GRANT BECOMES USAC SPRINTS’ALL-TIME WIN KING

Justin Grant became the winningest driver in United States Auto Club (USAC) AMSOIL Sprintcar National Championship history with his 63rd career series victory on Saturday night (September 6) at Wheatland, Missouri’s Lucas Oil Speedway. (Rich Forman Photo)

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Wheatland, Missouri (September 6, 2025)………One man now stands alone at the top of the United States Auto Club (USAC) AMSOIL Sprintcar National Championship career win list. That’s Justin Grant.

On Saturday night at Wheatland, Missouri’s Lucas Oil Speedway, Grant captured his 63rd career series victory to become the winningest driver in the history of USAC National Sprintcar racing, surpassing Dave Darland’s mark of 62.

Furthermore, the Ione, California native’s triumph was the 100th win of his USAC career across all divisions, national and regional. He’s just the eighth driver to reach that mark, a list that includes the likes of Rich Vogler (171), AJ Foyt (162), Sleepy Tripp (161), Mel Kenyon (131), Dave Darland (115), Bryan Clauson (112), Damion Gardner (106) and now Justin Grant (100).

On this occasion, the fourth place starting Grant was on a roll right from the start as he charged into second on the first lap, then chased down Wesley Smith for the lead on lap eight. From there, he fended off repeated challenges from Jake Swanson down the stretch to record his series-leading ninth win of the USAC National Sprintcar season, and the 14th across all USAC national series in 2025, also tops among all drivers.

Oh, and lest we mention, he achieved these milestones while nursing a broken left foot suffered a little over a month ago while wearing a hard cast and hobbling on a pair of crutches to and from his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – TOPP Industries – LA Poly/Maxim/Kistler Chevy, if you haven’t heard.

“I absolutely love driving Sprintcars, particularly non-wing Sprintcars. I love USAC. I love everything about what we do,” Grant said. “To be the all-time winner is just absolutely incredible. I’ve poured my life into this sport and into this discipline while trying to get better and better and better at it.”

From the time Grant first jumped into a Sprintcar back in 2009, he was fast. Impressively, he’s won his 63 USAC National Sprintcar races for just three car owners: TOPP Motorsports (55), Sam McGhee Motorsports (5) and Mark Hery (3). As Grant looked back on all the car owners he’s raced for over the years, he was appreciative of the opportunities that got him to where he stands today – on top of the of the all-time list.

“There’s so many people who make it possible for me to win these races,” Grant reminisced. “All the way back to Ken Baldwin, the first guy who hired me to go racing, and Mark Hery who stuck with me for years and years and years and let me tear up a lot of equipment, and we won some races together.”

With Kevin Birchmeier’s TOPP Motorsports outfit, Grant has been a mainstay as the team’s driver dating back to the beginning of the 2018 season. Together, they’ve accumulated more wins than any other driver/entrant combo in USAC National Sprintcar history. Together, they’ve obliterated the record books.

“Kevin Birchmeier, I’ve driven for him for eight seasons now and we’ve been through some really high highs and some really low lows together and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him,” Grant explained. “He supports me 100 percent. When we’re struggling, he’s the guy cheerleading and picking us up. That’s rare in a car owner.”

Grant is relatively fresh off a Sprintcar Smackdown victory at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway 14 days earlier, a score that tied Dave Darland atop the winners’ list at 62. When Grant was rising up the ranks as the young upstart, he was consistently battling the legendary veteran, Darland, tooth and nail on the USAC trail. In fact, when Darland tied Tom Bigelow’s then record of 52 series wins at Kokomo in 2014, he passed Grant for the victory late in the going to get the job done. It was one of the finest rivalries of its time, and the respect Grant has for Darland has only continued to grow over the years.

“It almost felt more special to tie Dave Darland than it does to pass him,” Grant admitted. “He’s an absolute legend and a hero and I shared something on Facebook today about him going into the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame. I wanted to make note that we’re all now reaping the benefits of the things that guys like Dave Darland did for our sport. When I moved to Indiana, these guys were racing for $3,000-to-win every night and $10,000 to win the championship that they had to split with the car owner. Now, thanks to guys like Dave, we race for big money and we get to make a living doing this. I support a family by doing this, and it’s really, really special to get to do that.”

Turning the wrenches on the TOPP  #4 is Jeff Walker, a man who has been immensely instrumental to Grant throughout the years, dating back to their first meeting in 2009, a time in which Grant recalled his humble beginnings as a teenager migrating from the west coast to the Midwest to pursue his racing dreams.

“Jeff told me I could move to Indiana and go racing with him and just live with him and work on his cars,” Grant reflected. “That was an incredible opportunity for me. I was so excited to go do it for the summer. I liked it so much, I just never went home. Jeff ended up being the first guy to let me drive a 410 Sprintcar and we’ve known each other now for years and years and years, and he’s always helped me. Even when we weren’t racing together, he’s helped me a lot.”

Walker reunited with Grant during a particularly rough patch during the midsummer of 2023, and the team jelled enough over the forthcoming months to capture the USAC National Sprintcar title. Two years later, they’re still winning, and that means the world to Grant.

