ANDERSON, Ind. – A lucky pit stop, late charge and bump to the defending race winner all added up to the right combination for Kyle Hamilton to notch his first-career Pay Less Little 500 presented by UAW-GM on Saturday night at Anderson Speedway.
Driving for renowned car owners Terry Klatt and Bob East, Hamilton led a total of 126 laps en route to his long-awaited breakthrough in the crown jewel event, but it was a sequence of circumstances that ultimately put him in victory lane.
With 150 laps to go, under the night’s 11th caution period, Hamilton ducked down pit road for the final time while then-leader Kody Swanson and Bobby Santos III stayed on the race track – both banking on another caution to be able to complete their service before race’s end.
Unfortunately for the leading duo, that expected caution didn’t materialize.
A green flag run of 114 straight laps meant that Swanson and Santos ended up sliding around on old tires for much of the closing stages of the race, allowing Hamilton to charge back into contention from a lap down.
The Purdue University graduate passed Swanson to return to the lead lap with 98 laps to go, setting a torrid pace as Swanson was held up in traffic and fought his car’s deteriorating handling.
A 12 second deficit was trimmed to seven over a 30-lap span, and as Hamilton got closer, the gap decreased quicker and quicker.
With 62 to go, Swanson had a huge moment and was dead sideways in turn four, while laser focus by Hamilton pushed him closer to the Nolen Racing No. 4 machine.
Hamilton took second from Santos with 60 to go, leaving nothing but Swanson in the way of his Little 500 crown.
Ten laps went by, and Hamilton had the lead down to 4.7 seconds. In ten more laps, he had slashed the margin down to 1.8 seconds and “smelled blood in the water” as he closed in on Swanson.
With 34 laps to go, Hamilton was on Swanson’s back bumper for the top spot, after Swanson had been held up by slower traffic and a fierce fight by Tony Stewart to get a lap back late in the going.
The next time by, chaos erupted, as Hamilton dove to the inside of Swanson and made contact with his left rear wheel, sending Swanson spinning in turn one and crushing his hopes of a repeat Little 500 win.
That brought out the race’s 12th and final caution flag, under which both Swanson and second-running Santos pitted, leaving Hamilton alone on the lead lap when the green flag flew again with 26 to go.
From there, Hamilton cruised to the biggest win of his young career, despite a late tussle with Swanson in which Swanson nearly turned him around on the backstretch with five laps left.
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