By Richie Murray
Meeker, Oklahoma (October 26, 2024)………After earning back-to-back USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championships in 2022 and 2023, Justin Grant had become accustomed to finishing the season on a high note.
However, after an admittedly uneven and inconsistent year featuring a multitude of highs and lows, the Ione, Calif. native still managed to strike the right chord to wrap up the 2024 campaign during Saturday night’s season finale for the series at Meeker, Oklahoma’s Red Dirt Raceway.
Far out of the championship equation this time around, Grant’s sole focus was zeroed in on securing the bag in the $10,000-to-win event aboard his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – Bow Foundation – TOPP Industries/Maxim/Kistler Chevy.
That he did, capping a season with nine feature wins, and remarkably, a ninth place finish in the series’ final standings. His nine victories mark the second best output of his career following an 11-win splurge in 2023.
If you stay away from the point tally, and instead, focus on the win column, it looked like any other typical Justin Grant kind of year. Saturday also proved to be yet another performance you’ve come to expect from Grant as he slid past Robert Ballou for the lead on a restart just prior to the halfway point of the 30-lapper before going on to lead the final 19 laps en route to his 54th career series win, third on the all-time list.
“We’ve won nine races but it’s been a heck of a struggle this year,” Grant acknowledged. “It’s been really tough, but we’ve finally hit on some things that gave me some feel and started to give me some comfort in the car. (Jeff Walker) and Nic (Mansker) have been working their tails off. I’ve been driving J-Dub nuts all year just trying to get comfortable. Tires change and things change, and I just lost the feel for the car. We could win races but it was only when the track kind of fell into our favor. Tonight is really what we had struggled with all year – slick to a curb on the wall, which is what I love to do, so that’s been super frustrating. I’ve been beating my head against the wall, and it feels like we’ve finally figured it out in time to roll into next year.”
In the process, Grant became just the fourth driver in USAC Sprint Car history to win both the season opener and the season closer, joining the likes of Pat O’Connor (1956), Steve Butler (1986) and Brady Bacon (2020).
Furthermore, he also became the eighth driver to win the final race of the USAC Sprint Car season in back-to-back seasons. The list includes Pat O’Connor (1956-57), Pancho Carter (1973-74), Tom Bigelow (1975-76 & 1979-80), Steve Butler (1988-89), Tracy Hines (1999-2000), Bryan Clauson (2014-15) and Kevin Thomas Jr. (2017-18).
Early on, the pace was controlled by another past USAC National Sprint Car champion, Robert Ballou. Starting from the pole, Ballou broke away from the pack while Logan Seavey slotted into the second spot before being overhauled by Daison Pursley for the position on the second go around on the 1/4-mile dirt oval.
By lap 10, Ballou had already reached the tail end of the 25-car field. From there, he sliced, diced and julienned a pathway through two and three-wide traffic to escape Pursley’s pursuit for the time being. At that moment, fourth starting Grant emerged in the hunt. At the exit of turn four on the 11th lap, Grant and Pursley made wheel-to-wheel contact. Pursley took the brunt of it and dropped to third while Grant stepped up another spot in the running order to third.
“It was pretty tight and it was awfully slick across there,” Grant explained. “It was hard to get much of a drive to really clear a guy. As soon as you peeled off the wall, they’d start driving back away from you. When you’re trying to throw sliders on a guy who’s getting away from you into the corner, it’s difficult to get them cleared. I got into Daison a little bit there; I think I got the back bumper, but they were close. There were a couple of them there where I about killed the motor coming across and some of the sliders on lappers were pretty sketchy coming across there.
Moments later, after the completion of the lap by the leaders, 24th running Matt Sherrell spun to a stop at the edge of the infield between turns three and four, thus, bringing out the yellow flag, while also making the path void of traffic and placing Grant right on the rear bumper of Ballou for the ensuing restart.
