NEWMANSTOWN, Pa. — Justin Grant picked up his first USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget Championship victory of the season in Saturday night’s Eastern Midget Week finale at Lanco’s Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway.
Grant and RMS Racing found the perfect formula to put them on top with the California driver banging the rails around the high-banked, eighth-mile dirt oval, leading the final 18 circuits and fending off point leader Buddy Kofoid down the stretch to win the 40-lap feature.
Grant’s breakthrough also made him the first driver of the season to win in all three USAC National series — Silver Crown, National Sprint Car and National Midget — all cars in which he’s won in during the last 17 days.
Grant’s midget victory came after four second-place finishes this season.
“It feels great to get this car into victory lane, finally,” Grant exhaled. “Everybody really works really hard on this car, and they’ve given me a great car all year long. We’ve run second a ton and I was just getting frustrated and getting tired of not getting these guys a win. It feels really good to do it for them.”
Grant began his race from the pole position but didn’t stay there too long as outside front row starter Tanner Thorson, motored away to the lead for the opening two trips.
Outside second row starter Emerson Axsom, meanwhile, burst to the head of the field by dipping under Thorson between turns one and two on the third lap. Axsom then countered Thorson’s slide job attempt moments later in turn three to secure the position for the time being.
The first stoppage of the feature came on lap six when 10th running Cannon McIntosh launched like a missile into the turn one catchfence.
While Axsom remained in control on the 19th lap, Grant and Daison Pursley were in the midst of a manic duel for second. Grant made an attempt for the position underneath while Pursley attempted to eke around the outside of Grant. Pursley ran out of room at the exit and ramped up the guardrail with his right-side wheels before coming back down on all fours.
Slowing in the middle of the groove on the back straightaway, Pursley was nailed in the tail tank by Brett Wanner who stopped following the contact and was subsequently tagged by Chase Randall.
The third try proved to be the charm for Grant following the restart. Between turns three and four on the 20th lap, Grant fired his first shot by slide jobbing Axsom, but Axsom quickly cut down and reemerged at the front of the field. Grant proceeded with another try in turn one on lap 21 with the same result.
Grant tucked in behind Axsom and followed in three and four, setting up the clincher with a slider in turn one that stuck, and also stuck him into the lead on the 22nd lap.
Axsom took one more grasp at the lead, briefly getting by Grant in turn one on lap 24, but Grant buckled down, passed him back underneath and took off in a race that was plagued by a bevy of cautions early on.
The yellow flag struck again on the 25th lap when Thomas Meseraull backed into the turn three wall, collecting Taylor Reimer, Hayden Reinbold and Kevin Woody Jr.
Just three laps after Grant spurted away with a fantastic lap-25 restart in which he exploded out to a 1.265-second lead, trouble found fifth running Kevin Thomas Jr. who slowed with a puff of smoke emanating from the headers and a trail of fluid showering the track behind him.
With nine laps remaining, Kofoid had tracked down Axsom and raced by for second in turn one, while Grant held a near insurmountable advantage ahead of Kofoid, 2.5 seconds in front, an interval which was soon erased when the night’s third red flag was displayed for Hayden Reinbold (11th) and Kenney Johnson (12th) who both flipped down the front straightaway.
The plethora of yellows threw a monkey wrench into Grant’s visions of triumph.
“You never know how good you’re going to get away on the restart,” Grant explained. “These little places are so susceptible to receiving a big bomb into one. Then, it all goes out the window. It doesn’t matter how good your car is. Then, it becomes a matter of playing the sliders and the crossover. Fortunately, we didn’t have to do any of that. This car was awesome, it would just drive away on the restarts.”
With Kofoid on his rear bumper for the restart with eight laps to go, Grant dug deep and laid down a perfect restart once again, distancing himself from Kofoid almost instantaneously while carrying a five car length lead ahead of Kofoid as he crossed the stripe to complete the 33rd lap.
Grant closed out his sixth career USAC National Midget feature win by a 0.670-second margin with Buddy Kofoid second, Emerson Axsom third, Chris Windom fourth and Daison Pursley fifth.
Kofoid finished second.
“You just had to be perfect on the top, but even the best make mistakes,” Kofoid said. “I saw Justin make a mistake, and right when he’d make one, I would follow him and make the same mistake. I’d stay with him, make a mistake, and he’d pull away, then I’d get back to him, but I couldn’t quite get close enough to get a shot at him.”
To see full results, turn to the next page.