From Richie Murray
KOKOMO, IN (August 29, 2026) — There seems to be no stopping Justin Grant when it comes to the final night of Chili’s Sprint Car Smackdown at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway.
On Saturday night, the Ione, California native once again stood in victory lane after capturing his sixth career Chili’s Sprint Car Smackdown title and his fourth in a row after racing into the lead past Kyle Cummins on lap 28, then leading the final 13 laps to pocket a payday of $36,729.
Earlier in the evening, Cummins defeated Grant in the final round of the Bill & Sandy Wever & The Grandkids King of the Hill to score the pole position for the night’s 40-lap feature, and for the first 27 laps, Cummins held the upper hand over Grant.
Driving his pink, yellow, and green-colored TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – TOPP Industries – LA Poly/Maxim/Stanton Chevy No. 4, Grant added to his win list with record-extending 13th career USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship victory at Kokomo and the 71st of his career with the series.
Grant’s sixth USAC National Sprint Car win of the season added to his ever growing list of Chili’s Smackdown titles over the past nine editions, taking top honors in 2018, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, and now 2026.
It’s a moment Grant described as simply, “unreal.”
Starting alongside Cummins on the front row, Grant gave chase for more than two-thirds of the main event on the 1/4-mile dirt oval. That said, on the fifth lap, Grant made his initial bid for the lead, sliding past Cummins in turns one and two to occupy the top spot.
However, at the same exact moment, fourth running Cale Coons biked in turns one and two, then slid up into the outside wall and flipped over. That closed the chapter on a rollercoaster of emotions for Coons who had won his first career USAC National Sprint Car feature at Kokomo just 24 hours earlier. His crew was able to make repairs in the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area, and Coons was able to restart, but finished a distant 18th.
Due to lap not being completed, the running order reverted to the previous completed lap, meaning that Cummins retained his lead with Grant slotting back into second. Grant had confidence in himself and his racecar, but now Cummins was cognizant of Grant’s presence.
“Just before the red came out, I felt like I got a really big run,” Grant explained. “He hadn’t seen me and he didn’t really know how much the slider was available there into turn one. I was able to slide him from a really long way back. Then the red came out, and I was like ‘ahh.’ That just made my night way harder. Not that it was going to be easy by any means, but now it gave Kyle another shot at it. He’s done a great job covering that and figuring it out, and then it took me another 20 laps to get by him because he was doing such a good job covering there.”
After the stoppage, Grant adjusted his tactics and began entering above the cushion with “four wheels in the fluff.” Not only did it ultimately pay off, but it also presented another element of surprise to Cummins.
“I slid him in three pretty well and he covered there pretty well after that,” Grant documented. “Then, he started getting away from me for a little bit. Early on, I maybe had a little bit better of a car and I could just keep running to him. But now, I was struggling. I kept getting tight into three and it would get me goofy and backing up to it in four. Then, I lost everything that I was gaining on him. That’s when I bailed out and started running above the cushion. I did it because we were out of options and we’ve got to find some way to make more speed.”
Regarding the extreme high line at Kokomo, Grant has made it work many a time over the years with a great amount of success. But he doesn’t claim it as his own. He gives props to his crew chief, Jeff Walker, for encouraging him to take the road less traveled.
“I’ve kind of taken it to some new heights here the last handful of years, but really, if it’s anybody’s line, it’s Jeff Walker’s,” Grant acknowledged. “Everywhere we go, he’s like, “buddy, I think you know, don’t forget that you can get in above it. Once you start getting tight, just get above it. When I came to Kokomo, the first time I drove a sprint car was for Jeff Walker here. He told me, ‘just get up above that cushion. It won’t turn over.’ You just drive the heck out of it. Dave Darland would do it in his car. Chris Windom would do it in his car. Hunter Schuerenberg would do it in his car. I’m just the guy that gets to do it now. I remember it now because Jeff is always pounding it in my head.”
Grant continued to apply pressure to Cummins past the halfway point of the race, which was 10 laps longer in length than the majority of the main events on the USAC National Sprint Car schedule. Biding his time a bit, Grant made sure not to prematurely show his hand before making his winning move.
