From Richie Murray
DU QUOIN, IL (August 30, 2025) — C.J. Leary put his family name into an unprecedented category by capturing victory in Saturday afternoon’s 71st running of the Ted Horn 100 at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in southern Illinois.
Nine years ago, C.J. Leary became the first, and still only, son of a past USAC Silver Crown winner to follow in his father’s footsteps to become a series winner himself.
C.J. led the final 95 miles at Du Quoin to score his first career victory on a one-mile dirt track. C.J.’s dad, Chuck Leary, corralled his first and only USAC Silver Crown win on the one-mile dirt oval at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in 1997. Thus, the feat made Chuck and C.J. the first father and son to win USAC Silver Crown races on a one-mile dirt track.
Of course, all of it takes on an even more profound meaning following Chuck Leary’s passing just five months ago. Two days earlier, Chuck would’ve celebrated his 60th birthday. Two days later, C.J. achieved one of his greatest career moments on the Magic Mile, all while doing so with his father’s name adorning the visor on his Team AZ-Petty-Rossi Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – Apache Transportation/DRC/Stanton Chevy.
“I think my dad was riding with me those last couple of laps,” C.J. said. “I can’t express enough how much this would’ve meant to him, and what is does to me. He won the Hoosier Hundred in 1997 and I’ve always wanted to rub elbows with him by being a dirt mile winner, and we finally got it done.”
Leary had made eight previous Ted Horn 100 starts at Du Quoin dating back to 2014, finishing a best of second in 2023 and was leading late when a driveline failure sidelined him with just seven laps to go in 2022. It’s been a long time coming through the trials and tribulations for the Greenfield, Indiana native, and that time has finally come.
“Man, this is incredible,” C.J. exclaimed. “I’ve been trying to win on a mile for a long time and I’ve been really close. Something has always struck us and we haven’t been able to get it done. It hasn’t been from a lack of effort with all the teams I’ve driven for. But today we were really good.”
While Leary started eighth in the 28-car field, it was A.J. Fike who started from the pole position for the first time in 12 seasons when he led the field to green at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in 2013. Fike led the initial four laps but was quickly swarmed by fifth starting Chase Stockon who stormed past Fike for the lead on the front straightaway on lap five.
Stockon’s time up front was short lived as Leary made a beeline for the top spot as Leary became the third different leader in the first six laps as he shot by Stockon on the front straight to slot into the top spot on the sixth go around.
By lap 22, one of the emerging storylines was the advancement of Brian Tyler who had already advanced from 16th to sixth. However, in a three-way battle for sixth along with Matt Westfall and Jake Swanson, Tyler and Swanson touched wheels in turn four. As a result, Tyler’s left rear tire went down as did Swanson’s right front. Both crawled back to the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area for new rubber under the caution and subsequently restarted at the tail.
By midway, Leary had extended his advantage to 2.5 seconds over the field. Simultaneously, attention was diverted to Shane Cockrum, the two-time Ted Horn 100 winner who had started 26th and had climbed all the way up to sixth. Following qualifying, Cockrum and his teammate on the Hans Lein owned team, Ken Schrader, swapped cars and were relegated to starting at the tail, by rule. That said, Cockrum’s incredible run came to an end on lap 58 after his car lost fuel pressure, knocking him out of the race.
While Leary had the competition seemingly covered, Stockon raced into second past Grant as the field came to green on lap 63. Mario Clouser followed suit into fourth a lap later with a turn four pass of Steffens on the 64th circuit. On lap 78, Clouser surged to the “show” spot on the podium after Grant drifted high in turn two, then got caught behind the lapped car of Mahoney. Clouser took advantage and slipped under Grant for the spot. By lap 88, Tyler had reemerged into the top-five after his see-saw battle with Steffens went his way.
Down the stretch, Leary’s lead began to dwindle chunk by chunk as Stockon’s deficit receded from five seconds to four to three to two with two laps remaining. As Leary explained, he felt a bit worrisome about his right rear tire which had endured 100 laps in the daytime at a one-mile racetrack. Turns out, Leary need not worry. He had more than enough.
“I had plenty of tire left,” Leary revealed. “I don’t know why I was conserving so much at the end. I just had a lot of things going through my mind of what could go wrong. I thought our tire was probably used up a little bit. But the thing looks great, so obviously the car had a really good balance to it and I drove a really good race.”
