C.J. Leary will drive full-time on the USAC Silver Crown National Championship trail throughout the 2025 season in a joint effort between Team Arizona Racing, Petty Performance Racing and Phil Rossi. (Josh James Artwork Photo)
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (November 1, 2024)………C.J. Leary will drive full-time on the USAC Silver Crown National Championship trail throughout the 2025 season in a joint effort between Team Arizona Racing, Petty Performance Racing and Phil Rossi.
Leary (Greenfield, Ind.) is coming off a season in which he finished fourth in the USAC Silver Crown standings, his third consecutive top-four points finish with the series. The 2015 USAC Silver Crown Rookie of the Year owns three wins in the series, at Terre Haute (2016), Eldora (2018) and Madison (2022).
Team AZ Racing entered the champ car racing world in 2024 and flourished in a dirt only schedule with drivers Daison Pursley and Mario Clouser. In just the team’s second series start, Pursley raced the team’s car to a last lap victory at Pennsylvania’s Port Royal Speedway.
Leary has competed in the series for Klatt Enterprises full-time since 2022. Now he’ll take the reins of the series’ newest full-time team on dirt and pavement in pursuit of his first ever USAC Silver Crown title aboard the Avanti Windows & Doors, Apache Transport, OakCraft Elegant Cabinetry No. 21 DRC chassis powered by Stanton Racing Engines.
“I’m extremely excited for this new endeavor,” Leary stated. “(Car owner) Mike Burkhart, Craig (Burkhart), Jerry (Petty) and everybody seems to be putting together a super team. It’s going to be pretty cool. Hopefully we come out of the gates swinging. Obviously, their sprint car program has been really good. We’ve raced against them for the last handful of years and it definitely seems like they know what’s going on. They’ve got a notebook now with Daison and Clouser, so I’m super excited.”
Leary and Team AZ’s first foray together will come this weekend when the team travels out to Arizona’s Mohave Valley Raceway for the 57th annual Western World Championships. There, Leary will wheel the team’s machine for the two-night Avanti Windows & Doors USAC CRA Sprint Car Series event on Friday-Saturday, November 1-2. Team AZ has won each of the last three Western World features with Jake Swanson (2022) and Daison Pursley (2023).
“Originally, I was going to drive for Bill Michael out there, then the Silver Crown deal came about,” Leary revealed. “We just wanted to work together and just feel each other out a little bit and try to build on that notebook a little bit for next year. Hopefully, we can win two races.”
Leary’s USAC accolades also include the AMSOIL National Sprint Car championship, the Eastern Storm title and the Indiana Sprint Week crown, all of which he earned in 2019. In 2012, Leary was named USAC National Sprint Rookie of the Year, and in 2023, earned the Bubby Jones Master of Going Faster Championship Presented By Spire Sports + Entertainment.
The 2025 USAC Silver Crown schedule will be announced in December.