Grant spared little time in getting right to work as he slid Ballou in turn one to take over the lead once and for all while Ballou was faced with having to shake off the hounding pursuit of Pursley in the tussle for second.
“He started the race so slow down there that I thought he was going to stay in the moisture down the front stretch and slide himself into one,” Grant concluded of Ballou. “He took off from the moisture and fired right into the slick under the flag stand, and you’re just a sitting duck at that point. I wasn’t really planning on sliding him into one. I was going to get up and follow him. I didn’t want to get caught in the melee and get drug back into the scrum. When he did that, I thought, well, if you’re going to tee it up, I’m going to hit it.”
Around 10 to go, Grant now found himself in the throngs of gridlocked lap traffic. At first, he was at ease as he used the high side to move around and ahead of the tail-enders. However, a bevy of high/low traffic awaited on his route. Those compounding factors allowed Ballou to reel himself back into contention, to within four car lengths of Grant with just eight laps to go.
Grant’s swift split second slide job on the lapped car of Cooper Sullivan in turns one and two on lap 25 proved decisive in two fashions. First, it provided Grant a clear coast on the back straightaway. Secondly, Ballou became entrapped, stifled and suppressed behind Sullivan momentarily, allowing Grant to break the race open with just five-and-a-half laps remaining.
The fact is, neither Grant nor Ballou ever totally completely escaped their plight in traffic. They managed their way through successfully, but when all was said and done, Grant reached the stripe 1.688 seconds ahead of Ballou with Pursley third, USAC National Sprint Car champion Logan Seavey fourth and C.J. Leary fifth.
“The big move of the race I feel like was getting by Daison,” Grant explained. “Daison is a heck of a racecar driver and he’s obviously good here at Meeker. I was happy to get him put away pretty early, and then after that, I just went to work. It was a heck of a lot of fun. I wanted to go win a race. I never have been accused of making a lot of friends out here in this deal. If you’re going to get berated for it, you might as well throw it and make some money while you’re at it.”
One night following his first win of the USAC National Sprint Car season, Matt Westfall (Pleasant Hill, Ohio) closed out the weekend as the ProSource Passing Master for the Red Dirt weekend. Westfall passed a total of 15 cars over the course of both nights this weekend to earn a $500 bonus.
Also this weekend, Cooper Sullivan (Lawton, Okla.) was making his debut in USAC National Sprint Car competition. To close out the second of two nights, he earned Hard Charger honors by virtue of advancing from 23rd to 18th in the feature.
R.J. Miller (Edgewood, Texas) not only made his first USAC National Sprint Car start on Saturday night, but he also cemented 2024 his ASCS Elite Non-Wing Sprint Car title in the process during the co-sanctioned show. For that, Miller earned recognition for the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
To open the night, C.J. Leary (Greenfield, Ind.) collected his 55th career Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifying time with the USAC National Sprint Cars. By doing so, he became just the fifth driver in series history to reach 10 or more fast times in a season. Of the seven occasions this feat has been accomplished throughout the 69-year history of the series, Leary has done it himself three of those times with 11 in 2019, 12 in 2022 and now 10 in 2024. Others to do it include Kevin Thomas Jr. (15 in 2018), Tom Bigelow (14 in 1978), Rich Vogler (10 in 1989) and Bryan Clauson (2012).
