August 22, 2025 | By Richie Murray, USAC Media

Danner outduels Cummins in Smackdown opener at Kokomo

KOKOMO, ind.—Just a little over three weeks ago, Briggs Danner was enjoying the spoils of victory from his first career triumph at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway.

Twenty-four days later, the Allentown, Pennsylvania native was standing in the very same spot in Kokomo’s winner’s circle. This time, however, he was celebrating his first career Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Sprint Car Smackdown score.

Danner’s Smackdown opening night performance on Thursday marked his second USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship main event win of the season in his Hogue Racing Enterprises/E. Schneider & Sons – Aw Shucks Roasted Corn/DRC/Rider Chevy.

Both of Danner’s 2025 USAC Sprint Car wins have now come at the 1/4-mile dirt oval located in the north central region of the Hoosier state, and both came in similarly dramatic fashion. Whereas July’s Kokomo victory came on a last lap, last turn pass, this time, Danner got the job done a bit earlier. By one single lap.

After officially exchanging the lead three different times throughout the final 14 circuits of the 30-lap feature, Danner took the lead from series point Kyle Cummins on the white flag lap of Thursday’s feature, then held Cummins off for the final two trips to earn his fifth career USAC National Sprint Car win.

Danner noted the similarities of his past two Kokomo wins right down to the track conditions, which the team studied in order to make a few quick, but crucial alterations just prior to pushing off for the main.

“Early on, it really looked like the track was going to be pretty similar,” Danner explained. “I was watching the semi-feature and it was changing a lot, so we thrashed to make little adjustments just to keep up a little bit.”

Starting fourth, Danner had his work cut out for him behind the front row of C.J. Leary and Jake Swanson and alongside fellow row two occupant Mitchel Moles. On the opening lap, Leary jutted out to the lead, while Moles scooted into second under Swanson as Danner took lay of the land in fourth.

As Leary, Moles and Swanson all scurried along the bottom and middle of turns one and two on lap two, Danner took himself an entire lane higher. Running right on the wall, Danner powered past both Swanson and Moles to go from fourth to second in one fell swoop. By lap four, Danner had muscled the lead away from Leary as he rode the high line to the front off turn four, exactly where he wanted to be.

“I knew I wanted to get to the top,” Danner declared. “It was tough to run, although it was easy when I could run behind C.J. and Jake and kind of gauge where I needed to be. Then I got up front. It’s just hard to judge how hard you can run it in. You can get screwed up from there. This place is all about momentum.

Nearing halfway, lapped traffic loomed large. Cummins took advantage and overtook Leary to slip into second on lap 12. On lap 15, Cummins had gotten right to the back bumper of Danner just as a tangle ensued behind them. Fourth running Swanson saw his night come to an abrupt halt when Joey Amantea (24th), Todd Hobson (25th) and Brandon Mattox (26th) all tangled in front of him between turns three and four. Swanson’s front end was knocked out in the melee, which also knocked him out of the race with an undesirable 25th place result.

With the traffic cleared out for the front runners, the game was afoot between Danner and Cummins. First, Cummins slid Danner for the top spot in turn one on lap 17, but Danner answered the challenge by racing back by on the back straightaway to reassume his place at the head of the pack. However, the relentless Cummins charged back by a lap later utilizing the very same maneuver, but this time it paid off as Cummins cleared Danner in turns one and two and set sail with a mere 12 laps remaining.

That said, Danner never strayed too far away over the next seven laps while Cummins held command. As Cummins entered turn one on lap 25, his right rear tire dug in, snapping his front wheels to the right. Danner capitalized by driving past to take over the lead with five laps remaining.

Thirteenth running Jadon Rogers’ stopped car in turn two on the following lap brought out the yellow flag and allowed a chance for both Danner and Cummins to take a deep breath and organize their thoughts and plan of attack for the final five lap sprint.

On the lap 26 resumption, Cummins slid past Danner for the number one spot in the first turn. Danner countered and drove back past Cummins to retain the lead briefly as Danner beat Cummins to the line by about a millimeter or seven. Like déjà vu all over again, Cummins delivered another slide job on Danner on lap 27 in turn one, but this time it stuck.

Danner reloaded and took the high line once more in order to built up his momentum. When Danner got right to the tail tank of Cummins on the back straight, the two flip-flopped lines with Danner perusing the bottom as Cummins looked to gain traction up top.

“I knew Kyle was coming,” Danner acknowledged. “I saw him keep poking his nose in. To be able to move around at the end was a key for sure. He was definitely better on the bottom. I had to get a couple of laps going to get to the top there, and luckily, it worked out.”

Narrowly missing out on the lead on lap 28 by a hair, Danner strolled the bottom into turns one and two as Cummins snagged the cushion with his right rear tire, thus opening up just enough a gap for Danner to shoot away and negate Cummins one last opportunity at chasing him down with only two laps to go.

