Kody Swanson Races to Fourth Little 500 Triumph

Kody Swanson won the 78th Annual Unified Group Services Little 500 presented by ED Martin Automotive Group on Saturday night at Anderson Speedway with a late-race charge to the front of the field.

Swanson, relying on fresher tires after a later final pit stop, raced his way from sixth to first in the final 100 laps of the contest. He took the lead from Davey Hamilton, Jr. with 27 laps to go to score his fourth career Little 500 victory, and his first since 2019.

The winning formula required a little bit of everything - a fast race car, solid pit strategy and even a bit of good fortune. Swanson fared best in lapped traffic during the final 50 laps, and some of his toughest competitors such as Tyler Roahrig fell victim to the grueling 500-lap race.

"These races are hard to get to the end of, and hard to win," said Swanson in victory lane. "This team's been trying with me for a few years now. I sure appreciate the chance to be there in the hunt. I've been talking all week, just be in the mix. I hate to see Tyler Roahrig get collected and out of it. It was great racing with Davey and Dakoda and everybody there."

"We just hit the pit strategy. Kevin Doran has won a lot of these big, long races. One of those cautions, I told him, it's up to you, whatever you decide. We stuck with it. I wasn't exactly sure how it was going to play out there at the end. We came out behind Tyler. We had a whole line of cars that were fast in front of us.

"Luckily, it worked out. The lapped traffic is part of these long races that I love so much. It's so hard to be the leader. Sometimes, you have to guess. Maybe I got a little lucky there, but I think that's what it takes sometimes. I'd rather be lucky than good."

Hamliton, Jr. inherited the lead on lap 387 when Roahrig and Swanson pitted while running first and second. While the later pit stop worked out for Swanson, Roahrig flipped in turn one in an incident with Logan Seavey.

Hamilton maintained the lead until Swanson chased him down and made the race-winning pass in lapped traffic.

"Kody is the best, obviously," said Hamilton, Jr. "He's won my event, he's won this event, he's won it all. We pitted early to try to do an undercut situation. These tires are so abrasive, really. It's just that 40-lap difference was too much. Even though I caught a lapped car that was kind of in the way, I think Kody would have still gotten by me. He had better tires.

"I put up a fight, there's no doubt about that. I just tried to stay clean the whole race, stay patient. Top-three again, for the second year in a row, is cool, but third last year, second this year, it's time to go to the top next year."

Hamilton was particularly impressed with how close and competitive the field was for this year's Little 500.

"All the drivers talked on Wednesday night after that practice, and we were like, what the heck is about to happen? We've never seen times so close for the top 15. It was separated by a tenth. That's unheard of, in all forms of racing. It just doesn't exist.

"Everybody's stepping up their game. Even, I don't want to say the slower positions, the guys that are running in the back are really good guys. There's nobody bad. Everybody's really stepped up their game. I think the Sprint Car sport is in good shape."

Dakoda Armstrong finished third to round out the podium. It may not have been the redemption he hoped for after being one lap away from winning in the race in 2024 and losing last year's Little 500 in technical inspection. However, it was a remarkable effort after a grinding crash in the Glen Niebel Classic at Anderson in April.

"The Glen [Niebel Classic], we trashed this car. Everything on it was destroyed. So to put it back together, come back here and still have speed was a good sign. We really just missed it that last run. The middle run, I thought I was better than everybody, it just wasn't time to go.

"I had a little bit of hang-up there in the pits and didn't get the [push] truck like we needed, but that's part of it. That last stint, the right-rear was just too small, and I couldn't rotate like I needed to."

Two-time Little 500 winner Jake Trainor finished fourth, with Mario Clouser rounding out the top five. Clouser was the highest-finishing newcomer in the 78th Annual Little 500.

Swanson joins Tom Cherry as a four-time winner of the Little 500. Only Eric Gordon (nine) and Bob Frey (five) have more career wins in the event.

-Photo credit: Zach Evans

78th Annual Unified Group Services Little 500 presented by Ed Martin Automotive Group
Unofficial Results