By Richie Murray
Wheatland, Missouri (September 6, 2025)………One man now stands alone at the top of the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car 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 Sprint Car 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), A.J. 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 Sprint Car 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 sprint cars, particularly non-wing sprint cars. 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 sprint car back in 2009, he was fast. Impressively, he’s won his 63 USAC National Sprint Car 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 Sprint Car 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 Sprint Car 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 win 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 No. 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 sprint car 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 Sprint Car 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 Sprint Car event held at the track, and the first since 2006.
Interestingly enough, it was a Jeff Walker owned and wrenched car that owned 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 fast time of Seavey’s career moved him into a tie with Jon Stanbrough for 21st place all-time.
In his first 22 USAC National Sprint Car 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 Sprint Car 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 Sprint Car 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 National Sprint Car Series
Lucas Oil Speedway
Wheatland, Missouri
Saturday, September 6, 2025
Feature:
1. 4-Justin Grant
2. 5T-Jake Swanson
3. 5x-Wyatt Burks
4. 19AZ-Mitchel Moles
5. 57-Logan Seavey
6. 63-Cale Coons
7. 5G-Gunnar Setser
8. 3R-Kevin Thomas Jr
9. 3P-Kyle Cummins
10. 21AZ-CJ Leary
11. 77-Jack Wagner
12. 39-Briggs Danner
13. 92-Chase Stockon
14. 19-Hayden Reinbold
15. 5-Jadon Rogers
16. 73-Samuel Wagner
17. 2B-Kale Drake
18. 15E-Dakota Earls
19. 27-Justin Johnson
20. 4x-Braydon Cromwell
21. 44-Wesley Smith
22. 16-Anthony Nicholson
23. 41-Clinton Boyles