HAUBSTADT, Ind. — It took Justin Grant seven years to go from his first USAC Indiana Midget Week win to his second. It took just another two nights to earn his third.
The Ione, California, native brought his broom to Saturday night’s penultimate round of IMW by setting quick time in qualifying before winning his heat race, then concluded the evening by reigning triumphantly in the 30-lap feature.
Grant is the first driver to sweep an entire night of events during a USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship event since Ryan Timms at Wisconsin’s Angell Park Speedway in 2023.
Racing his way from sixth to first in the span of the first six laps of the feature, Grant overtook both Logan Seavey and Jakeb Boxell in one fell swoop, then led the remaining 25 laps to become the first multi-time winner of this year’s Indiana Midget Week, and the first three-time USAC National Midget winner on the year at the wheel of his CB Industries/NOS Energy Drink/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
“This car that (car owner) Chad (Boat) and all the guys at CB Industries gave me is an awesome race car,” Grant celebrated. “It’s been really good all week. We’ve had just a couple of things go on but to get to victory lane twice during the week is awesome.”
Furthermore, the occasion marked the 99th career USAC national main event victory for Grant, combined across National Midget, National Sprint Car and Silver Crown competition. He’s now just one win shy of the century mark, which would join him with A.J. Foyt (159), Rich Vogler (134), Mel Kenyon (111) and Dave Darland (106) in the 100 USAC national wins club.
“I just keep trying to tick them off,” Grant said. “I can’t believe I have one national USAC win, let alone 99. Coming up on 100 just feels incredible, and it’s all thanks to the great teams like CB Industries, like TOPP Motorsports, like Hemelgarn and all my great sponsors like NOS Energy Drink across the board. I can’t thank everybody enough who makes it possible for me to come do this. It’s a lot of hard work; it’s hot and these guys bust their tails for me, and I really appreciate all their work, all our partners’ work, and the fact that I get to come out here and do this and stand on the front stretch. I just I love driving racecars and I love winning races and I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else.”
Grant’s second career Tri-State USAC National Midget win also provided Boat with his 50th victory as a USAC National Midget car entrant.
“It feels really good to get Chad a win here,” Grant beamed. “They’ve always been really, really good here but struggled to pull one off in the feature. So, I feel like I’ve become a bit of a Haubstadt guy, and he’s got really good race cars here. This is definitely one that I know I had circled on the calendar, and I think he did as well. It’s one that we thought we should just go ahead and win.”
Boxell established the early lead from his outside front row starting position, but soon, he had plenty of company. Logan Seavey advanced to the second position as he went under Cannon McIntosh on the fourth lap. Grant followed suit a lap later to slot into third.
But the move that dictated the fate of the race came on lap six when Grant went two-for-one, passing both Seavey and Boxell with one move on the bottom of turns one and two. From there, everybody was chasing Grant for the balance of the feature as he built his lead to more than a straightaway over the course of the next several laps.
However, with eight laps remaining on the 23rd lap, leading USAC National Midget Rookie of the Year contender Colton Robinson spun to a stop in between turns three and four to bring out the yellow flag and promptly erase Grant’s 4.393-second lead.
Even with the field bunched up, nobody could match Grant, although Seavey kept him in check, as he commandeered the final stretch, crossing the finish line 0.621 seconds ahead of Seavey in the runner-up spot with Boxell third, Drake Edwards fourth and Kevin Thomas Jr. rounding out the top five.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Tri-State Speedway, Haubstadt, Indiana, June 13, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-14.097, 2. Karter Sarff, 71m, May-14.126, 3. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.257, 4. Drake Edwards, 40D, McDermand-14.310, 5. Jakeb Boxell, 54, 4 Kings-14.330, 6. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.336, 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-14.390, 8. Kyle Jones, 7TX, Engler-14.420, 9. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.437, 10. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-14.490, 11. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.566, 12. Kale Drake, 4, RMS-14.579, 13. Zach Wigal, 1, O’Dell-14.604, 14. Brandon Carr, 98K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.610, 15. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.624, 16. Trevor Cline, 55, Cline-14.635, 17. Adam Taylor, 7T, ATM-14.681, 18. Colton Robinson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.692, 19. Bradley Cox, 45, Mason-14.808, 20. Matt Sherrell, 2D, Harris-14.862, 21. Drew Sherman, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.898, 22. Alex Midkiff, 05, Midkiff-14.941, 23. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-15.088, 24. Brecken Reese, 20Q, Reese-15.094, 25. Jeff Schindler, 8x, Schindler-15.377, 26. Mack Leopard, 40L, McDermand-NT, 27. Eric Webber, 48, Webber-NT.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top 6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (6), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 3. Trevor Cline (1), 4. Gunnar Setser (3), 5. Zach Wigal (2), 6. Drake Edwards (5), 7. Bradley Cox (7), 8. Alex Midkiff (8), 9. Jeff Schindler (9). 2:23.034
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top 6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brandon Carr (2), 2. Kyle Jones (4), 3. Karter Sarff (6), 4. Mack Leopard (9), 5. Jakeb Boxell (5), 6. Adam Taylor (1), 7. Hayden Reinbold (3), 8. Ethan Mitchell (8), 9. Matt Sherrell (7). 2:23.130
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top 6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kale Drake (3), 2. Gavin Miller (2), 3. Jacob Denney (4), 4. Logan Seavey (6), 5. Colton Robinson (1), 6. Cannon McIntosh (5), 7. Brecken Reese (8), 8. Drew Sherman (7), 9. Eric Webber (9). 2:24.661
FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (10 laps, top 6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Bradley Cox (2), 2. Hayden Reinbold (1), 3. Brecken Reese (3), 4. Matt Sherrell (7), 5. Drew Sherman (4), 6. Alex Midkiff (5), 7. Ethan Mitchell (6), 8. Jeff Schindler (8), 9. Eric Webber (9). 2:29.159
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (6), 2. Logan Seavey (4), 3. Jakeb Boxell (2), 4. Drake Edwards (3), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (9), 6. Cannon McIntosh (1), 7. Karter Sarff (5), 8. Gavin Miller (14), 9. Kale Drake (7), 10. Gunnar Setser (12), 11. Jacob Denney (11), 12. Zach Wigal (13), 13. Mack Leopard (17), 14. Kyle Jones (10), 15. Colton Robinson (16), 16. Bradley Cox (18), 17. Brandon Carr (8), 18. Brecken Reese (20), 19. Ethan Mitchell (25-P), 20. Hayden Reinbold (19), 21. Drew Sherman (22), 22. Adam Taylor (15), 23. Trevor Cline (24), 24. Matt Sherrell (21), 25. Alex Midkiff (23).
