KOKOMO, Ind. — All it took was for a little bit of lapped traffic to change everything at Kokomo Speedway and Briggs Danner took full advantage to secure his first win at Indiana’s Baddest Bullring.
As Robert Ballou approached Kale Drake‘s No. 2B machine to put the Oklahoma native a lap down, Danner went high as Ballou went to the low side in Turns 1 and 2 on the final lap. After getting around Drake, the California native remained low as Danner went to the high side in Turns 3 and 4.
The No. 39 machine held on around the top side to bring Danner his first win in the 2025 edition of Indiana Sprint Week.
“It was tough, that last yellow I didn’t want to see come out because I got around Chase (Stockton) so quick to get into second and I was racing with Robert, actually and we were side-by-side when the yellow came out,” Danner said. “I got the momentum on [Stockton] coming out of (Turn) 2 and got by him, we raced a little bit and I just kept making mistakes trying to push so hard. I knew I didn’t have many laps left and to try to get by Robert.
“Getting to him is one thing, I felt a little bit better than he was, but I don’t know if I could’ve got him if it wasn’t for lapped traffic holding him up. They definitely took his line and I just went and pushed hard all night long but I pushed hard that last lap for sure and if Kale had moved up and gotten out of the way of Robert or something we probably would’ve been out of the fence because I don’t know if I was lifting.”
Ballou started third and grabbed the lead from polesitter Stockton on Lap 10. The Sprint Week winner at Lincoln Park Speedway was able to pull away on restarts after two yellow flag periods but catching Drake with just over a lap to go proved to be his undoing.
Stockton finished third ahead of Mitchel Moles in fourth, with Kyle Cummins completing the top five.
One driver notably absent from the feature was Justin Grant. The IMS dirt track winner broke his left foot in a crash at Lawrenceburg on Sunday. His car was fitted with a special brake system to let the California native compete, but after not feeling comfortable with the system in hot laps and qualifying, Grant withdrew from his heat race and accepted starting points for the main event.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.