Hutchinson, Kansas (July 19, 2025)………Briggs Danner had provided much of the excitement throughout Saturday night’s Evans Building Salt City 100 at Hutchinson, Kansas’ Salt City Speedway as he see-sawed between the third and fourth position for the first three-quarters of the 100-lapper.
But when it came to crunch time, the Allentown, Pennsylvania native delivered as he raced from third to first in a three-lap stretch between the 77th and 79th circuit, then had just enough tread on his right rear tire down the stretch to earn his first career USAC Silver Crown victory.
Danner, a three-time USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car winner in his own right, was making just his 10th career Silver Crown start aboard the Advanced Materials Technologies – Fuel Mart – E. Schneider & Sons/DRC/R07 Chevy, which provided Arizona-based DMW Motorsports its first USAC victory after seven seasons of trying.
“I’m happy for (car owner) Mickey (Meyer) and I’m happy for everybody back home who put in a lot of work,” Danner said. “We’ve been really good so many times and we maybe should’ve had one earlier this year but blew up (at Belleville), but to bring the backup car here, to make this haul and to put it in victory lane, that feels good for sure. That’s going to make traveling home a little bit easier.”
In becoming the second consecutive first-time USAC Silver Crown winner to emerge from the Salt City 100 in each of its first two years, Danner also became the first Pennsylvanian to win a Crown race anywhere since Rich Tobias Jr. at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in Illinois back in 2003.
Danner also put an exclamation point on his first career series win worth $10,000. On the 100th and final lap, he posted the fastest lap of the race with a time of 22.155 seconds, nearly four tenths of a second quicker than anybody else in the field. That also earned Danner the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
However, for most of the race, Danner was chasing. The twin Team AZ / Rossi / Petty Performance Racing cars for C.J. Leary and Mario Clouser started the race from the front row, the first such teammates to start alongside each other at the front of the grid for a USAC Silver Crown race since Tyler Courtney and Chris Windom did so with the RPM-Fred Gormly team at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway nine years earlier in 2016.
Leary captured his eighth career USAC Silver Crown pole position with a new track record lap of 20.994 seconds to open the night, breaking the former mark of 21.090 set by Kevin Thomas Jr. in 2024. However, it was Clouser who got the jump at the start of the main event and proceeded to lead the first 42 laps in succession.
Third-starting Danner initially slotted into fourth, but engaged in a back-and-forth duel with Jake Swanson that was persistent throughout much of the first half of the race. On lap 13, Swanson swung high off turn two, allowing Danner to race under to grab the spot. As the front runners got hung up while attempting to put Danny Jennings a lap down, Swanson rose to third past Danner on lap 17 before Swanson got shuffled out of the deck as he tried to pass Leary for second in turn two, opening up the outside lane for Danner to charge back into third on lap 19.
By lap 34, Swanson’s car had begun to billow smoke out of the left side headers. As the old notion goes that engines run fastest before they blow, Swanson put it to the test as he zipped past Danner for third off turn four on lap 35. But by lap 40, Swanson had abruptly pulled into the infield, out of the race.
Seemingly, just within the blink of an eye, Leary had taken over the lead after surging past Clouser on the front straightaway on lap 42. Meanwhile, despite Swanson’s sudden absence from the fray, Danner still had a challenger for third, and after drifting high in turn two on lap 44, Grant scooted under to gain the spot.
“Once I let Justin by me, I kind of thought we were just riding around,” Danner admitted. “But lapped traffic helped a little bit.”
On the 55th circuit, Danner swung way high in turn one, getting all four wheels up in the fluff as he attempted to take Grant for third. Danner managed to avoid the wall, but lost roughly eighth car lengths to Grant in the process. That said, it didn’t take long for Danner to return to the fray as Leary got caught up while trying to put Matt Westfall a lap down. The ensuing accordion effect ricocheted toward third place running Grant, which in turn, opened the door for Danner to race on by for third at the exit of turn two.
The first yellow flag of the night was displayed for Saban Bibent (8th) who slowed to a stop in turn three on lap 68 with a completely bald and flat right rear tire, which sent him to the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area for fresh rubber. When racing resumed on lap 72, Danner found his groove. He got a drive down the back stretch to power past Clouser on lap 77, then tracked down and stormed past Leary for the lead entering turn three on lap 79.
