GAS CITY, Ind. – Justin Grant refused to be denied during the non-winged sprint car feature that accompanied Wednesday’s Indiana Midget Week round at Gas City I-69 Speedway.
Working the bottom groove of the quarter-mile oval until it paid off, Grant persisted through a side-by-side battle with Kevin Thomas Jr. that lasted more than two full laps before he finally seized command on the ninth rotation.
From there, Grant pulled away in the No. 4 NOS Energy Drink-backed, TOPP Motorsports-prepared sprinter to collect his first win of the six-night Indiana Midget Week stretch in dominant fashion.
Grant ultimately won by 3.062 seconds over runner-up Brady Bacon in a 25-lap feature that was slowed by caution only once and completed in a very-quick 10 minutes and 13 seconds.
“We’re obviously disappointed with the midget (result) tonight; we’re better than that, but you’ll have those nights,” noted Grant in victory lane. “We just didn’t get off to a good start and got ourselves buried, but this NOS Energy Drink/TOPP Motorsports sprint car was fast like it usually is, and we were able to put it in victory lane.
“We had her tight. I didn’t have to race anyone too much, but just racing myself on the curb, it was pretty evil,” Grant added. “It was a lot of fun, though. Things were pretty slick and kind of low speed, but at least we were banging the curb, bicycling and doing some wheelies every now and then.”
Thomas faded to third in the late stages, and he was trailed by C.J. Leary and ageless veteran Dave Darland.
Matt Westfall, Clinton Boyles, Brandon Mattox, Scotty Weir and Charles Davis Jr. filled out the top 10.
The only incident in the sprint car main was on lap 11, when Sterling Cling spun high in turn four.
The finish:
1. Justin Grant (3), 2. Brady Bacon (7), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (2), 4. C.J. Leary (1), 5. Dave Darland (5), 6. Matt Westfall (6), 7. Clinton Boyles (15), 8. Brandon Mattox (17), 9. Scotty Weir (4), 10. Charles Davis Jr. (8), 11. Max Adams (18), 12. Cole Ketcham (11), 13. Aaron Farney (19), 14. Lee Underwood (21), 15. Anthony D’Alessio (16), 16. Brian VanMeveren (20), 17. Kyle Robbins (12), 18. Tyler Kendall (13), 19. Dustin Smith (9), 20. Thomas Meseraull (10), 21. Sterling Cling (14).