26 gladiators will try and tame the World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday as the USAC Silver Crown Series takes the 1.25-mile oval in a much highly anticipated 80 lap event. Here are 5 things I’m watching.

Swanson vs. Seavey

5 races remain in the season and for the second straight year, it’s down to Kody Swanson vs. Logan Seavey for the title. Swanson leads Seavey by 16 points. Ironically enough, the gap was 18 points between the duo a year ago.

What happens on Sunday?

Swanson won here last year. Seavey won the last race of the season. Who comes out on top after 100 miles of racing this weekend?

Swanson has actually won 3 of the last 4 races of the season. Each on paved ovals. Seavey has won the last two dirt races.

With 4 races left leaving here – three are on dirt (Du Quoin – Sept 2, Eldora – Sept 22-23) and one on pavement (IRP – Oct. 14).

With this being a pavement race, Swanson needs to deliver.

Seavey had a DNF here last year but has scored a top 5 finish in all but one race run this season. Swanson also has a top 5 finish in all but one race too.

Who can avoid troubles from here on it is going to win this title.

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Hamilton’s

Davey Hamilton will come down from the INDYCAR Radio Network broadcast booth and race in Sunday’s Silver Crown race as the Sunday appetizer to the Bommarito Automotive Group 500. He will join his son, Davey Hamilton Jr. in the field as it will mark the first time that the father-son combo has raced together on this track before.

It’s not the first time that they’ve raced here though as Hamilton Jr. was runner-up last season while Hamilton Sr. having finished 8th in 1998. It’s also not the first time that they’ve competed in the same race before either. They raced against each other in 2017 at Phoenix as well as Salem.

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Double Duty

There’s a lot of busy drivers in the Silver Crown garage with Hamilton not the only one pulling double duty with another job this weekend. 4 drivers will run at Kokomo in Indiana this weekend in the Sprint Car Smackdown XII and then travel to Illinois after to run a Silver Crown car hours later.

Seavey, Justin Grant, CJ Leary and Matt Westfall will be pulling double duty and probably be feeling a bit sleepy when they show up here on Sunday.

Sprint Car shows could last until around midnight or so and the drive from Kokomo to WWTR is almost a 5 hour drive. Practice starts at 8 a.m. locally on Sunday morning.

You do the math.

Seavey though is well versed as he ran two events in two different tracks on the same day just last Saturday. He actually won them both at that.

With a points battle on the line, what can he do on Sunday?

Grant sits fourth in points (-146) and has four top 8 finishes in the last five races on the season. He’s P3 (-25) in Sprint Car points too so this is a very important weekend for the California native.

Leary has 2 top 4 finishes in his last 3 Silver Crown starts including a runner-up in Toledo.

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Draft

With the long straights on the 1.25-mile track, it actually creates a drafting effect on these cars here. It’s a sight to behold actually. You truly feel a tow from behind and it can definitely manipulate a draft here. Who can master the draft is going to be a key thing to watch.

Swanson last year started on pole, fell to 5th but used the draft to come back to win.

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Qualifying

You’d think with a draft that starting spot doesn’t mean much. However, here it still may. Swanson won from the pole a season ago and all 7 races this season were won from a top 5 starter including 5 of which from the pole. Each of the last 4 races were won from the pole at that.