4/14/2026
Lawrenceburg Speedway
Danner Dominates the Third Annual Justin Owen Memorial
Briggs Danner rode the rim of Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway to perfection during Saturday night’s third annual Justin Owen Memorial Presented by Tempstar.
The Allentown, Pa., native raced from his fifth place starting spot and into the lead just before the midway point of the 30-lap feature, then fended off Kyle Cummins on multiple restarts down the stretch to capture his first USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship win of the 2026 season.
Danner’s second USAC National Sprint Car triumph at Lawrenceburg’s three-eighths-mile dirt oval was the eighth overall of his career.
The race was in memory of Justin Owen, the 2022 sprint car track champion at Lawrenceburg who lost his life in a racing accident at the track in 2023. For Danner, it was certainly special to add his name alongside Kevin Thomas Jr. (2024) and Justin Grant (2025) as winners of the event.
“I feel like this is what it’s all about – for Justin,” Danner stated. “This is a really cool deal to be able to come out and be a part of it.”
Danner had an inkling the track was going to be to his liking. For him, it was just a matter of the high line giving him what he needed after being a bit thinner early on. In the end, Danner had his Hogue Racing Enterprises/E. Schneider & Sons – Keystone Cap/DRC/Rider Chevy dialed in.
“What a car this was to drive tonight,” Danner exclaimed. “It was making my job very easy, for sure. This was a helluva night and if we can keep them going this way, we’ll be okay.”
In a span of about a half lap on the third circuit of the feature, Danner picked off two off the top of turn four, eking around the outside of Jake Swanson for fourth, then nipping Mitchel Moles at the stripe in the blink of an eye later for third. Danner kept on pedaling near the outside wall, and blitzed his way by Justin Grant for second off the turn two top rope.
Cummins, meanwhile, had led from the outset. But soon, he reached the tail end of the field and Danner snipped the interval rather quickly, matching each and every one of Cummins’ maneuvers along the way on the high banks.
By lap 13, Danner was right on Cummins’ rear bumper. Changing course, however, when Danner saw daylight on the bottom of turn three under Cummins, he left the top and went on the attack down low. Danner dove to the bottom of the track, then slid up in front of Cummins as he rose up the turn four banking, clearing the way to take over up front with authority.
After Austin Nigh spun to a stop in between turns three and four on the 19th lap, Danner’s 2.320 second lead over Cummins was erased. Cummins, with a new lease on his feature life, took instant capitalization of his reprieve to make a bid for the lead on the lap 19 restart. As Cummins drifted ahead of Danner in turn one, Danner quickly flicked the steering wheel and charged back under Cummins to re-secure the one spot.
But just when Danner thought he was back in the clear, Trey Osborne spun on the infield berm in turns three and four, which collected Cannon McIntosh, grinding both to a halt. For McIntosh, the 2025 USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Champion, it was his first USAC National Sprint Car start in nearly five years. Earlier in the night, McIntosh captured a heat race win in his first run for KO Motorsports.
In turn, it set up another restart for Danner to go face-to-face with, and with Cummins hot on his trail.
“That was probably the longest 20 laps of my life, just waiting for the checker to fall,” Danner admitted. “I didn’t want to see those restarts come because I felt like I was in a rhythm and doing a good job on my part. To fend off Kyle on restarts is tough. He’ll be aggressive and he’s very calculating. He knows what he’s doing.”
This time, however, Cummins didn’t have a move on Danner in turn one. Danner was simply in another zip code as he muscled away once more, and “Danner” was all she wrote.
Danner defeated Cummins to the finish line by 1.382 seconds with Justin Grant rounding out the podium in third. Robert Ballou made a late rally on the bottom to finish fourth while C.J. Leary rounded out the top five.
Goff Wins First Modified Feature at Lawrenceburg!
Zanesville, Ohio’s Brad Goff wasn’t even planning on running at Lawrenceburg Saturday night. The track they originally were scheduled to race at, cancelled and so Goff and crew made the 4 hour drive to Lawrenceburg to run in the Diamond Heavy Haul UMP Modified series. It was a good thing he did. In only his second time racing at Lawrenceburg, Goff picked up his first feature win at the 3/8 mile dirt oval in support of the USAC Sprint Cars and the third running of the Justin Owen Memorial. Goff would take the green flag from the 4th position and for most of the race, he looked to be the third best modified in the show. Justin Clark from Hamersville, Ohio jumped to the lead on the opening lap. He battled with Matt Hamilton for the top spot for several laps. As the laps wound down, Goff had been keeping pace in third, he started to flex his muscle. He would grab the lead bringing Hamilton to second and hold on to win his first feature at Lawrenceburg. Hamilton finished second followed by Justin Clark, Nick Snell and Seth Chaney. Heat race winners were Justin Clark and Matt Hamilton. The Diamond Heavy Haul Modifieds return to the track on Saturday April 25th.
McCoy Back in Victory Lane in Hornet Feature!
Kevin McCoy always shows he is one of the fastest Lawrence Motorsports Trailer Sales Hornets when he races at Lawrenceburg. He has feature wins to his credit, but it had been some time since his last win. Showing up with a Hornet with different colored panels didn’t affect his speed as he battled with former track champion Landon Ramirez for the feature win. McCoy would start the feature from the third spot behind Ramirez. These two would quickly pull away from the rest of the field and battle amongst themselves to settle who would win the first Hornet feature of the year. McCoy had just a little more and was able to secure the top spot and hold on for the feature win. Ramirez finished second followed by Caleb Humphries, Lucas Walters and Alex West. Heat race winners were Caleb Humphries and Landon Ramirez. The Lawrence Motorsports Trailer Sales Hornets return to the track on Saturday April 18th.
Article Credit: Richie Murray and Chad Cunningham
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