Danner Wins Rich Vogler Classic in First Attempt
Sunday at Winchester in Doran-Swanson Racing No. 77

WINCHESTER, Ind., July 20 — The driver was different but the results were the same as they have been for the previous four years, as a Doran Racing-prepared USAC Silver Crown car led all 100 laps of the 34th annual Rich Vogler Classic Sunday at Winchester Speedway.

This time it was Briggs Danner of Allentown, Pa., behind the wheel of the Doran-Swanson Racing No. 77 sponsored by E. Schneider & Sons Inc. Recycling, Fuelmart, and Sennebogen. The 24-year-old driver hadn’t even seen the half-mile high-banked oval before he tested here on Saturday, but he won the pole and led wire to wire to triumph in only his third USAC Silver Crown pavement race ever.

(Kody Swanson, who led all 400 laps of the last four Rich Vogler Classics at Winchester driving a Doran Racing-prepped car, is not competing in the series this year since he became its director in the off season.)

There were four caution flags in the first 70 laps of Sunday’s race which kept the top runners close, especially the top three of Danner, point leader C.J. Leary, and Dakoda Armstrong.

Three of the four yellows were for cars which developed flat right-rear tires. The first flew from laps 14-17 for Ryan Newman, who slowed with his flat coming out of Turn 2 while running fourth.

The second waved from laps 31-34 when Kaylee Bryson slowed on the backstretch while running 11th after her tire let go.

The third full-course caution came out from laps 48-57 when Nathan Byrd had a problem with his car’s front end while running sixth and crashed into the outside wall between Turns 1 and 2. He was not injured but his car required a wrecker.

The final yellow waved from laps 67-70 when Kyle Steffens’ car got a flat tire at the exit of Turn 2 while he was seventh.

Leary and Armstrong kept the pressure up on Danner on all the restarts. At the one-quarter mark Danner had a 0.578-second lead with the No. 77, which is powered by a Doran Toyota.

His USAC sprint car carries the No. 39, and he set the fastest lap of anyone in Sunday’s race on lap 39 with a time of 15.897 seconds.

He was able to pad his advantage to over a second (1.045) for the first time on lap 45, only to have the field accordion up behind him for another yellow.

Following the restart on lap 71 Justin Grant passed Mario Clouser for fourth on lap 72. At the three-quarter mark Danner had a 0.675-second lead over Leary, with Armstrong right behind.

Still, Danner was able to increase his advantage to over 1 second again by lap 79, and with no more restarts he was able to increase it to 2 seconds in the race’s late stages. But there were still challenges ahead.

Armstrong passed Leary for second with a move to the outside on the backstretch working lap 93, and immediately focused on catching Danner. Lapped traffic cut Danner’s advantage to only 0.538 on lap 96, but once he was clear of them he was able to hold off Armstrong and march onward. He had a 1.415-second margin of victory over Armstrong at the checkered. It was his second career USAC Silver Crown victory and first on a paved track.

Leary finished third and Grant and Clouser rounded out the top five. The top five were the only drivers to complete all 100 laps.

Brian Tyler was the hard charger after starting 11th and finishing sixth even though his car lost its brakes at the end. Tyler Roahrig, Robert Tyler, Steffens, and Bryson rounded out the top 10.

Danner won the pole by 0.151 over Leary with a time of 14.972 seconds. It was the sixth consecutive time this particular car has won the pole at this race, and it was Danner’s first pole ever in the series.

Danner was eighth in the first practice session with a 15.673 but he topped the final practice session with a 15.167.

“I was a little nervous with the lapped traffic once when they were running three wide ahead of me,” Danner said. “I only passed lapped cars today, which I guess is good, but C.J. and Dakoda kept the pressure up. I felt really good the longer a run went on though.

“I knew where they were because Kevin [Doran] told me on the radio, and at the end I knew Armstrong was pushing hard. The last 15 laps I just tried not to do anything dumb and bring it home.

“Yesterday in practice I didn’t feel like I had a grasp of this track, but I felt better as the day went on today. I put a good amount of pressure on myself over Kody’s great record of leading this whole race for the last four years. To be able to continue that for this team is a cool deal.”

How do you like Winchester Speedway?    

“I like it a lot!”

Sunday’s race, like all USAC Silver Crown events, was streamed live on Flo Racing.

The next USAC Silver Crown race is Saturday, Aug. 8 at another new track for Danner, Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. That weekend also sees the ARCA Menards Series (Friday), the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (Saturday), and the NASCAR Cup Series (Sunday) in action on that 0.875-mile paved oval.

For more information see Briggs Danner Racing on Facebook.
For more information on Doran Racing, see DoranRacing.com.
The team also has a Facebook page.
Series information on USACRacing.com