TOLEDO, Ohio The USAC Silver Crown trail is a diverse one with an array of dirt and pavement tracks each taking turns hosting the behemoths of the USAC arsenal the champ cars.

Just last Sunday, Terre Hautes dirt half-mile was the battlefield. Saturday night the stage is paved with asphalt as the series takes on Ohios Toledo Speedway for the 12th running of the Hemelgarn Racing/Super Fitness Rollie Beale Classic Fueled by Marcos Pizza.

The annual event remembers Toledos racing hero, 1973 USAC National Sprint Car champion Rollie Beale, who also later became a highly respected USAC official who served as the chief steward for both the Silver Crown and National Sprint Car series for many years.

WHOLL STOP THE REIGN?

Kody Swanson has raced to eight overall USAC Silver Crown victories at Toledo in 2011-15-18-19-21-22-23-24, including six consecutive. The eight victories are one shy of the record for most by any driver at a single track in USAC Silver Crown history, one that he himself owns with nine scores at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Swansons current run of six consecutive Silver Crown wins at Toledo does have him at the top of another record for consecutive victories at one track. He set the record during the 2024 running of the event in which he led all 100 laps after starting on the pole.

As the owner of eight poles and eight victories in Silver Crown competition at Toledo, Swanson is the winningest USAC driver in the history of the track. Hes also the only driver to have started all 11 previous USAC Silver Crown events contested at Toledo dating back to 2010 and has now led 778 of the 1,200 laps run in Silver Crown competition at Toledo for a percentage of 64.8%.

The eight-time USAC Silver Crown champion, however, is buried deep in the points entering Toledo following a 16^th-place result in last Sundays opener at Terre Haute.

THE 100 CLUB

Twenty drivers have reached the 100 start mark with the USAC Silver Crown series. Justin Grant is poised to become the next this Saturday.

Grant currently stands at 99 starts dating back to his 2012 series debut. Other drivers in the 100 career start club include: Russ Gamester (218), Brian Tyler (212), Dave Darland (201), Jerry Coons Jr. (190), Tracy Hines (172), Jack Hewitt (163), Kody Swanson (154), Eric Gordon (153), Johnny Parsons (151), Tony Elliott (147), George Snider (129), Gary Hieber (125), Chuck Gurney (115), Bud Kaeding (113), Jimmy Sills (113), Dave Steele (111), John Heydenreich (110), Aaron Pierce (106), A.J. Fike (105) and Larry Rice (100).

Grant has finished each of his last three Toledo starts inside the top five with a third in 2022, fourth in 2023 and another fourth in 2024.

NEW SPEEDWAGON

This past Sunday, Rice Motorsports-Abacus Racing captured the season opening victory of the USAC Silver Crown campaign on the dirt of the Terre Haute Action Track with Logan Seavey as the winning driver.

However, for the first time since 2019, the No. 22 will have a different driver in the seat. Mario Clouser has been selected as the wheelman of the car for Toledo. In the teams four previous starts with Seavey, he collected a 10th, fourth, fifth and seventh.

Meanwhile, Clouser has progressively finished better in each of his three Toledo Silver Crown starts with a ninth in 2022, a seventh in 2023 and a sixth in 2024.

MAKING HISTORY

At age 15, teenage sensation Colton Bettis will become the youngest driver to compete in a USAC Silver Crown event this Saturday at Toledo. The Lutz, Fla., native will drive a second Sam Pierce Racing car at Toledo as a teammate to Kaylee Bryson.

Bettis has been on quite a roll as of late, winning the 2024 Auburndale Pro Late Model Championship and the 2024 BG Southern Sprint Car Series Championship. Thus far in 2025, hes won five of the first seven winged pavement sprint car races in Florida in which he competed.

Second in the 2025 National Pavement Sprint Car rankings, Bettis is also the current BG Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series points leader.

BUSY BYRD

Perhaps no other driver will have a more diversified upcoming week of racing than Nathan Byrd.

On Thursday, Byrd will compete with the 500 Sprint Car Tour at Indianas Anderson Speedway. On Friday, hes off to North Carolinas Rockingham Speedway to race with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

To cap off his weekend on Saturday, hell wheel the Meyer Auto Research no. 40 Silver Crown car at Toledo.

The first of Byrds two Silver Crown starts at Toledo was his best, finishing sixth in 2021. His most recent appearance at the track netted a 16th in 2023.

LEARYS NEW CAR

To kick off the week, C.J. Leary took his first ride in the Team AZ-Petty-Rossi Silver Crown car, which he took to a fifth-place finish at Terre Hautes dirt oval.

This weekend, the team will make a debut of another kind as they unveil the first ever DRC pavement Silver Crown chassis.

In a series dominated by Beast chassis in the win column over the pavement for the past three decades, it will be interesting to see how the new DRC design performs in its first race day.

Leary also has a bit of a score to settle at Toledo after a magnificent 2023 run which saw him lead a race-high 77 laps before finishing second to Kody Swanson.

Learys most recent USAC Silver Crown win actually came on the pavement of Wisconsins Madison Intl Speedway in 2022.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

When it comes to USAC Silver Crown season openers on pavement, no driver has won more often than Bobby Santos. Santos has captured the pavement opener on six occasions in his career in 2012-13-17-18-22-23.

Back in 2017, Santos raced around Kody Swanson just before the midway point to score one in the win column for himself and the DJ Racing team at Toledo Speedway.

Hes also the only driver to win at Toledo in a USAC Sprint, Midget and Silver Crown car in his career in addition to collecting a King of the Wing Sprint Car victory there in 2017.

In six of his nine career Silver Crown starts at Toledo, Santos has placed on the podium, and hes also taken the runner-up position four times in 2018-19-21-22.