Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Dirt Track RacingSprint CarsUSAC

GRANT RACKS UP 2ND STRAIGHT MIKE CURB USAC NATIONAL DRIVERS TITLE IN 2022

Courtesy USAC Media Relations (Josh James Artwork Photo)

Speedway, Indiana (November 28, 2022)………Justin Grant had a special season on the USAC trail in 2022, and along with it comes the special awards.

For the second consecutive year, the Ione, Calif. native captured the Mike Curb USAC National Drivers Championship. For Grant, it’s his third such title, having earned the reward in 2017, 2021 and now 2022.

Grant becomes just the fourth driver to win the honor on three different occasions, joining J.J. Yeley (2001-2002-2003) and Bryan Clauson (2010-2011-2012). Tracy Hines has won the award more times than anybody else, on four occasions in 2000, 2008, 2013 and 2014.

No other driver started every USAC national event throughout the year and no other driver accumulated more total points throughout the three national divisions during the course of the 2022 campaign than Grant.

In 82 combined USAC national starts in 2022, the Ione, Calif. native totaled 4,991 points, more than a thousand markers over his nearest competition, earning a $10,000 bonus.

“It’s a neat reward,” Grant exclaimed. “It’s cool to be acknowledged for being at the front of all three series throughout the course of the year. Anything with Mike Curb’s name on it carries some weight. He’s been a staple in USAC racing for a long time and winning an award with his name on it is really neat and it’s even neater that it pays a few more bucks this year.”

Grant’s 2022 journey included a first USAC National Sprint Car driving championship and he was the lone driver to win feature in all three series during the year with one Silver Crown victory, six in the sprint cars and five more in midgets.

It’s something that Grant doesn’t take for granted, not the first time he corralled the overall USAC National Drivers Championship, nor the second or third time as well.

“Driving with USAC specifically is what I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid,” Grant said. “To be in the position to run all these races and to do this is amazing and I want to do as much of it as I can. I’m really fortunate to have great car owners, great partners and great crews and the ability to go and run all these races is really on them with how much they provide for me and how hard they work to keep me going, beating up and down the road.”

As Grant alluded to, it’ takes more than a driver to make it all work. There are several facets that work to make it a success and three teams in which Grant competed for to achieve the feat: Hemelgarn Racing (Silver Crown), TOPP Motorsports (Sprint Car) and RMS Racing (Midget).

“I get to come in and be the hero at the end of the night,” Grant continued. “It’s really a lot about all about them and my wife at home taking care of the kids and holding the house down while I’m out on the road racing. I’ve just got a really good circle around me, great car owners, great partners, great crews, great wife and a great family. There’s a ton of people on the backend that you don’t see on FloRacing who make it possible for everybody to see me on FloRacing every night.”

Curb has offered the reward annually since the 1999 USAC season, and now in his 24th year of bestowing the honor upon USAC’s top overall points champion. The title was rechristened as the National Drivers Championship to more properly represent the accomplishment of achieving the feat, which so few have done.

The prize had previously been known as the USAC National Drivers Championship for a span of three years between 2010-2012 as well as the Super License in recent years.

The new Mike Curb USAC National Drivers Champion will be honored at USAC’s Night of Champions in December of 2022.

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MIKE CURB USAC NATIONAL DRIVERS CHAMPIONS:

1999: Dave Darland

2000: Tracy Hines

2001: J.J. Yeley

2002: J.J. Yeley

2003: J.J. Yeley

2004: Jay Drake

2005: Josh Wise

2006: Josh Wise

2007: Jerry Coons Jr.

2008: Tracy Hines

2009: Cole Whitt

2010: Bryan Clauson

2011: Bryan Clauson

2012: Bryan Clauson

2013: Tracy Hines

2014: Tracy Hines

2015: Dave Darland

2016: Brady Bacon

2017: Justin Grant

2018: Tyler Courtney

2019: Tyler Courtney

2020: Chris Windom

2021: Justin Grant

2022: Justin Grant

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2022 MIKE CURB USAC NATIONAL DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