When Leary crossed the stripe for the 100th and final time, he was 2.617 seconds ahead of Chase Stockon who finished with a Silver Crown career best runner-up result. Mario Clouser grabbed a podium finish for the second time on a dirt mile this season, finishing third at Springfield and third again at Du Quoin. Point leader Justin Grant took fourth while Brian Tyler rounded out the top-five.
In victory lane, Leary and team owner Mike Burkhart went swimming as they both dove into the infield lake in celebration of their triumph.
Technically, Brian Tyler passed 29 cars at Du Quoin. First, he went 16th to sixth before a lap 22 accident put him back on the tail. He then restarted 24th and raced his way to a fifth place finish. Officially, he went 16th to fifth to earn his second consecutive dirt mile Rod End Supply Hard Charger award after also achieving the same feat at Springfield two weeks earlier.
Will Armitage spent the last two weeks rebuilding his crashed champ car after getting upside down at Springfield. On this day at Du Quoin, initially, his car wouldn’t take off for the start. That forced him to the tail where he charged his way back to a solid 11th place finish. All of that made a surefire bet for the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Day.
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 30, 2025 – Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Du Quoin, Illinois – 1-Mile Dirt Oval – Ted Horn 100
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. A.J. Fike, 39, Fike-30.633; 2. Matt Westfall, 54, 4 Kings-30.651; 3. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-30.712; 4. Kyle Steffens, 8, Steffens-30.852; 5. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-30.920; 6. Will Armitage, 17, Armitage-30.974; 7. Briggs Danner, 10, DMW-31.019; 8. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi-31.034; 9. Mario Clouser, 22, Rice/Abacus-31.039; 10. Saban Bibent, 88, Fetter-31.083; 11. Mitchel Moles, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-31.121; 12. Kevin Thomas Jr., 24, Haggenbottom-31.189; 13. Jake Swanson, 6, Klatt-31.231; 14. Danny Jennings, 61, Grace-31.278; 15. Jimmy Light, 118, Thomas-31.282; 16. Brian Tyler, 81, BCR-31.333; 17. Shane Cockrum, 97, Lein-31.419; 18. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-31.450; 19. Ken Schrader, 197, Lein-31.466; 20. Casey Buckman, 25, C-Buck/Sachs-31.516; 21. Korey Weyant, 99, Weyant-31.800; 22. Travis Mahoney, 65, SV-31.950; 23. Kip Hughes, 160, Hughes-32.073; 24. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-32.222; 25. Tom Savage, 38, Savage-33.170; 26. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-34.472; 27. Aric Gentry, 3, Simmons-NT; 28. Kenny Gentry, 18, Gentry-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. C.J. Leary (8), 2. Chase Stockon (5), 3. Mario Clouser (9), 4. Justin Grant (3), 5. Brian Tyler (16), 6. Kyle Steffens (4), 7. Matt Westfall (2), 8. Kevin Thomas Jr. (12), 9. Danny Jennings (14), 10. Jimmy Light (15), 11. Will Armitage (6), 12. Russ Gamester (17), 13. Saban Bibent (10), 14. Jake Swanson (13), 15. Travis Mahoney (20), 16. Korey Weyant (19), 17. Dave Berkheimer (23), 18. Tom Savage (22), 19. Casey Buckman (18), 20. Mitchel Moles (11), 21. Shane Cockrum (26), 22. A.J. Fike (1), 23. Kyle Robbins (21), 24. Briggs Danner (7), 25. Ken Schrader (27), 26. Aric Gentry (24), 27. Kenny Gentry (25), 28. Kip Hughes (28). 1:08.06.531
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 A.J. Fike, Lap 5 Chase Stockon, Laps 6-100 C.J. Leary.
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-774, 2-C.J. Leary-709, 3-Matt Westfall-582, 4-Kody Swanson-493, 5-Kyle Steffens-482, 6-Mario Clouser-450, 7-Dave Berkheimer-355, 8-Dakoda Armstrong-345, 9-Chase Stockon-310, 10-Taylor Ferns-299.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-207, 2-Briggs Danner-129, 3-Kevin Thomas Jr.-115, 4-Gunnar Setser-112, 5-Logan Seavey-105, 6-C.J. Leary-102, 7-Justin Grant-97, 8-Kyle Cummins-94, 9-Chase Stockon-85, 10-Hayden Reinbold-81.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 19-20, 2025 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 43rd 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: C.J. Leary (29.687)
Honest Abe Roofing / Southern Illinois Sports Productions / Richard Blakely Fast Qualifier: A.J. Fike (30.633)
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Brian Tyler (16th to 5th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Race: Will Armitage