Justin Grant wins USAC Sprint Cars Florida finale at Ocala, Seavey is Winter Dirt Games champ
Photo by Dave Olson
OCALA, Fla.—Justin Grant rarely leaves Florida without scoring at least a single victory, and he wasn’t about to let himself and his team walk away from the Sunshine State empty handed this time around either.
Instead, he went ahead and saved the best for last.
The winningest USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship driver overall, at Ocala Speedway and in Winter Dirt Games Presented by Yokohama Tire history roared from the eighth starting spotting to win Saturday night’s six-race miniseries finale, making his winning move on Brady Bacon just four laps from the finish line.
The $10,000 triumph was the ninth of Grant’s career with the series at Ocala’s 3/8-mile D-shaped dirt track and the 66th overall of his career with the series. Furthermore, it’s his 95th career USAC national win across the board, five away from becoming the fifth driver to reach the century mark.
Late in the going, Grant found a new line to his liking, taking his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – TOPP Industries – LA Poly/Maxim/Stanton Chevy deep into turn one, then diamonding his way to the bottom of turn two to gain a massive run down the back straightaway to make his way from fourth to first in the final nine lap stint.
“Everybody kept talking about how single file it is,” Grant stated. “We just kept saying, ‘well, we’re just not good enough yet. We’ve got to keep working on it and make it better.’ We finally got the racecar cooperating with my feet and what I was wanting to do with the car.”
It all came to fruition after Grant finished dead last eighth out of eight drivers in the six-lap dash to determine the starting lineup for the 40-lap feature. That put the Ione, California native on the outside of the fourth row for the main event. Up to that point, it had been a relatively frustrating week for Grant and his crew with results of 17th, 11th and 6th during the first three nights at Ocala.
“We fought gremlins all week and we were really in a hole,” Grant said matter of factly. “Jeff Walker, Nic Mansker, Kevin Birchmeier and everybody who works on this car just sticks with me the all the time. No matter what’s going on and no matter how bad, everybody’s always pumping me up and doing whatever I ask. I know I can be a pain trying to get the thing the way I wanted but they’ll work in circles for me.”
Bacon, who just so happens to be the second winningest driver in USAC’s history at Ocala with six scores, captured the dash and then controlled the feature for nearly the entire distance after starting from the pole position. For most of it, Bacon was followed by Kyle Cummins and Mitchel Moles, a top-three running order which remained unchanged over the course of the first 33 laps.
However, none were keen on standing pat. On lap 14, 2025 Winter Dirt Games champion Cummins made his bid for the lead as he slid past Bacon in turn four. But after sliding all the way up to the cushion, Bacon sliced his way back under at the exit of turn four to reassume the position and lead Cummins to the stripe by a wheel.
Just prior to the halfway point, Grant began to surge, moving to fifth past Jake Swanson on lap 16, then to fourth on the 18th lap by Seavey. On the 23rd circuit, Grant briefly slid Moles for third in turn four, but Moles ably dipped back under to retake the spot before zeroing in on Cummins for the runner-up position.
On the 32nd trip around Ocala, the caution was displayed for ninth running Briggs Danner who came to a rest after backend contact with the outside concrete wall in turns three and four. At the same exact moment, Cummins seemingly caught a break after he slipped over the edge in turn four and lost two spots as Moles and Grant flashed by to second and third spot, respectively. However, the yellow flag negated the moves, putting Cummins back into second with Moles and Grant back on his rear bumper.
Similar to Peter Frampton on his monumental 1976 live album, Grant came alive during the final nine laps after the ensuing restart. First, he disposed of Moles right away as he charged under to third with a major run down the back stretch on the lap 32 resumption after fighting to get by Moles for the previous 14 laps.
“I had a really hard time getting by Mitchel there because he was making ground in the same spot I was making my ground,” Grant explained. “I finally got him put away, then I felt like, okay, now we can go win the race.”
It only took Grant one more lap to find second as he utilized yet another big run down the back stretch to slide under Cummins in turns three and four. Next, he went to work on Bacon who’d grown his lead to roughly six car lengths with merely six laps to go.
Grant ate up the deficit in no time, and on the 37th go around, he once again ate up Bacon on the back straight, then breezed by to occupy the number one spot once and for all. From there, it was no contest as Grant ran his lead out to 1.542 seconds at the finish line to win the race over Bacon, Cummins, Moles and Logan Seavey.
Grant not only won the thing, he did it in style after advancing seven positions from his original starting spot, which earned him the night’s Rod End Supply Hard Charger award. He was the first hard charger to also win a USAC National Sprint Car race since Briggs Danner’s sixth to first performance at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway in July 2025.
Seavey experienced the most lucrative night, capturing the overall 2026 Winter Dirt Games championship by three points and one on track position over Bacon. Seavey earned the most points throughout the six-race series this past week at Volusia Speedway Park and Ocala. The top-five in WDG points earned a payday with Seavey pocketing $12,000 followed by Bacon ($6,000), Cummins ($3,000), Swanson ($2,000) and Chase Stockon ($1,000).
