Richmond: Round three preview

"JAMES RIVER GROUNDS 100" AT RICHMOND SIGNALS RETURN OF "TRADITIONAL" SILVER CROWN CARS

This weekend's "James River Grounds 100" for the USAC K & N Silver Crown Championship Series presented by Optima Batteries signals the return of the "traditional" Silver Crown pavement cars after a two-year hiatus. The event is part of RIR's racing weekend which includes Saturday night's Sun Trust Indy Challenge Indy Car race as well as Friday's USAC National Sprint race.

Defending USAC Silver Crown Champion Bud Kaeding of Campbell, Calif. sits atop the current series standings but he is tied with defending USAC Mopar National Midget Champion Jerry Coons Jr., winner of the 2008 Silver Crown opener at Phoenix, Ariz. in February.

Coons has won two of the last four Silver Crown events, dating back to last year's "Four Crown Nationals" at Rossburg, Ohio but he'll seek his first pavement win this weekend at Richmond.

Saturday's 100-mile Silver Crown race is the 10th at the 3/4-mile paved oval where Jack Hewitt scored a stunning victory in 1995. The Richmond win was Hewitt's only victory on pavement in a record 23 career Silver Crown triumphs. Subsequent race winners at RIR include Jimmy Sills (1996), Aaron Fike (2001), Dave Steele (2002-2003 and 2005), Bobby East (2004), Kaeding (2006) and Brian Tyler last year.

Tyler ranks eighth in the current standings and hopes to improve his standing this weekend.

Steele holds the one and 100-lap Silver Crown track records of 136.924 mph (1) and 108.632 mph (100) set in 2005 and 2003 respectively.

Entered drivers in addition to Coons and former race winners Tyler and East include defending USAC Sprint Car Champion Levi Jones of Avon, Ind., current USAC Mopar National Midget point leader Tracy Hines of New Castle, Ind., USAC Triple Crown Champion Dave Darland of Lincoln, Ind., eight-time "Little 500" Sprint winner Eric Gordon of Indianapolis, Ind. and current "Little 500" Sprint champion Shane Cottle of Kokomo, Ind., plus Eastern drivers Justin Barger of Montrose, NY, Tom Capie of Trevose, PA and Ryan Smith of Kunkletown, PA

-credit: usac