Mitchel Moles (Raisin City, Calif.) celebrates the $15,000 prize after scoring his first career USAC Silver Crown victory during Saturday night's 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO at Ohio's Eldora Speedway. (Paul Arch Photo) (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com)
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Rossburg, Ohio (September 21, 2024)………To finish first, you must first survive.
Yeah, that’s not exactly the way the old adage goes, but it’s a reasonably apt description for Mitchel Moles’ path to becoming a first-time USAC Silver Crown winner during Saturday night’s 42nd installment of the 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO at Rossburg, Ohio’s Eldora Speedway.
While several drivers fell by the wayside during the waning laps, Moles (Raisin City, Calif.) retained control throughout much of the 50-lap distance despite an incident with a lapped car and flat tire after flat tire down the stretch en route to a $15,000 prize.
The fourth place starting Moles (Raisin City, Calif.) took over the lead when he stepped up a lane and drove around Daison Pursley for the top spot in turn four on lap 13, then aced the remaining 38 tumultuous laps aboard his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – Southern Pacific Farms/DRC/Stanton Chevy.
In what was the 100th USAC Silver Crown race ever held on a 1/2-mile dirt track, Moles became the fifth first-time winner of the 2024 USAC Silver Crown season: Kaylee Bryson (Belleville), Daison Pursley (Port Royal), Dakoda Armstrong (Madison), Kevin Thomas Jr. (Salt City) and Mitchel Moles (Eldora). That’s the most in a season with the series since 2010. Meanwhile, Moles became the first driver since Tyler Courtney in 2017 to score his first career USAC Silver Crown at Eldora.
On an evening in which the checkered flag flew at a quarter ‘til 2am Eastern on Sunday morning, Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports also joined in on a rare feat by becoming just the 17th team ever to win feature events with the USAC Silver Crown, National Sprint Car and National Midget series over the years.
The first 16 entrants to achieve the feat include Mike Curb, Keith Kunz Motorsports, Cary Agajanian, Hoffman Auto Racing/Dynamics, Inc., Wilke Racers, Tony Stewart Racing, A.J. Foyt, 6R Racing, RW Motorsports, Klatt Enterprises, Louie Seymour, Kasey Kahne Racing, Leary Racing, Santos Motorsports, Dave Calderwood and Jason Leffler.
Though the team has been heavily active in USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car and USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget competition over the past several seasons, they have proven to be a quick study in the champ cars. The Eldora round was just the team’s fifth Silver Crown start and Moles’ ninth with the series.
Initially, Pursley had the upper hand from his pole starting position. After winning all three of his starts between the midget and sprint car during the Eldora weekend, Pursley was aiming to become the fourth driver to sweep all three USAC division victories in a single night at the 4-Crown Nationals following Jack Hewitt (1998), Kyle Larson (2011) and Logan Seavey (2023).
On the sixth lap, 25th running Dave Berkheimer spun to a stop in turn two to bring out the caution. However, under the yellow, the driver who had won each of the past three Silver Crown races at Eldora in 2021-2022-2023, Logan Seavey, pulled into the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area with a brake issue. Seavey restarted at the tail and managed to get back to 10th at the finish line.
As Pursley altered his line from high to low and from low to high, Moles saw an opening through the middle groove where rubber had accumulated. Finding instant traction, Moles propelled to the lead a lane above Pursley on the lap 13, then quickly established a half-straightaway advantage over the next handful of laps while Kody Swanson also followed along in the path to second.
“I felt like we had every end of the spectrum there,” Moles exclaimed. “The rubber actually came really fast. I was pacing Daison there, and all of a sudden, I went to the outside and it was fully rubbered. As soon as I got in front of him, I knew it was going to be a conservation deal. I had (spotter) Dylan (Cook) in my ear the whole time telling me I’m doing a good job and to just keep it rolling.”
With a narrow lane to work with, lapped traffic was going to be tricky for Moles. When he reached the 25th place running car of Tom Savage in turn three on lap 21, that’s where calamity ensued. As Moles attempted to pass Savage on the inside, room ran out. Moles right rear tire ramped over Savage's left rear, sending the rear end of Moles’ car airborne briefly before landing. Miraculously, he kept on going after the crash landing. At that some moment, flames erupted out of the left side of Savage's ride, forcing him to bail out and jump from the seat while his car was still rolling through turn two. The flames were quickly extinguished and Savage walked away.
“The lapped car came across me there,” Moles recalled. “I was just going to circle him, but he just lost the handle on it and went across the racetrack. So, I actually had to try to turn down underneath him, and when I ended up underneath him, he started coming down, and I was like, ‘it’s going to be one of those deals.’ Luckily, I made it through that deal. If it would’ve happened late in the race, it would’ve probably cut the tire, so we got lucky there. I don’t like to win races like that, but I feel like I did a pretty good job other than that all the way around.”
