By Richie Murray
Terre Haute, Indiana (October 3, 2025)………Justin Grant had won just about every event the Terre Haute Action Track has to offer over the years under the USAC banner. However, after 15 tries dating back to the year 2010, he had come up snake eyes in terms of capturing victory at the Tony Hulman Classic.
Overall, Grant had reigned victorious five times at the western Indiana 1/2-mile dirt oval between USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship and USAC Silver Crown competition. He picked off the Jim Hurtubise Classic in 2019 before grabbing the Don Smith Classic in 2020 and 2023. With the Crown car, he’d won the Sumar Classic twice in 2018 and 2022. Yet, to date, his best Hulman Classic result was a runner-up finish back in 2020.
All that said, it turned out it was the 16th start that was the charm for Grant to finally get his Hulman Classic rifle. No driver in Friday night’s Terre Haute field owned more Hulman Classic feature starts than Grant, and throughout the 30-lap feature, no driver could keep up with Grant and his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – TOPP Industries – LA Poly/Maxim/Kistler Chevy.
Starting fourth on the grid, Grant (Ione, California) charged by Mitchel Moles on the fourth lap and led the remaining 27 laps to earn his sixth career USAC victory at Terre Haute, his series-leading 11th USAC National Sprint Car triumph of the 2025 season, the all-time leading 65th series win of his career, and on this night, most importantly, his first ever Hulman Classic win, which completed yet another task on his personal checklist.
“I’ve been really fortunate to have some success here at Terre Haute, but I’ve never been able to get a rifle,” Grant stated. “I’ve wanted to win the Hulman awfully bad and we’ve been close a few times. This one feels really good tonight.”
Grant’s $10,000 score came on a night in which Pancho Carter was on hand to serve as the grand marshal 50 years after his first Hulman Classic win in 1975. Eventually, Carter won the race again in 1979 to become the first two-time Hulman Classic winner. On Friday night, Pancho was there in victory lane to present the rifle to Grant and officially welcome him into the exclusive Hulman Classic winners club.
“To win the Hulman, especially with Pancho Carter as the grand marshal, that’s really neat. I saw him earlier and I’m glad he’s handing me a rifle now. He’s not nearly as scary as he was back when I first moved back here,” Grant said with a laugh.
Outside front row starter Moles established the early race lead of the 55th annual running of the Hulman Classic, taking the advantage from pole sitter Kevin Thomas Jr. Quickly, though, fourth starting Grant was on the move as he took KTJ for third on the opening lap, then bolted around the outside of C.J. Leary on the second go around to slot into second.
At the end of the second lap, July’s Don Smith Classic winner, Chase Stockon, found trouble after clipping the inside guardrail while running sixth. The resulting contact flattened his left front tire and necessitated a caution as he slowed dramatically in turns three and four. After his crew replaced the tire in the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area, Stockon restarted 21st and worked his way back through the field to finish the race in seventh, earning him Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night honors.
Following the ensuing restart, it didn’t take long for Grant to make his way to the front. On the fourth lap, Grant dove under Moles in turn one and stuck the pass by the time he reached turn two. From there, Grant instantly opened up his lead, growing the interval to nearly three seconds by the end of the 10th circuit.
Through the middle stages, Grant never relented, slicing his way through the tail end of the field. After all, one misplay of traffic can spell doom as the trailing driver can close the gap in no time flat. Grant knew full well there wasn’t any time to “rest” as he grew his lead even more.
“I felt like I was running really, really hard,” Grant explained. “At Terre Haute, it’s so crucial that how you get off (the turns) is based on how well you get in. You’ve got to get in good, get in right and get off good, and if you don’t, you can burn a half-second a lap pretty darn quick. So, running the thing hard adds up and you can get it back really quickly.”
The race became a tug-of-war for second during the final 10 laps as Leary dove under Moles in turn three for the runner-up spot on the 20th lap. But by the time they’d gotten to turn four, Moles turned it down and blazed his way back on by Leary to maintain his grip on second for the time being. That is until Moles’ right rear tire shredded entering turn one with just four laps remaining, sending him to a stop and a disappointing 19th place result after running inside the top-two for the entire duration to that point.
