Swanson Masters Owosso Traffic For First Winged Must See Victory

Kody Swanson turned carving through lap traffic into an art form Saturday night at Owosso Speedway with the Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series.

Using lessons learned from his many years of USAC Silver Crown Series competition, which propelled him to eight championships in that division, Swanson conquered the three-eighths-mile paved oval to finally notch his first winged victory with the national pavement sprint tour.

Driving Dick Myers’ familiar, red-and-yellow No. 50m, Swanson roared from fifth to second early, then stalked race-long leader Troy DeCaire as the duo knifed through the back half of the 23-car field.

Finally, on lap 25 of 40, Swanson pounced when DeCaire was hung up behind the Tom Geren machine and made a brilliant cut to the inside of the fourth turn.

Once he was out front, Swanson navigated the remaining traffic to perfection, opening up a 1.310-second margin on the way to the $4,000 triumph – his second career MSR victory overall.

Though he’d previously won without the wing at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, this one was harder fought and visibly meaningful to the California veteran.

“I’m really fortunate to have been racing in general for a long time, and I’ve spent a lot of time trying to catch up to how these guys do it with the wing on top,” said Swanson in victory lane. “They all do such a great job, and traffic was a big part of this race. But driving the [No.] 50m for Dick Myers, this car always has speed no matter what track you bring it to, and I could really put it anywhere I needed to in order to work my way through the field.

“They give me these opportunities and then it’s my job to take advantage of them, right? The heat races were important for me to learn in those moments how the car was going to react, but 40 laps is a lot longer than eight laps and I had time to let the race come to me, a lot like the [Silver] Crown races,” Swanson added. “Troy came back at me a bit there, but I had a great car off the bottom lane and was able to keep control once we got the lead.”

DeCaire, making his first start with the series since March of 2024 and first in a car owned by longtime series stalwart Aaron Pierce, joked he was “just getting old” before tipping his cap to Swanson.

“That Swanson guy is pretty good,” DeCaire added. “I thought I was going to get a lot more tired than I did, but the car went from tight to loose [handling] … and I couldn’t navigate traffic nearly like he could. When the car was so good in the beginning, I knew that might not be a good sign for the long run, particularly because I was expecting a few more cautions than we got.

“For my first time back with this series in a while, though, I can’t be too disappointed [with second].”

Ryan Litt finished third, hampered by a two-position penalty after being called for jumping the lap-five restart that came after the race’s lone caution for debris.

Five-time series champion Jimmy McCune and polesitter Jason Blonde, who lost the lead to DeCaire on the initial start of the race, were fourth and fifth, respectively.

Aaron Willison, Joe Liguori, Kevin Mingus, Dylan Reynolds, and Alby Ovitt completed the top 10.

Willison kicked off the night by smashing the all-time track record at Owosso by nearly a tenth of a second, with a blazing lap of 12.443 seconds (108.495 mph) in qualifying with the No. 36 Statham Construction-backed sprinter.

The previous mark of 12.520 seconds by Rick Holley had been set in September of 2023, also in Must See Racing competition.

McCune, Blonde, and Litt won their respective eight-lap heat races, with Blonde then earning the pole award in the top-eight redraw.

The Mid-Michigan Pavement Sprint Nationals conclude Sunday evening with a $10,000-to-win, 40-lap grand finale. Live streaming coverage begins on Racing America at 4 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series; Owosso Speedway; Ovid, Mich.; Aug. 30, 2025

Qualifying (best of two laps, top four to redraw): 1. Aaron Willison, 36, Statham-12.443 (NTR); 2. Troy DeCaire, 26D, Pierce-12.510; 3. Kody Swanson, 50m, Myers-12.592; 4. Ryan Litt, 07, Litt-12.609; 5. Joe Liguori, 68, Liguori-12.731; 6. Kevin Mingus, Z10, Mingus-12.850; 7. Bobby Komisarski, 7, Fogle-13.050; 8. Jason Blonde, 42, Nosal-13.079; 9. Jimmy McCune, 88, McCune-13.112; 10. Donnie Adams Jr., 4, Adams-13.273; 11. J.J. Dutton, 86, Dutton-13.302; 12. Alby Ovitt, 20, Parker-13.338; 13. Jimmy McCune Jr., 88JR, McCune-13.363; 14. Dylan Reynolds, 24, Reynolds-13.415; 15. Tommy Nichols, 55, Nichols-13.450; 16. Taylor Ferns, 126, Pierce-13.481; 17. Landon Butler, 18, Butler-13.498; 18. John Trudell, 7X, Trudell-13.505; 19. Johnny Petrozelle III, 81, Blake-13.534; 20. Justin Harper, 66, Liguori-13.579; 21. Tom Geren, 11, Geren-13.636; 22. Dorman Snyder, 99, Stickney-13.854; 23. Jeff Bloom, 26, Bloom-NT.

TTI Machine Heat Race #1 (8 laps, all transfer, top two to redraw): 1. Jimmy McCune [4], 2. Kody Swanson [6], 3. Tommy Nichols [2], 4. John Trudell [1], 5. Kevin Mingus [5], 6. Alby Ovitt [3], 7. Tom Geren [7].

TTI Machine Heat Race #2 (8 laps, all transfer, top two to redraw): 1. Jason Blonde [4], 2. Dylan Reynolds [2], 3. Troy DeCaire [6], 4. Joe Liguori [5], 5. Landon Butler [1], 6. Justin Harper [7], 7. J.J. Dutton [3], 8. Jeff Bloom [8].

TTI Machine Heat Race #3 (8 laps, all transfer, top two to redraw): 1. Ryan Litt [4], 2. Donnie Adams Jr. [2], 3. Taylor Ferns [1], 4. Dorman Snyder [8], 5. Bobby Komisarski [3], 6. Jimmy McCune Jr. [6], 7. Aaron Willison [5], 8. Johnny Petrozelle III [7].

Perfit A-Feature (40 laps, starting position in brackets): 1. 50m-Kody Swanson [5], 2. 26D-Troy DeCaire [2], 3. 07-Ryan Litt [4], 4. 88-Jimmy McCune [7], 5. 42-Jason Blonde [1], 6. 36-Aaron Willison [6], 7. 68-Joe Liguori [9], 8. Z10-Kevin Mingus [10], 9. 24-Dylan Reynolds [3], 10. 20-Alby Ovitt [13], 11. 4-Donnie Adams Jr. [8], 12. 55-Tommy Nichols [15], 13. 88JR-Jimmy McCune Jr. [14], 14. 66-Justin Harper [19], 15. 18-Landon Butler [22], 16. 7-Bobby Komisarski [11], 17. 99-Dorman Snyder [21], 18. 81-Johnny Petrozelle [18], 19. 11-Tom Geren [20], 20. 7T-John Trudell [17], 21. 126-Taylor Ferns [16], 22. 86-J.J. Dutton [12], 23. 26-Jeff Bloom (DNS). [NT]

Lap Leader(s): Troy DeCaire 1-24, Kody Swanson 25-40.

Hard Charger: #18 – Landon Butler

-Must See Racing Release
-Photo credit: David Sink/Pavement Pounders