It‘s likely that Grant will play the last few laps of this race in his mind for a time. He wanted to win this event badly and, in his words, “put a stamp on the championship.”
“We got to him with about 10 laps to go and I was thinking we were going to make a run at him there,” said Grant. “As narrow as the track was, I would have needed lapped traffic to play into it. It did, but such is life.
“I wasn‘t mad at him (Gossel). That‘s part of the game, and I just didn‘t play the game right. I was just disappointed because I thought we had something for Kyle there. I would have really liked to beat him.”
His mechanic also feels confident his man had a chance to put this in the win column.
“I really believe if he would have made a little different decision we would have seen a better race,” LaCava noted. “But which way could it have gone? They both could have been taken out. I watched the last 10 laps and it actually looked like we had a better car than Kyle. So we were going to be able to race him. Kyle is awfully good, but so is Justin.”
In spite of landing on top of USAC‘s elite series, Grant and LaCava were both subdued during the celebration.
When things began winding down in victory lane, Grant looked at his mechanic and asked, “Dennis, are you happy we won the championship or mad that we lost the race?
He replied, ‘Yes I‘m happy. Don‘t I seem happy?‘ I said, ‘Sometimes it is hard to tell.‘”
The same could be said for Grant.
Later, Grant admitted that people remarked that they thought he would be more excited at the end of the day, to which he can only add, “Well, I sort of thought I would be too. I enjoyed the accomplishment, but I had as much fun Saturday setting the car down and doing setup stuff with Dennis as I did post-race on Sunday. I‘m happier now about the championship than I was in Springfield.
“It does feel good, but I didn‘t wake up Monday with a different life.”
It may be that he actually awoke with a different life several years ago. That new life allowed him to take stock of himself and deem what is most important. It led to an appreciation of the process as much as the outcome.
Grant‘s journey to the top really was a remarkable one and the obstacles he surmounted were substantial.
In his quiet moments, he realizes that it makes what he has accomplished all the sweeter.
No, his racing goals have never really changed, but they may have been rearranged. He wants to race. Of that, he is certain. He also realizes that he won‘t be able to race forever, and for that reason he has vowed to do everything he can to enjoy the ride for as long as it may last.
Sometimes, to get where we want to go first requires letting go.
Justin Grant didn‘t worry about becoming a USAC champion; he just went about his business the best way he knew how.
He let the chips fall as they may, and that course of action ultimately paid off.