Briggs Danner, the burgeoning racer from Pennsylvania, is set to take on the full USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship schedule for the first time in his career aboard the Hogue Racing Enterprises No. 39 in 2025. Danner, from Allentown, comes into the new season following a dominating run with the USAC Rapid Tire East Coast Sprint Car series where he won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 while accumulating a series-record 29 feature victories. However, after dabbling with the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars sporadically since 2021, Danner expanded his national horizons this past season and was superb. He posted his first three career victories with the series in 2024. In June at Grandview, he became the first Pennsylvanian to win a USAC National Sprint Car feature since Frankie Kerr 25 years earlier in 1999 and the first Pennsylvanian to win a series race in his home state since Paul Pitzer at Reading in 1979. Now a threat to win anywhere and everywhere they go on the USAC National Sprint Car tour, the feeling was mutual between Danner and the Hogues that the time was right to chase after a national title. “We have the opportunity to do it, and Tim and Fran (Hogue) are really interested in making it happen,” Danner explained. “Right now is the perfect time. We’ve been showing speed and the whole sprint car program is coming together. I feel like we’re still learning, so we’re only going to get better. We’re going to give it a shot and see what we can make happen.” Danner and Hogue teamed up at the beginning of the 2023 season. Team owner Fran Hogue and his younger brother, Tim Hogue, are veteran racers who’ve fielded a team for many years on the east coast, first competing with USAC during Eastern Storm 2015. Over the past couple of seasons, both Danner and the Hogues have developed into contenders on the national scene. Now they’re prepared to face the next challenge of visiting several new tracks and hitting the road regularly away from the team’s Westampton, New Jersey base. “We’ve definitely learned a lot,” Danner stated. “There were some nights where we’re really good and then there were some nights we weren’t as good, and we learned together while just trying to get each other figured out. Nine times out 10, we’re on the same page now, and that’s usually when we’re good. I’m looking forward to doing even more racing and trying to build on that and get even better. You don’t get better by sitting on the couch.” Not only did Danner win his first three USAC National Sprint Car races in 2024, but he easily could also have won six or seven in all if it hadn’t been for such heartbreaking misfortune in races that he led. Danner went on to cement his status as a winner outside the confines of the Keystone State as well by capturing the Indiana Sprint Week finale in August at Bloomington and the inaugural Greg Staab Memorial at Lawrenceburg in October. In all, despite starting only 29 of the 44 series features, Danner ranked inside the top-10 in laps led (113), top-fives (11) and top-tens (19), earning him USAC’s National Most Improved Driver Award for 2024. While the first victory was difficult to come by, it seemed as if he would begin to rack several up in the win column. He eventually did, but nothing is handed to you when the competition is so close and so tough, but Danner is up for the challenge. “To get that first one out of the way, and for it to be at Grandview on the first night of Eastern Storm, was awesome,” Danner reflected. “They always say the first one is the hardest one to get. After the race at Kutztown, I think I said it seems like the second one is the hardest to get. (This past year) boosted my confidence a lot. We’ve always showed speed with the sprint car, but I feel like we’re so much more consistent now, and that makes it a lot easier. When you’re fast all the time. It makes a lot easier to pick off races because not everything all goes your way.” Danner began his career in quarter midgets at the age of five, and eventually became a three-time champion in USAC’s .25 Midget series between 2013-14. Over the years, the versatile Briggs has raced in, and won with, a wide variety of racecars, including 600cc Micro Sprints, SpeedSTRs, Modifieds, TQ Midgets (on pavement), ARDC Midgets, 360 Sprint Cars and 410 Sprint Cars. The 23-year-old Danner was actually born on a day that no living person will forget if they lived through that moment – September 11, 2001. The third generation racer is the son of Roy Danner Jr., who competed frequently in quarter midgets, karts and legend cars. Briggs grandfather, Roy Danner Sr., raced stock cars throughout Pennsylvania at venues such as Nazareth and Dorney Park. Danner also revealed that he’ll return to the seat of the DMW Motorsports No. 10 for all the dirt USAC Silver Crown events in 2025. He also plans to compete in a handful of USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship races as well. *** Journalist Deb Williams tells us NASCAR Plans Massive ‘Ramp Up’ of live streaming content. NASCAR President Steve Phelps: ‘We need to do a better job keeping our fans engaged in the off-season.’ NASCAR’s year-old $53 million production facility in Concord, N.C., will be responsible for 50% of the content seen under the sanctioning body’s new TV agreement that begins in 2025, says NASCAR President Steve Phelps. Phelps said only about 14% of the content seen in 2024 originated in the facility. However, in 2025 in addition to the networks covering NASCAR’s races, there would be “robust content” through NASCAR.com, NASCAR’s social channels, YouTube and Netflix. He described it as a “massive ramp up” with the facility devoted to live-event production on the weekends and feature content during the week and in the off-season. “I think that we need to do a better job keeping our fans engaged in the off-season just to keep them thirsty so when you get to the Clash, they’re ready,” NASCAR President Steve Phelps said during Epartrade’s Racing Industry Week. “We have this growing data warehouse, which is over 20 million strong. When we understand who they are, where they are, what motivates them, who their favorite driver is, what they want, we can serve them content as well.” Phelps said NASCAR was “very deliberate” with what it was trying to achieve with its media rights negotiations that concluded in 2023. While NASCAR’s Xfinity Series will be exclusively on the CW Network and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on FS1, the Cup TV package is a mixture of broadcast with Fox and NBC, streaming with Amazon, and cable and streaming with Warner Brothers Discovery Max and Turner Sports. Phelps said NASCAR needed to test the streaming market with Amazon “to make sure that streamers look at NASCAR like they do with stick-and-ball sports.” “I think we have the right partner in Amazon,” Phelps continued. “I think what they’ve done with the NFL in their three years has been extraordinary. They take a fresh look at the production value and what that looks like.” *** NASCAR is adjusting practice and qualifying procedures for 2025. NASCAR has announced that its three national series – the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series – will adjust the practice and qualifying (P&Q) procedures for the 2025 season. The updated P&Q schedule will include more practice time, consistency in procedure across all three series and a return to simplified starting lineup rules. With the exception of the superspeedway events, each qualifying session will be one round, with each vehicle’s starting position determined solely by its qualifying results. In addition, NASCAR announced that a practice session prior to DAYTONA 500 qualifying has been added to the Daytona International Speedway weekend schedule. The 50-minute pre-qualifying practice is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 10:05 a.m. ET. The annual DAYTONA 500 Media Day will also take place Wednesday, Feb. 12, starting at noon and ending at 7 p.m. ET. DAYTONA 500 Busch Light Pole Award Qualifying will follow at 8:15 p.m. ET. Next season, FOX Sports will broadcast P&Q for The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, the DAYTONA 500, the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Raceway, as well as P&Q for the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. Prime Video will broadcast NASCAR Cup Series P&Q for the first half of the season excluding the events outlined above; TNT Sports will broadcast P&Q on Max and truTV for the second half of the NASCAR Cup Series season. Details for NASCAR Xfinity Series P&Q sessions airing on CW platforms will be announced at a later date. On Friday, October 10, 2025 the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars return to New Egypt Speedway for the first time since 2017. The most famous touring Sprint Car series in the country invades the confines of Central Jersey for the 10th time in series history. Defending World of Outlaws Champion David Gravel was the winner in ’17 when the World of Outlaws last visited New Egypt Speedway. Gravel topped Donny Schatz and Brad Sweet to take home the victory. The World of Outlaws have trekked upon New Egypt Speedway on nine different occasions, with the inaugural taking place in July of 2001 when Schatz was victorious. New Jersey native P.J. Chesson claimed one of his two career World of Outlaws wins the following year. Schatz returned to Victory Lane in ’03 and ‘The King,’ Steve Kinser topped the field when the series returned in 2007. The series took a hiatus until 2013 and when Daryn Pittman dominated for the next four years. The Oklahoman won four consecutive years from ’13-’16 before Gravel topped him and the rest of the stars of the World of Outlaws in ’17. Now, the World of Outlaws prepare to tackle the tricky oval for the first time in over eight years. The Four Cylinders will also be on the docket for the Friday night affair. Stay tuned to the New Egypt Speedway website (newegyptspeedway.net) and the New Egypt Speedway Facebook page for more schedule release information in the coming weeks. New Egypt Speedway is located at 720 Route 539 New Egypt, NJ 08533. To learn more visit newegyptspeedway.net, call 609.758.1900 ——— Ernie Saxton is an auto racing contributor for MediaNews Group. He co-founded the Eastern Motorsports Press Association, served as public relations director for Grandview Speedway for 47 years, and is in multiple halls of fame for his promotion and journalism related to the sport. He has announced races at more than 100 tracks, and he is the only person to have announced a race at Madison Square Garden. Email him at [email protected].