KOKOMO, Ind. — Justin Grant won the opening feature of the annual Kokomo Smackdown for the third consecutive year Thursday night at Kokomo Speedway.
Grant led all 30 laps in his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – MVP Express – TOPP Industries/Maxim/Kistler Chevy to earn his series-best seventh USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship triumph of the year.
Furthermore, Grant’s victory at Kokomo was the 41st of his USAC National sprint car career.
Grant started on the pole for the main event alongside Kyle Cummins.
Things quickly came to a halt in turn on lap one as a stack up occurred in turn one, entangling Logan Seavey, Matt Westfall, Trey Osborne, Dave Darland and Colten Cottle, all of whom stopped.
Grant took the lead on the restart, with Cummins, Brady Bacon and C.J. Leary chasing.
Halfway through, Grant reached the tail end of the field while carrying a solid .766-second lead. At that point, Bacon was hovering over Cummins shoulder for second. Grant played offense in traffic as he took to the top of turn four to fly by Korbyn Hayslett, Matt Westfall and Rylan Gray in one fell swoop as he escaped the approaching duo of Cummins and Bacon to reconstruct his lead from a few car lengths to a half-straightaway with only 10 laps to go.
“I had to run a bunch of different lanes but (crew chief) Jeff Walker and I had this car so good,” Grant stated. “I could run above the cushion; I could run through the slick; I could run the bottom; I could run the top; I could just do anything. The only concern I had was how high the car was going to wheelie on the straightaways.”
With seven to go on lap 24, Bacon scooched on the bottom of turn three, dead even with Cummins before taking the second position. However, with just a handful of trips around the quarter-mile remaining, Bacon trailed Grant by two seconds.
Grant never relented down the stretch, lapping all but the first nine finishers at closing time as he crossed under the checkered flag 2.007 ahead of Bacon.
Robert Ballou, Carson Garrett and Jadon Rogers, who romped from 23rd to fifth, completed the top five.
Bacon padded his series point lead with a second-place finish.
“I thought we had a good car in open track,” Bacon said. “While I was racing Kyle, he got past a gaggle of lapped cars, and that kind of held us up after that. So, he got a little breathing room. We could move around on the top or the bottom and wherever we needed to go. It just wasn’t meant to be once again.”
Ballou endured a night in which he kicked off as the fast qualifier, then got caught up in a heat race accident only to recover by driving from the tail to transfer. Then, he was forced to change the engine just before the feature, and still was able finish on the podium in his Ballou Motorsports/Suburban Subaru – Berks Western Telecom/Triple X/Ott Chevy.
“We were in the back changing motors,” Ballou revealed. “We had a motor that dropped oil pressure pretty severely, but it was still running good. It was quick time and ran through that heat race, so it did what it needed to do. (Engine builder) Don Ott recommended we change it so we put another motor in. This is actually the Farney’s motor we used just to get us through. I was a knucklehead as we just had one delivered today but I didn’t bring it. So, we put this thing in and obviously it got us to where we needed to be. I wasn’t sure where to go on gear because we haven’t run that thing in so long and we missed it a little bit.”