“I feel like there’s so much you can do at this place to make up for where you’re lacking speed as a driver and try to get better than the guy in front of you to make a move on him,” Danner demonstrated. “It felt good to be able to race Kyle there at the end instead of just running away with it. He was obviously good enough to get by us and I just had to regroup and gather myself back together and stay calm.”

Danner crossed the line 0.339 seconds ahead of Cummins at the finish line while C.J. Leary rounded out the podium in third as Mitchel Moles took fourth and Moles’ Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports teammate Hayden Reinbold completed the top-five.

Ricky Lewis racked up a couple of awards by going +11 in the feature after advancing from his 24th starting spot to finish 13th, which earned him Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors. Lewis also made the feature after qualifying 50th out of the 54 drivers on hand, which made him the night’s ProSource Hard Work award recipient.

It was an excellent night for Mr. Burns! Harley Burns captured the fourth and final transfer spot of the semi-feature, which scored him a right rear courtesy of Hoosier Tire. After coming home 12th in the feature, Burns pocketed another bonus as the Jeff’s Jam-It-In Storage Top Finishing Kokomo regular.

It was a solid debut for Cale Coons. He was the top finishing Smackdown Rookie of the night presented by Crume-Evans Insurance, crossing the finish line in 14th. Furthermore, Coons was the second best finishing Kokomo regular, awarded by Jeff’s Jam-It-In Storage.

Cheers for the Aussie! Clyde, Victoria's Todd Hobson hustled in his heat race to make the feature by traveling +5 from ninth to fourth to transfer his way into the main event, which proved to be the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.

Despite seven series wins on the USAC National Sprint Car trail this year, it wasn’t until the 32nd event of the 2025 season on Thursday night when Kyle Cummins grabbed his first Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifying award of the year. His 18th career fast time with the series tied 1960-1961-1962 USAC Sprint Car champion Parnelli Jones for 29th place on the all-time list.

The 54 cars and drivers on hand for Thursday’s race was a new Smackdown record, surpassing the pervious mark of 50 which competed on the opening night of the event in 2024.

Thursday night also marked the 100th USAC national event promoted by the O’Connor family, who have been at the helm of Kokomo Speedway for the past two decades. They’ve become just the eight race organizer to reach the 100+ mark.


USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 21, 2025 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Sprint Car Smackdown XIV

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-12.599; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-12.662; 3. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-12.835; 4. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.854; 5. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-12.896; 6. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-12.961; 7. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-12.999; 8. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-13.000; 9. Kyle Shipley, 0G, Black Gold-13.001; 10. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-13.007; 11. Geoff Ensign, 00x, Anderson-13.022; 12. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-13.043; 13. Carson Garrett, 2E, Epperson-13.046; 14. Jack Hoyer, 57H, Hazen-13.052; 15. Rylan Gray, 06, Gray-13.077; 16. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-13.152; 17. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-13.202; 18. Shane Cottle, 86, Stamper-13.202; 19. Chance Crum, 83c, Crum-13.221; 20. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.229; 21. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-13.263; 22. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-13.295; 23. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-13.341; 24. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall-13.350; 25. Tyler Hewitt, 97, Hewitt-13.354; 26. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.379; 27. Chelby Hinton, 71p, Phillips-13.391; 28. Jadon Rogers, 5, Baldwin/Fox-13.433; 29. Wyatt Burks, 16K, Knight-13.456; 30. Parker Frederickson, 00, Whitney-13.497; 31. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-13.531; 32. Brayden Clark, 4c, Clark-13.533; 33. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Cromwell-13.546; 34. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-13.549; 35. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-13.626; 36. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-13.688; 37. Aaron Davis, 11, Davis-13.691; 38. Max Adams, 21, Hery-13.694; 39. James Turnbull II, 2J, Turnbull-13.698; 40. David Gasper, 77s, Sturgeon-13.702; 41. Todd Hobson, 44, Soudrette-13.725; 42. Devan Myers, 75, Myers-13.746; 43. Matt Goodnight, 39G, Goodnight-13.764 44. Adyn Schmidt, 12s, Schmidt-13.825; 45. Jack James, 99, James-13.867; 46. Clinton Boyles, 12, Ballou-13.897; 47. Jacob Tuttle, 24x, Maddox-14.071; 48. R.J. Miller, 34, Miller-14.099; 49. Bryce Andrews, 17, MSR-14.139; 50. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-14.329; 51. Steve Justis, 12J, Justis-14.383; 52. Evan Mosley, 2, Mosley-NT; 53. Trey Osborne, 6T, Ebert-NT; 54. Camden Winter, 84, Eisenzopf-NT (time of 13.891 disallowed to due to an illegal left rear tire).

CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Hayden Reinbold, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Todd Hobson, 5. Harley Burns, 6. Joey Amantea, 7. Clinton Boyles, 8. Zack Pretorius, 9. Troy Carey, 10. Geoff Ensign, 11. Steve Justis. NT

K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Kale Drake, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Chelby Hinton, 6. Kobe Simpson, 7. Brayden Clark, 8. Aaron Davis, 9. Jacob Tuttle, 10. Devan Myers, 11. Camden Winter. 2:16.227

USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jadon Rogers, 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Shane Cottle, 4. Cale Coons, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Carson Garrett, 7. Max Adams, 8. Matt Goodnight, 9. R.J. Miller. 2:17.320

COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Matt Westfall, 2. Wyatt Burks, 3. Mitchel Moles, 4. Jack Hoyer, 5. Kyle Shipley, 6. James Turnbull II, 7. Kayla Roell, 8. Bryce Andrews, 9. Chance Crum, 10. Adyn Schmidt. NT

CAR IQ FIFTH HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson, 2. Ricky Lewis, 3. Gunnar Setser, 4. Brandon Mattox, 5. Hunter Maddox, 6. Rylan Gray, 7. Jack James, 8. Tyler Hewitt, 9. David Gasper, 10. Parker Frederickson. NT

HOOSIER TIRE C-MAIN: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the semi) 1. Zack Pretorius, 2. Matt Goodnight, 3. Chance Crum, 4. David Gasper, 5. Aaron Davis, 6. Bryce Andrews, 7. R.J. Miller, 8. Troy Carey, 9. Devan Myers, 10. Geoff Ensign, 11. Jacob Tuttle. 2:20.946

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Chelby Hinton, 3. Carson Garrett, 4. Harley Burns, 5. Kobe Simpson, 6. Clinton Boyles, 7. Chance Crum, 8. Max Adams, 9. Zack Pretorius, 10. Rylan Gray, 11. Matt Goodnight, 12. Brayden Clark, 13. Jack James, 14. Kyle Shipley, 15. Hunter Maddox, 16. James Turnbull II, 17. Joey Amantea, 18. Kayla Roell, 19. David Gasper. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (4), 2. Kyle Cummins (6), 3. C.J. Leary (1), 4. Mitchel Moles (3), 5. Hayden Reinbold (8), 6. Kevin Thomas Jr. (13), 7. Justin Grant (5), 8. Kale Drake (17), 9. Logan Seavey (11), 10. Chase Stockon (16), 11. Matt Westfall (7), 12. Harley Burns (10), 13. Ricky Lewis (24), 14. Cale Coons (20), 15. Carson Garrett (14), 16. Chelby Hinton (21), 17. Gunnar Setser (12), 18. Clinton Boyles (25-P), 19. Wyatt Burks (22), 20. Jack Hoyer (15), 21. Todd Hobson (23), 22. Brandon Mattox (19), 23. Jadon Rogers (9), 24. Shane Cottle (18), 25. Jake Swanson (2), 26. Joey Amantea (26-P). NT

(P) represents a provisional starter

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 C.J. Leary, Laps 4-17 Briggs Danner, Laps 18-24 Kyle Cummins, Laps 25-26 Briggs Danner, Laps 27-28 Kyle Cummins, Laps 29-30 Briggs Danner.

**Steve Justis flipped during the first heat. Adyn Schmidt flipped during the fourth heat. David Gasper & Parker Frederickson flipped during the fifth heat. James Turnbull II flipped during the semi.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-2173, 2-Mitchel Moles-1942, 3-Logan Seavey-1924, 4-Briggs Danner-1843, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1820, 6-Justin Grant-1755, 7-Robert Ballou-1693, 8-C.J. Leary-1688, 9-Jake Swanson-1682, 10-Kale Drake-1547.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-204, 2-Briggs Danner-129, 3-Kevin Thomas Jr.-106, 4-Gunnar Setser-100, 5-Logan Seavey-96, 6-Kyle Cummins-94, 7-C.J. Leary-93, 8-Justin Grant-91, 9-Chase Stockon-70, 10-Jake Swanson-70.

SPRINT CAR SMACKDOWN PARALLAX GROUP PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Ricky Lewis-19, 2-Chance Crum-13, 3-Clinton Boyles-12, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-9, 5-Kale Drake-9, 6-Matt Goodnight-8, 7-Briggs Danner-7, 8-Kyle Cummins-7, 9-Chase Stockon-7, 10-Chelby Hinton-7.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: August 22-23, 2025 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Sprint Car Smackdown XIV


CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Justin Grant (12.755)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Kyle Cummins (12.599)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Hayden Reinbold
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: C.J. Leary
USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Jadon Rogers
Cook Out Fourth Heat Winner: Matt Westfall
Car IQ Fifth Heat Winner: Jake Swanson
Hoosier Tire C-Main Winner: Zack Pretorius
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner:
Hoosier Tire Last Semi Transfer: Harley Burns
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Ricky Lewis (24th to 13th)
ProSource Hard Work: Ricky Lewis
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Todd Hobson
Jeff’s Jam-It-In Storage Top Finishing Kokomo Regular: Harley Burns
Jeff’s Jam-It-In Storage 2nd Best Finishing Kokomo Regular: Cale Coons
Crume-Evans Insurance Rookie of the Race: Cale Coons