Brownsburg, Indiana (May 23, 2025)………Tyler Roahrig had done just about everything in his brief but highly successful USAC Silver Crown career. Everything but win, that is.
In 12 career series starts dating back to 2021, the Plymouth, Indiana racer finished on the podium six different times, including a runner-up result in his first career series appearance.
But Friday night’s 68th running of the Hoosier Hundred at Brownsburg, Indiana’s Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park proved to be the breakthrough he had been oh-so-close to achieving over the years.
Starting on the outside of the front row, Roahrig fell back to third on the opening lap before steadily moving forward on the .686-mile paved oval. By the second lap, he was back in second and then gave chase toward five-time Hoosier Hundred winner Kody Swanson.
On the 26th circuit, Roahrig made the winning move under Swanson, and from there, he paced the field for the final 121 laps of the 146-lap, 100-miler to earn $15,000 and his first career USAC national victory of any kind in his Newman Racing/Firstline Systems, Inc. – Drywall Distributors – Rocket Fabrication/Beast/Jackson Chevy.
“It’s about time,” Roahrig exhaled. “I was complaining after (April’s) Toledo race that we’d done everything but win one of these things. And man, it sure feels good. It’s been a long time coming. I’ve been in the Silver Crown series for four years but we haven’t really run that many races.”
The triumphant moment was transcendent across multiple generations of the Roahrig family. In 1973, Tyler’s great uncle, Dave Roahrig, captured a USAC National Sprint Car victory in a rear engine car at Cincinnati, Ohio’s Tri-County Speedway. More than a half-century later, Tyler made it a priority to put the Roahrig name back into the USAC record books.
“My great uncle is a big part of our team,” Roahrig explained. “He comes to the race shop every day. He’s taught me a lot about racing and just everything. One reason I wanted to win a USAC race so badly was just so I could have something in common with my uncle. It feels really good to have my named mentioned with my great uncle Dave.”
The 121 laps led by Roahrig are the third most by any driver in a USAC Silver Crown event, trailing only the 164 paced by Tom Bigelow at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in 1975 and the 150 Kody Swanson led at Toledo Speedway in 2011.
The day before, Roahrig had qualified for the pole position of the Little 500 at Indiana’s Anderson Speedway. He kept the roll going into Friday, but looked on early as pole sitter Mario Clouser led the first lap and third-starting Swanson controlled the next 25 after scooting under Clouser in turns one and two to gain the lead on lap two.
With this particular event being the longest distance marathon of the year at 146 laps, Roahrig was engaged in the mental tug-of-war of whether to make a run at the lead now or whether to ride along and nurture the equipment a little while longer before striking.
“It’s always that battle of ‘am I going too hard or do I want to pass them when I can,’” Roahrig pondered. “Especially with Swanson. He’s kind of the master of management, I guess you could say. I wanted to get the lead when I felt like I could to control the race and control the restarts and it worked out. He’s the benchmark in this series and it’s always fun racing with him.”
Roahrig stalked Swanson until a savory run off turn two on lap 26 launched him alongside Swanson. By turn three, Roahrig had completed the pass, and for all intents and purposes, never looked back.
By halfway, Roahrig’s lead had blossomed to 3.3 seconds as he repeatedly worked through traffic, then got into the clear only to encounter traffic again. At the same time, Clouser and Leary began to surge forward toward Roahrig. Clouser swept under Swanson in turn four to gain second on lap 113. Meanwhile, Leary swiped third from Swanson on lap 118 with a nifty maneuver on the bottom of turn four.
Roahrig maintained a 1.5 second lead for the next 20 or so laps, but when he worked his way through the cluster of lapped cars containing Nathan Byrd, Kyle O’Gara and Matt Westfall on lap 131, he was able to regain his breathing room to the tune of 2.4 seconds over Clouser, as he was able to put the field away with sheer will.
“This car was just on a rail,” Roahrig praised. “I thought we’d be pretty good after the race here last fall. We had some issues, but the car was really good. We pretty much came back with the same thing and it was really good. I couldn’t have asked for a better racecar.”
That said, when Clouser became boxed in between Byrd and O’Gara while attempting to put those two a lap down, Leary took advantage of the situation and dove to the bottom to drive past all three and slot into the runner-up spot on lap 133.
Despite Roahrig's lead standing at three-quarters of a straightaway (3.1 seconds ahead) and time running out, Roahrig was a bit apprehensive when discovering Leary had raced his way into second. Not only that, he had shaved a full second off Roahrig’s lead. But in the moment, the sands in the hourglass were mostly running on empty.
