KOKOMO, Ind. — If it’s the opening night of the Kokomo Smackdown, expect Justin Grant to visit victory lane.
For the fourth year in a row Thursday night, Grant parked his TOPP Motorsports No. 4 in victory lane on night one of USAC Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Smackdown XIII.
Grant charged from his seventh starting position, then roared past racelong leader Logan Seavey on the 20th circuit of the 30-lap feature, then led the remaining 11 laps on the quarter-mile dirt oval to score the opening night victory of Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Sprint Car Smackdown XIII.
It’s Grant’s fourth consecutive win overall during Smackdown, extending his streak after winning all three nights in succession during the 2023 event. His latest Smackdown feature score extends his record to eight wins during the event.
As a matter of fact, no driver has won more USAC National Sprint Car feature events at Kokomo than Grant, who notched his record-setting 10th on Thursday, which pushed him to the top of the list ahead of the great Dave Darland.
Continuing the avalanche of noteworthy record-making and record-breaking accomplishments, Grant’s 52nd career USAC National Sprint Car feature victory moved him into a tie for third place all-time alongside 1978 series champion Tom Bigelow.
For a guy like Grant, it’s become routine to win at Kokomo.
“It’s absolutely incredible,” Grant exclaimed. “Kokomo is the first place I drove a 410 sprint car for Jeff Walker who is my crew chief now. It’s been a special, special place to me over the years and I’ve been so fortunate to win races here. I thought this was the coolest racetrack in the world when I moved to Indiana, and to be able to win any race here is incredible to me. Dave Darland is an absolute titan and a hero of the sport. He’s a guy I idolized and a guy who helped me out a lot here. To surpass him here for USAC wins is incredible. I don’t have the proper words for it, but it sure means an awful lot. I love racing at Kokomo Speedway, and I’m just honored I get to do it.”
Grant had endured a funky season, for lack of a better term, which has proved to be perfectly imperfect. His seven USAC National Sprint Car feature wins have been counterbalanced by seven finishes of 20th or worse thus far in 2024, which has him mired ninth in series points after a pair of consecutive championship runs in the two preceding years of 2022 and 2023.
“It’s been a rocky, rocky year but we keep squeezing out wins,” Grant stated. “We’ve actually got the same number of wins as we did last year at this point, but that’s due to (this crew). I’d burrow myself in a whole and quit if it wasn’t for those guys. They’ve got a lot more confidence in me than I do on a lot of days, and today was another one of those days. I didn’t do a very good job qualifying, but they kept me pumped up all day, kept me digging and kept me in the fight and positive. I just can’t thank them enough.”
In three USAC starts at Kokomo this season, Daison Pursley hasn’t finished worse than fourth. He won the Indiana Midget Week round, finished fourth during Indiana Sprint Week and was second on Thursday night.
Briggs Danner started 14th and picked his way through the field to round out the podium.