“I knew (Clouser and Leary) had a softer tire, so I really wasn’t sure how it was going to play out,” Danner explained. “I didn’t expect it to take rubber like it did. I knew it was coming in three and four but I could keep pace with them running the cushion up top. I felt like if I could save a little bit more, it would help me later. But it came around quickly.”
From there, a flurry of stoppages halted the remaining 20 laps. Seventh running Kyle Steffens crashed into the outside wall in turns one and two, then hopped out of his wrecked car and directed his umbrage and a bird in the direction of Bibent who was running 10th, but a few laps down, at that moment.
On the ensuing lap 86 restart, Grant scurried to third under Clouser whose right rear tire was going soft, and ultimately, completely deflated in turns one and two on lap 91, dropping him to 10th in the running order after leading a race-high 42 laps. Grant was the next to fall victim to tire wear on lap 96 as he crawled around the 1/2-mile dirt oval to necessitate a yellow flag, which dropped the series point leader from third to sixth at the finish.
Danner paced the field on the green-white-checkered finish, keeping his car on rails as he finished out a memorable night, winning by a 2.871 second margin over C.J. Leary with Chase Stockon third, Matt Westfall fourth and Kip Hughes rounding out the top-five.
“This thing was good all night long from start to finish,” Danner praised. “We were good early on and we were really good late. I just had to keep it underneath me once I got out front. I kind of knew how much better I was. I just had to hit those restarts and everything fell into place.”
Kip Hughes is no stranger to Salt City Speedway. He’s a three-time NCRA Late Model winner at the track after all. But on this night, in just his third career USAC Silver Crown start, he advanced six positions from his 11th place starting spot to finish fifth for his first career USAC top-five result.
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 19, 2025 – Salt City Speedway – Hutchinson, Kansas – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – Evans Building Salt City 100
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi-20.994 (New Track Record); 2. Mario Clouser, 20, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi-21.034; 3. Briggs Danner, 10, DMW-21.043; 4. Jake Swanson, 6, Klatt-21.044; 5. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-21.143; 6. Matt Westfall, 54, 4 Kings-21.374; 7. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-21.645; 8. Shane Cockrum, 22, Rice/Abacus-21.679; 9. Kyle Steffens, 8, Steffens-21.854; 10. Saban Bibent, 88, Fetter-22.025; 11. Kip Hughes, 160, Hughes-22.044; 12. Travis Mahoney, 65, SV-22.712; 13. Danny Jennings, 61, Grace-22.908; 14. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (3), 2. C.J. Leary (1), 3. Chase Stockon (7), 4. Matt Westfall (6), 5. Kip Hughes (11), 6. Justin Grant (5), 7. Danny Jennings (13), 8. Saban Bibent (10), 9. Travis Mahoney (12), 10. Mario Clouser (2), 11. Kyle Steffens (9), 12. Jake Swanson (4), 13. Shane Cockrum (8), 14. Dave Berkheimer (14). 46:54.175 (New Track Record)
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-42 Mario Clouser, Laps 43-78 C.J. Leary, Laps 79-100 Briggs Danner.
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-518, 2-C.J. Leary-444, 3-Matt Westfall-376, 4-Kody Swanson-308, 5-Kyle Steffens-295, 6-Logan Seavey-271, 7-Gregg Cory-246, 8-Dave Berkheimer-245, 9-Mario Clouser-224, 10-Briggs Danner-218.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-158, 2-Briggs Danner-97, 3-Kyle Cummins-86, 4-Gunnar Setser-82, 5-Justin Grant-78, 6-C.J. Leary-74, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-70, 8-Robert Ballou-66, 9-Logan Seavey-62, 10-Chase Stockon-61.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 23, 2025 – Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park – Brownsburg, Indiana – .686-Mile Paved Oval – USAC RaceAid 100
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: Jake Swanson (21.131)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: C.J. Leary (20.994)
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Kip Hughes (11th to 5th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Race: Briggs Danner