1.           4,991    Justin Grant

2.           3,968    Logan Seavey

3.           3,164    C.J. Leary

4.           3,117    Mitchel Moles

5.           2,910    Brady Bacon

6.           2,819    Emerson Axsom

7.           2,670    Thomas Meseraull

8.           2,388    Buddy Kofoid

9.           2,369    Robert Ballou

10.        2,148    Jason McDougal

11.        2,079    Matt Westfall

12.        1,910    Jake Swanson

13.        1,864    Chase Stockon

14.        1,829    Kyle Cummins

15.        1,736    Jadon Rogers

16.        1,726    Kaylee Bryson

17.        1,669    Bryant Wiedeman

18.        1,666    Cannon McIntosh

19.        1,439    Kevin Thomas Jr

20.        1,306    Jacob Denney

21.        1,290    Brenham Crouch

22.        1,279    Zach Daum

23.        1,244    Taylor Reimer

24.        1,130    Shane Cottle

25.        1,039    Brandon Mattox

26.        1,021    Ethan Mitchell

27.        977       Hayden Reinbold

28.        956       Chance Crum

29.        930       Jade Avedisian

30.        783       Dominic Gorden

31.        760       Chase McDermand

32.        697       Max Adams

33.        675       Tanner Thorson

34.        668       Kody Swanson

35.        632       Briggs Danner

36.        596       Ryan Timms

37.        585       Jace Park

38.        575       Cade Lewis

39.        569       Alex Banales

40.        525       Mario Clouser

41.        518       Brian Tyler

42.        504       Maria Cofer

43.        488       Daison Pursley

44.        455       Shane Cockrum

45.        454       Charles Davis Jr

46.        431       Alex Bright

47.        428       Mariah Ede

48.        420       Trey Gropp

49.        404       Travis Welpott

50.        379       Dallas Hewitt

51.        332       Cole Bodine & Bobby Santos

53.        327       Xavier Doney

54.        325       Kyle Robbins

55.        322       Brent Beauchamp

56.        319       Gregg Cory

57.        314       Sterling Cling

58.        264       Blake Brannon

59.        255       Taylor Ferns

60.        244       Dave Berkheimer

61.        242       Carson Short

62.        236       Travis Buckley

63.        230       Nathan Byrd

64.        229       Davey Hamilton Jr

65.        223       Eric Gordon

66.        220       Kyle Shipley

67.        218       Wyatt Burks

68.        216       Ricky Lewis

69.        210       Gavin Miller

70.        208       Brady Short

71.        202       Carmen Perigo

72.        199       Derek Bischak

73.        197       Mike McVetta

74.        194       Sam Johnson

75.        189       Steven Drevicki

76.        178       Bryan Gossel

77.        174       Brian Ruhlman

78.        172       Harley Burns

79.        157       Tom Paterson

80.        156       Jack Hoyer

81.        154       Casey Buckman

82.        153       Brian Hayden

83.        147       Russ Gamester

84.        143       Brayden Fox

85.        142       Austin Nemire

86.        141       Davey Ray

87.        129       Nick Bilbee & Kyle O’Gara

89.        127       Dustin Clark

90.        119       Nick Hamilton

91.        118       Mike Haggenbottom

92.        113       Jerry Coons Jr

93.        101       Tanner Swanson

94.        100       Patrick Bruns

95.        98          Steve Buckwalter

96.        95          Braxton Cummings

97.        93          Jake Day

98.        91          Kyle Steffens

99.        89          Brandon Morin

100.      88          Patrick Lawson & Landon Simon

102.      87          Kaidon Brown

103.      82          Jimmy Light

104.      74          Kendall Ruble

105.      64          Chad Boespflug & Tyler Roahrig

107.      63          Adam Taylor

108.      59          J.R. Ewing

109.      56          Rylan Gray

110.      55          Saban Bibent & Bill Rose

112.      51          Danny Long

113.      46          Terry Babb

114.      43          Jake Simmons

115.      42          Dave Peperak

116.      41          A.J. Fike & Chris Windom

118.      39          Matt Goodnight

119.      38          Korey Weyant

120.      37          Tye Mihocko

121.      36          Cary Oliver

122.      34          Oliver Akard

123.      33          Nathan Moore, Steven Russell & Kent Schmidt

126.      31          Mark Smith & Chris Urish

128.      27          Ryan Newman

129.      25          Mark Bitner

130.      24          Chris Fetter

131.      18          Tommy Nichols

132.   10        David Byrne, Chelby Hinton, Anthony Macri, Nate McMillin & Ronnie Wuerdeman