Seavey and Robert Ballou completed the top five.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Kokomo Speedway, Kokomo, Ind., Aug. 22, 2024
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-12.782; 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.817; 3. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.901; 4. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-12.901; 5. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-12.902; 6. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-12.908; 7. Daison Pursley, 21AZ, Team AZ-12.968; 8. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.971; 9. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.988; 10. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-13.013; 11. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-13.030; 12. Shane Cottle, 2E, Epperson-13.139; 13. Trey Osborne, 11T, Osborne-13.142; 14. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.148; 15. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.148; 16. Jake Swanson, 47, Eades-13.153; 17. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-13.159; 18. Max Adams, 63, F & F-13.161; 19. Luke Hall, 23s, Simon-13.181; 20. Jack Hoyer, 57H, Hazen-13.187; 21. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-13.197; 22. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-13.211; 23. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-13.230; 24. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Cromwell-13.297; 25. Weston Gorham, 71w, Gorham-13.341; 26. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-13.345; 27. Stevie Sussex, 77s, Sturgeon-13.348; 28. Anton Hernandez, 5, Baldwin/Fox-13.364; 29. Ricky Lewis, 41, Stensland-13.379; 30. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-13.400; 31. Rylan Gray, 06, Gray-13.408; 32. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-13.411; 33. Cody Williams, 92, Sertich-13.413; 34. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-13.419; 35. Austin Hawkins, 5A, Hawkins-13.428; 36. Todd Hobson, 77, Wingo-13.429; 37. Parker Frederickson, 34, Frederickson-13.430; 38. Matt Goodnight, 39G, Goodnight-13.438; 39. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.462; 40. Frankie Guerrini, G3, F & F-13.486; 41. Kyle Shipley, 4u, AJR-13.486; 42. Colin Grissom, 00, Grissom-13.548; 43. David Gasper, 04, Burton-13.602; 44. Brayden Clark, 4c, Clark-13.724; 45. Aaron Davis, 11, Davis-13.724; 46. Max Frank, 25, Middle Class-13.787; 47. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-13.802; 48. Nate Schank, 1, Schank-13.827; 49. Jack James, 99, James-14.317; 50. Michael Daugherty, 3.14, Daugherty-14.335.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Harley Burns, 2. Carson Garrett, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Kobe Simpson, 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 6. Briggs Danner, 7. Rylan Gray, 8. Kyle Shipley, 9. Todd Hobson, 10. Max Frank. 2:14.053
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Stevie Sussex, 2. Shane Cottle, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Colin Grissom, 8. Parker Frederickson, 9. Hunter Maddox, 10. Joey Amantea. NT
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Anton Hernandez, 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Kale Drake, 4. Max Adams, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Trey Osborne, 7. Cody Williams, 8. David Gasper, 9. Nate Schank, 10. Matt Goodnight. 2:13.579
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Ricky Lewis, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Luke Hall, 6. Brayden Cromwell, 7. Hayden Reinbold, 8. Brayden Clark, 9. Saban Bibent, 10. Jack James. 2:13.931
STEEL-IT FIFTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jadon Rogers, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Jack Hoyer, 4. Brandon Mattox, 5. Weston Gorham, 6. Frankie Guerrini, 7. Zack Pretorius, 8. Aaron Davis, 9. Austin Hawkins, 10. Michael Daugherty. 2:17.580
TRAILER ALARMS C MAIN: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the semi) 1. Kyle Shipley, 2. Brayden Clark, 3. Nate Schank, 4. David Gasper, 5. Aaron Davis, 6. Todd Hobson, 7. Saban Bibent, 8. Matt Goodnight, 9. Hunter Maddox, 10. Joey Amantea, 11. Jack James, 12. Max Frank, 13. Michael Daugherty. 2:16.860
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Robert Ballou, 4. Trey Osborne, 5. Weston Gorham, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Chase Stockon, 8. Frankie Guerrini, 9. Kyle Shipley, 10. Braydon Cromwell, 11. Luke Hall, 12. Rylan Gray, 13. Cody Williams, 14. Hayden Reinbold, 15. Nate Schank, 16. Brayden Clark, 17. Zack Pretorius, 18. Colin Grissom, 19. David Gasper. 2:42.697
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (7), 2. Daison Pursley (4), 3. Briggs Danner (14), 4. Logan Seavey (2), 5. Robert Ballou (13), 6. C.J. Leary (1), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (12), 8. Brady Bacon (6), 9. Jake Swanson (19), 10. Ricky Lewis (24), 11. Stevie Sussex (9), 12. Carson Garrett (15), 13. Brandon Mattox (18), 14. Kyle Cummins (5), 15. Trey Osborne (17), 16. Jack Hoyer (21), 17. Kale Drake (22), 18. Kobe Simpson (23), 19. Jadon Rogers (11), 20. Hunter Maddox (25-P), 21. Harley Burns (8), 22. Max Adams (20), 23. Anton Hernandez (10), 24. Shane Cottle (16), 25. Mitchel Moles (3).