GRANT LIFTS THE LID, OPENS USAC MIDGET SEASON WITH KOKOMO GP WIN

Justin Grant was victorious in Saturday night’s USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship season opener at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway. (David Nearpass Photo)

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Kokomo, Indiana (April 25, 2026)………“I love Kokomo Speedway, and I love winning here even more.”

Justin Grant has done plenty of that in his career at the Indiana 1/4-mile dirt bullring, notching a total of 14 USAC national victories over the years, the majority of them in a sprint car.

But after finally tallying his first ever Kokomo USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship triumph one year ago, the Ione, California native repeated the feat once more during Saturday night’s Kokomo Grand Prix.

This time around, the fourth starting Grant raced his way into the lead past Zach Wigal on the 13th circuit of the 30-lap main event, then led the remaining 18 trips to put his CB Industries/NOS Energy Drink/Spike/Speedway Toyota into victory lane once again.

Grant’s latest triumph tied an all-time record for season opening USAC National Midget feature wins with his third on Saturday night at Kokomo. Grant had previously won the series season opener in 2017 at the Southern Illinois Center and again in 2022 at Florida’s Ocala Speedway.

Only three other drivers own three career USAC National Midget season opening victories: Steve Lotshaw, Tony Stewart and Rich Vogler. Each of those three can also count themselves as USAC National Midget champions, a group that Grant wants to accompany in 2026. After coming out swinging right out of the gate, Grant is certainly right on track.

“It’s awesome to get the first one and to get the first one of the season out of the way,” Grant exhaled. “We had a good year last year with (car owner) Chad (Boat) and this 87, and felt really good again tonight. I’m really excited, not only here, but for the whole midget schedule.”

Grant’s 97th career USAC national feature win was also the 21st of his USAC National Midget career. He surpassed A.J. Foyt on the all-time midget win list to move into a five-way tie for 31st place all-time alongside Steve Cannon, Jimmy Caruthers, Rex Easton and Ken Schrader.

Furthermore, Grant’s Kokomo score was the 600th midget feature win for the Toyota engine across several series, dating back to its very first win, the 2006 USAC Copper World Classic at Arizona’s Phoenix International Raceway, won by driver Dave Steele and car owner Steve Lewis.

Initially, pole starter Wigal darted out to the lead, narrowly nipping Jakeb Boxell at the stripe to pace the first lap. Meanwhile, Grant was hustling from his outside row two starting position, sliding by Boxell on the bottom of turn one on the eighth lap.

Over the next five laps, Grant steadily mowed down Wigal’s path as the front two plunged into lapped traffic. On lap 13, as Wigal approached the rear bumper of USAC debut-er Todd Kluever, Wigal’s momentum was snaggled. Simultaneously, Grant sprung to the outside of both Wigal and Kluever off the exit of turn four to assume his role as the new leader.

Grant, who stands at the top of the leaderboard in terms of all-time USAC National Sprint Car wins at Kokomo with 12, thoroughly demonstrated the fact that, in a midget, you can make maneuvers that might not necessarily be viable in a sprint car, such as the one that granted him the race lead on this night.

“Midgets are fun and they take a little bit of a different discipline,” Grant explained. “You can squeeze them into smaller holes and make things happen. Then, they are harder to finish on the other end because the motor bogs down and the guy will drive back by you. They’re easier to get yourself in and get by the guy, but they’re harder to keep them behind you. So, you’ve got to play things a little differently than you would in a sprint car. To find the last few percent, it’s quite a bit different from sprint car to midget, especially at places you’re familiar with. I’ve got so many sprint car habits here, I find myself having to be conscious of that and be conscious of breaking those habits when I get in the midget.”

In the meantime, Grant opened up a 10 car length lead over Wigal. Behind the top-two, it was a constant mad scramble for position between Boxell and his 4 Kings Racing teammate, Kevin Thomas Jr., as well as series Rookie Trevor Cline, all of whom exchanged spots a handful of times between them in the latter half of the race.

For Grant, it was practically a Carnival cruise during the final laps, although things got a bit too close for comfort with three laps to go. On lap 28, as Grant diamonded from the top of turn three to the bottom of turn four, the 20th place car of Rylan Gray suddenly closed up shop and headed for the infield, directly in front of Grant. Grant took evasive action by splitting to the right between Gray and 21st running Brandon Carr. It was no harm, no foul for Grant, as it turned out.

Down the stretch, nothing stopped the train that Grant kept a rollin’ as he crossed the finish line 2.796 seconds ahead of runner-up Zach Wigal, while Jacob Denney scurried from the inside of row 10 to round out the podium in third place. Kevin Thomas Jr. took fourth while Boxell tallied fifth.

