September 7, 2025 | By Lyndal Scranton

Grant scores record-breaking win at USAC Sprint Rod End Supply Dirt Duel

WHEATLAND, MO.—Justin Grant made USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship history on Saturday night by winning the Rod End Supply Diamond Dirt Duel at Lucas Oil Speedway.

Grant, a native of Ione, Calif., took the lead on lap eight and never surrendered it, outlasting Jake Swanson for the 63rd series win of his career. It sent him past Dave Darland for the most wins in tour history and was his 100th career feature win across all USAC divisions, just the eighth driver to reach the century mark.

"I don't really know what to say," Grant said in victory lane. "I'm really excited and I can't thank everybody enough. I absolutely love driving sprint cars, particularly non-wing sprint cars. And I love USAC and I love everything about what we do. To be the all-time winner is just absolutely incredible. I've poured my life into this sport and into this discipline and am trying to get better and better at it.

"It almost felt more special to tie Dave Darling than to pass him. He's an absolute legend and a hero. I shared something on Facebook (Saturday) about him going into the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame and wanted to make note that we're all now reaping the benefits of the things that Dave Darling did for our sport."

The 30-lap feature saw the fourth-starting Grant close in on Wesley Smith, who started on the pole and led early, when caution flew on lap four after Clinton Boyles spun on the backstretch. Smith had a good restart and opened an eight-car-length lead, but by lap six Grant once again was knocking on the door with Swanson joining the battle in third.

Grant was able to take the lead sliding past Smith on the inside out of turn four to complete lap eight. Grant was off the running from there, leading by more than a second as he caught lapped traffic by lap 12. As Smith and Swanson dueled, Grant was driving away up front.

But a lap-16 caution for a pair of cars off the pace bunched the leaders for another restart. Wyatt Burks worked his way into third on the restart with Swanson applying pressure to Grant.

Swanson kept chipping away running a lower groove as the laps clicked by and the two dealt with slower cars. Grant was able to hang on and capture his milestone victory - then climb gingerly from the car to celebrate. He suffered a broken left foot in a racing accident on July 27 at Lawrenceburg Speedway and drives with a specially-fitted boot on the surgically repaired foot.

"I can't thank all the people behind me enough. My wife Ashley, my parents, my grandma," Grant said. "Everybody that supports me. It hasn't been an easy weekend. We've been changing everything and working my guys to death and they're about sick of me, but it pays off when you win for them."

Grant paid special tribute to car owner Kevin Birchmeier.

"We've been through some really high highs and low lows together," Grant said. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Kevin. He supports me 100 percent."

Swanson, of Anaheim, Calif., said he felt like he had a shot at tracking down Grant. While proud of his strong run, it also was frustrating.

"I was driving my (butt) off, but he did a good job and didn't make any mistakes," Swanson said. "Obviously, he's one of the greatest to do this. It stings. I felt we had the best race car."

Burks came home in third with Michel Moles fourth and Logan Seavey fifth in USAC's first appearance at Lucas Oil Speedway in 19 years.

Logan Seavey set a new track record for non-wing sprints for his eighth fast-time of the season award on the series with a lap of 14.928 seconds. Brady Bacon (15.159, Sept. 8, 2006) held the previous record.

USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season points leader Kyle Cummins started 11th and finished ninth.

Simon wins INEX Legends feature: Trenton Simon of Joplin led all 20 laps to grab the INEX Legends feature win, beating Austin Azeez by 2.6 seconds. It was Simon's 14th win of the season.

Simon had built up a 3.5-second lead over Azeez when caution on lap nine slowed the action and took away his big margin. It didn’t take long for Simon to check out again after the restart and he dominated the remaining 11, caution-free laps.

"It was really a matter of finding out what the track was. I hadn't been here in a while," Simon said. "We made adjustments as the night went on and it paid off in the end."

Jay Reynolds finished third with Justin Comer fourth and Jett Stovall fifth after starting 16th. The Legends portion of the program was sponsored by Outlaw Plumbing.



LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY UNOFFICIAL. RESULTS (Sept. 6, 2025)
Rod End Supply Diamond Dirt Duel

USAC AMSOIL Sprints

A Feature - 1, 4 Justin Grant (4). 2, 5T Jake Swanson (5). 3, 5x Wyatt Burks (3). 4, 19AZ Mitchel Moles (2). 5, 57 Logan Seavey (6). 6, 63 Cale Coons (9). 7, 5G Gunnar Setser (8). 8 3R Kevin Thomas Jr. (7). 9, 3p Kyle Cummins (11). 10, 21AZ C.J. Leary (15). 11, 77 Jack Wagner (20). 12, 39 Briggs Danner (17). 13, 92 Chase Stockton (12). 14, 19 Hayden Reinbolt (14). 15, 5 Jadon Rogers (10). 16, 73 Samuel Wagner (16). 17, 2B Kale Drake (13). 18, 15E Dakota Earls (21). 19, 27 Justin Johnson (23). 20, 4x Braydon Cromwell (22). 21, 44 Wesley Smith (1). 22, 16 Anthony Nicholson (19). 23, 41 Clinton Boyles (18).

Car IQ Pay Heat 1 - Heat 1 - 1, Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R. 2, C.J. Leary, 21AZ. 3, Kyle Cummins, 3p. 4, Justin Grant, 4. 5, Briggs Danner, 39. 6, Logan Seavey, 57. 7, Jack Wagner, 77. 8, Justin Johnson, 27. 9, Kobe Simpson, 21K.