Nobody passed more cars throughout the Winter Dirt Games XVII series than Bacon. In six starts, he amassed a total of 29 positions advanced to earn the WDG Parallax Group Passing Master title. Furthermore, he experienced clean air for the high majority of 40-lap distance on Saturday night, leading 36 of them en route to a runner-up result. In the end, the number of laps Bacon led on the night provided him the K & N Filters Clean Air award.
To say the least, it had been a challenging week for Ricky Lewis. Plagued by misfortune every night of Winter Dirt Games with finishes of 16th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd and 21st, he was due for a solid run. He finally left the track on a good note in the Ocala finale, racing from 19th to 12th to earn the Sober Joe Coffee Co. Recovery of the Night.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: February 14, 2026 – Ocala Speedway – Ocala, Florida – Winter Dirt Games XVII Presented by Yokohama Tire – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (#39 Hogue) (2), 2. Trey Osborne (#6T Osborne) (1), 3. Harley Burns (#16 Britt Aero) (4), 4. Gunnar Setser (#5G KO) (3), 5. Ryan Harrison (#97UK Harrison) (6), 6. Logan Calderwood (#6 Calderwood) (5). 1:56.270
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (#4 TOPP) (2), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (#3R Rock Steady) (1), 3. Robert Ballou (#12 Ballou) (3), 4. Tom Harris (#84 Harris) (4), 5. Ricky Lewis (#41 Lewis) (5), 6. Chase Howard (#13 Howard) (6). 1:53.977
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jake Swanson (#5T Daming Swanson) (1), 2. Chelby Hinton (#2B 2B Racing) (2), 3. Jadon Rogers (#14 Rogers) (3), 4. Cale Coons (#63 Dooling/Curb-Agajanian) (4). 1:56.270
USAC GEAR DASH: (6 laps, determines feature starting positions) 1. Brady Bacon (#20 Dyson) (1), 2. Mitchel Moles (#19AZ Reinbold-Underwood) (2), 3. Kyle Cummins (#3p Petty) (3), 4. Chase Stockon (#92 Sertich) (4), 5. Briggs Danner (6), 6. Logan Seavey (#57 Abacus) (5), 7. Jake Swanson (8), 8. Justin Grant (7). 1:27.980
ALSO AT THE TRACK: C.J. Leary (#30 Leary)
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (8), 2. Brady Bacon (1), 3. Kyle Cummins (3), 4. Mitchel Moles (2), 5. Logan Seavey (6), 6. Jake Swanson (7), 7. Robert Ballou (13), 8. Chase Stockon (4), 9. Kevin Thomas Jr. (10), 10. Jadon Rogers (14), 11. Trey Osborne (9), 12. Ricky Lewis (19), 13. Cale Coons (17), 14. Briggs Danner (5), 15. Logan Calderwood (21), 16. Chelby Hinton (11), 17. Chase Howard (22), 18. Tom Harris (16), 19. Gunnar Setser (15), 20. Harley Burns (12), 21. Ryan Harrison (18), 22. C.J. Leary (20). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-36 Brady Bacon, Laps 37-40 Justin Grant.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-405, 2-Brady Bacon-402, 3-Kyle Cummins-386, 4-Jake Swanson-378, 5-Chase Stockon-372, 6-Justin Grant-357, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-356, 8-Mitchel Moles-347, 9-Trey Osborne-324, 10-Briggs Danner-315.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Cale Coons-22, 2-Logan Calderwood-22, 3-Brady Bacon-18, 4-Chelby Hinton-17, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-16, 6-Robert Ballou-16, 7-Chase Stockon-15, 8-Tom Harris-15, 9-Jadon Rogers-12, 10-Chase Howard-12.
WINTER DIRT GAMES XVII PARALLAX GROUP PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-29, 2-Chelby Hinton-28, 3-Cale Coons-25, 4-Chase Stockon-23, 5-Logan Calderwood-23, 6-Robert Ballou-22, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-21, 8-Briggs Danner-21, 9-Jadon Rogers-20, 10-Kyle Cummins-19.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: April 3, 2026 – Red Hill Raceway – Sumner, Illinois – 4/10-Mile Dirt Track
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Winter Dirt Games Champion: Logan Seavey
Winter Dirt Games Parallax Group Passing Master Champion: Brady Bacon (29)
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Kyle Cummins (14.296)
K1 RaceGear First Heat Winner: Briggs Danner
TJ Forged Second Heat Winner: Justin Grant
K & N Filters Third Heat Winner: Jake Swanson
USAC Gear Dash Winner: Brady Bacon
K & N Filters Clean Air Award: Brady Bacon (36 laps led)
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Justin Grant (8th to 1st)
Sober Joe’s Coffee Recovery of the Night: Ricky Lewis
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