DU QUOIN DIVE! LEARY SWIMS AGAIN WITH REPEAT TED HORN 100 WIN

Winner C.J. Leary & the Team AZ / Petty-Rossi / Curb-Agajanian Racing crew celebrate Saturday’s Ted Horn 100 USAC Silver Crown victory by taking a dive into the infield pond at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in southern Illinois. (Rich Forman Photo)

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Du Quoin, Illinois (September 5, 2026)………C.J. Leary delivered on the promise he made prior to Saturday afternoon’s 72nd running of the Ted Horn 100 at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in southern Illinois.

“If we win again this year, we’re getting in the pond again,” he stated.

The Greenfield, Indiana native made certain of both of those things – no ifs, ands, or buts about it – as he led all 100 laps to capture a USAC Silver Crown victory on the Magic Mile for the second consecutive season at the controls of his Team AZ / Petty-Rossi / Curb-Agajanian Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – Curb Records/DRC/Stanton Chevy No. 21.

Leary had his gameplan prepared. He brought an extra pair of clothes (and dry socks) with him to the track, unlike last year when he had to pressure wash his firesuit. When all was said and done, he and his crew took the leap into the infield pond, which was extra refreshing on this particular day in which the temperatures hovered around 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

For Leary, it’s his eighth career USAC Silver Crown win, tying him with Chris Windom for 17th place on the all-time series win list. Two of those have now come at the Du Quoin mile.

“This is super special,” Leary reacted. “Winning on these miles is so much fun. I tried for a really long time before I got my first one. I would have really liked to get Springfield, but we’ll take Du Quoin two years in a row.”

Once Leary got the lead on the start from pole sitter Chase Stockon, the race was in his hands from start to finish, even after a caution and subsequent restart with seven laps remaining that erased his four second advantage. Through it all, Leary still had ‘em covered.

“That was an easy 100 laps, honestly,” Leary admitted. “I was just on cruise control trying to save tires. With how hot it was, we knew that the rubber was going to be pretty heavy. But getting  a jump on Chase (Stockon) was probably the race winning move. From there, I was able to get out front and run my own race.”

Dating back to last year, Leary has now paced 195 out of the past 200 laps of USAC racing at Du Quoin. He knew what kind of piece he had last year when he passed Stockon for the lead on lap six. This time, Leary got Stockon at the start and went on his merry way to join the multi-time Ted Horn 100 winners club.

“Man, that was epic,” Leary exclaimed. “Everybody on this team did a fabulous job. I knew after last year that our car was going to be really good here and it was. We qualified really well and we had a bit of a brake issue in practice. We didn’t get a bunch of practice laps, but it really didn’t matter. We were kind of waiting for the track to take rubber so we could work on it from there.”

Top of mind for Leary is the pursuit of his first career USAC Silver Crown championship. With his third victory of the series season on Saturday at Du Quoin, Leary increased his lead from 69 to 81 with just two races remaining and now sits squarely in the driver’s seat of the title race.

On top of it all, Leary’s latest result was also his 14th consecutive top five finish in USAC Silver Crown competition. That surpassed the former record of 13 set by Chris Windom (2015-2017) and Kody Swanson (2016-2017). Leary’s streak of 14 straight has continuously run since the July 19, 2025, round at the Kansas State Fairgrounds. All of that has bolstered him and his championship aspirations.

“It’s everything,” Leary reflected. “Especially when there’s only 11 or 12 races. you can’t have one bad night or two bad nights and expect to overcome a bad night. Justin (Grant) has been really good at being consistent, winning races, and just getting out front and doing his thing. I feel like that’s kind of what we’ve been doing this year. We want this championship really bad.”

Leary’s final margin of victory for the 100 miles was 1.840 seconds over Stockon, repeating the same top two finishers at Du Quoin from a year ago. Briggs Danner advanced 13 positions to equal his best career Du Quoin finish of third. Justin Grant grabbed fourth while Jake Swanson completed the top five.

Furthermore, Leary was the recipient of the K & N Filters Clean Air Award after leading the most laps – all 100.

Danner was earned Rod End Supply Hard Charger accolades after dicing his way through the field from 16th to third. The last time a driver started 16th or worse and finished on the podium at the Ted Horn 100 was Kody Swanson in 2010.

