Ocala, Florida (February 12, 2025)………No driver has been more prolific and successful around Florida’s Ocala Speedway in USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship competition than Justin Grant.
He’s the only driver to start all 38 USAC National Sprint Car features at the 3/8-mile dirt track dating back to 2011, and his record-extending eighth series victory there during Winter Dirt Games XVI round three on Wednesday night solidified that fact once more.
With five laps remaining in the 30-lap main, the sixth place starting Grant utilized lapped traffic as a pick to sneak past racelong leader Daison Pursley and collect his first USAC National Sprint Car feature victory of the season and the 55th of his career, three wins shy of Brady Bacon for second on the all-time list and just seven behind all-time leader Dave Darland at 62.
Grant chalked up his winning maneuver to his extensive Ocala experience, which has seen him win three more features at the track than any other driver, thus earning himself the unofficial moniker of Mr. Ocala.
“As the track slicked up, we got a little better,” Grant explained. “Some of that in lapped traffic was just about having a little bit of knowledge of Ocala Speedway, which paid off. I’ve got a lot of laps around here and I’ve been coming here for a lot of years. There are some things you can get away with in lapped traffic, and I was able to use some of that. Sometimes getting to be the old guy pays off every once in a while.”
Grant and his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – TOPP Industries – LA Poly/Maxim/Kistler Chevy began the evening by making some history. Grant (Ione, Calif.) recorded his 35th career USAC National Sprint Car Fast Qualifying time, tying the great Rich Vogler for 10th place on the all-time list.
Pursley was the force to reckon with for the majority of the distance as he sought to provide his CB Industries team its first ever USAC Sprint Car triumph with Chase Stockon and Brady Bacon in tow, both of whom would ultimately suffer heartbreaking fates during their pursuit of victory.
However, the race quickly slowed to a halt on lap four when Mark Smith (13th) and Briggs Danner (14th) tangled wheels off turn four, sending Danner spinning into the front straightaway wall before sliding backwards to a stop. Danner’s race ended on the spot while Smith was able to continue on.
By lap 13, the front runners had reached lapped traffic. Stockon took advantage of the sudden onslaught of obstacles, and poked his nose under Pursley off turn two to take over the race lead. However, at the same exact moment, Bacon began to suddenly slow to a stop in between turns one and two to bring out a yellow flag, the victim of a mag box gone rogue. The stoppage proved unfortunate for Stockon, who was forced to relinquish his race lead over to Pursley when the race reverted to the most recently scored lap. With that said, Stockon’s misfortune wasn’t quite finished yet.
After eighth running Kobe Simpson drastically slowed before rolling to a stop in turn one to necessitate a caution on lap 19, second place running Stockon darted into the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area with a flat left rear tire. Stockon returned in time to restart at the tail but managed only to finish 12th.
Following the caution, Grant went on the attack. On the lap 19 restart, Grant pulled even with Pursley for the lead in turn two. Pursley stayed strong, however, and fended off Grant for the moment as the remaining laps dwindled down.
Yet, on lap 26, as Pursley and Grant approached the tail end lead lap car of Simpson in turn two, Grant scooted underneath Pursley, then drifted to the topside to shoot around the outside of Simpson. Pursley attempted to counterpunch by sliding underneath Simpson at the entry of turn three, but Pursley and Simpson touched tires, sending Pursley veering high into turn four, thus allowing Cummins to shoot underneath and take over occupancy of the second spot behind Grant.
A yellow flag tightened the field up once more with five laps remaining when a lap 26 yellow flag was brought about after Bacon (15th) shredded a right rear tire before coming to a stop along with Smith (14th) on the back straight.
Despite Grant possessing the lead in such a late stage of the race, his pressure was intensified with the fact that Cummins was now right on his bumper. Early on, it was imperative for Grant to get out in front of the third place starting Cummins and remain put.
“I was most worried about Kyle, honestly,” Grant revealed. “I was able to get him put away really early. He kind of got bottled up in some traffic there and I was able to pounce and pocket him. I felt like that was what really won us the race there. I was thinking that if I could get Kyle put away, I could go to work on the other guys and drive by them if things worked into our favor.”
As it turned out, it did. Grant was able to close out the final four laps to secure a commanding 1.482 second victory over Cummins with Pursley a distant third. Both Cummins and Pursley have been stalwarts of the podium after having finished inside the top-three in all three 2025 USAC National Sprint Car features to date. Meanwhile, Mitchel Moles and Jake Swanson rounded out the top-five in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Starting dead last on the grid didn't daunt Jadon Rogers one bit as he got up on the horse and drove his Amati Racing number 66 to a 13th place finish. His plus-11 was enough to earn himself hard charger honors for the night.
