LEARY’S CROWN! 2026 USAC SILVER CROWN SEASON REVIEW
2026 USAC Silver Crown champion C.J. Leary. (Rich Forman Photo)
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Through personal loss, love, pain and joy, C J Leary continued to race on over the past year and a half.
And after finishing the United States Auto Club (USAC) Silver Crown Championship points 3rd, 4th, 4th, and 2nd over the past four seasons, a title was just within reach.
In 2026, after 12 years after making his series debut, the Greenfield, Indiana native finally made it to the top once again, this time as a USAC Silver Crown Champion.
Leary’s Silver Crown title is his first with the series and the second of his USAC national career after also grabbing the USAC AMSOIL Sprintcar National Championship back in 2019. This one required near perfection as he finished inside the top-five in all but one of the 10 rounds while also tallying three wins.
He picked up two wins on the pavement at WWT Raceway and Iowa Speedway, both of which Leary admitted were “bucket list” tracks for him to win at. A repeat victory on the dirt at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds and a ceremonial swim in the infield pond / lake followed in September, to go along with a series-leading 204 laps led, and no finish worse than eighth throughout the season. By September, he had achieved a brand new series record of 15 consecutive top five finishes dating back to mid-2025.
The 105-point margin of Leary’s was the series’ largest since the 2015 season, while completing every single one of the 911 laps contested during the 2026 campaign. His quest to the 2026 USAC Silver Crown driving championship has spanned for nearly half of his 30 years on this earth, and this was about as perfect of a year he could’ve possibly had on the racetrack as the team finished every single race without a single DNF.
“Over half the battle of Silver Crown racing is making sure that your car runs the full 100 laps and finishes the races,” Leary stated. If you can do that, you’re going to be top 10 for sure, top five maybe even. We’ve had no failures the last two years, which has been just unbelievable. I owe that all to those guys for spending the time in the shop and providing us with all the right parts and pieces. It makes my job easy to show up to track and give them 100 percent.”
For C J, it’s a journey to the championship that debuted in 2014. After going full-time in 2015 in the family-owned No. 30, Leary first raced to victory in USAC national competition in 2016 at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track, celebrating alongside his dad, 1997 Hoosier Hundred winner Chuck Leary, as they became the first father and son to win USAC Silver Crown races as drivers.
C J’s 2018 champ car score at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway is widely regarded as one of the best races in USAC Silver Crown history, one that C J cites put him “on the map” to where teams were calling him to drive their cars on a full-time basis.
After a run with the Klatt Enterprises team and Bob East in the forthcoming years, Leary notched another series win in 2022. But after vacating that seat in 2024, Leary joined the Team AZ Racing / Petty-Rossi / Curb-Agajanian team for 2025. Their goals were clear: win races and win championships. Despite a new pavement car, no notebook, and a new combo, they won twice and finished second in the standings for 2025. In 2026, they got even better, attaining their goals by year two in their Avanti Windows & Doors – Curb Records/DRC/Stanton Chevy #21.
At times, it takes a village to operate at an optimum level, and the 21 bunch sure has its share, becoming quite possibly the first four owner operation to earn a USAC championship, with a team that consists of Mike Burkhart, Craig Burkhart, Eric and Windy Wilkins, Justin Grau, Joe Devin of DRC, Eric Stanton of Stanton Racing Engines, Jerry Petty of Avanti Windows & Doors, Phil Rossi of Apache Transport, and Mike Curb, all of whom can now claim the 2026 Silver Crown title as their very own.
“It’s about the people, really,” Leary tipped his cap. “I think it’s about the people you surround yourself with. And if you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, why are you doing it? There are a lot of other things out there that we could all be doing, but racing has brought us all together in the sport that we love.”
But amid the pursuit of accomplishing the task of capturing a USAC Silver Crown title, away from the track, Leary’s experiences were anything but perfect. An emotional roller coaster over the span of the past year and a half saw his dad pass away unexpectedly in March 2025 at the age of 59. Not only was he his dad, his mentor, and his crew chief, he was his best friend.
“Losing my dad was the hardest thing I’ve ever endured and I still struggle with it today. I don’t know if it’s something I’ll ever really truly get over,” C J said. “He was my best friend and my crew chief and he was sometimes even my worst enemy. We butted heads a lot, but I sure do wish he was here to have witnessed this season and get to celebrate this championship with us. I know that he was watching over me at all those races.”
In December 2025, C J married his longtime girlfriend, Kristy Bemmes. In 2026, C J’s trusty sidekick, Charlie the Black Lab, who traveled up and down the road to every one of C J’s USAC races going back more than a decade, passed away. Soon after, C J and Kristy announced that they would soon become the proud new parents of a baby boy in early 2027.
“I don’t know if it gets any cooler getting to win a USAC Silver Crown Championship and to have a son all in the same year,” Leary beamed. “I’m really looking forward to becoming a dad. I think I’ve learned a lot from my dad and I just hope that I’m as good as he was. I think he’ll be the seventh generation of Charles Leary. That’s really cool for my family and really cool for Kristy. I think she’s going to be a great mom.”
