INDIANAPOLIS — One night after a heartbreaking crash knocked him out of contention, Briggs Danner turned things around in a big way, driving to victory in the BC39 Presented by Avanti Windows & Doors on Wednesday night at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The win, worth $20,039, marked the first career USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship victory for Danner, a driver from Allentown, Pennsylvania racing for the No. 40x Chase McDermand Racing team. The BC39 remains one of the most closely watched events on the short-track racing calendar, honoring the late USAC champion and three-time Indianapolis 500 starter Bryan Clauson.
“Between last night and tonight, we were good every time we hit the track,” Danner said afterward. “There’s no feeling like this right now. I don’t even know what to say right now.”
It was a stark turnaround from 24 hours earlier. In Tuesday’s 30-lap feature, Danner was collected from behind by teammate Drake Edwards on Lap 6 and never recovered, limping home 13th after also dealing with a deflating tire. Edwards crossed the line first that night but was disqualified when inspectors found a technical violation in his engine, handing the win to Kevin Thomas Jr.
Team owner Chase McDermand said the group leaned on each other to bounce back. “We had our little moment when we were all kind of just moping around,” McDermand said. “Got everybody together in the lounge of the trailer, building everybody right back up. After that point, we all knew we had the cars to do it.”
A back-and-forth battle up front
Danner started from the pole in Wednesday’s 39-lap feature but immediately lost the lead to Kale Drake at the green flag. Rather than fight for the bottom groove, Danner shifted to a higher line around the dirt oval — a strategy he stuck with for nearly the entire race.
He dipped low to retake the lead from Drake exiting Turn 4 on Lap 9, moments before a three-car incident brought out the race’s first caution. On the restart, two-time defending BC39 champion Cannon McIntosh moved past Drake into second and set up a fierce duel with Danner, the two swapping the lead over 10 consecutive laps. Danner held on even after clipping the Turn 4 wall on Lap 16, as a growing cushion of loose dirt in the corner caught several drivers off guard through the night.
“It’s so tough, and it’s so slick, too,” Danner said of the shifting conditions in Turn 4. “When it’s fluffy like that, it just kind of catches you instead of letting you drive off of it or just bounce off of it.”
The fight for the lead turned into a three-way battle when Thomas — who ran the low line all race — sliced past both Danner and McIntosh on Lap 24. Danner answered a lap later, retaking the top spot on the high side and beginning to pull away. A final caution on Lap 30 tightened the field once more, but Danner surged clear on the restart and never looked back.
“Thankfully, I didn’t have a rearview mirror because I’m sure it was getting pretty busy, but I just had to try to protect,” Danner said. In the closing laps, he eased his line slightly lower to smooth out the bumps building in Turn 4, cruising the rest of the way to Victory Lane.
Thomas held on for second in the No. 14 4 Kings Racing car, with Jacob Denney third in the No. 67 Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports entry. McIntosh’s bid for a three-peat came up short as he settled for fourth in the No. 71K Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports machine, with Kale Drake rounding out the top five in the No. 4 RMS Racing car.
USAC racing returns to The Dirt Track at IMS on Thursday, July 23, when Brickyard Weekend opens with an Indiana Sprint Week event for the AMSOIL National Sprint Car Championship. Tickets are available at IMS.com.