As for Grant, he suddenly had a different feel during the latter stages of the race. But judging by his late race lap times that hovered in the 20.1 to 20.2 second range, it didn’t seem to slow him up much at all.
“I honestly didn’t know if I had a tire going down or if I was just getting tight,” Grant revealed. “The curb kept getting thicker, and there at the end, the wheel was shaking and doing some strange stuff at the end of the straightaway, which made it difficult. Some of my laps toward the end were getting pretty ugly, but I figured that as long as I was running hard, they can be a little ugly.”
Grant had no challengers after the ensuing restart as he distanced himself from the field to the tune of 1.725 seconds as he crossed under Tom Hansing’s twin checkered flags. Leary earned his best career Hulman Classic finish of second while Ricky Lewis equaled his best career series finish with a third. Series point leader Kyle Cummins took fourth while Jake Swanson advanced six positions to round out the top-five.
Lewis went 10th to third to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors with a last lap, last turn surge to grab the final podium spot in the feature in what was just his second start for the 2B Racing team. In fact, that final lap was Lewis’ fastest lap of the race, second fastest among all drivers.
Cummins collected the first Terre Haute quick time of his USAC career during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying. Topping the charts at 19.662 seconds, it was his second fast qualifying time of the series season and the 19th of his career, tying him with 1967 USAC National Sprint Car champion Greg Weld for 28th place on the all-time list.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 3, 2025 – Terre Haute Action Track – Terre Haute, Indiana – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – 55th Tony Hulman Classic
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-19.662; 2. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-19.738; 3. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-19.811; 4. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-19.843; 5. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-19.950; 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-20.075; 7. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-20.103; 8. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-20.124; 9. Ricky Lewis, 2B, 2B Racing-20.172; 10. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-20.287; 11. Wyatt Burks, 16K, Knight-20.366; 12. Chance Crum, 83c, Crum-20.386; 13. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-20.498; 14. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-20.519; 15. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-20.658; 16. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-20.686; 17. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-20.731; 18. Todd Hobson, 44, Soudrette-20.890; 19. Shane Cottle, 34, Olson-20.918; 20. Tony Helton, 87, Helton-21.216; 21. Adam Taylor, 8T, Doherty-21.958.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Gunnar Setser, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Kyle Cummins, 6. Shane Cottle, 7. Brandon Mattox. 2:45.047
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Saban Bibent, 3. Briggs Danner, 4. Hunter Maddox, 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Wyatt Burks, 7. Tony Helton. 2:44.880
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Hayden Reinbold, 3. Todd Hobson, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Ricky Lewis, 6. Adam Taylor, 7. Chance Crum. 2:45.084
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (4), 2. C.J. Leary (3), 3. Ricky Lewis (10), 4. Kyle Cummins (6), 5. Jake Swanson (11), 6. Kevin Thomas Jr. (1), 7. Chase Stockon (5), 8. Hayden Reinbold (15), 9. Gunnar Setser (7), 10. Briggs Danner (9), 11. Logan Seavey (8), 12. Shane Cottle (19), 13. Saban Bibent (14), 14. Chance Crum (13), 15. Wyatt Burks (12), 16. Brandon Mattox (16), 17. Adam Taylor (21), 18. Tony Helton (20), 19. Mitchel Moles (2), 20. Hunter Maddox (17), 21. Todd Hobson (18). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Mitchel Moles, Laps 4-30 Justin Grant.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-2944, 2-Mitchel Moles-2607, 3-Logan Seavey-2553, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2511, 5-Justin Grant-2494, 6-Briggs Danner-2385, 7-C.J. Leary-2307, 8-Jake Swanson-2276, 9-Chase Stockon-1945, 10-Gunnar Setser-1888.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-213, 2-Briggs Danner-144, 3-Gunnar Setser-139, 4-C.J. Leary-132, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-129, 6-Justin Grant-119, 7-Logan Seavey-117, 8-Kyle Cummins-110, 9-Chase Stockon-108, 10-Hayden Reinbold-106.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: October 10-11, 2025 – Lawrenceburg Speedway – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Chase Stockon (19.935)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Kyle Cummins (19.662)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Gunnar Setser
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Chase Stockon
USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Justin Grant
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Ricky Lewis (10th to 3rd)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Chase Stockon