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 26, 2024 – Red Dirt Raceway – Meeker, Oklahoma – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – Co-Sanctioned by the ASCS Elite Non-Wing Sprints Series
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-12.935; 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-13.030; 3. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.118; 4. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-13.127; 5. Daison Pursley, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-13.160; 6. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.207; 7. Xavier Doney, 74, Doney/Lawson-13.217; 8. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-13.242; 9. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-13.300; 10. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-13.310; 11. Wesley Smith, 2B, 2B Racing-13.372; 12. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.400; 13. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-13.401; 14. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.432; 15. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.445; 16. Kyle Jones, 79, Hall-13.478; 17. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-13.517; 18. Weston Gorham, 71w, Gorham-13.559; 19. Colt Treharn, 77, Treharn-13.741; 20. Matt Sherrell, 15m, Graham-13.745; 21. R.J. Miller, 34, Miller-13.808; 22. Wyatt Burks, 11w, Burks-13.826; 23. Ty Hulsey, 24H, Risley-13.914; 24. Joe Wood Jr., 03, Wood-13.979; 25. Paul White, 1, Wade-13.980; 26. Cooper Sullivan, 79F, Fry-14.029; 27. Craig Carroll, 24c, Risley-14.044; 28. Brock Cottrell, 5B, Cottrell-14.115; 29. Brennon Marshall, 43, Miller-14.575.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Matt Westfall, 2. Daison Pursley, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Hunter Maddox, 5. R.J. Miller, 6. Paul White, 7. Carson Garrett. 2:14.442 (New Track Record)
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Weston Gorham, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Cooper Sullivan, 6. Wyatt Burks, 7. Kobe Simpson. NT
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Xavier Doney, 4. Wesley Smith, 5. Ty Hulsey, 6. Craig Carroll, 7. Colt Treharn. 2:17.425
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Kyle Jones, 5. Matt Sherrell, 6. Joe Wood Jr., 7. Brock Cottrell. 2:19.896
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kobe Simpson, 2. Joe Wood Jr., 3. Paul White, 4. Craig Carroll, 5. Colt Treharn, 6. Brock Cottrell. 1:55.343 (New Track Record)
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (4), 2. Robert Ballou (1), 3. Daison Pursley (2), 4. Logan Seavey (3), 5. C.J. Leary (6), 6. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 7. Brady Bacon (9), 8. Kyle Cummins (11), 9. Wesley Smith (12), 10. Matt Westfall (7), 11. Xavier Doney (10), 12. Mitchel Moles (8), 13. Kyle Jones (14), 14. Kobe Simpson (16), 15. Hunter Maddox (15), 16. Ty Hulsey (20), 17. Joe Wood Jr. (21), 18. Cooper Sullivan (23), 19. Weston Gorham (17), 20. Craig Carroll (24), 21. Hayden Reinbold (13), 22. R.J. Miller (19), 23. Paul White (22), 24. Matt Sherrell (18), 25. Carson Garrett (25-P). NT
(P) represents a provisional starter
**Carson Garrett flipped over the turn three wall during the first heat. Wyatt Burks flipped into the front straightaway catchfence during the second heat.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-11 Robert Ballou, Laps 12-30 Justin Grant.
FINAL USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-2987, 2-Brady Bacon-2880, 3-Daison Pursley-2718, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2645, 5-C.J. Leary-2625, 6-Mitchel Moles-2561, 7-Robert Ballou-2550, 8-Kyle Cummins-2481, 9-Justin Grant-2476, 10-Matt Westfall-1804.
USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-199, 2-Logan Seavey-195, 3-Robert Ballou-149, 4-Justin Grant-145, 5-Kyle Cummins-131, 6-C.J. Leary-131, 7-Chase Stockon-126, 8-Brady Bacon-120, 9-Matt Westfall-119, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-109.
FINAL RED DIRT PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Matt Westfall-15, 2-Kyle Cummins-14, 3-Cooper Sullivan-12, 4-Paul White-11, 5-Justin Grant-10, 6-Wesley Smith-10, 7-Brady Bacon-9, 8-Logan Seavey-7
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Daison Pursley (13.220)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: C.J. Leary (12.935)
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Matt Westfall
Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Robert Ballou
T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Brady Bacon
Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Mitchel Moles
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Kobe Simpson
Hard Charger: Cooper Sullivan (23rd to 18th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: R.J. Miller
ProSource Red Dirt Passing Master Champion: Matt Westfall (15)
ProSource Top ASCS Elite Non-Wing Finisher: Wesley Smith (9th)
ProSource Top ASCS Elite Non-Wing Two-Night Average Finish: Wesley Smith (9.5)