Larson, Swanson win USAC races at LOR

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Kyle Larson celebrates with a slide after taking home the win in the USAC Midget Race. Dorian McDaniel/Flyer Photo
Kody Swanson (left) and brother Tanner (right) took first and third, respectively in the USAC Silver Crown Race during the opening night of the Kroger SpeedFest at Lucas Oil Raceway. Dorian McDaniel/Flyer Photo

July 30, 2011

Jake Thompson The Hendricks County Flyer Sat Jul 30, 2011, 12:10 AM EDT

CLERMONT — Following the ARCA race at Lucas Oil Raceway on Thursday night were the USAC Midget 30-lap and Silver Crown 100-lap features.

The USAC 30-lap Midget race took place directly after ARCA finished as the sun had gone down and cooled the track off.

But the action on the track heated things back up as Danville, native Kyle Hamilton, Darren Hagen, and Bryan Clauson battled the first couple of laps with some furious driving before rookie Kyle Larson edged out in front of the pack.

Larson, 18, held the lead from the seventh lap and pulled away from the field for his first USAC win on pavement and the second of his young career.

"It feels awesome," Larson said. "I'm not a pavement specialist so to come out of here and get a win in my first year feels great. We drove to the front there pretty easy and once I got out to the front, just made sure I hit my marks. I was getting nervous because I thought they were right behind me, but they said I had a pretty good lead."

Clauson and Hagen went at it pretty good to begin the race with Hagen leading the first five laps and Clauson leading on lap six. That duel continued throughout the race and ended with Clauson being spun out in the backstretch with five laps remaining.

Following his win, Larson jumped into a Silver Crown car for the 100-lap feature, feeling pretty good. But the Silver Crown auto was not the equal of his midget car.

"It was junk from the time we rolled it out of the trailer," Larson said. "It was weird how the midget could be so good and the Silver Crown could be so bad."

A myriad of cautions slowed the action down several times throughout the Silver Crown race, but Kody Swanson made the most of his opportunity to take the victory.

His brother Tanner placed third, behind series stalwart Tracy Hines, who took second.

It was an emotional win for Kody Swanson, who had been airlifted from an accident at the Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt in late May of this year.

"I wanted to win both of them and just missed by a little bit in midget," Swanson said. "I gotta thank ... everyone at Team 6 racing for hanging in there with me and I just can't thank everybody enough."

Hines, who won the pole earlier in practice, pushed Swanson the whole way and closed within a car length on the last several laps, but just couldn't get around him.

"We were pretty good, but woulda, coulda, shoulda," Hines said. "I thought we had a very fast race car."

With all Kody Swanson had been through to get back racing, Tanner Swanson was obviously happy to see his brother get the win, The two posed together for photos afterwards. But Tanner could not resist taking a brotherly jab at Kody in his post-race comments.

"I guess my brother needs to watch where he sleeps, I need to put him back on injured reserve," Tanner joked. "It seems like all we can do here in the Silver Crown is pick up thirds and fourths, but that should put us close to the top of the standings and that's the main goal. I was happy to see Kody get the win."

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