Usac: Windom becomes 10th to win three-straight in silver crown

4/3/17 4:50 PM WINDOM BECOMES 10TH TO WIN THREE-STRAIGHT IN SILVER CROWN WITH SUMAR CLASSIC VICTORY

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WINDOM BECOMES 10TH TO WIN THREE-STRAIGHT IN SILVER CROWN WITH SUMAR CLASSIC VICTORY

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

An early start was on the horizon as several drivers loaded up their equipment at Lawrenceburg’s USAC National Sprint Car Midwest opener from the night before, got a couple hours sleep (if they were lucky), before heading across the Hoosier state to the Terre Haute Action Track for the USAC Silver Crown season opener and the 17th running of the “Sumar Classic.”

Despite owning a Silver Crown title and three career USAC Sprint victories at Terre Haute, including last October’s “Jim Hurtubise Classic,” the “Sumar” was one trophy Chris Windom did not yet possess.

The night was short, but Chris Windom’s good fortune would not take a rest as he lined up ninth behind a group that included the three most recent “Sumar” winners, ProSource pole sitter Kody Swanson, C.J. Leary and Shane (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)rum, who would sweep his way to the lead on the opening lap from his outside second row starting position.

On lap 19, Leary reeled in (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)rum, sliding underneath for the lead as Swanson came along to take second at the line.* Leary’s lead would be relatively short-lived, however, as Swanson continued to push his line up to the high side of turns three and four where he rode the rim past Leary and into the lead with a quarter of the race in the books.

While past “Sumar Classic” winners owned the first half of the 100-lapper, the second half would belong to the defending series champion Chris Windom who had steadily worked his way to the front, utilizing the bottom of the racing surface to march his way through the pack, chomping away at the interval between he and leader Swanson.

The two series champs worked the inner rail after Swanson moved back to the bottom between turns three and four.* Windom stuck a nose under Swanson entering turn three, inching along the inside guardrail until the exit of turn four where he was able to clear Swanson to take the top spot by a car-length at the start/finish line as flagman Tom Hansing displayed the crossed flags.

Windom had opened up a near full-straightaway lead over new second-place runner Leary with two-thirds of the race in the books, while Swanson occupied third.* And with 18 to go, Windom’s lead had grown to seven seconds and the insurmountable advantage seemed unattainable for second on back until eighth-running Bill Rose slowed with an apparent driveline issue to bring out the caution.

With the field bunched up, Windom’s lead was now gone and he would have to contend with defending race winner Leary in the closing laps.* However, Windom was able to get a solid jump with the lapped cars of Johnny Petrozelle and Joe Liguori standing between the front two on the lap 83 restart, thus allowing Windom to break away as Leary fought his way around the two to give chase.

Windom and Leary worked the bottom lap-after-lap as Leary slowly, but surely chipped away at the gap.* By lap 92, Leary had sliced Windom’s advantage to under a half-second and was still closing.

If you recall, it was at this juncture one year ago when Leary made the race-winning move for the win, but this year’s lap 93 did not work in his favor as he began to lose valuable ground and Windom started to distance himself from Leary once-and-for-all.* Windom had withstood the challenge, taking the victory by just a tad under two seconds over C.J. Leary and Kody Swanson.

Windom’s sixth career Silver Crown victory continued a streak of different “Sumar Classic” winners each year going back to 1999 and gave Gene Kazmark his first USAC victory as a car owner in the team’s first Silver Crown start since 2001. The car was the very same one Windom drove to the series championship in 2016, but, amazingly, the first time Windom and much of his crew first met was on race day morning.

It was Windom’s third-straight Silver Crown win, making him the 10th driver in the history of the series to accomplish that feat while becoming just the fifth driver in series history to follow up a win in the previous season’s final race with a victory in the season opener the next year, joining Al Unser in 1974, Tom Bigelow in 1976, Jerry Coons, Jr. in 2011 and Kody Swanson in 2015.

Windom takes the early Silver Crown point-lead by six markers over C.J. Leary and Kody Swanson, who are knotted up for second while series rookie Hunter Schuerenberg and his Nolen Racing teammate Jerry Coons, Jr. complete the top-five.

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2017 USAC SILVER CROWN DRIVER POINT STANDINGS

1. **(73) Chris Windom (Canton, IL)

2.** (67) C.J. Leary (Greenfield, IN)

3.** (67) Kody Swanson (Kingsburg, CA)

4.** (61) Hunter Schuerenberg (Sikeston, MO)

5.** (58) Jerry Coons, Jr. (Tucson, AZ)

6.** (55) Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, OK)

7.** (52) Dave Darland (Lincoln, IN)

8.** (49) Damion Gardner (Concord, CA)

9.** (46) Dakota Jackson (Elizabethtown, IN)

10. (43) Joss Moffatt (Columbus, IN)