The roots of the Silver Crown run deep into racing history.  This division was originally intended to run the dirt surfaces of fabled one mile dirt ovals such as the Indiana State Fairgrounds, Springfield and DuQuoin, Illinois.  The series was an integral part of The National Championship Trail which included the Indy 500 and names of racing royalty like Andretti, Foyt and Unser.

USAC will be celebrating its 52^st season in the 2007 racing year and the Silver Crown division, described by many as “The world’s most competitive racing series”, continues to be its premier series.  

Through a unique partnership with the foremost owner of racing facilities, International Speedway Corp. (ISC), in 2006 USAC developed its first new car design in 30 years in an effort to run safely on ISC’s larger 1.5 mile super speedways.  As the premier open wheel series in American racing, Silver Crown has generally been recognized as a prerequisite stop on a driver’s way to the Indy 500.  After all, the Silver Crown division started at Indy. 

However, over the past 10 years USAC has evolved into the number one training ground for NASCAR and its ever-growing marketability, competitiveness and most importantly, cost.  Through their partnership with ISC and the development of a super speedway car capable of running on NASCAR tracks with NASCAR events, USAC has positioned itself as a more economical means of driver development for Nextel Cup Teams.  This is evidenced by the list of Silver Crown champions that currently drive a Craftsman Truck, Busch GN or Nextel Cup car each weekend.  10 of the 43 drivers that started the 2006 Daytona 500 were former Silver Crown champions including Nextel Cup Series winners Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.  They are joined by USAC alums Ryan Newman, Ken Schrader, Mike Bliss, Jason Leffler, Kasey Kahne, Tyler Walker, Boston Reid, Erin Crocker, JJ Yeley, and Carl Edwards in the line up on any given Sunday.