Speedway, Indiana (December 16, 2024)………Briggs Danner, the burgeoning racer from Pennsylvania, is set to take on the full USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship schedule for the first time in his career aboard the Hogue Racing Enterprises No. 39 in 2025.
Danner (Allentown, Pa.) comes into the new season following a dominating run with the USAC Rapid Tire East Coast Sprint Car series where he won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 while accumulating a series-record 29 feature victories.
However, after dabbling with the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars sporadically since 2021, Danner expanded his national horizons this past season and was superb. He posted his first three career victories with the series in 2024. In June at Grandview, he became the first Pennsylvanian to win a USAC National Sprint Car feature since Frankie Kerr 25 years earlier in 1999 and the first Pennsylvanian to win a series race in his home state since Paul Pitzer at Reading in 1979.
Now a threat to win anywhere and everywhere they go on the USAC National Sprint Car tour, the feeling was mutual between Danner and the Hogues that the time was right to chase after a national title.
“We have the opportunity to do it, and Tim and Fran (Hogue) are really interested in making it happen,” Danner explained. “Right now is the perfect time. We’ve been showing speed and the whole sprint car program is coming together. I feel like we’re still learning, so we’re only going to get better. We’re going to give it a shot and see what we can make happen.”
Danner and Hogue teamed up at the beginning of the 2023 season. Team owner Fran Hogue and his younger brother, Tim Hogue, are veteran racers who’ve fielded a team for many years on the east coast, first competing with USAC during Eastern Storm 2015. Over the past couple of seasons, both Danner and the Hogues have developed into contenders on the national scene. Now they’re prepared to face the next challenge of visiting several new tracks and hitting the road regularly away from the team’s Westampton, New Jersey base.
“We’ve definitely learned a lot,” Danner stated. “There were some nights where we’re really good and then there were some nights we weren’t as good, and we learned together while just trying to get each other figured out. Nine times out 10, we’re on the same page now, and that’s usually when we’re good. I’m looking forward to doing even more racing and trying to build on that and get even better. You don’t get better by sitting on the couch.”
Not only did Danner win his first three USAC National Sprint Car races in 2024, but he easily could also have won six or seven in all if it hadn’t been for such heartbreaking misfortune in races that he led. Danner went on to cement his status as a winner outside the confines of the Keystone State as well by capturing the Indiana Sprint Week finale in August at Bloomington and the inaugural Greg Staab Memorial at Lawrenceburg in October.
In all, despite starting only 29 of the 44 series features, Danner ranked inside the top-10 in laps led (113), top-fives (11) and top-tens (19), earning him USAC’s National Most Improved Driver Award for 2024. While the first victory was difficult to come by, it seemed as if he would begin to rack several up in the win column. He eventually did, but nothing is handed to you when the competition is so close and so tough, but Danner is up for the challenge.
“To get that first one out of the way, and for it to be at Grandview on the first night of Eastern Storm, was awesome,” Danner reflected. “They always say the first one is the hardest one to get. After the race at Kutztown, I think I said it seems like the second one is the hardest to get. (This past year) boosted my confidence a lot. We’ve always showed speed with the sprint car, but I feel like we’re so much more consistent now, and that makes it a lot easier. When you’re fast all the time. It makes a lot easier to pick off races because not everything all goes your way.”
Danner began his career in quarter midgets at the age of five, and eventually became a three-time champion in USAC’s .25 Midget series between 2013-14. Over the years, the versatile Briggs has raced in, and won with, a wide variety of racecars, including 600cc Micro Sprints, SpeedSTRs, Modifieds, TQ Midgets (on pavement), ARDC Midgets, 360 Sprint Cars and 410 Sprint Cars.
The 23-year-old Danner was actually born on a day that no living person will forget if they lived through that moment – September 11, 2001. The third generation racer is the son of Roy Danner Jr., who competed frequently in quarter midgets, karts and legend cars. Briggs grandfather, Roy Danner Sr., raced stock cars throughout Pennsylvania at venues such as Nazareth and Dorney Park.
Danner also revealed that he’ll return to the seat of the DMW Motorsports No. 10 for all the dirt USAC Silver Crown events in 2025. He also plans to compete in a handful of USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship races as well.