Leary led the championship points for all but the first race, which was won in spectacular fashion in May at the Kansas State Fairgrounds by Hayden Reinbold. Restarting 17th after a first lap crash, then later going a lap down just 10 laps into the race, Reinbold took over the lead from a fuel-starved Justin Grant with two laps to go to become the first driver to win in his first career USAC Silver Crown start since Marv Carman in 1984.
Dakoda Armstrong charged from fourth to first in the first 10 laps to win the 69th running of the Hoosier Hundred at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in June. In that same race, Russ Gamester made the biggest charge of the season in what was his record-setting 31st career Hoosier Hundred start by driving from 18th to fourth. That same night, Brian Tyler and his son, Robert Tyler, became just the sixth father and son to compete in the same USAC Silver Crown race, joining David & Mike McCreary, Jim & James McElreath, Wayne Reutimann Jr. & Sr., Ken & Davey Hamilton, and Davey Hamilton Jr. & Sr.
Mitchel Moles led all but one lap of July’s Sumar Classic at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track as he lost the lead to his teammate Hayden Reinbold with seven laps to go, then quickly grabbed it back on the very next lap to secure the win. Moles and Reinbold’s resulting one-two finish made Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports the first team to occupy the top two spots of a USAC Silver Crown race since Tony Stewart Racing’s Levi Jones and Bryan Clauson in 2010, also at Terre Haute.
Briggs Danner tied for the most victories during the 2026 season, going wire-to-wire for all 100 laps to score the Rich Vogler Classic in what his first ever visit to the daunting 37 degree high banks of Indiana’s Winchester Speedway. Danner’s second career series win on July 19 came exactly one year to the day after his first win. Danner then won his first dirt mile race at the Illinois State Fairgrounds’ Bettenhausen 100 in August, taking over the lead from Justin Grant, who suffered another heartbreak when his engine expired just 13 laps from the finish line while leading. Danner then capped the season with another victory on the pavement in his first ever visit to Ohio’s Toledo Speedway.
During September’s 4-Crown Nationals at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway, Spire Motorsports with CB Industries debuted their new USAC Silver Crown team with Daison Pursley at the wheel. The result was absolute perfection as they were fastest in practice, captured the pole position in qualifying, then led all 50 laps en route to Pursley’s second straight Eldora champ car win. Interestingly, the top four finishers of the feature were Pursley, Brady Bacon, Matt Westfall, and Logan Seavey. For all four of those drivers, it was their only feature start of the USAC Silver Crown season.
Furthermore, Chase Cabre made history at Iowa when he became the first driver to win the pole position in his USAC Silver Crown debut since Shane Hmiel in 2008. In his second qualifying run at Toledo, he captured the pole position again! He led 45 laps in both races, bowing out with a mechanical issue at Iowa before finishing third at Toledo.
Also at Iowa, the versatile Nathan Byrd became the first driver since J.J. Yeley in 2007 at Kansas Speedway to compete in both a USAC Silver Crown and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts race on the same day at the same track. Byrd finished fourth in the USAC race and 25th in the NASCAR event.
With his eighth place finish in the standings, Chelby Hinton was named the 2026 USAC Silver Crown Max Papis Innovations Rookie of the Year after finishing all six of his starts inside the top 10. In one of the closest Rookie races in series history, Louisiana’s Hinton edged Hayden Reinbold by a mere eight points.
Chase Cabre, Justin Grant, and C J Leary each led a three-way tie for the most pole positions in 2026 with two apiece.
Six drivers started all 10 feature events: C J Leary (1st in points), Briggs Danner (2nd in points), Justin Grant (3rd in points), Mario Clouser (4th in points), Gregg Cory (5th in points), and Dave Berkheimer (6th in points).
Seventy-two different drivers competed in a USAC Silver Crown event in 2026, the most in three years.
2026 USAC SILVER CROWN STAT LEADERS:
Driver Champion: C.J. Leary
Entrant Champion: Team AZ/Petty-Rossi/Curb-Agajanian Racing #21
Most Wins: 3-Briggs Danner & C.J. Leary
Rookie of the Year: Chelby Hinton (8th)
Most Laps Led: 204-C.J. Leary
Most Top-Fives: 9-C.J. Leary
Most Top-Tens: 10-C.J. Leary
Most Fast Qualifying Times: 2-Chase Cabre, Justin Grant & C.J. Leary
Most Feature Starts: 10-Dave Berkheimer, Mario Clouser, Gregg Cory, Briggs Danner, Justin Grant & C.J. Leary
Best Finish By A Rookie: May 9: Kansas State Fairgrounds – Hayden Reinbold (1st)
Most Positions Advanced in a Race: (14) Jun 25: Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park – Russ Gamester (18th to 4th)