“Once I started running through three and four, it really cleaned up my struggle to get off four,” Grant illustrated. “I felt like I was running to his bumper off four, but he was doing such a good job protecting on the laps that he needed to. I felt we were better there, but we just needed to wait. Don’t show him and don’t let him know. Just let this play out.”
When the time arrived on lap 28, it played out right into Grant’s hands.
“He came off four and his car kind of hung a little bit and it set on the left rear,” Grant observed. “A lot of times when it does that, you can’t get down to slide yourself without making a major adjustment. Once I saw his left rear settle, we were firing. He got in on the top of one and we were able to go. At that point, it was getting slicker across one and two, and when I fired across there, I was like ‘oh, we better keep this out of the fence here.’ Luckily, it was kind of ramped up there and we were able to roll up it and roll on down.”
From that point forward, Grant kept Cummins at arm’s length as he worked through a bevy of lapped traffic in the waning stages, crossing the stripe 0.420 seconds ahead of Kyle Cummins. Jacob Denney earned a career best third place result in just his third career USAC National Sprint Car start. Kevin Thomas Jr. took fourth with Mitchel Moles rounding out the top five after an impressive drive from 12th.
Grant took the lead on lap 28, then earned a $229 bonus on the 29th lap of the feature as he collected the J & J Trucking / JX Truck Center Lap 29 Leader Bonus in Memory of Tony Jarrett, the 2000 Kokomo Speedway sprint car track champion who sported the No. 29 on his car.
The 2022 Chili’s Smackdown winner, Kyle Cummins, led the most laps (27) in the feature and wound up with a runner-up result for the fifth time on Saturday night during his Chili’s Smackdown career. That made him the night’s K & N Filters Clean Air Award winner. His take home pay tonight with added lap money – $500 per lap led – totaled $26,118.
Jacob Denney finished third and earned $1,000 as the 2026 Chili’s Smackdown Crume-Evans Insurance Rookie of the Year. It’s the second best Rookie performance in event history, only behind Tanner Thorson’s runner-up result in 2021.
Shane Cottle passed a total of 23 cars throughout the three nights of racing over the weekend at Kokomo to earn a $1,000 bonus as the Chili’s Smackdown Parallax Group / ProSource Passing Master champion. He also moved up eight positions in the feature. His 22nd to 14th run led him to pick up the Rod End Supply Hard Charger award.
Texan Dalton Stevens was buried way down in the 36th spot in overall Chili’s Smackdown points entering Saturday night. In the semi-feature, he charged from ninth to fourth to grab the final transfer spot, which earned him the night’s Hard Work award, and he also received a new right rear from Hoosier Tire. Beau Brandon also got a new Hoosier right rear as the winner of the C-Main.
Colin Parker advanced four spots from 15th to 11th in the Semi-Feature and was the recipient of $100 courtesy of Vogel Real Estate.
A record amount of $176,752.00 was raised throughout Chili’s Smackdown weekend for the Riley’s Children’s Foundation and Riley Hospital for Children. All the money will go toward fighting childhood cancer. Over one million dollars have been raised through the efforts of Melinda Stanbrough and Jessica Mack throughout the 15 year history of Chili’s Smackdown.
