ROSSBURG, Ohio — Thursdays at Eldora Speedway belong to Briggs Danner.
One year after capturing Thursday night’s 4-Crown Nationals Presented by NKTELCO opener at the half-mile dirt oval, Danner did the deed again, leading all 30 laps en route to victory at the helm of his Hogue Racing Enterprises/E. Schneider & Sons – Keystone Cap/DRC/Rider Chevy.
Whereas Danner duked it out to lead the final 13 laps of last year’s contest, this one was pretty much no contest for the majority of the 30-lapper. That is, until the final laps when lapped traffic carved into his lead and allowed Brady Bacon to enter the frame.
Danner’s victory was the second of his USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship career at Eldora. Furthermore, it was his fifth series win of the season and the 12th of his career.
Although Danner was set on repeat in this particular outing, in his estimation, there is no comparison between the two victories.
“It was a lot different,” Danner admitted. “I mean, I kind of knew going into tonight that with the way the track was going to be, the groove that we started early on in hot laps and time trials was going to be where it was at. It was fast.”
How fast was it? Justin Grant’s lap of 14.979 seconds during LearnLab Fast Qualifying was the first lap in the 14-second bracket turned by a USAC National Sprint Car at Eldora in 14 years, not since Bobby East in 2012.
Adding to it, Cale Coons’ heat race victory resulted in an eight-lap track record for USAC National Sprint Cars at Eldora. His time of 2:03.892 topped Robert Ballou’s time of 2:05.51, which had stood since 2012. Gunnar Setser added to the fun with a 12-lap USAC National Sprint Car track record during his semi-feature victory. Setser’s time of 3:06.323 shattered the former record of 3:10.23, which Jay Drake had held since 2006.
While the track surface was blazing fast, Danner had conflicting thoughts. Conversely, he described the race as a long one. That fact came to fruition due to his loss of brakes just around midway point. Despite it all, he still kind of made it look easy. But it was by no means easy any way you dissect it, as Danner explained.
“That was the longest 30 laps,” Danner explained. “I felt like I lost brakes about halfway and I found out when I needed them, which made lapped traffic very difficult. I couldn’t get tear offs pulled. I don’t know what I messed up there. I was fighting just to stay out front. It was not that easy.”
With 10 laps remaining, Danner’s lead was a half-straightaway over Bacon and he was cruising as his torrid pace allowed him to lap all the way up to 11th place. But that particular battle for 10th and 11th between Jake Swanson and C.J. Leary was doubled up in front of Danner, and Bacon was able to reel in Danner to within about a five car length span.
“It was tough,” Danner acknowledged. “Just steering it with the throttle when you’re going that fast, there’s not many options for you to turn when you get tight and just with how rough it was. There were a couple of times that I got in with lapped traffic and I was just trying to keep it going in a circle, which was difficult. I didn’t really know where Brady (Bacon) was, but I know he’s really good here, obviously, and on any half-mile. To race against guys like him and Justin (Grant), and to be able to stay out front and run as good as we did, is a feat in itself.”
