For more information:
Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
E-mail: LKMRestart@gmail.com
Cell: (317) 201-0729

 

Doran Binks’ Swanson Wins Season Finale
And USAC Silver Crown Championship
With Mission Foods No. 77
Saturday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park

BROWNSBURG, Ind., Oct. 21 — Mission accomplished!

Driving the Mission Foods No. 77, Doran Binks Racing’s Kody Swanson won the 100-lap USAC Silver Crown season finale Saturday night at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) to extend his record as the winningest driver in series history with an unprecedented 45 career victories and his eighth series championship.

By adding one more championship to the titles he won in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, he also set a new record in terms of total championships earned by any one driver in a USAC national series. Who did he surpass? None other than A.J. Foyt with seven Indy car championships under USAC sanction and Mel Kenyon, who earned seven USAC national midget titles.

Swanson beat Justin Grant in the final point standings for 2024 with the Lebanon, Ohio-based team’s car, which also carries the colors of Glenn Farms and Wilke Orthodontics. Defending champion Logan Seavey finished third in the point standings followed by C.J. Leary and Kyle Steffens.

Swanson, a native of Kingsburg, Calif., who now lives in Indianapolis, led the point standings all season except for six days in May, but he went into Saturday’s race only six points ahead of Grant, 785 to 779.

Swanson earned three bonus points for being the fastest qualifier and 70 more for winning the race, while Grant finished fifth in the race and collected 58 points. At the end Swanson and Doran Binks Racing had a 21-point advantage over Grant and Hemelgarn Racing, 858 to 837, in the 14-race championship that started in April and was contested on both dirt and pavement tracks. Swanson and Doran Binks Racing won five of those races, finished second three times, and had two other top-five finishes enroute to the title in USAC’s top division.

For the pavement events such as Championship Saturday at IRP, the team used a Beast chassis powered by a Lanci Ford engine.

It was the second USAC Silver Crown championship for Kevin Doran’s Doran Racing, as the team won the title with Swanson in 2022 in conjunction with Chris Dyson Racing and this year in conjunction with Binks Motorsports under the Doran Binks Racing banner.

Swanson extended his record as the driver with the most career poles in this series when he topped qualifying Saturday afternoon with a lap in 20.892 seconds around IRP’s 0.686-mile asphalt oval for an average speed of 118.208 miles per hour. It was series career pole #54 for the 36-year-old driver.

His fastest qualifying lap was 0.228 seconds faster than the second-fastest qualifier, Bobby Santos III. Tyler Roahrig, Grant, and Seavey rounded out the top five in qualifying for the 18-car field. It was Swanson’s 11th USAC Silver Crown pole at this particular track and his seventh of the season, which broke his own series record of six in both 2015 and 2023.

Although Swanson started on the pole, Santos led the first lap before Swanson passed him to the inside in Turns 3 and 4 on lap two. He went on to lead through lap 12. The first yellow came out on lap eight for Nathan Moore, who stopped on the backstretch just off Turn 2 with a mechanical issue. Cody Gerhart stopped at that point too and retired to the pits.

The green waved again on lap 12, and Santos was able to get by Swanson in Turns 3 and 4 to regain the lead on lap 13. Santos, Swanson, and Roahrig were hooked up in a freight train at that point, with only about a tenth of a second separating them from each other.

Roahrig got under Swanson on lap 19 in Turns 1 and 2 to take second and they continued their high-speed chess match. On lap 30 Santos was 0.028 seconds ahead of Roahrig; Roahrig was 0.208 seconds ahead of Swanson, and Swanson was 0.472 seconds ahead of the fourth-place driver, Leary.

Seconds later the second yellow waved when the fifth-place driver, Dakoda Armstrong, stopped in Turn 3 with a mechanic issue. While the field was still under yellow the driver who was second, Roahrig, stopped on the frontstretch also due to a mechanical issue, reportedly something concerning his car’s magneto. Their excellent runs were over prematurely, and Swanson was back in second behind only Santos.

The battle resumed when the green flew on lap 38, and on lap 40 Santos was just 0.328 seconds ahead of Swanson, who in turn was just 0.369 seconds ahead of the driver in third, Leary. Grant was fourth and Nathan Byrd was fifth, although Seavey passed Byrd on the following lap for that position.

Swanson tried every line possible to get by Santos, who remained in the lead with Swanson right on his tail. The halfway point, lap 50, was indicative of the battle, as Swanson ducked under Santos in Turn 1 to edge ahead only to have Santos get the advantage again via the outside line in Turn 2, with only 0.101 seconds separating them as they crossed the timing beacon.

Ten laps later Swanson was still just 0.164 behind Santos, while Leary ran third, 0.406 behind Swanson. Grant was fourth, 0.758 behind Leary, while Seavey rounded out the top five.

Swanson made the winning move on lap 63 when he took the lead from Santos as they sped through Turn 2. Swanson led the rest of the race, and once back in front he was able to build up more of an advantage than Santos had. Two laps after he was back in front he was 1.128 seconds ahead of Santos on lap 65.

