LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — One year ago during the USAC Indiana Sprint Week round at Lawrenceburg Speedway, Justin Grant left the track in an ambulance following a gnarly series of flips that resulted in a broken left foot.
On Sunday night, Grant left the three-eighths-mile dirt oval as a winner after tracking down racelong leader Kyle Cummins, then slid past him in turn one with two laps remaining to become the first repeat winner of 2026 USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by K & N Filters.
For the most part, Lawrenceburg has been kind to Grant throughout his career. In fact, his eighth career USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship victory on Sunday made him the winningest driver in the series’ history with the track, surpassing Dave Darland.
Yet, for those last several laps, Grant took it up even another notch in pursuit of victory at a place where he has thousands of laps around and so much success, which really says something.
“That was as hard as I’ve run around this place, I think, ever,” Grant revealed. “Especially slick to a big curb like that. Kyle and I were both pretty bailed out there trying to win the race.”
Despite how it all unfolded last year, the pain, the rehab, and everything else that went along with it, Grant’s love for Lawrenceburg never wavered.
“Lawrenceburg Speedway has always been my friend. We just had a little spat here last year,” Grant stated. “I’ve always loved this place. I’ve loved racing here since I was driving the 40 car for Mark Hery and the 5 car for Ken Baldwin back in the day. I love Lawrenceburg. I even loved it the night I left in an ambulance. This place is awesome and it’s a throttle smashers’ delight around here.”
It seemed fitting for Grant that his very first USAC national win came during Indiana Sprint Week at Lawrenceburg, and so did his 101st. In an ironic twist of fate, in both cases, he led just the final two laps, then punctuated it by saluting the crowd with a “hat shake” by unstrapping his helmet and holding it above his head during his cool down lap.
“It was super special to win my first one here,” Grant reminisced on his first USAC win at The Burg 14 years ago. “Against all odds, I’ve won a 100 more, and to come back and win another one here at Lawrenceburg Speedway, it’s super special. I couldn’t do it with a better group of people, people who have been with me for a long time. I just really appreciate each and every one of them.”
Grant’s latest winning performance marked his 13th career Indiana Sprint Week victory, moving him into sole possession of third place all-time behind only Dave Darland (20) and Jon Stanbrough (16). Overall, it was his record extending 69th career USAC National Sprint Car triumph.
The non-stop green-to-checkered feature took just 7:39.455 to complete and earned Grant a $10,000 reward for his efforts aboard his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – TOPP Industries – LA Poly/Maxim/Stanton Chevy No. 4.
Starting third on the grid, Grant initially fell to fourth behind Cummins, Mitchel Moles, and C.J. Leary for the first three circuits of the 30-lap feature. By lap four, Grant had surpassed Leary through the middle of turns one and two. On the ninth lap, Grant had raced by Moles for second, then went to work on chasing down Cummins.
From that point onward, Cummins found himself in the midst of traffic. Just prior to the midway point, Grant had erased Cummins’ 1.5 second advantage and now sat just a handful of car lengths off his back bumper.
Standing five links back, Grant went for the slider entering turn three on the 18th lap, pulling himself even alongside Cummins, but was unable to stick the pass. That put Cummins on high alert, but at the same time, also spent one piece of valuable ammunition in Grant’s arsenal.
“Kyle and 3p made me work awfully hard for that one,” Grant explained. “I slid him, but I didn’t want him to know I was there because I knew he had more in the tank. I thought I had enough to slide him and didn’t get him cleared. Then, I’m like, ‘oh boy, you just made your life a lot harder now.’ So, I had to sit up in the seat.”
For the next 11 trips around The Burg, Grant shadowed Cummins lap after lap after lap. On lap 29 of 30, Grant aimed toward the bottom of turn one and fired off an all of nothing slider. It stuck. Once Cummins checked up, Grant was able to escape with only the white flag and the checkered flag left in sight.
“I was pretty much all or nothing from the time the green flag dropped,” Grant said. “I was hammering and really trying not to let him get away from me in lap traffic. He did a really, really good job and I caught a few breaks with lapped cars kind of peeling off after he went by them and I was able to close back to him. So, anything I caught wrong, I got given back to me when guys would peel down off the bottom. Then, I made a couple big moves across the middle. Fortunately, Jeff Walker and I have been working really hard on it, but it finally stuck across the middle and I could throw bombs from like from like the next town over.”
Grant took control from there, leading the final two laps and crossing the start/finish line 0.615 seconds ahead of Kyle Cummins with Jake Swanson third, Mitchel Moles fourth and Brady Bacon fifth.
After enduring a USAC National Sprint Car winless drought of 19 races without a series victory that spanned 2.5 months, Grant has now won two of the last four. Now, he feels like he’s right back on track.