Bacon wasn’t able to draw any nearer to Danner over the past couple of laps as Danner finished off his triumphant performance with a 0.656-second victory. Grant crossed the line in third with Kyle Cummins fourth and Jacob Denney fifth.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio, Sept. 24, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.979; 2. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-15.024; 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 15, BBI-15.036; 4. Jacob Denney, 87, CBI/Spire-15.062; 5. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-15.072; 6. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-15.076; 7. Gunnar Setser, 5G, Setser-15.079; 8. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-15.154; 9. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-15.192; 10. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-15.225; 11. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-15.230; 12. Shawn Westerfeld, 4J, Fischesser/Owen-15.235; 13. Max Adams, 5x, Adams-15.277; 14. Keith Sheffer II, 86, Sheffer-15.343; 15. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-15.351; 16. Stevie Sussex, 3R, Rock Steady-15.378; 17. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-15.407; 18. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-15.440; 19. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-15.448; 20. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-15.466; 21. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-15.488; 22. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-15.498; 23. Jakeb Boxell, 54, Westfall-15.510; 24. Todd Hobson, 44, Soudrette-15.512; 25. Chance Crum, 83c, Crum-15.538; 26. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-15.581; 27. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-15.611; 28. Rylan Gray, 1, Gray-15.623; 29. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-15.705; 30. Chad Wilson, 6w, Wityk-15.762; 31. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-15.796; 32. Caleb Shietze, 2B, 2B Racing-15.838; 33. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-15.843; 34. Ryan Barr, 21B, Barr-15.918; 35. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-15.930; 36. Nate Carle, 14c, Carle-16.015; 37. Cody Trammell, 34T, Trammell-16.131; 38. Dustin Ingle, 2DI, Ingle-16.146; 39. Paul Dues, 87x, Dues-16.201; 40. Bryce Dues, 23D, Dues-16.205; 41. Jack James, 99, James-16.235; 42. Brian Heitkamp, 22, Heitkamp-16.323; 43. Derek Hastings, 32m, Marshall-17.132; 44. Tim Kent, 79, TFK-19.606.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mitchel Moles (4), 2. Justin Grant (6), 3. Brady Bacon (5), 4. Trey Osborne (1), 5. Stevie Sussex (3), 6. Saban Bibent (2), 7. Nate Carle (8), 8. Brian Ruhlman (7), 9. Jack James (9). 2:04.174
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Robert Ballou (2), 2. Hunter Maddox (1), 3. Shawn Westerfeld (4), 4. C.J. Leary (6), 5. Gunnar Setser (5), 6. Logan Seavey (3), 7. Caleb Shietze (7), 8. Cody Trammell (8), 9. Brian Heitkamp (9). 2:07.588
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Rylan Gray (1), 2. Briggs Danner (5), 3. Hayden Reinbold (3), 4. Jakeb Boxell (2), 5. Max Adams (4), 6. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 7. Troy Carey (7), 8. Dustin Ingle (8), 9. Derek Hastings (9). 2:06.240
INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jacob Denney (6), 2. Todd Hobson (2), 3. Jake Swanson (5), 4. Chase Stockon (3), 5. Brandon Mattox (1), 6. Ryan Barr (7), 7. Paul Dues (8), 8. Tim Kent (9), 9. Keith Sheffer II (4). NT
K1 RACEGEAR FIFTH HEAT: (8 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cale Coons (4), 2. Kyle Cummins (6), 3. Chance Crum (2), 4. Ricky Lewis (3), 5. Chad Wilson (1), 6. Jadon Rogers (5), 7. Eddie Tafoya Jr (7), 8. Bryce Dues (8). 2:03.892 (Track Record)
COOK OUT C MAIN: (8 laps, top 4 transfer to the semi, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Caleb Shietze (1), 2. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (3), 3. Nate Carle (4), 4. Dustin Ingle (8), 5. Cody Trammell (7), 6. Brian Ruhlman (6), 7. Tim Kent (9), 8. Brian Heitkamp (11), 9. Derek Hastings (12), 10. Paul Dues (5), 11. Jack James (10), 12. Troy Carey (2). NT
FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gunnar Setser (2), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (1), 3. Stevie Sussex (3), 4. Jadon Rogers (6), 5. Caleb Shietze (10), 6. Brandon Mattox (4), 7. Saban Bibent (8), 8. Logan Seavey (7), 9. Ryan Barr (9), 10. Chad Wilson (5), 11. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (11), 12. Dustin Ingle (13), 13. Nate Carle (12). 3:06.323 (Track Record)
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (1), 2. Brady Bacon (2), 3. Justin Grant (6), 4. Kyle Cummins (3), 5. Jacob Denney (4), 6. Cale Coons (8), 7. Gunnar Setser (12), 8. Mitchel Moles (7), 9. Jadon Rogers (14), 10. Jake Swanson (13), 11. C.J. Leary (5), 12. Jakeb Boxell (19), 13. Stevie Sussex (16), 14. Hayden Reinbold (17), 15. Chance Crum (20), 16. Shawn Westerfeld (15), 17. Hunter Maddox (22), 18. Trey Osborne (21), 19. Rylan Gray (10), 20. Robert Ballou (9), 21. Kevin Thomas Jr. (11), 22. Todd Hobson (24), 23. Chase Stockon (18), 24. Ricky Lewis (23).
