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Grant Wins From Eighth, Seavey Wears Crown

Justin Grant (Matt Butcosk photo)

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.

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 spot to win Saturday night’s six-race miniseries finale, making his winning move on Brady Bacon with four laps remaining.

The $10,000 triumph was the ninth of Grant’s career with the series at the three-eighths-mile dirt track and the 66th of his career. 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 race car 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.

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. “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 controlled the feature for nearly the entire distance. 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.

On lap 14, 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.

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.

On the 32nd trip around Ocala, the caution was displayed for ninth running Briggs Danner who came to a rest after 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 on his rear bumper.

Grant came alive during the final nine laps. 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, breezed past Bacon for the lead. 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.

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 improved 29 positions to earn the WDG Parallax Group Passing Master title.

Logan Seavey (John Dadalt photo)
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Ocala Speedway, Ocala, Fla., Feb. 14, 2026

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

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

https://speedsport.com/sprints-midgets/usac/grant-wins-from-eighth-seavey-wears-crown/

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