By Richie Murray
Salem, Indiana (August 9, 2025)………After a five-year absence for USAC Silver Crown National Championship competition at Indiana’s Salem Speedway Fueled by the Hoosier Lottery, Kody Swanson didn’t miss a single beat on Saturday night.
The Kingsburg, California driver picked up right where he left off by leading all 100 laps from the pole position to capture his sixth consecutive USAC Silver Crown victory at the .555-mile paved oval following previous scores in 2016-2017-2018-2019-2020.
That tied the record for the most consecutive USAC Silver Crown victories by a single driver at one particular track, equaling Swanson’s very own streak of six straight triumphs at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway between 2018-2024, a run which ended back in April of this season.
However, Swanson wasn’t about to let his Salem dominance end any time soon in his Doran Binks Racing/Mission Foods – Wilke Orthodontics – Glenn Farms/Beast/Lanci Ford as he raced to his third USAC Silver Crown victory of the year and the 48th of his career.
That said, Swanson’s latest success at Salem came in a different manner than each of his past five scores, all of which were 75 laps in length. Saturday’s race marked the first 100-lap USAC event at Salem in nearly 57 years dating back to Rollie Beale’s Sprint Car win on the 33 degree high banks in October 1968.
That fact alone added another 33 percent to each team’s fuel load, thus altering the dynamics and feeling of the racecar for all at the start of the race.
“This is the most fuel we’ve run here, and I wanted to try and be aware of that early,” Swanson explained. “This place is so cool, but it’s got a lot of character to it. In three and four, if you time it wrong with your pedals, it can upset your car. So I tried to be aware of that all throughout the race as the fuel load burned off.”
To start off the day, Swanson set a brand new USAC Silver Crown one-lap track record at Salem during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying. His lap of 15.809 seconds, with an average lap speed of 126.384 mph, surpassed his very own eight-year-old former track record of 15.923 seconds set back in 2017. That placed Swanson on the pole position for the sixth consecutive time at Salem.
Prior to the start of the feature, the driver slotted to line up directly behind Swanson in the third spot, C.J. Leary, was forced to pull into the pits due to an issue on the right front shock. After time spent in the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area, Leary returned to the field but was relegated to starting 13th on the grid. By lap 39, Leary had picked his way up through the field to fourth and remained there for the remainder of the event to stay solidly in the hunt for the series championship.
Now slotted on the inside of row two, Justin Grant took advantage and charged by outside front row starter Mario Clouser off the bottom of turn four on the opening lap to make his way into second. Grant was back in action racing for the first time since breaking his left foot in a USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car crash at Lawrenceburg Speedway just 13 days earlier.
On the 39th lap, Clouser made a bid to take second from Grant. Entering turn one, Clouser dove low, but got his front wheels on the flat part of the racetrack, which bottomed out his racecar and sent him into a 90 degree spin straight up the racetrack and directly into the path of Grant. In a moment’s notice, Grant’s left brake foot was put to the test as he narrowly avoided escaping the spinning Clouser. Clouser miraculously avoided contact of any sort as well. Clouser restarted and finished eighth.
Throughout the remainder of the race, Swanson maintained total control as he continuously upped his lead over his closest challengers. Despite a firm grip of the lead, Swanson still felt the pressure. Salem Speedway is one of the most notoriously fast and unforgiving ovals on the planet, and one misstep could spell disaster.
“You race each other but you also race the racetrack,” Swanson explained. “Even to the end, you can’t take any corners off because it’s too easy to make a mistake here. We had a long run to the end there and there’s a lot different about the end of the race that you wish your car was doing but that’s the whole job, to hang on. I had a great car, but there are a lot of great cars in the series, and to be able to win one anytime, is special.”
Swanson turned the fastest lap of the race just before the midway point on the 46th circuit of 16.783 seconds while establishing a race pace in the 118-119 mph range. With 10 laps to go, Swanson had run his lead out to five seconds. Meanwhile, the battle for second raged on behind Swanson.
At the exit of turn four on lap 94, Grant dove his way under the sixth place car of Kyle Steffens to put him a lap down while simultaneously escaping the challenge posed by Dakoda Armstrong who had been within one to three car lengths off the back bumper of Grant for practically the entire second half of the race.
Up front, Swanson had everything handled as he crossed under the checkered flag 10.522 seconds ahead as Grant beat Armstrong to the line for second by a single car length. Leary came home fourth while Nathan Byrd raced to his second consecutive top-five result with the series to finish fifth.
Justin Grant earned the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night following his “tougher than nails” performance with a bum left foot loaded with surgical screws. During the week, crew chief Dennis LaCava spent three days at the team’s shop rigging up a brake pedal that Grant could run off his shin to ease the tension on his foot. Admittedly, Grant’s last 30 laps at Salem gave his pain tolerance the ultimate test. But not only did Grant finish all 100 laps, he gritted it out to finish one of the remarkable runner-up results you’ll ever witness.
Dakoda Armstrong started off his day without brakes, and throughout the feature, fought that nagging issue as well as another problem that allowed him only to go half-throttle at times. In the end, he was unable to garner enough momentum to get by Grant but still collected a third place result for his for his fifth podium finish in six Silver Crown starts during the 2025 campaign.
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 9, 2025 – Salem Speedway Fueled by the Hoosier Lottery – Salem, Indiana – .555-Mile Paved Oval – Salem 100
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran Binks-15.809 (New Track Record); 2. Mario Clouser, 92, Kazmark-16.187; 3. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi-16.270; 4. Dakoda Armstrong, 5, C & A-16.348; 5. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-16.448; 6. Billy Wease, 26, Pierce-16.581; 7. Nathan Byrd, 40, Meyer-16.595; 8. Kyle Steffens, 8, Steffens-16.624; 9. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-16.659; 10. Derek Bischak, 22, Rice/Abacus-16.739; 11. Jake Trainor, 6, Klatt-16.745; 12. Matt Westfall, 54, 4 Kings-16.803; 13. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-20.541; 14. Tyler Roahrig, 41, Newman-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kody Swanson (1), 2. Justin Grant (5), 3. Dakoda Armstrong (4), 4. C.J. Leary (3), 5. Nathan Byrd (7), 6. Kyle Steffens (8), 7. Derek Bischak (10), 8. Mario Clouser (2), 9. Jake Trainor (11), 10. Billy Wease (6), 11. Matt Westfall (12), 12. Taylor Ferns (9), 13. Dave Berkheimer (13). 32:26.943 (New Track Record)
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-100 Kody Swanson.
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-652, 2-C.J. Leary-578, 3-Matt Westfall-463, 4-Kody Swanson-417, 5-Kyle Steffens-405, 6-Dakoda Armstrong-345, 7-Mario Clouser-322, 8-Dave Berkheimer-313, 9-Bobby Santos-272, 10-Logan Seavey-271.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-184, 2-Briggs Danner-126, 3-Gunnar Setser-100, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-99, 5-Logan Seavey-94, 6-C.J. Leary-91, 7-Kyle Cummins-90, 8-Justin Grant-86, 9-Robert Ballou-69, 10-Jake Swanson-69.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: August 16, 2025 – Illinois State Fairgrounds – Springfield, Illinois – 1-Mile Dirt Oval – 62nd Bettenhausen 100 Presented by Hunt Brothers Pizza
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: Kody Swanson (15.931)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Kody Swanson (15.809)
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Justin Grant (5th to 2nd)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Race: Justin Grant