The Bobby Santos vs. Kody Swanson rivalry is among the fiercest and most competitive of its era and has been a tooth-and-nail, tug-of-war clash for more than a decade, namely on the USAC Silver Crown trail.

The torrid battle between Santos and Swanson during the final laps of this past May’s Carb Night Classic at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park proved to be the closest fight to the finish of the entire 82-race USAC National season in 2022.

Santos (Franklin, Massachusetts) raced to his first USAC Silver Crown victory in more than four years by withstanding the pressure from Swanson to prevail by a slim 0.094 second margin that served as the separation between the pair of pavement aces.

A balancing act of four Sprint Car races, three Midget and three Silver Crown events occupy the list of the 10 closest finishes of the 2022 USAC campaign.

During the USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week feature at Kokomo Speedway in July, Justin Grant saw the race lead slip from his grip three different times. However, the Ione, California, driver belied that fact to prevail following a near race-long tug-of-war with Robert Ballou, then fended off a late burst from Kyle Cummins to win the closest USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature of the season by 0.155 sec.

In the closest barnburner on the 2022 USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship trail, Buddy Kofoid (Penngrove, California) found a bit of extra good fortune. 

Kofoid ran third on the final lap of July’s Midwest Midget Championship at Fairbury, Nebraska’s Jefferson County Speedway, when the top-two of Ryan Timms and Cannon McIntosh collided with each other and slid over the turn two banking. 

Kofoid rushed underneath both Timms and McIntosh, then beat the bottom-rolling Jerry Coons Jr. to the line by a single car length to the tune of 0.218 sec.

On the flip side, Logan Seavey (Sutter, California) captured the strangest, most unpredictable USAC Silver Crown in several years during September’s Ted Horn 100 at the Du Quoin (Illinois) State Fairgrounds. 

In an attrition-filled event that saw just seven of the 30 starters make it to the finish line. When all was said and done, Seavey pounced when the dominant Shane Cockrum ran out of fuel with 13 laps remaining, and C.J. Leary’s car snapped a driveline while leading with seven laps to go.

In the end, Seavey was nearly a full lap ahead of the competition, crossing the finish line 33.882 seconds ahead of second place. Yes, you read that right. No filter. No typo.