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TYLER STORMS TO HOMESTEAD SILVER CROWN VICTORY

 

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Brian Tyler of Parma, Mich. won Saturday’s USAC Silver Crown Series presented by K&N Engineering 67-lap, 100-mile “Silver Crown  100” at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the first on a track of 1.5 miles.

 

Tyler, who started seventh, made his winning pass on polesitter Aaron Pierce on Lap 60 and held him off to win his 10th series race and first on pavement since 2002.

 

“I was running my own race,” said Tyler, who averaged 131.602 mph, less than two miles an hour short of the series record.

 

“I knew the car was good and it would be good from the start to the finish, but I couldn’t abuse my stuff until it was time. I just rode and rode and rode – not really riding, but trying not to use it up. I could see he (Pierce) was a little bit loose, and if I could keep him pinned on the bottom and run the top and keep my momentum up, I’d have a pretty good shot at it. I did that, and it happened to work out for the best.”

 

Pierce jumped in front for the first time in his career on Lap 55 after fighting with Bud Kaeding as the two inched toward the line. But Tyler, whose come-from-behind style has been one of his standard traits over 20-plus years in racing, cut down Pierce’s two-second advantage in less than a handful of laps and took the point as the two approached Turn 3.

 

That became the winning move, but barely. Pierce surged ahead on the backstretch on Lap 66, taking the lead unofficially on the inside in Turn 3, but slid up the track in Turn 4, allowing Tyler to regain the lead.

 

P.J. Jones and Bud Kaeding, who finished fourth and sixth respectively, battled over the first two-thirds of the race before slipping back with a variety of problems. The two led their first career pavement Silver Crown Series laps before Pierce and Tyler broke ahead.

 

“I wouldn’t have wanted the race to be two laps longer, because I was running out of fuel the last lap and a half,” said Tyler, who takes a six-point advantage heading into the May 26 “Hoosier Hundred” at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. It will be the first time anyone other than Steele who has led the point standings since Syracuse, N.Y. in 2003. Steele finished fifth and is third in points (111), the same total as Pierce.

 

“I could hear it fluttering a little bit coming off the corners. It worked. I’ve won some that way and lost some that way.

 

“The cars were a lot more racey than I thought they predicted they would be this soon in the season,” Tyler continued. “I felt the cars felt better when they were running together than when they were by themselves. I think every race we go to you’re going to see better and better racing. There was two and three wide today.”

 

The race featured six lead changes and multiple passes through the back of the field. The cars displayed two- and three-wide racing throughout the event, with drivers having limited problems passing inside and outside.

 

USAC SILVER CROWN SERIES RACE RESULTS (Presented by K & N Engineering): March 24-25, 2006 – Homestead, Florida – Homestead Miami Speedway

 

      QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-30.855; 2. Bud Kaeding, 29, BK/Leffler-30.860; 3. P.J. Jones, 98, Classic Speed-31.421; 4. Pete Shepherd III, 99, Edwards/RE-31.429; 5. Wayne Reutimann Jr., 00, Reutimann-31.490; 6. Pablo Donoso, 2, Racing Team-31.715; 7. Brian Tyler, 21, Team Six-R-31.838; 8. Dave Steele, 1, Steenbergen/Team Six-R-31.942; 9. Tim Barber, 28, Pierson-31.983; 10. Rich Tobias Jr., 17, RW-32.433; 11. Greg Furlong, 41, Paternoster-32.829; 12. Bryn Gohn, 8, Stauffer/Adams-34.157; 13. Rodney Weesner, 96, Weesner-34.541; 14. Thiago Mereiros, 18, PDM-NT.

 

      FEATURE: (67 laps) 1. Brian Tyler, 2. Aaron Pierce, 3. Tim Barber, 4. P.J. Jones, 5. Dave Steele, 6. Bud Kaeding, 7. Pete Shepherd III, 8. Pablo Donoso, 9. Greg Furlong, 10. Bryn Gohn, 11. Rich Tobias Jr., 12. Wayne Reutimann Jr., 13. Rodney Weesner, 14. Thiago Medeiros. 45:21.699

                                                                                                                                                                                

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Kaeding, Laps 13-15 Jones, Laps 16-38 Kaeding, Laps 39-41 Jones, Laps 42-54 Kaeding, Laps 55-59 Pierce, Laps 60-67 Tyler.

 

NEW SILVER CROWN STANDINGS: 1-Tyler-117; 2-Pierce-111; 3-Steele-111; 4-Kaeding-105; 5-Barber-93; 6-Furlong-78; 7-Reutimann-77; 8-Donoso-68; 9-Gohn-66; 10-Weesner-58.

 

NEXT SILVER CROWN RACE: May 26 – Indianapolis, IN – Indiana State Fairgrounds – “Hoosier Hundred”

 

 

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