ROSSBURG, Ohio — Jerry Coons, Jr. forever buried the claim that he couldn’t win a USAC Silver Crown race when he closed the 27th annual 4-Crown Nationals with a convincing 50-lap victory at Eldora Speedway. 
Coons swept fast time and led every lap of the K&N Silver Crown feature, edging Dave Darland and Mat Neely.
“It definitely ranks right up there to finally get a Silver Crown win,” Coons said. “People keep reminding me of the seven second places. It’s certainly very special to win a 4-Crown event. It’s nice to finally get one of these and kind of a relief — as much of a relief as anything.”
Starting the Rotondo Weirich/ Stanton Mopar Beast from the pole, Coons and Levi Jones traded the lead on the opening lap, with Coons pulling ahead at the flagstand. Darland took advantage of the closely packed cars and charged from ninth to fourth on the first two circuits. While Neely and Darland both worked past Jones, Coons never built a lead of more than 10 car lengths. 
Neely challenged for the lead while negotiating lapped cars, but a caution on lap 19 reset the field and Darland grabbed second on the restart. Darland pressed the leader throughout the second half of the race, looking for an opening while they dodged past cars being lapped. 
“Anytime Dave Darland is behind you, it can be 20 car lengths and it can change in a lap,” Coons allowed. “I tried to run my own race and if they were faster, they would go by me. Early in the race I was probably cruising and being a little conservative for 50 laps and just not knock the fence down. Once I knew that they were all over me, I said, ‘I can’t do that; I have to just go as hard as I can.’ From then on out, every lap was as hard as I could.”
Darland said that he had little hope of passing Coons. “Jerry was just in the groove and he ran a good race. He was fast enough up there that I really couldn’t make any tries at him,” Coons said. “I got up beside him a couple of times. I was just trying to put a little pressure on him to try to make him make some errors, but he never did.”
Point-leader Bud Kaeding fought back to an 11th-place finish after suffering a flat tire on lap 19. With two races remaining, Neely trails Kaeding by 60 points.
The summary:
Qualifications: 1. Jerry Coons, Jr., RW 27, 18.284; 2. Levi Jones, Stewart 10, 18.447; 3. Bud Kaeding, BK 29, 18.573; 4. Mat Neely, RW 17, 18.675; 5. Brian Tyler, Team Six-R 21, 18.827; 6. Aaron Pierce, Pierce 26, 18.832; 7. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Foyt 14, 19.022; 8. Matt Mitchell, BK 291, 19.071; 9. Dave Darland, Foxco 56, 19.243; 10. Jesse Hockett, VKCC 77, 19.498; 11. Paul White, Mucci/Matczak 99, 19.570; 12. Billy Wease, Western Speed 12, 19.627; 13. Shane Hollingsworth, Nolen 20, 19.733; 14. Kevin Huntley, SC 97, 19.750; 15. Russ Gamester, Gamester 51, 19.777; 16. Shane Cottle, Contos 4, 19.866; 17. Dickie Gaines, S & R 59, 19.969; 18. Jon Stanbrough, Baldwin 5, 20.110; 19. Darren Hagen, DDK 92, 20.590; 20. Mike Murgoitio, Team Six-R 19, 21.021; 21. Mike Stroehle, Stroehle 83, 21.044; 22. Chappy Knaack, Miller 36, 21.049; 23. Ron Gregory, Irvin/Nolen 48, 21.081; 24. Wayne Reutimann, Jr., Reutimann 00, 21.099; 25. Tim Barber, Pierson 28, 21.218; 26. A.J. Fike, Hemelgarn/RFMS 91, 21.462; 27. John Heydenreich, Bank 90, no time; 28. Cameron Dodson, Edwards/RE 199, no time.
Qualifying Race (15 laps): Huntley, Cottle, Gaines, Stanbrough, Hollingsworth, Barber, Hagen, Knaack, Gamester, Heydenreich, Stroehle, Fike, Murgoitio, Gregory, Dodson, Reutimann.
Feature (50 laps): Coons, Darland, Neely, Pierce, Tyler, Wease, Huntley, White, Jones, Gaines, Kaeding, Stenhouse, Stanbrough, Cottle, Barber, Hagen, Fike, Murgoitio, Knaack, Stroehle, Reutimann, Hollingsworth, Dodson, Gregory, Hockett, Gamester, Heydenreich.