TURNAROUND! DANNER GETS USAC EASTERN STORM REDEMPTION AT BRIDGEPORT

Briggs Danner captured victory during round two of USAC Yokohama Tires Eastern Storm Presented by Levan Machine on Wednesday night at New Jersey’s Bridgeport Motorsports Park. (Rich Forman Photo)

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Swedesboro, New Jersey (June 17, 2026)………How can you mend a broken heart? Well, if you’re Briggs Danner, you simply jump back on the horse, get back to work, and do what you do best.

During Wednesday night’s second round of USAC Yokohama Tire Eastern Storm Presented by Levan Machine at New Jersey’s Bridgeport Motorsports Park, Danner did exactly that.

Starting sixth, the Allentown, Pennsylvania native raced to the front past Robert Ballou on lap nine, then paced the remaining 22 laps to capture his second career Eastern Storm feature victory.

During Tuesday’s Eastern Storm opener at Grandview, Danner made a bid for the lead coming to the white flag, but touched wheels with Kyle Cummins and subsequently spun out, losing out on a chance at victory.

Needless to say, 24 hours later, Danner earned every bit of redemption, vindication, validation, and celebration, on a turnaround evening at the wheel of his Hogue Racing Enterprises/E. Schneider & Sons – Keystone Cap/DRC/Rider Chevy.

“Last night stung a little bit,” Danner acknowledged. “Tonight was tough too. We’d be in really good shape right now for Eastern Storm points, but we can’t really take a look at that like that. You’ve got to keep moving forward, and tonight was a great night.”

The latest score by Danner was his third of the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season, and the 10th of his career with the series, moving him to 54th place on the all-time series win list alongside Thomas Meseraull, Eddie Sachs, Tony Stewart, and Johnny Thomson.

Danner also did the deed at the very same Bridgeport 4/10-mile dirt oval where he made his first ever sprint car start of any kind, a USAC East Coast event back in 2020, which, oh by the way, he won. Since then, he’s garnered eight career USAC East Coast wins at Bridgeport, but Wednesday night produced his first USAC national victory at the track.

But early on in the night, Bridgeport had a different feel than Danner was accustomed to. And in the end, the result was once again pretty much the same with Briggs back in victory lane.

“It came around more to a little bit normal Bridgeport,” Danner revealed. “The top was there with a cushion to support a little bit. It was just real fluffy, real fine. I didn’t mind it at all; I thought it was good. But I was worried about the tire a little bit, but it lasted well. I knew I was using it pretty heavy early on. I was a little skeptical of what was going to happen there, but the top built up really nice and looked wide and racy. I knew it was kind of important to try and get to the lead early and it ended up working out.”

In his heat race, things weren’t quite so hunky dory for Danner. He finished sixth after setting quick time earlier in the night during LearnLab Qualifying for the second night in a row and for the eighth time in his USAC National Sprint Car career, tying him for 60th place all-time alongside Shane Cottle, Bubby Jones, Kelly Kinser, Pat O’Connor, and Hunter Schuerenberg. As for his heat race, it wasn’t quite as smooth of a ride.

“We were trying a little bit in the in the heat race just because we had to finish in the top six, and we had a bad vibration problem and didn’t really get to learn anything,” Danner explained. “We were kind of nervous with how not good the car was in the heat race.”

Danner put those concerns to rest quite quickly in the 30-lap feature, advancing sixth to fourth on the opening lap while Robert Ballou led the first third of the race. Ballou moved from the outside of the front row to the pole after original pole sitter Brady Bacon was deemed to have jumped the initial start, and was hit with a one row penalty, restarting third.

By lap three, Danner had hustled his way up to third with an outside move around Moles in turn two. One lap later, Danner dove underneath Coons in turn three to get the spot. Now, all that was left was chasing down Ballou.

Danner initially slid Ballou for the top spot in turn three on the eighth lap, but Ballou checkmated the move by countering back under at the exit of turn four and nipping Danner at the stripe by a wheel. But by turn one, Danner gained the upper hand around the outside, and from there, it was all Danner from lap nine onward.

By the halfway mark, Danner’s lead was continuously growing, and by lap 23, stood at a full straightaway margin of 4.666 seconds when he very nearly got caught up in another catastrophe. Danner put 13th running Christian Bruno a lap down with a turn three slide job. Once Bruno was cleared, Bruno slipped sideways right into the path of 15th running Steven Drevicki who t-boned Bruno’s machine in turn four. The impact knocked both drivers out of the race with eight laps to go.

The close call wasn’t lost on Danner who wasn’t keen on getting his heart broken for the second night in a row during the latter stages of a potential victory.

“I was actually a little nervous in lapped traffic there,” Danner admitted. “It gets so dirty, you can’t really see the racetrack in front of you. When you’re sitting on dust, it sucks you up quick. So, I knew I could enter really good on it, but at the center, it got thin, and coming off, it got pretty dusty. There were times when I’d fall off the shelf a little bit at the top and I just felt like I was kind of sitting there, but I was happy to not hear anybody. I think Robert was behind me. I’m just happy to be able to drive away clean after that yellow, one I didn’t want to see come out, obviously.”

