ROSSBURG, Ohio — The jubilation following a hard-fought victory is one of the most satisfying experiences in all of sport.
However, the celebration displayed by Justin Grant in the immediate moments after his USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship score on Saturday night at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway was certainly one that won’t soon be forgotten.
It seems oddly fitting that it came directly after an unforgettable 30-lap feature in which Grant threw everything – the kitchen sink and a bag of chips – at leader Logan Seavey down the stretch of the #LetsRaceTwo finale before prevailing with a turn one slider just three laps from the finish line.
After crossing the finish line 1.397 seconds ahead of Seavey to pocket the $10,000 prize, Grant proceeded with a cool down lap on the half-mile dirt oval, then a subsequent victory lap which seemed positively routine…until it wasn’t. Appearing to be winding up his car for a series of donuts, Grant stood on the gas and slapped his right rear tire against the turn three outside wall, sending him for a ride consisting of 2.5 tumbles.
Ironically, it was in this very same event one year ago in which Grant flipped in the identically same spot while battling for the lead. That one cost him a chance at victory. This one only cost him the chance to pull into victory lane under his own power aboard the TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – Bow Foundation – TOPP Industries/Maxim/Kistler Chevy.
“I was awfully, awfully excited at the end of that one, obviously,” Grant acknowledged after being towed to victory lane. “What an idiot. I feel like a moron. I just got too excited, jumped the wall and turned that thing over. I feel like an idiot. Hopefully (my crew) won’t be too mad at me. (Car owner) Kevin Birchmeier has put up with a lot of BS out of me over the years so, hopefully, we’ll weather that one. But I know he’s excited we won.”
Grant needn’t beat himself up too much. Grant’s victory was already his fourth of the USAC National Sprint Car season in just nine starts. He’s the first driver to accomplish that feat since Damion Gardner in 2010. Furthermore, the victory was a nice sigh of a relief after his past three series starts netted finishes of 20th, 22nd and 22nd.
Likewise, his 49th career USAC National Sprint Car victory placed him just one tally shy of becoming the fourth driver to reach the 50-win mark, and he achieved this one in round two of the Bubby Jones Master of Going Faster series presented by Spire Sports + Entertainment, the 10-race slate named in honor of his late father-in-law.
“It was really, really, really a fun race,” Grant stated. “Logan’s a really good racecar driver and he’s gotten rolling around this place really good. I feel like we were ‘gloves off,’ giving each other everything we had with every trick we could come up with. I was running around this place harder than I’d ever run around it just trying to keep pace, let alone race him.”
Starting fifth, Grant got up on the horse and instantly went to work, swiping fourth on the opening lap and third on the second circuit. Meanwhile, pole starter Kevin Thomas Jr. dashed away to lead the opening six laps. Fourth starting Seavey was hustling too, and on lap seven, he ably slid Thomas for the lead in turn one. Grant followed suit a lap later in the same spot to grab second.
Seavey built up a 1.5 second lead nearing midway, but lapped traffic stifled his groove a bit, chopping his advantage nearly in half to eighth tenths. A yellow flag for a loose wheel cover lying in the middle of turn four completely erased Seavey’s interval, allowing Grant to be right on the back of his rear bumper for the lap 18 restart. Grant went on the attack, sliding Seavey for the top spot in turn three on the restart, but Seavey was able to counterpunch and drive back underneath Grant to retain the lead for the time being.
Grant wound his car up on the high side and got a run off turn four to pull even to the inside of Seavey at the start/finish line with 10 laps to go. As Seavey attempted to slide himself into turn one in order to prevent Grant’s own slider in turn one, the two drivers brushed wheels. On the very next go around, they did the very same thing, touching tires as Seavey dug in to keep Grant at bay.
A yellow flag for the slowing car of 21st running Paul Dues on the back straightaway gave everyone a chance to catch their breath with five laps remaining. But that was only a momentary cease from the madness as Grant fired a big shot in turn three on the lap 26 restart. As Grant slid up to surpass Seavey, it was a meeting of chrome as Grant’s rear bumper and Seavey’s front bumper locked horns, sending Grant bouncing his right rear tire off the wall. Simultaneously, Seavey turned down and was able to stave off Grant by three-quarters of a car length at the stripe.
