Grant doesn’t have the track championship or championships or the large collection of feature wins to signify his accomplishments. But he and his dad hope a strong showing at the Slinger Nationals is one way to build the recognition they long for.
They believe they’ve shown consistency in the top five. But they’d like the consistency to be top three.
“I think we’ve kind of been, I hate to put this on myself, we’ve been treading water the past couple years,” Grant said. “We’re get a little bit more consistent, a little bit better, but we’re still trying to find things to take that next step, contending for wins every week, contending for a points championship at the end of the day.”
On more than one occasion, Grant has applied to be in the Kulwicki Driver Development Program. He hasn’t made the final cut yet. But he and his dad hope they’re close to breaking through. If they do, Jeremy believes that’ll be a big turning point in his son’s budding racing career.
One accomplishment Grant does have is that he broke Kenseth’s record as the youngest super late model feature winner, when he won a race two years ago at age 15.
“I kind of somewhat proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish out here,” Grant said. “But there’s always room to grow and always room to get better out here. I feel like I’ve had a lot of great people work with me in the past eight years I’ve been running out here.”
He started in racing at an early age.
Before 4-cylinders at Slinger, Grant was racing go-karts and legends at Daytona, Indianapolis, as well as in Kentucky and in St. Louis.
“He’s done this forever,” Jeremy said. “Nothing is too big for him.”
From the get-go, Jeremy noticed Grant had a calm demeanor to him. That was helpful in plenty of ways. One way in particular was keeping his dad cool on the radio.
“The first couple years when I was spotting for him when he was racing a limited at age 12, under the cautions, he was settling me down,” Jeremy said. “He doesn’t get rattled.”
There are plenty of aspirations or goals they’re striving to achieve. But when it comes down to it, the simple goal is this:
“We just want to win,” Jeremy said. “We just want to get to a point we’re like a Casey Johnson or a Dennis Prunty, Ty Majeski, kind of like the (World of) Outlaws on dirt, they see our trailer and they’re like, ‘He’ll be top five. Is he going to win tonight?’”
Jeremy believes he and Grant are about 85-90 percent of the way there.
“But the last 10 percent is probably the hardest,” Jeremy said, adding the car setup learning curve is what he believes will put Grant onto the next level as far as competitiveness and consistency.