The Boxscore
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Kokomo Speedway, Kokomo, Indiana, Aug. 24, 2023
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.900; 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.918; 3. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-12.942; 4. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-12.944; 5. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-12.960; 6. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-12.963; 7. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-12.969; 8. Max Adams, 5x, Adams-12.976; 9. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-12.987; 10. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-12.996; 11. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.013; 12. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-13.031; 13. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-13.036; 14. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-13.038; 15. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-13.071; 16. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-13.102; 17. Kayla Roell, 5K, KO-13.102; 18. Korbyn Hayslett, 1H, Hayslett-13.145; 19. Ricky Lewis, 41, Brown-13.163; 20. Colten Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.178; 21. Joey Amantea, 88J, Amantea-13.179; 22. Shane Cottle, 2E, Epperson-13.179; 23. Rylan Gray, 81G, Gray-13.185; 24. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.198; 25. Cole Bodine, 57B, Bodine-13.218; 26. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.272; 27. Nate Schank, 1, Schank-13.282; 28. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-13.301; 29. Geoff Ensign, 17, On The Gass-13.316; 30. Jadon Rogers, 17GP, Dutcher-13.326; 31. Sterling Cling, 34, SCR-13.348; 32. Dave Darland, 36D, Darland/Curb-Agajanian-13.362; 33. Wyatt Burks, 11w, WBR-13.407; 34. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-13.456; 35. Riley Kreisel, 2, Yeley-13.478; 36. Stevie Sussex, 77s, Sturgeon-13.531; 37. Larry Kingseed Jr., 21, Kingseed-13.593; 38. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-13.620; 39. Brayden Clark, 42G, Jackson/Clark-13.705; 40. Dustin Ingle, 2DI, Ingle-13.722; 41. Devan Myers, 75, Myers-13.785; 42. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-13.987; 43. Jack James, 99, James-13.995; 44. Bryar Schroeter, 21s, Schroeter-14.509; 45. Jack Hoyer, 5, Baldwin/Fox-18.748; 46. Kevin Thomas Jr., 42, Cheney-NT (Time of 12.909 disallowed after his car weighed light at the scales).
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Shane Cottle, 2. Daison Pursley, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Kayla Roell, 6. Wyatt Burks, 7. Geoff Ensign, 8. Devan Myers, 9. Jack Hoyer, 10. Cole Bodine, 11. Larry Kingseed Jr., 12. Emerson Axsom.
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Joey Amantea, 2. Korbyn Hayslett, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Jake Swanson, 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 8. Brandon Mattox, 9. Jadon Rogers, 10. Kobe Simpson, 11. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 12. Troy Carey.
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Rylan Gray, 2. Trey Osborne, 3. Ricky Lewis, 4. Kyle Cummins, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Sterling Cling, 8. Nate Schank, 9. Brayden Clark, 10. Jack James, 11. Riley Kreisel.
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Carson Garrett, 2. Colten Cottle, 3. Max Adams, 4. Dave Darland, 5. Chance Crum, 6. Zack Pretorius, 7. Dustin Ingle, 8. Bryar Schroeter, 9. Stevie Sussex, 10. Mitchel Moles, 11. Chase Stockon.
THE FROLIC BAR & GRILL C MAIN: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the semi) 1. Jadon Rogers, 2. Sterling Cling, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Wyatt Burks, 5. Riley Kreisel, 6. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 7. Stevie Sussex, 8. Kobe Simpson, 9. Devan Myers, 10. Troy Carey, 11. Jack Hoyer, 12. Dustin Ingle, 13. Brayden Clark, 14. Jack James, 15. Bryar Schroeter, 16. Larry Kingseed Jr.
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Briggs Danner, 5. Matt Westfall, 6. Cole Bodine, 7. Jadon Rogers, 8. Brandon Mattox, 9. Kayla Roell, 10. Sterling Cling, 11. Kevin Thomas Jr., 12. Nate Schank, 13. Chance Crum, 14. Emerson Axsom, 15. Geoff Ensign, 16. Wyatt Burks, 17. Zack Pretorius, 18. Mitchel Moles.
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (2), 2. Brady Bacon (4), 3. Robert Ballou (5), 4. Carson Garrett (6), 5. Jadon Rogers (23-P), 6. C.J. Leary (3), 7. Shane Cottle (8), 8. Briggs Danner (16), 9. Joey Amantea (9), 10. Kyle Cummins (1), 11. Emerson Axsom (24-P), 12. Chase Stockon (12), 13. Logan Seavey (11), 14. Jake Swanson (14) 15. Ricky Lewis (18), 16. Max Adams (7), 17. Cole Bodine (20), 18. Matt Westfall (13), 19. Rylan Gray (10), 20. Korbyn Hayslett (22), 21. Dave Darland (21), 22. Daison Pursley (15), 23. Trey Osborne (17), 24. Colten Cottle (19).
