Entering Saturday’s USAC Silver Crown season finale at Eldora Speedway, the formula was simple.  A 4^th place or better finish by Brady Bacon was all he needed to secure Klatt Enterprises’ first series owner title.

Bacon defied all notions of running “just good enough.”  His intentions were fully set on winning and closing the curtain on a banner year for himself and the Klatt team. He was fully set on capturing his second series victory of the season (and his career) by leading the final 10 laps to sweep both victories on half-mile dirt tracks (Eldora and Williams Grove) on the Silver Crown schedule in 2019.

“We kind of struggled and everything else, so it was good to get a win here and get an owner’s championship for these guys,” Bacon said.  “They worked hard to make huge improvements over the last year and we won two races this year.  We were in the hunt every time.  I’m really happy for them, and hopefully, we can keep winning these races the next few years.”

The Broken Arrow, Okla. native started 4^th in the 27-car field, the largest car count for a Silver Crown race at Eldora since 2008. However, pole winner Kevin Thomas, Jr. emerged with the lead on a first lap that saw the top-three of Thomas, Kody Swanson and Bacon in a three-wide battle off turn four.

Thomas, a 2^nd place finisher in the previous year’s of the 4-Crown Silver Crown feature, checked out in the early stages of the race.This came after building up a two second lead over Bacon and Swanson, who locked up an unprecedented fifth series driving title by starting the night’s main event.

The first incident of the night occurred in turn one the 10th lap when Steve Buckwalter climbed the outside wall, creating heavy damage to the right front. The trailing John Heydenreich had nowhere to roam and slid sideways into Buckwalter, who was up against the outside wall. Both drivers were okay, but their cars were finished for the remainder of the evening.

On the ensuing restart, the game changed as Bacon began working the middle and was able to remain within arm’s reach of Thomas. Just moments later, though, on lap 12, 6^th running Jason McDougal looped his ride at the entrance of turn one. As McDougal sat helplessly in the middle of the racing surface, Midget and Sprint feature winner Tyler Courtney clobbered McDougal with his right rear wheel and seriously damaged both cars and ending both driver’s nights which included Courtney’s bid for a USAC sweep at the 4-Crown.

With 13 laps remaining, Bacon tested the waters and slid through the middle to show a nose to the high-riding Thomas in turn one and then in turn three as well. Bacon tried again two laps later in turn one where he made up a bit of ground, but there wasn’t enough zip to make the slide stick.

Entering the final 10 laps, Thomas clung to a three-car length lead over Bacon. That was until scraping his right-side wheels off the outside wall between turns three and four. As Thomas fought to break free from the wall’s grasp, Bacon shot under and raced away scot-free with the lead and an eventual 1.931 second triumph over Thomas, Justin Grant, Swanson and Shane Cottle, who started all the way back in 24^th.

For Thomas, it was another heartbreak for a driver who’s been on the cusp of a first USAC Silver Crown victory for two consecutive seasons now. In fact, his result on Saturday was the fifth 2^nd place finish of his Silver Crown career. That moved him into the distinction as the driver with the most runner-up finishes without a series win. He now passed Dave Blaney, Pablo Donoso and Arnie Knepper on the list.

“We had a good chance of winning the sprint car race too, plugged it in the fence and broke a front end,” Thomas recalled.  “Luckily, we finished 4^th there.  And then we did it again.  I don’t ever run the fence, so I’m actually glad that I was at least up there to plug it in the fence.  It was a long day, but it was a fun day.  I think we got a 5^th, a 4^th and a 2^nd.  For somebody who’s not very good here, I’ll take it.”

Contingency award winners: (Friday and Saturday)

• Kevin Thomas, Jr. (Fatheadz Eyewear/ProSource Fast Qualifier)
• Matt Westfall (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger/Larry Rice High Performance Award & Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race) 
• Ronnie Wuerdeman (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher)

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USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS:

September 28 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 38th 4-Crown Nationals

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR/PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: (Completed on September 27) 1. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9, Dyson-16.054; 2. Jason McDougal, 56, Foxco-16.070; 3. Kody Swanson, 20, Nolen-16.176; 4. Brady Bacon, 6, Klatt-16.250; 5. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-16.321; 6. Chris Windom, 17, Goodnight/Byrd-16.366; 7. Chad Kemenah, 15, Hampshire/Kemenah-16.445; 8. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-16.483; 9. Ronnie Wuerdeman, 33, Wuerdeman-16.523; 10. C.J. Leary, 10, DMW-16.548; 11. Tyler Courtney, 97, Lein-16.562; 12. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott/Gorman-16.992; 13. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-17.048; 14. Jimmy Light, 123, Two-Three-17.074; 15. Steve Buckwalter, 53, Five Three-17.078; 16. Bill Rose, 66, Rose-17.094; 17. Dallas Hewitt, 57, Hewitt-17.138; 18. Austin Mundie, 47, Butler-17.143; 19. Eric Gordon, 78, Armstrong/Slinkard-17.192; 20. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-17.272; 21 Mike Haggenbottom, 24, Haggenbottom-17.279; 22. Terry Babb, 34, Morford-17.378; 23. John Heydenreich, 43, Felker-17.448; 24. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-17.456; 25. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-17.569; 26. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-18.941; 27. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall/Marshall-NT.

FEATURE: (50 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (4), 2. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (1), 3. Justin Grant (5), 4. Kody Swanson (3), 5. Shane Cottle (24), 6. Chris Windom (6), 7. Matt Westfall (27), 8. C.J. Leary (10), 9. Matt Goodnight (25), 10. Eric Gordon (19), 11. Chad Kemenah (7), 12. Jimmy Light (14), 13. Ronnie Wuerdeman (9), 14. Kyle Robbins (8), 15. David Byrne (13), 16. Bill Rose (16), 17. Mike Haggenbottom (21), 18. Travis Welpott (12), 19. Austin Mundie (18), 20. Terry Babb (22), 21. Austin Nemire (20), 22. Dave Berkheimer (26), 23. Jason McDougal (2), 24. Tyler Courtney (11), 25. Dallas Hewitt (17), 26. Steve Buckwalter (15), 27. John Heydenreich (23). 23:29.46

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-40 Kevin Thomas, Jr., Laps 41-50 Brady Bacon.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS/LARRY RICE HIGH PERFORMANCE AWARD HARD CHARGER: Matt Westfall (27^th to 7^th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Ronnie Wuerdeman

ROSEWOOD MACHINE & TOOL PRECISION MOVE OF THE RACE: Matt Westfall

FINAL USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMP CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-638, 2-Justin Grant-578, 3-David Byrne-489, 4-Eric Gordon-418, 5-Chris Windom-397, 6-Kyle Hamilton-381, 7-Bobby Santos-378, 8-Kevin Thomas, Jr.-366, 9-Mike Haggenbottom-357, 10-Kyle Robbins-355.