Seavey passed Grant for fourth on lap 67. By lap 70 Swanson had a 2.163-second lead over Santos, with Leary, Seavey, and Grant next in line. Seavey passed Leary for third on lap 72, and three laps later Seavey also passed Santos to move into second place. Swanson still had a 2.794-second lead at the three-quarters mark, and he was able to extend that to over 3 seconds with 10 laps remaining. His advantage reverted back to about 2 seconds later as he dealt with lapped traffic, but he had a 2.362-second margin of victory over Seavey. Santos finished third, Leary placed fourth, and Grant rounded out the top five. The series’ Rookie of the Year, Trey Osborne, finished sixth and got the hard charger distinction, as he started 12th. He was the last driver to finish on the lead lap. Byrd, Russ Gamester, Kyle Robbins, and Kaylee Bryson rounded out the top 10.

Swanson set the fastest lap of anyone in the race when he was timed in 21.425 seconds on lap three. Seavey was second in that category with a 21.739 on lap 41.

Santos got the three bonus points for leading the most laps, but not by much. Santos led 51 laps and Swanson led 49.

In victory lane Swanson paid tribute to “the army of people I have behind me,” and singled out many of them, including the three men who fielded his car together — Kevin Doran, Dan Binks, and Ken Keilholz. “God is good!” Swanson declared. “There are so many special people in my life, and I’m so grateful.

“This was a 14-race Silver Crown schedule, and it was a grueling year with a lot of really strong competitors who all had great runs,” he added. “We had some unfortunate things happen on our end too, but we just kept digging. It was a close title fight, and I want to congratulate Justin Grant and Helmegarn Racing on a great year too. We had a little bit of luck go our way.

“I tried really hard to get the lead, and we all raced hard,” he said. “I hated that Tyler had misfortune, and I have great respect for Bobby Santos too. Luckily on the longer runs the No. 77 was really good. But I had to be really careful with the lapped traffic at the end.”

With his victory Swanson broke the tie he held with his now-retired brother, Tanner, as the driver with the most USAC Silver Crown wins at IRP with nine.

He also now leads the category of the driver with the most USAC Silver Crown wins at any one track, as Tanner Swanson had eight at IRP and Jack Hewitt had eight at the Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

Kody Swanson is also now tied with Tracy Hines and Santos for the most USACsanctioned wins at IRP among all divisions with 15.

“I don’t know what it is about this place, but I love racing here,” Swanson said. “I kept moving around the racetrack to try to find something that worked, sort of like you do on a dirt track, and finally in the second half I found something that suited my car.”

There were four features at IRP on Saturday, and Swanson competed in three of them. By finishing third in the 40-lap 500 Sprint Car Tour race driving for Nick Bohanon earlier in the night, Swanson also wrapped up his second championship in that series. He won the 500 Sprint Car Tour series’ inaugural title in 2022 driving for Doran Racing.

Doran Binks Racing didn’t compete in all the races in that series this year, but it was part of this title too because Swanson drove cars fielded by Bohanon, Nolen Racing, and Doran Binks Racing this season enroute to the 500 Sprint Car Tour title. That series consisted of nine races this year, and Doran Binks Racing fielded cars for Swanson in two of them: the Glen Niebel Classic at Anderson (Ind.) Speedway in April (finished first), and the Little 500 at the same track in May (finished third). The Little 500 wasn’t a points-paying race, however.

It was a very busy day for Swanson, as he also finished fourth in the 30-lap Lucas Oil Raceway national pavement midget feature Saturday at IRP driving for Bertrand Motorsports. Although no announcement was made by the track Saturday night, other reports on social media indicated that with that accomplishment he also secured that midget championship as well as the A.J. Foyt Championship.

The latter is a season-long points battle consisting of the USAC Silver Crown, sprint car, and champion midget races held at IRP. Foyt won the first oval event at IRP in May of 1961. Swanson won this title four times previously: 2012, 2016, 2018, and 2021.

The USAC Silver Crown season finale, like all the USAC national events, was streamed live by Flo Racing.

For more information on Doran Binks Racing see DoranRacing.com and follow it on Facebook.

About Mission Food The Gruma Corporation began in 1949 and is today the leading tortilla manufacturer worldwide. Mission Foods is a proud subsidiary of Gruma, and as the #1 tortilla company in the United States, manufactures a wide variety of authentic Mexican products. Five years ago it opened a state-of-the-art plant in Dallas, Texas, with the capacity to produce 30 million tortillas daily. Today Mission Foods is a global company, with special emphasis not only on the United States but also Mexico, Central America, Europe, China, Malaysia, and Australia. Its products include flour and corn tortillas; tostadas; low-carb, whole wheat, organic and gluten-free items; wraps; flatbreads such as naan, pita and roti; tortilla chips and organic chips; chicharrones; salsa, and dips. For more information see missionfoods.com

Linda Mansfield/Restart Communications
E-mail: LKMRestart@gmail.com
Cell: (317) 201-0729