With traffic now clear in front of him, Moles immediately reestablished his stranglehold to the tune of a 3.6 second interval separation on the field with 17 laps remaining. However, that’s when the tire situation became the frame of focus. Mark Smith (14th), Zach Daum (16th), Kaylee Bryson (10th), Matt Goodnight (16th), Chase Stockon (8th) and Brady Bacon (6th) all became victims of a lack of right rear tread, resulting in numerous cautions and restarts.
But through it all, Moles kept it all intact to collect a 0.489 second victory over Kody Swanson who equaled his best Eldora Silver Crown finish of second. Briggs Danner also tied his personal best career Silver Crown performance with his second consecutive podium result after also finishing third at Du Quoin. Pursley came home fourth after leading the initial 12 laps.
Brian Ruhlman, a three-time 4-Crown Nationals feature winner behind the wheel of a modified, rounded out the top-five with his best career series finish. In doing so, he earned a $500 bonus as the recipient of the Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race award.
For his escape of literally avoiding the flames, Moles’ earned recognition for the aptly named Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
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USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 20-21, 2024 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 42nd 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: (Held on September 20) 1. Daison Pursley, 21, Team AZ-17.605; 2. Brady Bacon, 9, Dyson-17.608; 3. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran/Binks-17.682; 4. Mitchel Moles, 119, Reinbold/Underwood-17.705; 5. Chase Dietz, 86, Lee-17.712; 6. C.J. Leary, 6, Klatt-17.757; 7. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-17.763; 8. Logan Seavey, 22, Rice/Abacus-17.838; 9. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-17.924; 10. Mark Smith, 01, L & M-17.958; 11. Kyle Steffens, 08, Steffens-17.975; 12. Briggs Danner, 10, DMW-17.976; 13. Zach Daum, 37, Felker-17.997; 14. Carmen Perigo, 52, Stehman-18.108; 15. Chris Fetter, 15, Fetter-18.111; 16. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-18.112; 17. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall-18.126; 18. Trey Osborne, 81, BCR-18.232; 19. Nathan Moore, 48, Thomas/Moore-18.273; 20. Kaylee Bryson, 26, Pierce-18.292; 21. Mark Bitner, 4, Yeska-18.336; 22. Tom Savage, 38, Savage-18.360; 23. Matt Goodnight, 24, Haggenbottom-18.402; 24. Joe Trenca, 66, Karlsen-18.558; 25. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-18.679; 26. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-19.209; 27. Aric Gentry, 3, Simmons-19.427.
FEATURE: (50 laps, starting positions in parentheses, held on September 21) 1. Mitchel Moles (4), 2. Kody Swanson (3), 3. Briggs Danner (12), 4. Daison Pursley (1), 5. Brian Ruhlman (7), 6. Matt Westfall (17), 7. Justin Grant (16), 8. Carmen Perigo (14), 9. C.J. Leary (6), 10. Logan Seavey (8), 11. Trey Osborne (18), 12. Mark Bitner (21), 13. Chris Fetter (15), 14. Joe Trenca (24), 15. Kyle Steffens (11), 16. Aric Gentry (27), 17. Gregg Cory (25), 18. Chase Stockon (9), 19. Nathan Moore (19), 20. Kaylee Bryson (20), 21. Matt Goodnight (23), 22. Brady Bacon (2), 23. Mark Smith (10), 24. Zach Daum (13), 25. Tom Savage (22), 26. Chase Dietz (5), 27. Dave Berkheimer (26). 51:52.371
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Daison Pursley, Laps 13-50 Mitchel Moles.
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-742, 2-Justin Grant-715, 3-Logan Seavey-651, 4-C.J. Leary-574, 5-Kyle Steffens-471, 6-Kaylee Bryson-411, 7-Trey Osborne-395, 8-Gregg Cory-384, 9-Bobby Santos-366, 10-Nathan Moore-342.
USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-191, 2-Logan Seavey-174, 3-Robert Ballou-145, 4-Justin Grant-127, 5-C.J. Leary-117, 6-Kyle Cummins-115, 7-Chase Stockon-112, 8-Brady Bacon-111, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-103, 10-Matt Westfall-101.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: October 6, 2024 – Terre Haute Action Track – Terre Haute, Indiana – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 20th Sumar Classic
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: Brady Bacon (17.017)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Daison Pursley (17.605)
Hard Charger: Matt Westfall (17th to 6th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Race: Mitchel Moles
Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race: Brian Ruhlman