“C.J. and I tested last week on the same day, so I knew how fast he was,” Roahrig quipped. “So I was a little nervous, and I was praying for no yellows. But it all worked out. It’s such a relief for me to finally get my first USAC win.”
In the end, Roahrig crossed the stripe 2.74 seconds ahead of second running C.J. Leary as Mario Clouser took third, Kody Swanson fourth and Jake Trainor fifth.
By doing so, Roahrig became the first driver to win his first career USAC Silver Crown race during the Hoosier Hundred since Shane Hmiel in 2010, a race which was held at the event’s longtime home, the Indiana State Fairgrounds dirt mile.
Oh, what a night it was for C.J. Leary as he advanced from his seventh starting spot to finish second and equal his best career Hoosier Hundred finish (2nd in 2020). With his effort, he earned the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
It was a top flight night for Mario Clouser as he began the day by earning his first career USAC Silver Crown pole position. In fact, it was his first USAC national fast qualifying time since a 2012 midget event at North Carolina's Ace Speedway. With the pole, Clouser picked up a total of $1,150 for his efforts between Allgaier Performance and Honest Abe Roofing. Clouser finished Friday’s event by leading his first career USAC Silver Crown lap and then went on to equal his best career USAC Silver Crown result with a third.
In just his second career USAC Silver Crown start, series Rookie Jake Trainor was mightily impressive. The Massachusetts native went +11 in his run from 16th to fifth to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 23, 2025 – Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park – Brownsburg, Indiana – .686-Mile Paved Oval – 68th Hoosier Hundred
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mario Clouser, 92, Kazmark-21.112; 2. Tyler Roahrig, 41, Newman-21.113; 3. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran Binks-21.158; 4. Bobby Santos, 98, DJ-21.259; 5. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-21.308; 6. Logan Seavey, 22, Rice/Abacus-21.325; 7. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi-21.394; 8. Kyle O'Gara, 141, A-Maxx-21.403; 9. Dakoda Armstrong, 5, C & A-21.411; 10. Nathan Byrd, 40, Meyer-21.526; 11. Jackson Macenko, 124, Hayes-21.594; 12. Brian Tyler, 81, BCR-21.620; 13. Kyle Steffens, 8, Steffens-21.711; 14. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-21.721; 15. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-21.783; 16. Jake Trainor, 6, Klatt-21.787; 17. Bryan Gossel, 06, Gossel-22.142; 18. Matt Westfall, 54, 4 Kings-22.204; 19. Casey Buckman, 25, C-Buck/Sachs-22.272; 20. Danny Jennings, 61, Grace-22.779; 21. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-23.452; 22. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-NT; 23. Derek Bischak, 131, Bischak-NT.
FEATURE: (146 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tyler Roahrig (2), 2. C.J. Leary (7), 3. Mario Clouser (1), 4. Kody Swanson (3), 5. Jake Trainor (16), 6. Logan Seavey (6), 7. Justin Grant (5), 8. Jackson Macenko (11), 9. Nathan Byrd (10), 10. Kyle O'Gara (8), 11. Taylor Ferns (15), 12. Matt Westfall (17), 13. Casey Buckman (18), 14. Gregg Cory (20), 15. Brian Tyler (12), 16. Bobby Santos (4), 17. Russ Gamester (14), 18. Kyle Steffens (13), 19. Danny Jennings (19), 20. Dave Berkheimer (21), 21. Dakoda Armstrong (9), 22. Bryan Gossel (22). 1:00:17.436 (New Track Record)
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Mario Clouser, Laps 2-25 Kody Swanson, Laps 26-146 Tyler Roahrig.
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-265, 2-C.J. Leary-247, 3-Logan Seavey-183, 4-Matt Westfall-182, 5-Kody Swanson-156, 6-Tyler Roahrig-140, 7-Gregg Cory-139, 8-Kaylee Bryson-136, 9-Dave Berkheimer-133, 10-Mario Clouser-126.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-103, 2-C.J. Leary-54, 3-Briggs Danner-41, 4-Chase Stockon-37, 5-Robert Ballou-35, 6-Justin Grant-30, 7-Jadon Rogers-30, 8-Gunnar Setser-28, 9-Kyle Cummins-23, 10-Kyle Jones-22.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 14, 2025 – World Wide Technology Raceway – Madison, Illinois – 1.25-Mile Paved Oval
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: Bobby Santos (21.184)
Honest Abe Roofing / Allgaier Performance Fast Qualifier: Mario Clouser (21.112)
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Jake Trainor (16th to 5th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Race: C.J. Leary
%20copy.jpg)