“We’ve won a few races and we’ve been running okay, but tonight’s the first time I got out of the race car and thought, ‘oh, that’s our race car. We’ve got it back.’ I’m really, really happy for that,” Grant said.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Lawrenceburg Speedway, Lawrenceburg, Indiana, July 26, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-13.839; 2. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-13.850; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.864; 4. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.917; 5. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-13.963; 6. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-13.982; 7. C.J. Leary, 53, Fox-14.050; 8. Todd Hobson, 44, Soudrette-14.078; 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 15, BBI-14.097; 10. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-14.151; 11. Gunnar Setser, G5, Setser-14.169; 12. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.188; 13. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.193; 14. Gavin Miller, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-14.210; 15. Austin Nigh, 97, Ninety Seven-14.230; 16. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.237; 17. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-14.240; 18. Dalton Stevens, 2B, 2B Racing-14.243; 19. Shawn Westerfeld, 4J, Fischesser/Owen-14.265; 20. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-14.344; 21. Wyatt Burks, 11w, Burks-14.346; 22. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.361; 23. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-14.362; 24. Garrett Abrams, 32, Abrams-14.368; 25. Jack Hoyer, 11, Hoyer-14.382; 26. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-14.388; 27. Todd Moule, AU26, Moule-14.430; 28. Ryan Barr, 21B, Barr-14.466; 29. Dustin Webber, 9, Webber-14.500; 30. Jesse Vermillion, 5v, Vermillion-14.546; 31. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-14.555; 32. Hunter Schuerenberg, 3R, Rock Steady-14.566; 33. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-14.581; 34. Kole Kirkman, 18K, Dice-14.774; 35. Colin Parker, 16K, Knight-14.892; 36. James Turnbull II, 5, Baldwin/Fox-14.905; 37. Kyle Johnson, 99J, Johnson-14.921; 38. Dakota Earls, 15E, Earls-14.989; 39. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-15.072; 40. Travis Oldfield, 38, Oldfield-15.398; 41. Blake Vermillion, 73, Vermillion-15.726; 42. Brennon Marshall, 43, Miller-NT; 43. Nate Carle, 14c, Carle-NT; 44. R.J. Miller, 34m, Miller-NT.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Robert Ballou (2), 2. Gunnar Setser (4), 3. Briggs Danner (6), 4. Logan Seavey (3), 5. Jake Swanson (5), 6. Todd Moule (1), 7. Hunter Schuerenberg (7), 8. Kyle Johnson (8). 1:57.071
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cale Coons (2), 2. Hayden Reinbold (4), 3. Brady Bacon (6), 4. C.J. Leary (5), 5. Ryan Barr (1), 6. Ricky Lewis (3), 7. Dakota Earls (8), 8. Trey Osborne (7). 1:58.459
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mitchel Moles (6), 2. Garrett Abrams (2), 3. Dustin Webber (1), 4. Todd Hobson (5), 5. Chase Stockon (4), 6. Dalton Stevens (3), 7. Kole Kirkman (7), 8. Troy Carey (8). 1:59.176
INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (6), 2. Jack Hoyer (2), 3. Gavin Miller (4), 4. Shawn Westerfeld (3), 5. Jesse Vermillion (1), 6. Colin Parker (7), 7. Travis Oldfield (8), 8. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5). 1:58.371
K1 RACEGEAR FIFTH HEAT: (8 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jadon Rogers (5), 2. Kyle Cummins (6), 3. Kobe Simpson (1), 4. Zack Pretorius (2), 5. Austin Nigh (4), 6. Brandon Mattox (3), 7. James Turnbull II (7), 8. Blake Vermillion (8). 2:00.568
FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jake Swanson (1), 2. Chase Stockon (3), 3. Austin Nigh (4), 4. Hunter Schuerenberg (12), 5. Jesse Vermillion (6), 6. Ryan Barr (5), 7. Todd Moule (10), 8. Dalton Stevens (8), 9. Brandon Mattox (9), 10. James Turnbull II (14), 11. Colin Parker (11), 12. Kole Kirkman (13), 13. Dakota Earls (15), 14. Travis Oldfield (16), 15. Troy Carey (18), 16. Kyle Johnson (17), 17. Blake Vermillion (19), 18. Ricky Lewis (7), 19. Kevin Thomas Jr. (2). 2:58.619
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (3), 2. Kyle Cummins (2), 3. Jake Swanson (10), 4. Mitchel Moles (4), 5. Brady Bacon (5), 6. Briggs Danner (6), 7. Robert Ballou (8), 8. C.J. Leary (1), 9. Jadon Rogers (7), 10. Gunnar Setser (12), 11. Gavin Miller (14), 12. Hayden Reinbold (13), 13. Shawn Westerfeld (17), 14. Chase Stockon (18), 15. Logan Seavey (16), 16. Hunter Schuerenberg (24), 17. Garrett Abrams (19), 18. Kobe Simpson (23), 19. Zack Pretorius (21), 20. Todd Hobson (11), 21. Dustin Webber (22), 22. Jack Hoyer (20), 23. Austin Nigh (15), 24. Cale Coons (9), 25. Ricky Lewis (25-P). NT