K1 Racegear Heat 2 - 1, Cale Coons, 63. 2, Wesley Smith 44. 3, Chase Stodckon, 92. 4, Hayden Reinbold, 19. 5, Clinton Boyles, 41. 6, Wyatt Burks, 5x. 7, Dakota Earls, 15E. 8, Brandon Mattox, 28.

USACgear.com Heat 3 - 1, Gunner Setser, 5G. 2, Kale Drake, 2B. 3, Samuel Wagner, 73. 4, Jadon Rogers, 5. 5, Jake Swanson, 5T. 6, Mitchel Moles, 19AZ. 7, Anthony Nicholson, 16. 8, Braydon Cromwell, 4x.

Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying - 1, Logan Seavey, No. 57, 14.928. 2, Brandon Mattox, 28, 15.262. 3, Jake Swanson, 5T, 15.301. 4, Justin Grant, 4, 15.439. 5, Wyatt Burks, 5x, 15.398. 6, Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, 15.446. 7, Kobe Simpson, 21K, 15.457. 8, Wesley Smith, 44, 15.480. 9, Jadon Rogers, 5, 15.497. 10, Kyle Cummins, 3p, 15.511. 11, Chase Stockton, 92, 15.532. 12, Kale Drake, 2B, 15.532. 13, Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, 15.549. 14, Hayden Reinbold, 19, 15.556. 15, Gunnar Setser, 5G, 15.581. 16, C.J. Leary, 21AZ, 15.588. 17, Cale Coons, 63, 15.729. 18, Samuel Wagner, 73, 15.746. 19, Briggs Danner, 39, 15.778. 20, Clinton Boyles, 41, 15.999. 21, Anthony Nicholson, 16, 16.257. 22, Jack Wagner, 77, 16.277. 23, Dakota Earls, 15E, 16.327. 24, Braydon Cromwell, 4x, 16.376. 25, Justin Johnson, 27, 16.612


INEX Legends

A Feature - 1. 72S-Trenton Simon[2]; 2. 48-Austin Azeez[4]; 3. 07-Jay Reynolds[5]; 4. 41-Justin Comer[7]; 5. 00-jett stovall[16]; 6. 1-Tanner Foster[20]; 7. 67-Eric Tracy[9]; 8. 01-Chance Gilbert[1]; 9. 57-Phil Burkybile Jr[10]; 10. 33Z-Zern Vess II[14]; 11. 7K-Kole Fry[12]; 12. 27-Trent Robinson[8]; 13. 11S-Michael Seitz[13]; 14. 55-Kenny Foster[18]; 15. 11-Vance Jenkins[19]; 16. 84-Corey Pope[15]; 17. 18-Joe Crum[17]; 18. 68-Jordan Myers[24]; 19. 25-Kaylie Sappington[25]; 20. 9-Rory Thompson[23]; 21. (DNF) 06-Lonnie Muhlbauer[11]; 22. (DNF) 24V-Ashley Vaughan[22]; 23. (DNF) 44-Matthew Bowen[3]; 24. (DNF) 82L-Chris Luttrull[6]; 25. (DNF) 2R-Ron Vaughan[21]

Heat 1 - 1. 72S-Trenton Simon[4]; 2. 48-Austin Azeez[6]; 3. 41-Justin Comer[2]; 4. 06-Lonnie Muhlbauer[1]; 5. 84-Corey Pope[5]; 6. 00-jett stovall[8]; 7. 1-Tanner Foster[7]; 8. 24V-Ashley Vaughan[9]; 9. 68-Jordan Myers[3]

Heat 2 - 1. 01-Chance Gilbert[8]; 2. 07-Jay Reynolds[1]; 3. 27-Trent Robinson[2]; 4. 57-Phil Burkybile Jr[5]; 5. 33Z-Zern Vess II[3]; 6. 18-Joe Crum[7]; 7. 11-Vance Jenkins[4]; 8. (DNS) 25-Kaylie Sappington

Heat 3 - 1. 44-Matthew Bowen[4]; 2. 82L-Chris Luttrull[1]; 3. 67-Eric Tracy[2]; 4. 7K-Kole Fry[3]; 5. 11S-Michael Seitz[6]; 6. 55-Kenny Foster[5]; 7. 2R-Ron Vaughan[7]; 8. 9-Rory Thompson[8]

Next up: Double barrel action returns to Lucas Oil Speedway next weekend with the Mad Dog Demolition Derby Tour and Easter Bowl Enduro 150 on the dirt oval. The 150-lap Enduro event, postponed by rain twice earlier this season, will pay $1,500 to win.

Pit and spectator gates open at 4 p.m. with the Demo Derby starting the action at 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, UTV Short-Course action returns to the Off Road track on Friday and Saturday. Tech is set from 8 a.m.-noon Friday with practice sessions from 12:25-4:15 p.m. On Saturday, racing is tentatively set to begin at 8 a.m. Classes in action include 200 stock: ages 5-12; 200 limited: ages 5-12; 250 modified: ages 7-12; 700cc and under: ages 10-15; youth 1k: ages 13-17; sportsman na: ages 14 and up; sportsman turbo: ages 14 and up; women's na: ages 13 and up; women's fi: ages 13 and up; vet na: ages 40 and over; vet fi: ages 40 and over; pro-am na: ages 18 and over; pro-am turbo: ages 18 and over, pro na: ages 18 and over; pro turbo: ages 18 and over.

For information on admission or camping for any Lucas Oil Speedway event in 2025, contact Admissions Director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-6119 or (417) 295-6043 or email her at nmcmillan@lucasoilspeedway.com for more information.