WINCHESTER, Ind. — No pressure.
That’s pretty much the antithesis of how Briggs Danner truly felt entering Sunday afternoon’s 34th running of the Rich Vogler Classic at Indiana’s Winchester Speedway.
After all, Danner’s seat in the Doran-Swanson Racing No. 77 pavement car was formerly occupied by the ultimate USAC Silver Crown king, Kody Swanson.
When Swanson stepped away from the champ car cockpit to become the Series Director for the 2026 campaign, Danner was tabbed to take over. The ride had experienced its share of winning, especially on Winchester’s 37-degree high banks.
The stats that the Doran-Swanson combo posted at Winchester are simply mind boggling. Together, they had led the last 400 laps in a row between 2022-2025 at Winchester. They’d captured the pole position in all five series races run at the track since 2021, and in that same span, finished the main event 2nd-1st-1st-1st-1st.
Danner kept every single one of those stat categories intact on his Sunday drive aboard the Doran-Swanson Racing/E. Schneider & Sons – Fuel Mart – Sennebogen/Beast/Lanci Ford.
“When you look back at all the races that Kevin (Doran), Kody (Swanson), and they’ve all run here, and just the stats, the laps led, and quick times, it definitely is big shoes to fill,” Danner admitted. “I put a lot of pressure on myself just to be able to produce the same results. But after yesterday, I was a little nervous. I felt like I had a lot of learning to do, but yesterday’s practice helped me out a lot.”
After earning the first pole position of his USAC Silver Crown career at an average speed of 120.224 mph, Danner proceeded to lead all 100 laps, and despite a late challenge from Dakoda Armstrong, he held the field at bay to earn his first ever USAC Silver Crown pavement win in just his third pavement start with the series.
Well known for his prowess on dirt, Danner hasn’t run much pavement in his racing career, though it’s not completely foreign to him. He’d run a handful of times on the hard top, winning an American TQ Midget Racing Association feature at New Jersey’s Wall Stadium in 2021 during the Turkey Derby. This past winter on an indoor concrete floor surface, he scored a pair of Indoor Auto Racing Championship TQ Midget main events at Allentown’s PPL Center and again at Boardwalk Hall in New Jersey.
Interestingly, Danner’s second career USAC Silver Crown victory came exactly one year to the day of his first career series triumph, on July 19, 2025, on the dirt at the Kansas State Fairgrounds. Furthermore, his latest win made him the first driver to win a main event in all three USAC national series in 2026.
Danner’s pavement USAC Silver Crown results of 10th and 17th this year were nowhere near how strong he’d actually been. He qualified and started third at both WWT Raceway and IRP and was running inside the top five both times when a mechanical failure ended his race early. There were no such qualms this time around.
“I feel like every time I get in this car, it has the ability to produce results. If it’s not up front, it’s probably my fault,” Danner remarked. “They probably worked a little bit harder than what they’re used to with Kody. It’s just a super cool deal and it’s cool for everybody involved to be able to pick this one off.”
Lap after lap after lap after lap – you get the point – third running Armstrong looked high and low under the second-place car of C.J. Leary. However, Armstrong could never quite get the run he needed whether it was running downhill off the banking or trying to stick the nose of his car under Leary on entry.
But on lap 92, Leary and Armstrong encountered the lapped car of Robert Tyler off turn four. Leary’s ride slipped sideways on exit as he approached Tyler and he subsequently dove low under Tyler on the front straightaway. Armstrong, meanwhile, had an unfettered full head of steam up top and rode the high line through turns one and two and right around the outside of Leary on the back straight to complete the pass for second.
At the same time, Danner was beginning to work his way back into traffic with Kaylee Bryson and Brian Tyler in his path. As he went to work on getting by those two USAC Silver Crown race winners with five laps remaining, Armstrong chopped Danner’s lead from a full two seconds to a half second, and the pressure on Danner began to build back up.
“Lapped traffic got a little dicey there, and I haven’t had any experience passing race cars (at Winchester), really,” Danner noted. “I just wanted to give myself enough of a gap to get to them and then be able to deal with them. Luckily, that went well.”
By the time Armstrong had cleared Bryson and Tyler with three circuits to go, Danner had already broken away with pretty much a clear track ahead of him and a checkered flag in wait.
Danner’s final margin of victory was 1.415 seconds over Armstrong with Leary taking third for his fifth podium result in five series races this season. Justin Grant grabbed fourth while Mario Clouser rounded out the top five.
USAC Silver Crown Championship, Winchester Speedway, Winchester, Indiana, July 19, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Briggs Danner, 77, Doran/Swanson-14.972; 2. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-15.123; 3. Dakoda Armstrong, 5, C & A-15.132; 4. Ryan Newman, 92, Kazmark-15.178; 5. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-15.185; 6. Mario Clouser, 20, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-15.285; 7. Nathan Byrd, 1, Meyer/Byrd/Tosti-15.444; 8. Tyler Roahrig, 41, Newman-15.493; 9. Kyle Steffens, 8, Steffens-15.515; 10. Kaylee Bryson, 11, Abacus/Droplight-15.740; 11. Brian Tyler, 81, BCR-16.068; 12. Robert Tyler, 75, Tyler-16.548; 13. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-17.710; 14. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (1), 2. Dakoda Armstrong (3), 3. C.J. Leary (2), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Mario Clouser (6), 6. Brian Tyler (11), 7. Tyler Roahrig (8), 8. Robert Tyler (12), 9. Kyle Steffens (9), 10. Kaylee Bryson (10), 11. Gregg Cory (13), 12. Nathan Byrd (7), 13. Ryan Newman (4), 14. Dave Berkheimer (14). 38:46.694