Following the restart, all the action took place behind Danner as Mitchel Moles took second from Ballou on lap 25, while Bacon advanced to third past Ballou on lap 27. As for Danner, it was all him down the stretch as he put the finishing touches on a 2.305 second margin of victory over Moles, Bacon, and Chase Stockon, with Justin Grant rounding out the top five.

By leading the most laps in the feature (22), Danner also earned the K & N Filters Clean Air Award.

Stockon was on the move from the word “go,” gaining five spots on lap one from his 12th place starting position. He then continued his surge all the way up to a fourth-place result to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors. His plus-eight run was his fourth top five finish in six career Eastern Storm starts at Bridgeport.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 17, 2026 – Bridgeport Motorsports Park – Swedesboro, New Jersey – Yokohama Tire Eastern Storm Presented by Levan Machine – 4/10-Mile Dirt Track

LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-15.244; 2. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-15.363; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-15.422; 4. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-15.460; 5. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-15.555; 6. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-15.580; 7. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-15.631; 8. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-15.634; 9. Steven Drevicki, 19s, Drevicki-15.673; 10. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-15.696; 11. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-15.715; 12. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-15.753; 13. Christian Bruno, 3BC, JMO-15.767; 14. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-15.799; 15. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-15.807; 16. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-15.813; 17. Ronald Helmick, 22R, Helmick-16.052; 18. Ed Aikin, 7, Aikin-16.653; 19. Shane Braxton, 35, Braxton-17.000; 20. Olivia Thayer, 39T, Thayer-17.487; 21. Dirk Rimrott, 1x, Rimrott-NT.

K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (1), 2. Jake Swanson (4), 3. Chase Stockon (3), 4. Christian Bruno (2), 5. Cale Coons (5), 6. Briggs Danner (6). 2:08.328

TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (2), 2. Robert Ballou (5), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 4. Kyle Cummins (6), 5. C.J. Leary (3), 6. Ronald Helmick (1), 7. Olivia Thayer (7). 2:12.528

K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mitchel Moles (6), 2. Charles Davis Jr. (2), 3. Brady Bacon (5), 4. Hayden Reinbold (3), 5. Steven Drevicki (4), 6. Ed Aikin (1), 7. Dirk Rimrott (7). 2:15.632

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (6), 2. Mitchel Moles (4), 3. Brady Bacon (1), 4. Chase Stockon (12), 5. Justin Grant (8), 6. Kyle Cummins (5), 7. Robert Ballou (2), 8. Cale Coons (3), 9. Jake Swanson (9), 10. Hayden Reinbold (14), 11. Logan Seavey (7), 12. Charles Davis Jr. (16), 13. C.J. Leary (13), 14. Ronald Helmick (17), 15. Christian Bruno (15), 16. Steven Drevicki (11), 17. Olivia Thayer (19), 18. Kevin Thomas Jr. (10), 19. Ed Aikin (18), 20. Dirk Rimrott (20). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-8 Robert Ballou, Laps 9-30 Briggs Danner.

**Shane Braxton flipped during qualifying.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-1447, 2-Justin Grant-1346, 3-Mitchel Moles-1334, 4-Briggs Danner-1265, 5-Jake Swanson-1200, 6-Logan Seavey-1187, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1169, 8-Chase Stockon-1156, 9-C.J. Leary-1109, 10-Robert Ballou-1044.

USAC YOKOHAMA TIRE EASTERN STORM PRESENTED BY LEVAN MACHINE POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-141, 2-Brady Bacon-141, 3-Mitchel Moles-135, 4-Jake Swanson-128, 5-Justin Grant-128, 6-Briggs Danner-123, 7-Chase Stockon-118, 8-C.J. Leary-109, 9-Robert Ballou-105, 10-Cale Coons-103.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kevin Thomas Jr.-68, 2-Hayden Reinbold-61, 3-Cale Coons-59, 4-Justin Grant-54, 5-Briggs Danner-52, 6-Jacob Denney-52, 7-Robert Ballou-47, 8-Chase Stockon-46, 9-Brady Bacon-44, 10-Logan Calderwood-39.

USAC EASTERN STORM PARALLAX GROUP PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Christian Bruno-14, 2-Mitchel Moles-12, 3-Chase Stockon-11, 4-Brady Bacon-10, 5-Briggs Danner-9, 6-Robert Ballou-6, 7-Jake Swanson-5, 8-Jason Cherry-5, 9-Logan Seavey-4, 10-Hayden Reinbold-4.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 18, 2026 – Big Diamond Speedway – Pottsville, Pennsylvania – Yokohama Tire Eastern Storm Presented by Levan Machine – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Kyle Cummins (15.203)

LearnLab Fast Qualifier: Briggs Danner (15.244)

K1 RaceGear First Heat Winner: Justin Grant

TJ Forged Second Heat Winner: Logan Seavey

K & N Filters Third Heat Winner: Mitchel Moles

Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Chase Stockon (12th to 4th)

K & N Filters Clean Air Award: Briggs Danner (22 laps led)