2010 & 2011 Silver Crown & Sprint).
There are no limits on the number of entries for either of this weekend’s events. Pit gates open Friday for Gas City at 3pm ET, front gates at 5pm and hot laps at 6:30pm. Adult general admission tickets are $25 for adults and free for kids age 12 and under. Pit passes are $35 apiece.
Pit gates and spectator gates open Saturday for Kokomo at 3pm ET with hot laps at 6pm. Adult general admission tickets are $25 for adults and free for kids age 12 and under. Pit passes are $35 apiece. Tickets can be purchased in advance at www.usactickets.com as well as at the gate on raceday.
Tickets can be purchased in advance for both events at www.usactickets.com as well as at the gate on raceday.
Both nights of this weekend’s Double Double, including Friday’s event at Gas City I-69 Speedway, can be watched LIVE on FloRacing at https://bit.ly/2ZpafUr.
DRIVERS WHO’VE FINISHED INSIDE THE TOP-5 OF USAC’S NATIONAL SPRINT, MIDGET & SILVER CROWN POINTS IN A SINGLE SEASON:
1980: Rich Vogler (Silver Crown: 3rd, Sprint: 1st & Midget: 1st)
1981: Rich Vogler (Silver Crown: 2nd, Sprint: 2nd & Midget: 3rd)
1983: Ken Schrader (Silver Crown: 2nd, Sprint: 1st & Midget: 3rd)
1989 Rich Vogler (Silver Crown: 3rd, Sprint: 1st & Midget: 3rd)
1995: Tony Stewart (Silver Crown: 1st, Sprint: 1st & Midget: 1st)
2000: Tracy Hines (Silver Crown: 1st, Sprint: 3rd & Midget: 5th)
2001: J.J. Yeley (Silver Crown: 4th, Sprint: 1st & Midget: 3rd)
2002: Tracy Hines (Silver Crown: 3rd, Sprint: 1st & Midget: 5th)
2002: J.J. Yeley (Silver Crown: 1st, Sprint: 2nd & Midget: 2nd)
2003: J.J. Yeley (Silver Crown: 1st, Sprint: 1st & Midget: 1st)
2003: Tracy Hines (Silver Crown: 3rd, Sprint: 1st & Midget: 5th)
2005: Josh Wise (Silver Crown: 2nd, Sprint: 5th & Midget: 1st)
2010 Bryan Clauson (Silver Crown: 4th, Sprint: 3pm, Midget: 1st)
2010: Jerry Coons Jr. (Silver Crown: 5th, Sprint: 4th & Midget: 2nd)
2011: Tracy Hines: (Silver Crown: 4th, Sprint: 5th & Midget: 4th)
2017: Justin Grant: (Silver Crown: 4th, Sprint: 2nd & Midget 5th)
WON MULTIPLE USAC NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS IN A SINGLE SEASON:
1980: Rich Vogler (Sprint & Midget)
1985: Rick Hood (Silver Crown & Sprint)
1988: Steve Butler (Silver Crown & Sprint)
1995: Tony Stewart (Silver Crown, Sprint & Midget)
1998: Jason Leffler (Silver Crown & Midget)
2003: J.J. Yeley (Silver Crown, Sprint & Midget)
2008: Jerry Coons Jr. (Silver Crown & Sprint)
2010: Levi Jones (Silver Crown & Sprint)
2011: Levi Jones (Silver Crown & Sprint)