By Richie Murray
Speedway, Indiana (December 30, 2025)………About two decades ago, Michael Lewis was one of the premier pavement USAC racers of his era before abruptly stepping away from the sport.
Now, in 2026, the Noblesville, Indiana native is back in the game and will compete in all six pavement USAC Silver Crown events on the series schedule aboard the Klatt Enterprises No. 6.
Lewis will wheel the car driven by Jake Trainor during the 2025 USAC Silver Crown season. Trainor and the Klatt team parted ways following the season. Jake Swanson will continue as the team’s dirt driver in 2026.
Lewis’ most recent USAC Silver Crown appearance came during the 2005 season with a ninth place run at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Of his 29 career series starts, a second at Colorado’s Pikes Peak International Raceway in 2005 is his best performance to date.
The resume for Lewis shows four career USAC National Sprint Car victories at Winchester, Hawkeye Downs, Salem and Toledo. Plus, he earned an additional eight triumphs in USAC National Midget competition at Anderson, Phoenix’s Copper World Classic, Nazareth, Kentucky, the Night Before the 500 at IRP, Pikes Peak and at Irwindale twice, including the 2002 Turkey Night Grand Prix.
Along the way, Lewis earned accolades as the 1998 USAC National Midget Rookie of the Year, the 2003 USAC National Sprint Car Rookie of the Year and as the 2003 USAC Western Sprint Car champion. However, at the age 28 in 2006, Lewis stepped away from the sport. In the time since, he’s gotten married and raised three children.
But by August 2025, he was back behind the wheel of a midget at IRP. Now at age 47, the seat of a racecar still feels like home.
“You never lose the want to do it,” Lewis said regarding his 19 year hiatus. “I had an opportunity to run the midget race at IRP and that was just kind of hook, line and sinker for me. When I used to race, I didn’t have a wife and kids. Now that I do, there’s a whole different emotion that goes along with it. It’s pretty neat seeing my kids’ excitement.”
Upon his return this past season, Lewis proceeded to win a heat race, then ran third in a subsequent feature race later that night. In October, he was back in a midget as well as the higher horsepowered sprint car at IRP and running near the front of the pack when an accident ended his day early.
In the sprint car event, Lewis drove for Klatt with Hall of Famer Bob East serving as crew chief. Lewis remembered commenting that he’d love to run their car at IRP at some point, not thinking anything would happen. But it did, and Lewis, Klatt and East were all pleased with their speed. Then, East asked if Lewis would be interested in driving their Silver Crown car. Without hesitation, Lewis said, ‘absolutely.’
“You always wonder if you can still do it; you never know,” Lewis pondered. “But I was pretty happy with how things went. One thing led to another and here we are. We’re going Silver Crown racing next year.”
Lewis, who works in the radiator business for PWR North America, regularly competed against the Klatt/East car during the 2000s in Silver Crown and Sprint Car competition. It’s a machine that Lewis has always admired and wanted to drive, and something he thought would never happen. This opportunity is one Lewis cited as “a dream come true.”
After winning on USAC’s sprint car and midget trails, a Silver Crown victory would be extra special for Lewis, especially considering the circumstances. After all this time, the hunger has never dissipated, and Lewis is ready to make his mark.
“It’s just fun racing,” Lewis said of the Silver Crown series. “I’ve won USAC midget and sprint car races, but I’ve never won a Silver Crown race. In 2005, we finally got our stuff together and I think we had a second and a third. The cars are fun and the distance is fun. Now I’m ready, and I’d love to win a Silver Crown race.”
The pavement portion of the 2026 USAC Silver Crown season begins with the 69th running of the Hoosier Hundred at Brownsburg, Indiana’s Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Friday night, May 22.