SUMNER, Ill. — Since winning at Florida’s Ocala Speedway in February, Justin Grant had to wait 48 more days and nights until he received his next shot at backing up his latest USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship triumph.
Just like clockwork, the Ione, California native placed himself right smack dab into victory lane for the record-extending 67th time with the series, but for the first time at Red Hill Raceway.
Starting fifth on the grid for the 30-lap feature, Grant quickly made up ground on the four-tenths-mile dirt oval, grabbing fourth on the opening lap, then picked his way to third and then into second in quick succession following a lap-six restart.
Following another restart near the midway point, Grant turned up the wick, ultimately chasing down Robert Ballou on the 17th lap before leading the final 14 circuits to earn his second victory of the season in his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – TOPP Industries – LA Poly/Maxim/Stanton Chevy.
Chalk up another one for Grant as he collected his 96th career USAC national win across the board, four away from becoming the fifth driver to reach the century mark.
For Grant, the difference on this evening, oddly enough, came during a stoppage. USAC Rookie Bryce Andrews, running 22nd at the time, walloped the turn one wall and flipped over on the 13th trip around. The resulting red flag proved to be a turning point for Grant.
Prior to the red, Grant’s deficit was more than a full second as he wrestled the steering wheel in an attempt to track down Ballou. But as Grant waited, he pondered, and thus, came to the conclusion to alter the formula of his approach.
“Under that red flag, I kind of tried to calm myself down and just focus on running the cushion right,” Grant explained. “Instead of trying to catch Robert, I just started trying to pick apart the cushion and figure out how to make speed on the thing. I just had to go back to driving my racecar instead of trying to catch his. Then, things got pretty good.”
It certainly got good for Grant after restarting right on Ballou’s rear bumper for the lap 13 resumption. From there, Grant manifested his destiny, and shortly thereafter, took over for good on the 17th lap as he charged under Ballou for the top spot.
“We got a big run off two as (Ballou) started having some trouble getting into one and started to kind of cheat it,” Grant recalled. “Then, he wasn’t making ground off two and I was able to get above it and really have a head of steam at him on the backstretch, then slide myself into three. I felt like I was actually faster behind him sliding myself into three. But the thing would run off in there all corked up, giving you that feeling like, ‘I’m ready to snap!’ So, it was it was a little sketchy down there. I was really balled up on the right rear tire across there.”
Two laps later, Mitchel Moles followed suit after starting alongside Grant on the outside of the third row. Moles too spurted past Ballou on the bottom of turn three to occupy second on lap 19, right within earshot of Grant.
Down the stretch, the top-two of Grant and Moles separated themselves from the rest of the pack, with 10th starting Briggs Danner slipping past Ballou for third entering the first turn on lap 22, but remained a half-straightaway back of the lead duo with just eight laps remaining.
On the final lap, suddenly, a bit of lapped traffic entered the picture. Grant skipped his front tires as he navigated turns three and four, and didn’t quite run his car up to the cushion as hard as he had over the last several laps due to the 17th-place car of Hayden Reinbold positioned in that particular spot.
As Grant glazed up to the cushion and fell in line behind Reinbold, Moles turned down off turn four to make one final, last-ditch effort at Grant, but came up two car lengths shorts. Grant won by 0.175 seconds.
“I knew somebody was really close there at the end,” Grant acknowledged. “I could hear him or feel him or whatever it is, and I thought I was in trouble coming to the checkered there. Sure enough, he drove up under me into one.”
Grant was followed to the checkered flag by Moles, Danner and Ballou who led 12 laps. Kyle Cummins rounded out the top five.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Red Hill Raceway, Sumner, Ill., April 4, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.327 (Track Record); 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.382; 3. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-14.407; 4. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.446; 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-14.456; 6. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-14.503; 7. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-14.507; 8. David Gasper, 77s, Sturgeon-14.632; 9. Chance Crum, 83c, Crum-14.634; 10. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.662; 11. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-14.673; 12. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.686; 13. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.803; 14. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-14.825; 15. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-14.835; 16. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-14.862; 17. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-14.886; 18. Kyle Shipley, 0G, Black Gold-14.930; 19. C.J. Leary, 53, Fox-14.953; 20. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-14.998; 21. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-15.346; 22. Chet Williams, 38, Williams-15.773; 23. James Boyd, 16, Boyd-16.094; 24. Bryce Andrews, 17, MSR-16.144; 25. Austin Hawkins, 5A, Hawkins-16.881; 26. Chelby Hinton, 2B, 2B Racing-NT; 27. Ivan Glotzbach, i1, Hayden-NT
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (2), 2. Briggs Danner (4), 3. Gunnar Setser (1), 4. Robert Ballou (5), 5. C.J. Leary (7), 6. Mitchel Moles (6), 7. Hayden Reinbold (3), 8. Chet Williams (8), 9. Austin Hawkins (9). 2:00.261 (Track Record)
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jadon Rogers (2), 2. Brandon Mattox (1), 3. Trey Osborne (3), 4. Justin Grant (6), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 6. David Gasper (4), 7. Chelby Hinton (9), 8. Logan Calderwood (7), 9. James Boyd (8). 2:01.971
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cale Coons (2), 2. Chase Stockon (3), 3. Kyle Cummins (6), 4. Jake Swanson (5), 5. Kyle Shipley (1), 6. Chance Crum (4), 7. Aric Gentry (7), 8. Bryce Andrews (8). 2:03.433
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (5), 2. Mitchel Moles (6), 3. Briggs Danner (10), 4. Robert Ballou (3), 5. Kyle Cummins (4), 6. Jake Swanson (1), 7. Cale Coons (9), 8. Jadon Rogers (8), 9. Logan Seavey (7), 10. C.J. Leary (18), 11. Chase Stockon (14), 12. Kevin Thomas Jr. (2), 13. Logan Calderwood (20), 14. Gunnar Setser (15), 15. Chance Crum (12), 16. Kyle Shipley (17), 17. Hayden Reinbold (19), 18. David Gasper (11), 19. Brandon Mattox (16), 20. Trey Osborne (13), 21. Aric Gentry (22), 22. Bryce Andrews (24), 23. Austin Hawkins (25), 24. Chelby Hinton (21), 25. Chet Williams (23), 26. James Boyd (26).