Grant also led the most laps in the feature (18) to earn the K & N Filters Clean Air Award.

Meanwhile, Denney has passed an astounding 32 cars in his past two USAC National Midget feature starts at Kokomo. He advanced 16 positions on Saturday from his 19th starting spot to finish third and earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors. Last June, he also passed 16, going 17th to first.

Kevin Thomas Jr. set a new all-time USAC National Midget record in LearnLab Qualifying. His lap of 13.074 seconds at Kokomo provided him his fifth career opening night fast qualifying time with the series. That broke a record he had previously held along with the incomparable Mel Kenyon. Interestingly, of KTJ’s 11 career fast qualifying times with the series, five have come on opening night.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: April 25, 2026 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – 8th Kokomo Grand Prix

LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-13.074; 2. Colton Robinson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.176; 3. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.176; 4. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-13.230; 5. Jakeb Boxell, 54, 4 Kings-13.233; 6. Trevor Cline, 55, Cline-13.311; 7. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-13.331; 8. Zach Wigal, 18, O’Dell-13.331; 9. Hayden Wise, 94, Ninety-Four-13.361; 10. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-13.415; 11. Brecken Reese, 20Q, Reese-13.425; 12. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-13.436; 13. Rylan Gray, 81G, Gray-13.449; 14. Mack Leopard, 14L, McDermand-13.464; 15. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, Engler-13.473; 16. Kale Drake, 4, RMS-13.475; 17. Chelby Hinton, 4B, Klatt-13.551; 18. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.581; 19. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-13.637; 20. Kyle Jones, 7TX, Engler-13.652; 21. Brandon Carr, 98K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.777; 22. Bradley Cox, 45, Mason-13.892; 23. Todd Kluever, 55K, TK2-13.908; 24. Adam Taylor, 7T, ATM-14.143; 25. Robert Carson, 99K, Carson-14.998.

K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gunnar Setser (3), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 3. Kale Drake (1), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Hayden Reinbold (7), 6. Rylan Gray (2), 7. Robert Carson (9), 8. Bradley Cox (8), 9. Logan Seavey (4). NT

TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jakeb Boxell (5), 2. Zach Wigal (4), 3. Chelby Hinton (1), 4. Brecken Reese (3), 5. Colton Robinson (6), 6. Kyle Jones (7), 7. Todd Kluever (8), 8. Mack Leopard (2). NT

K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ethan Mitchell (3), 2. Thomas Meseraull (2), 3. Gavin Miller (1), 4. Trevor Cline (5), 5. Hayden Wise (4), 6. Brandon Carr (7), 7. Jacob Denney (6), 8. Adam Taylor (8). NT

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (4), 2. Zach Wigal (1), 3. Jacob Denney (19), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 5. Jakeb Boxell (3), 6. Trevor Cline (2), 7. Gunnar Setser (7), 8. Kale Drake (13), 9. Chelby Hinton (14), 10. Ethan Mitchell (8), 11. Colton Robinson (5), 12. Gavin Miller (15), 13. Thomas Meseraull (12), 14. Logan Seavey (20), 15. Hayden Reinbold (16), 16. Brecken Reese (10), 17. Hayden Wise (9), 18. Kyle Jones (17), 19. Bradley Cox (24), 20. Mack Leopard (23), 21. Brandon Carr (18), 22. Adam Taylor (25), 23. Todd Kluever (21), 24. Rylan Gray (11), 25. Robert Carson (22). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Zach Wigal, Laps 13-30 Justin Grant.

**Mack Leopard flipped during the second heat.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-78, 2-Zach Wigal-74, 3-Kevin Thomas Jr.-74, 4-Jacob Denney-70, 5-Jakeb Boxell-68, 6-Trevor Cline-61, 7-Gunnar Setser-60, 8-Kale Drake-55, 9-Chelby Hinton-52, 10-Ethan Mitchell-51.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Logan Calderwood-36, 2-Briggs Danner-28, 3-Cale Coons-28, 4-Robert Ballou-25, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-24, 6-Chelby Hinton-22, 7-Justin Grant-21, 8-Hayden Reinbold-20, 9-Chase Stockon-18, 10-Brady Bacon-18.

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: April 26, 2026 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – 8th Kokomo Grand Prix

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Kevin Thomas Jr. (13.154)

LearnLab Fast Qualifier: Kevin Thomas Jr. (13.074)

K1 RaceGear First Heat Winner: Gunnar Setser

TJ Forged Second Heat Winner: Jakeb Boxell

K & N Filters Third Heat Winner: Ethan Mitchell

K & N Filters Clean Air Award: Justin Grant (18 laps led)

Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Jacob Denney (19th to 3rd)