Stockon’s lap of 30.125 seconds (119.502 mph) in LearnLab Qualifying was the fastest USAC Silver Crown qualifying run at Du Quoin since Tyler Walker in 2005. For Stockon, it was the first pole position of his USAC Silver Crown career.

Three incidents occurred during the race. The most serious involved 11th running Jimmy Light who flipped over in turn three on the 15th lap. He was up on his feet but was assisted by the medical crew and taken for further observation.

Shane Cockrum’s original mount, the Hans Lein No. 97, experienced a mechanical issue during practice. With that ride out of commission, Kip Hughes, who was working on Cockrum’s crew for the day, offered up his own ride (#60) for Cockrum. Starting 19th, Cockrum had raced his way into the top 10. By lap 39, he was running sixth. After dropping back to seventh on lap 44, the car jettisoned its right side headers down the front straightaway before landing on the top of turn one, subsequently ending his day after another quality run to the front.

On the 51st lap, 14th running Dave Berkheimer drifted high off the exit of turn two and slapped the outside wall with his right rear tire before grinding to a halt along the back straightaway. He was able to walk away.

USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 5, 2026 – Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Du Quoin, Illinois – 1-Mile Dirt Oval – 72nd Ted Horn 100

LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-30.125; 2. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-30.365; 3. Saban Bibent, 88, Fetter-30.495; 4. Mitchel Moles, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-30.609; 5. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-30.662; 6. Jake Swanson, 6, Klatt-30.866; 7. Trey Osborne, 27, Wood-30.891; 8. Jimmy Light, 118, Thomas-31.042; 9. Carmen Perigo, 52, Stehman-31.045; 10. Mario Clouser, 20, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-31.269; 11. Kaylee Bryson, 11, Abacus/Droplight-31.709; 12. Chelby Hinton, 62, Klatt-31.771; 13. Hayden Reinbold, 119, Reinbold/Underwood-31.854; 14. Brian Tyler, 81, BCR-32.126; 15. Steve Gennetten, 64, GGR-32.551; 16. Chris Fetter, 15, Fetter-32.635; 17. Briggs Danner, 10, DMW-32.723; 18. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-33.772; 19. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-NT; 20. Aric Gentry, 3, Simmons-NT; 21. Chase Cabre, 26, Pierce-NT; 22. Shane Cockrum, 97, Lein-NT; 23. Shane Cockrum, 60, Hughes-NT.

FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. C.J. Leary (2), 2. Chase Stockon (1), 3. Briggs Danner (16), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Jake Swanson (6), 6. Chelby Hinton (12), 7. Steve Gennetten (14), 8. Chris Fetter (15), 9. Gregg Cory (17), 10. Trey Osborne (7), 11. Mario Clouser (10), 12. Kaylee Bryson (11), 13. Carmen Perigo (9), 14. Dave Berkheimer (18), 15. Shane Cockrum (19) (#60), 16. Saban Bibent (3), 17. Hayden Reinbold (13), 18. Mitchel Moles (4), 19. Jimmy Light (8), 20. Brian Tyler (20). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-100 C.J. Leary.

**Jimmy Light flipped on lap 15 of the feature.

USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-C.J. Leary-555, 2-Justin Grant-474, 3-Briggs Danner-432, 4-Mario Clouser-415, 5-Gregg Cory-332, 6-Dave Berkheimer-273, 7-Kyle Steffens-249, 8-Kaylee Bryson-242, 9-Jake Swanson-232, 10-Dakoda Armstrong-217.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Hayden Reinbold-125, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-123, 3-Justin Grant-113, 4-Robert Ballou-109, 5-Briggs Danner-108, 6-Cale Coons-105, 7-Jacob Denney-100, 8-Chase Stockon-94, 9-Jake Swanson-87, 10-Mitchel Moles-78.

NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 25-26, 2026 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 4-Crown Nationals

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: Justin Grant (29.802)

LearnLab Fast Qualifier: Chase Stockon (30.125)

K & N Filters Clean Air Award: C.J. Leary (100 laps led)

Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Briggs Danner (16th to 3rd)