When the time came to assemble for Toledo, the day began with miserable weather and proceeded to get worse. Now the title would be decided on a chilly Sunday afternoon in mid-October.
By that point, Grant and LaCava realized that a top-10 run would likely seal the deal, but that wasn‘t the program they were on.
“We went there to win the race,” LaCava said. “And we figured if we did that, the championship would take care of itself. There are a lot of people who would disagree with that. Ron (Hemelgarn) would disagree with it, but that was our plan.”
There was a whole lot more to the story. Grant shared that they had not been happy with the performance with their car on the one-mile dirt tracks and both men had ideas on how to make it better. What followed was perhaps more than they had bargained for.
“Dennis and I got to talking,” Grant said, “and one hour into the conversation we were talking about a whole new race car. So, I said ‘What do you think?‘ Dennis said, ‘If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance.‘ I liked it. I said let‘s do it.”
Unloading their totally-redesigned race car, the team knew that the hot lap session would be critical. Because of impending weather, the entire day had been condensed by USAC, leaving little room for error.
Asked if he was nervous, Grant was matter of fact.
“No, not really,” he said. “I have been in that situation before and lost the last race. I survived. The world didn‘t end. I just try to go and do my job and see how it all shakes out.”
It just took a few laps and both driver and mechanic knew that they had turned the right dials. As Dennis LaCava peered down at turn one and consulted his trusty stopwatch, overall he had a good feeling.
“I thought some of what we did might have been too much,” he noted. “I thought the car was pretty stuck, and I wondered if it was really too stuck. But time and the track took care of that. I was really excited and I was excited about what we were trying.
“As a mechanic and the guy people will point to if it doesn‘t work, you worry because you just don‘t know.”
Rehashing the day, Grant said, “Qualifying at Springfield, with the butterflies vertical for two miles, is the coolest thing in the world.”
It was also a time of deep satisfaction for LaCava, as his driver captured the pole position and inched closer to the title. Grant started on the front row alongside Kyle Larson.
Like everyone in racing, Grant was more than aware of the magical run Larson was on, but he was in no way intimidated. Grant led the first 10 circuits and then watched Larson power by. He wasn‘t concerned. In a series where fuel consumption and tire conservation issues are critical, Grant was content to keep Larson in sight.
As the race progressed, newly-crowned USAC sprint car champion Brady Bacon made run after run in an attempt to take the second spot away from Grant. Some felt the prudent course of action was simply to let Bacon past, but Grant had nothing to do with that.
“I wanted to win the race,” he said. “And I felt I needed to stay riding in second and, as narrow as the track was, I felt I needed to run as low of a pace as I could and still keep Bacon behind me.
“I knew at that stage of the race it was going to be pretty tough to get around somebody. I tried to let Kyle do his thing and I just hoped that when the track got wider we would
be in a little bit better position tire-wise than he was.”
While many were watching David Gravel making a strong charge from the rear of the field, suddenly with five laps to go Grant was there.
As Larson and the leaders were making their way through traffic, he came upon rookie Bryan Gossel and dove to the bottom. Grant tried desperately to follow suit.
For a moment it looked like disaster was at hand.
“My right front got his left rear,” Grant recalled, “and tried to climb his left tire. As I kept hitting him and moving him up, I kept climbing and moving up with him. It was like, OK, we need to stop this. I was pretty comfortable. I didn‘t think we were in terrible danger.”
The mishap cost Grant any chance of victory and, in the melee, Gravel was able to move into the runner-up spot. For Grant, it was another podium finish.
At that point, a podium finish brought him a hard-won title. To no one‘s surprise, Kody Swanson was among the first to congratulate him.
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