KOKOMO, Ind. — Over the course of the past three weekends, Justin Grant has tallied a victory in every piece of machinery he’s operated in USAC competition.
Sunday’s USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship triumph during the second and final night of the Kokomo Grand Prix at Kokomo Speedway was just the latest in a historic early season run for the Ione, Calif., native.
Grant’s Kokomo win comes on the heels of an April 12 USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car score at Lawrenceburg Speedway followed by a dominant USAC Silver Crown performance at Toledo Speedway seven days later.
Grant set an all-time USAC record by winning in all three national divisions in a season faster than any driver ever has before…by one single, solitary day.
For the past 23 years, Dave Steele had held the record for the earliest date any driver has accomplished the feat, doing so by April 28, 2002. Grant’s race-winning triumvirate was completed on April 27, 2025.
Grant was in command from start to finish at Kokomo in his CB Industries/NOS Energy Drink – PristineAuction.com – Mobil 1 – TRD/Spike/Speedway Toyota, leading all 30 laps in just his second start for CBI after joining the reigning championship winning team over the offseason.
As an aside, Grant’s winning ride provided the first USAC National Midget feature win for a car No. 87 since Danny McKnight captured the Turkey Night Grand Prix aboard L.T. Caruthers No. 87 at Gardena, California’s Ascot Park a half century ago.
Grant’s 18th career USAC National Midget win moved him into a tie for 40th place all-time alongside Logan Seavey, and incidentally, Dave Steele. Overall, it’s Grants’ 90th career USAC main event win, moving him past Tom Bigelow for 9th all-time. Furthermore, his 82nd USAC national victory pushed him past Bryan Clauson for seventh place all-time.
But of most importance to Grant at the moment was the fact that Sunday’s tally was his first in a USAC National Midget at Kokomo, the same scene in which he’s the all-time record holder with 11 career USAC National Sprint Car wins. This one was truly an important one.
“It’s really special to win a midget race here,” Grant beamed. “It feels like it’s taken me forever to win one. I’ve been really close but I’ve never been able to get it done. (Car owner) Chad (Boat) had this car absolutely dialed tonight. I could move out to the middle. I could run the bottom. I could do whatever I wanted. It was a ton of fun to drive; an awesome racecar. Chad’s got a great team here with all the guys who work on this 87 and the other two cars as well.”
Grant started his race from the outside of the front row and immediately established the lead over pole sitter and series newcomer Steven Snyder Jr. Snyder, the leading series rookie in points following the first weekend of the schedule, made his bid for the lead on lap five, sliding under Grant in turn one.
However, as Snyder four-wheel-drifted up the racetrack, Grant slipped back under to retake the spot up front.
Throughout the goings, previous night’s winner Jacob Denney was matriculating his way up through the field from his eighth place starting spot, swapping slide jobs with Logan Seavey before taking over third in turns one and two just before midway. With six to go, Denney had tracked down Snyder and trekked his way into the second spot with a low line maneuver in turn four.
Grant’s lead held strong and had expanded to 2.7 seconds with three laps remaining. That is until contact in turn three between multiple cars resulted in the front end being knocked out on the car driven by 21st running Dan Bennett, resulting in Bennett slithering to a stop in the middle of turn three.
A caution on the ensuing restart for 11th running Cale Coons who stopped atop turn two required his car to be towed away back to the pits, ending his evening prematurely.
As the field prepared to take the green for the lap 28 restart, second running Denney’s left-rear tire had deflated, leaving him to drive the final three laps on the rim as he free fell from a possible victory to a disappointing 12th-place finish.
That left Grant all by his lonesome to finish off the victory by a 2.096-second margin. Snyder crossed the stripe a distant second over Seavey who nipped Cannon McIntosh at the line for third while Kale Drake rounded out the top-five.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Kokomo Speedway, Kokomo, Indiana, April 27, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-13.013; 2. Karter Sarff, 21K, Sarff-13.066; 3. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-13.073; 4. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-13.107; 5. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-13.143; 6. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-13.194; 7. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.212; 8. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, Engler-13.214; 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-13.242; 10. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.280; 11. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.293; 12. Frankie Guerrini, 63G, F & F-13.378; 13. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.393; 14. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.403; 15. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-13.466; 16. Brecken Reese, 00, Chandler-13.472; 17. Emerson Axsom, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.485; 18. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-13.492; 19. Sam Johnson, 72J, Johnson-13.531; 20. Steve Buckwalter, 25, Buckwalter-13.555; 21. Chelby Hinton, 4B, Klatt-13.579; 22. Chris Baue, 36, Baue-14.002; 23. Bryan Stanfill, 75AU, Griffiths-14.048; 24. Dan Bennett, X, Bennett-14.639; 25. Michael Magic, 5m, Magic-14.697; 26. Jason Bennett, 29, Bennett-15.294; 27. Adam Taylor, 7T, ATM-15.573; 28. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Justin Grant, 3. Emerson Axsom, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. Drake Edwards, 6. Michael Magic, 7. Chelby Hinton. NT
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Cale Coons, 2. Karter Sarff, 3. Gavin Miller, 4. Steven Snyder Jr., 5. Kale Drake, 6. Chris Baue, 7. Jason Bennett. 2:18.156
HOOSIER TIRE THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Jacob Denney, 2. Cannon McIntosh, 3. Gunnar Setser, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Sam Johnson, 6. Bryan Stanfill. 2:16.332
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Thomas Meseraull, 3. Steve Buckwalter, 4. Frankie Guerrini, 5. Brecken Reese, 6. Dan Bennett, 7. Kyle Jones. 2:18.656
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Jones, 2. Chris Baue, 3. Dan Bennett, 4. Jason Bennett, 5. Michael Magic, 6. Chelby Hinton, 7. Adam Taylor. 2:22.080
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (2), 2. Steven Snyder Jr. (1), 3. Logan Seavey (4), 4. Cannon McIntosh (10), 5. Kale Drake (15), 6. Kevin Thomas Jr. (7), 7. Daison Pursley (3), 8. Karter Sarff (5), 9. Drake Edwards (6), 10. Gavin Miller (12), 11. Hayden Reinbold (14), 12. Jacob Denney (8), 13. Gunnar Setser (16), 14. Emerson Axsom (18), 15. Frankie Guerrini (13), 16. Sam Johnson (19), 17. Brecken Reese (17), 18. Cale Coons (9), 19. Thomas Meseraull (11), 20. Kyle Jones (24), 21. Dan Bennett (22), 22. Jason Bennett (23), 23. Chris Baue (21), 24. Steve Buckwalter (20).
