USAC Release #39 - 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.