Never straying more than an arm’s length from Seavey, Grant’s deciding move came with three to go as his turn one slide job stuck and Seavey’s response back underneath only drew even with Grant on exit. Up top, Grant had the downhill momentum on his side and promptly drove away from Seavey from there on out. Brady Bacon wound up third with Kevin Thomas Jr. fourth and Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier C.J. Leary rounding out the top-five.
One night after seeing his series record streak of seven top-three finishes to start a season conclude with a flat tire and an 11th place result, Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) returned to form on Saturday night in his Abacus Racing/CG CPAs – Indy Custom Stone – Forecheck Marketing/DRC/Stanton Chevy. Seavey scored his best career #LetsRaceTwo finish of second after leading a race high 21 laps and keeping himself up at the top of the standings in both the USAC National Sprint Car points as well as the Bubby Jones Master of Going Faster championship.
“What a freaking race,” Seavey exclaimed. “This place is so cool. This is one of my favorite racetracks in the world to come to and that’s what it’s about. Last night was not fun for me, but to come here and run the curb right up against the wall like that is as cool as it gets. It showed there that Justin is going to run hard and do whatever he can do to win, and I made the wrong decision there to cross him over. I thought I could drive around it. There aren’t very many Justin Grant sliders you can drive around. That’s not saying anything bad about him. It’s just knowing who you’re racing with, and I made the wrong decision. He won and I lost. That’s how they go, and we’ll come back stronger.”
Similarly to Grant and Seavey, Brady Bacon experienced a pleasant return to the podium in his Dynamics, Inc./Bazell Race Fuels – Davis Brothers Trucking – Tel-Star/Triple X/Rider Chevy. Bacon started seventh and finished third on Saturday, one night after a flat tire dropped him to a disappointing 19th place result.
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 4, 2024 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – #LetsRaceTwo – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-15.286; 2. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-15.480; 3. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-15.506; 4. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-15.518; 5. Daison Pursley, 21AZ, Team AZ-15.571; 6. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-15.607; 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-15.643; 8. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-15.656; 9. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-15.754; 10. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-15.770; 11. Max Adams, 63, F & F-15.785; 12. Jake Swanson, 2B, 2B Racing-15.801; 13. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-15.807; 14. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-15.823; 15. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-15.864; 16. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-15.896; 17. Todd Hobson, 44, Soudrette-16.006; 18. Matt Goodnight, 39G, Goodnight-16.076; 19. Jadon Rogers, 17GP, Dutcher-16.093; 20. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-16.097; 21. Korbyn Hayslett, 1H, Hayslett-16.128; 22. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-16.152; 23. Paul Dues, 87, Dues-16.155; 24. Braxton Cummings, 71B, Cummings-16.275; 25. Chance Crum, 26, Crum-16.392; 26. Bryce Dues, 23D, Dues-16.783; 27. Ryan Barr, 21B, Barr-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Hunter Maddox, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Joey Amantea, 7. Jadon Rogers, 8. Chance Crum, 9. C.J. Leary. NT
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Matt Westfall, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Max Adams, 6. Saban Bibent, 7. Paul Dues, 8. Bryce Dues, 9. Todd Hobson. NT
T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Carson Garrett, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Briggs Danner, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Matt Goodnight, 7. Korbyn Hayslett, 8. Braxton Cummings, 9. Ryan Barr. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Todd Hobson, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Chance Crum, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. Korbyn Hayslett, 6. Paul Dues, 7. Ryan Barr, 8. Bryce Dues, 9. Braxton Cummings. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (5), 2. Logan Seavey (4), 3. Brady Bacon (7), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (1), 5. C.J. Leary (10), 6. Daison Pursley (3), 7. Mitchel Moles (2), 8. Carson Garrett (9), 9. Jake Swanson (15), 10. Briggs Danner (12), 11. Todd Hobson (17), 12. Matt Westfall (8), 13. Kyle Cummins (6), 14. Robert Ballou (13), 15. Jadon Rogers (19), 16. Max Adams (14), 17. Saban Bibent (20), 18. Korbyn Hayslett (21), 19. Chase Stockon (11), 20. Joey Amantea (22), 21. Chance Crum (24), 22. Matt Goodnight (18), 23. Paul Dues (23), 24. Hunter Maddox (16). NT