SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Briggs Danner has been known to race anything and anywhere, while producing great results, throughout his career.
The Allentown, Pennsylvania 24-year-old will tackle a new challenge as he takes on a championship run with the USAC Silver Crown National Championship for DDMW Motorsports, a joint team effort between Lebanon, Ohio’s Doran Racing and Phoenix, Arizona’s DMW Motorsports who will continue to run their operations out of separate shops.
Over the offseason, Kody Swanson announced his intentions to step away from the cockpit in USAC Silver Crown competition to take on the role of Series Director. With the seat vacated, Danner has taken over the role as the driver of the car on the pavement side of the schedule this coming year.
Meanwhile, Danner will continue as the dirt driver for Mickey Meyer’s DMW Motorsports for the third consecutive season. The combo deal between Doran and DMW will allow the team to run for both the driver and entrant championships under the same banner, while sporting the No. 10 on both cars.
Danner couldn’t be any more thrilled about the opportunity and how it all came together.
“E. Schneider & Sons Recycling have done a lot for me as far as sponsoring stuff and whatnot,” Danner explained. “Rich Christine is involved with E. Schneider & Sons and he was good friends in road racing with Kevin Doran. When word got out that Kody was going to be doing what he’s doing this year, (Doran) said they didn’t really have plans as far as what they were going to do. So, through Rich and through John (Schneider), we kind of persuaded them to try to put a deal together and it ended up working out.”
Over the past two seasons on dirt in the USAC Silver Crown series, Danner has amassed 13 career starts, and in July of 2025, he collected his first career series win in the Salt City 100 at the Kansas State Fairgrounds, which also marked the first USAC victory for DMW Motorsports. In 2026, it just so happens to be the site of the series season opener, and Danner can’t wait to get back.
“It was awesome,” Danner reminisced. “To get that win for Mickey and for John (Schneider), all the guys back at the shop and everybody who’s involved was pretty cool. To get Mickey’s first win was awesome. He was ecstatic. He was smiling from ear-to-ear. It was a 100-lap race, and to be as dominant as we were at the end of that race, it just felt really good for everybody involved. It was a cool deal and we look forward to going back.”
Getting the hang of a machine with a long wheel base, big fuel load and long distance races makes champ car racing extra challenging, especially when you consider the schedule to be much more concise than, say, a USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car slate, which encompasses around four times the amount of races per season, on average.
“It’s tough to do,” Danner admitted. “There are 50-plus sprint car races a year, but for Silver Crown racing, there’s only six or seven shows on dirt. So, it’s kind of a tough deal. It takes a while to get really good at, I feel like, and that just goes as far as strategy with long distance races, tire wear, fuel consumption and that kind of stuff. I enjoy it.”
It’s not a foreign concept to Danner who came of age within the east coast dirt modified racing scene where long distance races are somewhat the norm. To him, Silver Crown racing is sort of an extension of that world.
“Going into the dirt Silver Crown stuff, I look forward to the kind strategy side of it. It’s not just a green flag drops and you go as fast as you can kind of race,” Danner explained. “I like the strategy side of the Silver Crown stuff and I think it might be more crucial on the pavement side.”
While Danner hasn’t run much pavement in his racing career, it’s not completely new to him. He’s 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.
“I’ve always enjoyed the pavement stuff, whether it be open wheel, fenders or modifieds,” Danner stated. “But I’ve just never really had an opportunity to be able to do anything just because there’s not much (pavement) racing around here. I’m really looking forward to being able to work with Kevin (Doran) in this joint effort so we can run for the championship. I’m looking forward to just getting in the car and getting my feet wet and see what it’s all about.”
Danner will now get to step into the pavement car for a team that’s won 17 career USAC Silver Crown events, seventh most on the all-time list, plus a pair of series championships in 2022 and 2024.
“It’s big,” Danner exclaimed. “I mean, if it doesn’t go fast on the track, it’s probably only one person’s fault. It’s probably mine. So, it’s kind of good and bad on that side of things, I guess. But I’m looking forward to it. The biggest thing you could do as a driver is have confidence going into a race. Obviously, the Doran team has been on top of the game for a pretty long time. I’m looking forward to seeing what I’m able to do with it, how quickly I’m able to adapt, and hopefully, produce results. Hopefully, we have a solid year as long as we keep showing the speed that we’ve had and have no mishaps. I think we stand as good a shot as everybody else.”
