Dominant Grant Banks $10,000 Indy Sprint

INDIANAPOLIS — Justin Grant continued his knack for winning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, capturing the opening race of the 38th annual USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by Honest Abe Roofing on Thursday night at The Dirt Track at IMS.

Grant added his seventh USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship victory this season and 61st of his career to a win in the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship feature on the opening night of the BC39 Presented by Avanti Windows & Doors on July 1.

Grant also won the BC39 feature race in 2023 on the fifth-mile dirt oval inside Turn 3 of the 2.5-mile IMS oval.

“It’s the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” Grant said. “I probably raced a little rougher than most of the sprint car guys like to race, but I come in here off the BC39, and maybe old habits die hard. I want to win at this place.”

Grant, who started fifth in the 20-car field, took the lead for the first time and for good with 16 laps remaining in the 35-lap feature. He earned $10,000 for the victory in the No. 4 TOPP Motorsports car.

Logan Seavey finished second in the No. 57 Abacus Racing car, followed by polesitter Robert Ballou in the No. 12 Ballou Motorsports machine.

Ballou led the first 19 laps, but Grant used both the top and bottom grooves of the clay oval to climb from fifth to second.

With 16 laps to go, Grant used the high line in Turns 3 and 4 to power past Ballou, whose car started to emit white plumes of smoke from its left side.

Seavey passed Ballou for second on the next lap and set his sights on Grant. A three-car tangle in Turn 2 triggered the final caution of the feature race with nine laps to go.

Grant got a strong jump on the restart, pulling away slightly. But Seavey found grip and slid under Grant in Turns 1 and 2 to nose slightly ahead with eight laps remaining. But Grant used the low line to quickly power ahead of Seavey on the back straightaway and eased away over the final seven laps for the prestigious victory.

“It was really, really tough,” Grant said. “The pace was really fast, and the top was so fast you had to kind of make some things happen there. I’m sure I didn’t make too many friends, but I wanted to get down here to victory lane.

“I love racing here. I think this little track is amazing. I’m the biggest hater of small race tracks in the world, and one of my favorite ones is this one. It’s kind of funny. We’ve really come a long way on our short-track stuff. I’m kind of a half-mile kind of guy. Just super excited to be here.”

USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway, Indiana

FIRST HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.389; 2. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-12.523; 3. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-12.558; 4. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-12.599; 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-12.742; 6. Logan Calderwood, 6, Ford-12.746; 7. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Cromwell/Boyd-12.834.

SECOND HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.309, 2. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-12.355, 3. Shane Cottle, 34, Olson-12.543, 4. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-12.567, 5. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-12.646, 6. Max Adams, 24, Simon-12.712, 7. Kyle Shipley, 0G, Black Gold-12.970.

THIRD HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-12.368; 2. Trey Osborne, 6T, Ebert-12.645; 3. Todd Hobson, 77, Wingo-12.938; 4. Rylan Gray, 96, Slinkard-12.979; 5. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.102; 6. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.157; 7. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-13.323; 8. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-13.449.

FOURTH HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-12.039 (Track Record); 2. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-12.400; 3. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-12.611; 4. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-12.733; 5. Wesley Smith, 44, Smith-12.853; 6. Carson Short, 21m, Edwards-13.097; 7. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-13.318.

FIFTH HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-12.517; 2. Carson Garrett, 2E, Epperson-12.661; 3. Brady Short, 61m, Edwards-12.673; 4. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.681; 5. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-12.710; 6. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-12.892; 7. Bill Rose, 6R, Rose-13.624; 8. Chance Crum, 83c, Crum-15.264.

CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top 3 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Charles Davis Jr., 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 6. Logan Calderwood, 7. Braydon Cromwell. 2:06.332

K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top 3 transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson, 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Kale Drake, 4. Shane Cottle, 5. Harley Burns, 6. Max Adams, 7. Kyle Shipley. NT

USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top 3 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Rylan Gray, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Trey Osborne, 5. Todd Hobson, 6. Kobe Simpson, 7. Brandon Mattox, 8. Hayden Reinbold. 2:08.356

COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top 3 transfer to the feature) 1. Jadon Rogers, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Ricky Lewis, 4. Carson Short, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Joey Amantea, 7. Wesley Smith. 2:04.797 (New Track Record)

CAR IQ FIFTH HEAT: (10 laps, top 3 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Gunnar Setser, 4. Brady Short, 5. Carson Garrett, 6. Bill Rose, 7. Hunter Maddox, 8. Chance Crum. NT

HOOSIER TIRE C MAIN: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the semi) 1. Max Adams, 2. Logan Calderwood, 3. Wesley Smith, 4. Chance Crum, 5. Hunter Maddox, 6. Brandon Mattox, 7. Joey Amantea, 8. Braydon Cromwell, 9. Hayden Reinbold, 10. Bill Rose, 11. Kobe Simpson, 12. Kyle Shipley.

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (15 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Shane Cottle, 2. Carson Short, 3. Trey Osborne, 4. Harley Burns, 5. Charles Davis Jr., 6. Brady Short, 7. Jerry Coons Jr., 8. Logan Calderwood, 9. Wesley Smith, 10. Max Adams, 11. Todd Hobson, 12. Chance Crum, 13. Carson Garrett.

FEATURE: (35 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (5), 2. Logan Seavey (8), 3. Robert Ballou (1), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (2), 5. Kale Drake (13), 6. Brady Bacon (11), 7. Mitchel Moles (3), 8. Trey Osborne (18), 9. C.J. Leary (15), 10. Jadon Rogers (9), 11. Harley Burns (19), 12. Jake Swanson (6), 13. Gunnar Setser (14), 14. Rylan Gray (10), 15. Kyle Cummins (4), 16. Shane Cottle (16), 17. Ricky Lewis (12), 18. Charles Davis Jr. (20), 19. Chase Stockon (7), 20. Carson Short (17).