Chilis Kokomo Sprint Car Smackdown XVI
USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series
Kokomo Speedway
Kokomo, Indiana
Saturday, August 29, 2026
K1 Race Gear Qualifier #1 (10 Laps)
1. 87-Jacob Denney[1]
2. G5-Gunnar Setser[2]
3. 53-CJ Leary[3]
4. 54-Jakeb Boxell[4]
5. 55-Eli Wilhelmus[5]
6. 2BX-Dalton Stevens[7]
7. 21B-Beau Brandon[6]
8. 45N-Troy Carey[9]
9. 18-Landon Butler[8]
TJ Forged Qualifier #2 (10 Laps)
1. 12-Robert Ballou[2]
2. 14-Jadon Rogers[1]
3. 57-Logan Seavey[3]
4. 86-Shane Cottle[5]
5. 9Z-Zack Pretorius[4]
6. 2B-Caleb Shietze[6]
7. 79-Jacob Dykstra[9]
8. 12J-Steve Justis[8]
9. 11C-Brayden Clark[7]
KN Filters Qualifier #3 (10 Laps)
1. 92-Chase Stockon[2]
2. 39-Briggs Danner[1]
3. 6T-Trey Osborne[3]
4. 41-Ricky Lewis[4]
5. 28-Brandon Mattox[5]
6. 57H-Kyle Shipley[6]
7. 51T-Eddie Tafoya Jr[7]
8. 17-Bryce Andrews[8]
9. 99-Jack James[9]
Indy Powersports Qualifier #4 (10 Laps)
1. 19AZ-Mitchel Moles[1]
2. 19-Hayden Reinbold[2]
3. 16-Harley Burns[3]
4. 49-Brady Bacon[4]
5. 83C-Chance Crum[5]
6. 21K-Kobe Simpson[7]
7. 16K-Colin Parker[6]
8. 7S-Jake Simmons[9]
9. 75-Devan Myers[8]
BW Auto Mart KOH Quarter-Final 1 (3 Laps)
1. 3P-Kyle Cummins[1]
2. 3R-Stevie Sussex III[2]
BW Auto Mart KOH Quarter-Final 2 (3 Laps)
1. 15-Kevin Thomas Jr[1]
2. 2E-Thomas Meseraull[2]
BW Auto Mart KOH Quarter-Final 3 (3 Laps)
1. 4-Justin Grant[1]
2. 21AZ-Gavin Miller[2]
BW Auto Mart KOH Quarter-Final 4 (3 Laps)
1. 63-Cale Coons[1]
2. 5T-Jake Swanson[2]
BW Auto Mart KOH Semi-Final 1 (3 Laps)
1. 3P-Kyle Cummins[1]
2. 15-Kevin Thomas Jr[2]
BW Auto Mart KOH Semi-Final 2 (3 Laps)
1. 4-Justin Grant[1]
2. 63-Cale Coons[2]
BW Auto Mart KOH Final (3 Laps)
1. 3P-Kyle Cummins[1]
2. 4-Justin Grant[2]
COOKOUT C-Main (10 Laps)
1. 21B-Beau Brandon[1]
2. 51T-Eddie Tafoya Jr[3]
3. 16K-Colin Parker[4]
4. 45N-Troy Carey[5]
5. 17-Bryce Andrews[7]
6. 18-Landon Butler[9]
7. 12J-Steve Justis[6]
8. 99-Jack James[10]
9. 79-Jacob Dykstra[2]
DNS: 7S-Jake Simmons
DNS: 75-Devan Myers
Five Star Bodies Semi-Feature (12 Laps)
1. 55-Eli Wilhelmus[5]
2. 86-Shane Cottle[2]
3. 49-Brady Bacon[4]
4. 2BX-Dalton Stevens[9]
5. 28-Brandon Mattox[7]
6. 9Z-Zack Pretorius[6]
7. 83C-Chance Crum[8]
8. 54-Jakeb Boxell[1]
9. 21K-Kobe Simpson[12]
10. 21B-Beau Brandon[13]
11. 16K-Colin Parker[15]
12. 2B-Caleb Shietze[10]
13. 51T-Eddie Tafoya Jr[14]
14. 57H-Kyle Shipley[11]
15. 41-Ricky Lewis[3]
16. 45N-Troy Carey[16]
Chilis Smackdown XVI Feature (40 Laps)
1. 4-Justin Grant[2]
2. 3P-Kyle Cummins[1]
3. 87-Jacob Denney[9]
4. 15-Kevin Thomas Jr[4]
5. 19AZ-Mitchel Moles[12]
6. 21AZ-Gavin Miller[6]
7. 2E-Thomas Meseraull[5]
8. 5T-Jake Swanson[7]
9. 39-Briggs Danner[15]
10. 3R-Stevie Sussex III[8]
11. 92-Chase Stockon[11]
12. 12-Robert Ballou[10]
13. G5-Gunnar Setser[13]
14. 86-Shane Cottle[22]
15. 14-Jadon Rogers[14]
16. 19-Hayden Reinbold[16]
17. 6T-Trey Osborne[19]
18. 63-Cale Coons[3]
19. 53-CJ Leary[17]
20. 55-Eli Wilhelmus[21]
21. 57-Logan Seavey[18]
22. 2BX-Dalton Stevens[24]
23. 16-Harley Burns[20]
24. 49-Brady Bacon[23]