In his younger days, Kody Swanson was so inspired by the path Ryan Newman took on his way to racing stardom, that in some respects, Kody followed in his footsteps, and that even extended to his education off the racetrack.

Now firmly entrenched as the most successful USAC Silver Crown competitor of all-time, Swanson (Kingsburg, Calif.) has followed in Newman’s path on the racetrack as well, and like Newman, has become a dominator of the hallowed 37-degree banks of Indiana’s Winchester Speedway.

On Sunday afternoon, Swanson swept the entire program during the 33rd running of the Rich Vogler Classic, establishing the fastest time in practice, then capturing the pole in qualifying before leading all 100 laps around the half-mile paved oval in his Doran-Binks Racing/Mission Foods – Wilke Orthodontics – Glenn Farms/Beast/Lanci Ford en route to his third consecutive Winchester USAC Silver Crown victory after scoring the previous two editions in 2022 and 2023.

That brings in the connection with Newman who, before Swanson on Sunday, was the most recent driver to score three-straight USAC wins at Winchester, achieving the feat entirely within the 1999 season by collecting a sprint car win followed by two additional triumphs in the midgets. In 2000, Newman also swept both the sprint car and midget portion of the Vogler Classic at Winchester, which was sanctioned by NAMARS during that particular year.

“That’s really special because I remember how good Ryan was and how strong he was here,” Swanson said. “When I was growing up and getting into racing, I took a year of mechanical engineering because Ryan Newman did. He made his career by winning big races. He won on the high banks; he had a degree and he understood how to communicate with crew chiefs. I wanted to try and do that to see if I could make it very far. I sure am thankful that I have made it all the way to USAC, especially the Silver Crown division.”

Swanson’s fifth career Vogler Classic triumph (2016-19-22-23-24) spans across two venues – Indianapolis Raceway Park and Winchester – and now has him just one shy of Tracy Hines’ all-time win record of six in the event, which was set between 1996 and 2013. Furthermore, Swanson has jetted out to victories in the opening two races of the 2024 USAC Silver Crown season following his win in April’s opener at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway. It’s the third occasion in which he’s won the opening two rounds of the series (2015-19-24), and the previous two resulted in series championships.

USAC Silver Crown Rich Vogler Classic Results Sunday At Winchester

1. Kody Swanson (1)

 2. Bobby Santos (5)

 3. C.J. Leary (6)

 4. Justin Grant (7)

5. Taylor Ferns (3)

6. Logan Seavey (4)

7. Davey Hamilton Jr. (14)

8. Kyle Robbins (12)

9. Trey Osborne (16)

10. Jackson Macenko (15)

11. Nathan Byrd (19)

12. Kaylee Bryson (11

 13. Gregg Cory (20)

14. Dakoda Armstrong (2)

15. Kyle Steffens (18)

16. Derek Bischak (8)

17. Mario Clouser (10

 18. Trey Burke (9)

19. Travis Welpott (13)

 20. Dave Berkheimer (21)

21. Nathan Moore (22)

 22. Tyler Roahrig (17). 36:25.647