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Tyler Triumphs In USAC Silver Crown Action At Oswego

Oswego, N. Y. – Hugging the inside lane for 100 grueling laps, veteran Brian Tyler steered the Team Six-R/Fatheadsz Sunglasses – Lucas Oil/Beast/Toyota to victory Thursday evening in the Kasey Kahne “Steel Palace Classic” USAC Silver Crown Series race at the venerable Oswego Speedway.

The race marked the first-ever appearance of the Silver Crown cars at Oswego and the first USAC sanctioned race at the track since Mario Andretti won sprint-car races in 1966 and 1967.

Starting on the outside of the front row beside fast-qualifier Tracy Hines, Tyler took command at the drop of the green and held off the repeated challenges of Hines and Josh Wise, who finished second in the Carl Edwards-RE Technologies Ford entry.

Hines and Wise collided midway through the race with Hines bouncing into the Styrofoam-covered wall. He was able to restart and scrambled through the field to garner eighth place.

“I didn’t have to get out of the inside lane, and I could be consistent and smooth. That’s what it takes to win,” the victor said. “The track was good and the car was working good. We didn’t have to make any changes to the car when the race was stopped (due to an accident).”

Tyler owns a 30-acre farm in North Carolina where he raises crops and has a small cattle herd. After each major win, he and his wife purchase a new cow and name it after the track where he wins. “We are going to get a new cow named ‘Oswego,'” he said with a smile. After winning at the Richmond International Raceway in June, he bought a cow and named it “Richmond,” to go along with cows named “Springfield and DuQuoin” named after wins in 2008.

Said Wise about his strong second-place finish, “This place has a lot of character it has so many bumps to contend with. In the first half of the race, I was just pressuring him to see if he would make a mistake. But professionals don’t make mistakes. After the red-flag came out, we made a few minor changes, but it lost its balance.”

Regarding his contact with Hines, he added, “I got under Tracy (Hines) on the restart and I gave him all the room I could, but it was so narrow and I just clipped him.”

Former champion Jay Drake made a rare appearance behind the wheel and he advanced to third place after staving off hard-charging youngster Kody Swanson. “I haven’t been driving for the last couple of years but after the primary driver had an accident, I talked the boss into letting me test the car. This car is so nice I just wanted to race it. I really enjoy these pavement Silver Crown races, as they are a lot of fun.”

Swanson took fourth with A. J. Fike fifth.

Ryan Smith drove smoothly to take sixth with Tyler walker seventh. Hines was eighth ahead of Shane Hmiel and Bud Kaeding.

NASCAR stars Ryan Newman and Kahne competed with Newman finishing 11th and Kahne crashed out of the race on the 97th lap after his steering wheel broke.

Twenty-six cars started the race and 19 were running at the end.

Mike Lichty crashed hard into the Styrofoam wall, stopping the race on the 44th lap. He was uninjured.

In the Silver Crown point standings, Kaeding tops the list with 282 points followed by Hines with 222 and Tyler with 213.

Hines topped all qualifiers with a lap speed of 125.663 miles per hour.

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