It was a career best USAC night for Englishman Tom Harris who tied his top USAC National Sprint Car result. His seventh place run equaled the seventh he achieved at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway back in 2019. That got him the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: February 12, 2025 – Ocala Speedway – Ocala, Florida – Winter Dirt Games XVI – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.347; 2. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.373; 3. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-14.534; 4. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-14.608; 5. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-14.610; 6. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.635; 7. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.688; 8. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.700; 9. Ricky Lewis, 74B, Lewis-14.717; 10. Mark Smith, M1, Smith-14.776; 11. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-14.812; 12. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-14.893; 13. Kale Drake 2B, 2B Racing-14.923; 14. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-14.939; 15. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-14.947; 16. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-14.965; 17. Nic Harris, N2, Harris-15.014; 18. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming/Swanson-15.034; 19. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-15.078; 20. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-15.095; 21. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-15.131; 22. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-15.189; 23. Matt Goodnight, 39G, Goodnight-15.237; 24. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE-15.251; 25. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-15.387; 26. Stevie Sussex, 5, Baldwin/Fox-15.403; 27. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-15.451; 28. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-15.460; 29. Kyle Jones, 79, Hall-15.543; 30. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-15.556; 31. John Mollick, 4J, Clever-15.970; 32. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-16.189; 33. Eddie Vancil, 7v, Vancil-16.551; 34. Oliver Akard, 32, Rase-18.717.
ROD END SUPPLY FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Tom Harris, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Kale Drake, 4. Nic Harris, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Ricky Lewis, 7. Trey Osborne, 8. Kyle Jones, 9. Eddie Vancil. 2:03.783
CAR IQ SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson, 2. Harley Burns, 3. Mark Smith, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Stevie Sussex, 8. Kayla Roell. 1:58.602
K1 RACEGEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kobe Simpson, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Matt Goodnight, 6. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 7. Jadon Rogers, 8. John Mollick. 2:02.354
HOOSIER TIRE FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Hayden Reinbold, 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Carson Garrett, 6. Gunnar Setser, 7. Joey Amantea, 8. Troy Carey. 1:59.911
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Ricky Lewis, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Jadon Rogers, 4. Gunnar Setser, 5. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 6. Trey Osborne, 7. Kyle Jones, 8. Kayla Roell, 9. Stevie Sussex, 10. John Mollick, 11. Troy Carey, 12. Eddie Vancil. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (6), 2. Kyle Cummins (3), 3. Daison Pursley (2), 4. Mitchel Moles (5), 5. Jake Swanson (7), 6. Robert Ballou (12), 7. Tom Harris (10), 8. Logan Seavey (11), 9. C.J. Leary (15), 10. Kale Drake (17), 11. Hayden Reinbold (9), 12. Chase Stockon (1), 13. Jadon Rogers (24), 14. Harley Burns (21), 15. Gunnar Setser (19), 16. Matt Goodnight (22), 17. Nic Harris (20), 18. Kevin Thomas Jr. (18), 19. Kobe Simpson (8), 20. Mark Smith (14), 21. Brady Bacon (4), 22. Carson Garrett (23), 23. Ricky Lewis (13), 24. Briggs Danner (16). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-25 Daison Pursley, Laps 26-30 Justin Grant.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-233, 2-Daison Pursley-227, 3-Justin Grant-218, 4-Logan Seavey-194, 5-Kale Drake-173, 6-Mitchel Moles-168, 7-Briggs Danner-165, 8-Jake Swanson-162, 9-Brady Bacon-157, 10-Robert Ballou-154.
USAC NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-C.J. Leary-29, 2-Kale Drake-28, 3-Jadon Rogers-18, 4-Chase Stockon-10, 5-Ricky Lewis-9, 6-Daison Pursley-7, 7-Harley Burns-7, 8-Kyle Cummins-6, 9-Justin Grant-6, 10-Robert Ballou-6.
HUGHES RACING / INDIANA MAFIA / FLAMINGO SANDY WINTER DIRT GAMES XVI SPRINT CAR PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-C.J. Leary-35, 2-Kale Drake-29, 3-Jadon Rogers-28, 4-Ricky Lewis-20, 5-Kyle Cummins-15, 6-Daison Pursley-14, 7-Justin Grant-13, 8-Harley Burns-13, 9-Robert Ballou-12, 10-Chase Stockon-12.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: February 13-14-15, 2025 – Ocala Speedway – Ocala, Florida – Winter Dirt Games XVI – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Briggs Danner (15.004)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Justin Grant (14.347)
Rod End Supply First Heat Winner: Tom Harris
Car IQ Second Heat Winner: Jake Swanson
K1 RaceGear Third Heat Winner: Kobe Simpson
Hoosier Tire Fourth Heat Winner: Hayden Reinbold
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Ricky Lewis
Hard Charger: Jadon Rogers (24th to 13th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Tom Harris
