INDIANAPOLIS — For Briggs Danner, Circle City Raceway just seemed to be one of those places that he couldn’t connect with in USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship competition.
Yet, during Thursday night’s Circle City Salute Presented by Desnuda Tequila, Danner found the quarter-mile dirt oval to his liking, much thanks to a monster curb that bit others, but was one that Danner’s car found bite on.
Danner took advantage of a turn two stumble by Logan Seavey to take over the lead on lap 17 of the 40-lap main event, then scurried away from the field for the remaining 24 laps to win by a whopping 6.439-second margin, the largest in the series since October 2023.
The $10,000 earned by Danner was his second USAC National Sprint Car win of the season and the ninth of his career.
“To be standing here is pretty crazy,” stated Danner. “This is one of my worst places, and I feel like every time I come here, I just never really get going. To get going good on the curb there, and racing with Logan, that was a really good race we had going there. I’m super happy to be standing here. This is an awesome feeling for myself, for sure.”
Danner and his Hogue Racing Enterprises/E. Schneider & Sons – Keystone Cap/DRC/Rider Chevy were lined up on the pole position for the feature, but it was outside front row starter Seavey who patrolled the pace throughout much of the first half of the distance as he beat Danner to the line by a wheel to lead lap one.
Initially working the lower half of the track, Danner ultimately moved up to the gnarly cushion by lap three and began to stalk Seavey lap after lap. Just before the midway point, Seavey began to slide himself into each turns one and three, drifting up from the middle of the racetrack to the top, thus stifling any momentum Danner had built up on the high line.
That said, Danner was always just within arm’s reach of Seavey. On the 17th lap, Danner slid under Seavey getting into turn one. Wheel to wheel by the time both reached the top of turn two, Seavey tripped over the turn two cushion.
“I felt very curb reliant there,” Danner acknowledged. “I kind of couldn’t get a very good start on the bottom, but once we got going, I knew I could set pace. Honestly, following him a little bit probably helped me out in setting my pace for the rest of the race. I felt pretty good on restarts, but he was really good at taking up the race track and made it difficult to pass. Once or twice, I got a run and we would get a yellow and it kind of killed our run there.”
From there on out, it was a mad scramble for every position within the top five, except for the lead. Cummins raced into second on lap 26 after Moles stumbled on the turn two cushion, all while Danner built up a nearly three second advantage.
On the 29th circuit, Danner experienced his closest call of the night. As he approached the smoking lapped car of 18th running Logan Calderwood, the two made contact in turn one. While Danner escaped the incident, Calderwood spun to a stop.
“He was kind of blowing up in front of me and switching lanes,” Danner explained. “I caught a break to escape that one and not get tangled up.”
In the meantime, then sixth running Seavey’s right rear tire began to get low on air. Compensating with his new reality, Seavey hit the bottom of the track and went to work. First, he got by Thomas Meseraull for fifth on lap 30, then picked off Swanson for fourth on lap 33 before falling back to fifth on lap 37.
However, second running Moles found more turn two turmoil on the cushion with three laps remaining, and dropped four spots. The biggest beneficiary was the low-riding Seavey who scooted up three positions along the bottom from fifth to second as Cummins and Swanson also got caught in the commotion.
By that time, Danner was long gone silver, half a lap ahead of his nearest challenger. Danner won it with relative ease as Seavey nipped Cummins for second at the stripe. Meseraull took fourth in his first USAC National Sprint Car start of the season while Jake Swanson rounded out the top five.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Circle City Raceway, Indianapolis, Ind., May 21, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-11.601 (Track Record); 2. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-11.609; 3. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-11.824; 4. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-11.923; 5. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-11.924; 6. Chance Crum, 83c, Crum-11.929; 7. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-11.986; 8. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-11.993; 9. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.026; 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-12.032; 11. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-12.060; 12. C.J. Leary, 53, Fox-12.071; 13. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-12.078; 14. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-12.093; 15. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-12.115; 16. David Gasper, 77s, Sturgeon-12.147; 17. Gunnar Setser, G5, Setser-12.149; 18. Jacob Denney, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-12.151; 19. Thomas Meseraull, 24, Simon-12.192; 20. Jakeb Boxell, 54, Westfall-12.192; 21. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-12.238; 22. Shane Cottle, 34, Olson-12.242; 23. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-12.272; 24. Noah Whitehouse, 21, Hajduk-12.301; 25. Rylan Gray, 06, Gray-12.324; 26. Ricky Lewis, 2E, Epperson-12.405; 27. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-12.410; 28. Chet Williams, 38, Williams-12.460; 29. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-12.521; 30. Todd Hobson, 77, Wingo/Bishop-12.553; 31. Michael Clark, 8, Clark-12.688; 32. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-12.699; 33. Austin Nigh, 97, Nigh-12.702; 34. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-12.735; 35. Rob Caho Jr., 78, Caho-13.025; 36. Jake Simmons, 7s, Simmons-13.468; 37. Jack Hoyer, 11, Hoyer-13.658.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jadon Rogers (1), 2. Hayden Reinbold (3), 3. Robert Ballou (4), 4. Gunnar Setser (2), 5. Jake Swanson (5), 6. Kyle Cummins (6), 7. Rylan Gray (7), 8. Hunter Maddox (9), 9. Todd Hobson (8). NT
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Shane Cottle (1), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 3. Mitchel Moles (6), 4. Jacob Denney (2), 5. Logan Calderwood (3), 6. Chance Crum (5), 7. Charles Davis Jr. (7), 8. Rob Caho Jr. (9), 9. 8-Michael Clark (8). 2:05.325
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Thomas Meseraull (2), 2. Zack Pretorius (1), 3. Chase Stockon (3), 4. Justin Grant (6), 5. Logan Seavey (5), 6. Cale Coons (4), 7. Brandon Mattox (8), 8. Chet Williams (7), 9. Jake Simmons (9). 2:06.937
INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Trey Osborne (6), 2. Noah Whitehouse (1), 3. Briggs Danner (5), 4. C.J. Leary (4), 5. Jakeb Boxell (2), 6. David Gasper (3), 7. Austin Nigh (8), 8. Jack Hoyer (9), 9. Troy Carey (7). 2:11.537
FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (12 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (1), 2. David Gasper (4), 3. Cale Coons (3), 4. Chance Crum (2), 5. Charles Davis Jr. (6), 6. Jack Hoyer (12), 7. Austin Nigh (8), 8. Hunter Maddox (10), 9. Michael Clark (15), 10. Rylan Gray (5), 11. Jake Simmons (16), 12. Troy Carey (13), 13. Rob Caho Jr. (11), 14. Brandon Mattox (7), 15. Todd Hobson (14), 16. Chet Williams (9). NT
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (1), 2. Logan Seavey (2), 3. Kyle Cummins (10), 4. Thomas Meseraull (7), 5. Jake Swanson (3), 6. Mitchel Moles (6), 7. Shane Cottle (9), 8. Trey Osborne (4), 9. Hayden Reinbold (16), 10. Justin Grant (5), 11. Robert Ballou (12), 12. Cale Coons (14), 13. Kevin Thomas Jr. (13), 14. C.J. Leary (15), 15. Chase Stockon (18), 16. Chance Crum (11), 17. Zack Pretorius (22), 18. Jakeb Boxell (21), 19. Gunnar Setser (20), 20. David Gasper (19), 21. Logan Calderwood (17), 22. Jadon Rogers (8), 23. Charles Davis Jr. (24), 24. Noah Whitehouse (23).