“To do this now over the last couple of years, and to go racing with Jeff again is really, really special. To break this record with him and to have the success that we’re having, it feels full circle and I’m really happy with the way it’s worked out. You couldn’t have drawn the whole thing up any better.”

In the race itself, Grant crossed the finish line 0.789 seconds ahead of runner-up Jake Swanson while Wyatt Burks came home third ahead of Mitchel Moles in fourth and Logan Seavey in fifth in the Rod End Supply Diamond Dirt Duel at Lucas Oil Speedway’s 3/8-mile, which was the second ever USAC National Sprintcar event held at the track, and the first since 2006.

Interestingly enough, it was a Jeff Walker owned and wrenched car that held the one-lap track record entering Saturday’s event – a 15.159 second lap set by Brady Bacon 19 years earlier. Logan Seavey was quick to erase that from the record books as he stopped the clock with a 14.928 in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying. The 23rd fastest time of Seavey’s career moved him into a tie with Jon Stanbrough for 21st place all-time.

In his first 22 USAC National Sprintcar starts, Wyatt Burks had never finished better than eighth. On Saturday, the plumber by trade from Topeka, Kansas finished third for his best career series result. That performance earned him the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.

Jack Wagner made his first USAC National Sprintcar start in five years a good one. On Saturday, the Lone Jack, Missouri racer went +9 from his 20th starting spot to finish 11th and collect Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.

On a night of broken records, Gunnar Setser notched one of his own. The Columbus, Indiana native set a new eight-lap USAC National Sprintcar track record in the process of his heat race victory. His time of 2:04.188 surpassed the former record of 2:06.26 held by Bryan Clauson since 2006.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINTCAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 6, 2025 – Lucas Oil Speedway – Wheatland, Missouri – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – Rod End Supply Diamond Dirt Duel

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.928 (New Track Record); 2. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-15.262; 3. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-15.301; 4. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-15.349; 5. Wyatt Burks, 5x, Sawyer-15.398; 6. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-15.446; 7. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-15.457; 8. Wesley Smith, 44, Smith-15.480; 9. Jadon Rogers, 5, Baldwin/Fox-15.497; 10. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-15.511; 11. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-15.532; 12. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-15.532; 13. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-15.549; 14. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-15.556; 15. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-15.581; 16. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-15.588; 17. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-15.729; 18. Samuel Wagner, 73, Wagner-15.746; 19. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-15.778; 20. Clinton Boyles, 41, Wyatt-15.999; 21. Anthony Nicholson, 16, Nicholson-16.257; 22. Jack Wagner, 77, Hockett-16.277; 23. Dakota Earls, 15E, Earls-16.327; 24. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Cromwell-16.376; 25. Justin Johnson, 27, Johnson-NT (Time of 16.612 disallowed due to an illegal left rear tire).

CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Jack Wagner, 8. Justin Johnson, 9. Kobe Simpson. NT

K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Cale Coons, 2. Wesley Smith, 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. Clinton Boyles, 6. Wyatt Burks, 7. Dakota Earls, 8. Brandon Mattox. NT

USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Gunnar Setser, 2. Kale Drake, 3. Samuel Wagner, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. Jake Swanson, 6. Mitchel Moles, 7. Anthony Nicholson, 8. Braydon Cromwell. 2:04.188 (New Track Record)

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (4), 2. Jake Swanson (5), 3. Wyatt Burks (3), 4. Mitchel Moles (2), 5. Logan Seavey (6), 6. Cale Coons (9), 7. Gunnar Setser (8), 8. Kevin Thomas Jr. (7), 9. Kyle Cummins (11), 10. C.J. Leary (15), 11. Jack Wagner (20), 12. Briggs Danner (17), 13. Chase Stockon (12), 14. Hayden Reinbold (14), 15. Jadon Rogers (10), 16. Samuel Wagner (16), 17. Kale Drake (13), 18. Dakota Earls (21), 19. Justin Johnson (23), 20. Braydon Cromwell (22), 21. Wesley Smith (1), 22. Anthony Nicholson (19), 23. Clinton Boyles (18). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Wesley Smith, Laps 8-30 Justin Grant.

**Kobe Simpson flipped during the first heat.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINTCAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-2442, 2-Mitchel Moles-2181, 3-Logan Seavey-2170, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2061, 5-Justin Grant-2050, 6-Briggs Danner-2022, 7-C.J. Leary-1905, 8-Jake Swanson-1895, 9-Kale Drake-1735, 10-Robert Ballou-1693.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-208, 2-Briggs Danner-137, 3-Gunnar Setser-128, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-121, 5-C.J. Leary-109, 6-Logan Seavey-106, 7-Justin Grant-105, 8-Kyle Cummins-96, 9-Chase Stockon-85, 10-Hayden Reinbold-83.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINTCAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 12, 2025 – Circle City Raceway – Indianapolis, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Logan Seavey (15.505)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Logan Seavey (14.928)

Car IQ First Heat Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.

K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Cale Coons

USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Gunnar Setser

Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Jack Wagner (20th to 11th)

Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Wyatt Burks