”I love sprint cars on half-miles.”

For Justin Grant, it’s easy to see why he’d say that following Saturday night’s feature victory during round four of USAC Eastern Storm Presented by Levan Machine & Truck Equipment at Pennsylvania’s Port Royal Speedway.

After all, 17 of Grant’s USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship main event wins have come on dirt tracks of that particular distance, which ranks as the fifth most by any driver in series history.

Furthermore, the Ione, California racer’s 58th overall USAC National Sprint Car win moved him one step closer to the all-time series record and now stands just three shy of Brady Bacon (61) for second place and four behind all-time leader Dave Darland (62).

But most miraculously, 50 of Grant’s 58 career USAC National Sprint Car triumphs have come in a car owned by TOPP Motorsports. Grant and TOPP’s 50th win together tied Brady Bacon / Hoffman Auto Racing as the winningest driver/entrant combo in series history.

Grant’s fourth win of the USAC National Sprint Car season arrived Saturday in non-stop, caution free fashion after he surpassed racelong leader Briggs Danner for the lead with 12 laps remaining, then had to stave off his relentless attacks down the stretch to become the first multi-time main event winner of Eastern Storm 2025.

In the process, Grant established a new 30-lap USAC track record at Port Royal, completing the distance in a mere 10:53.663 aboard his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – TOPP Industries – LA Poly/Maxim/Kistler Chevy.

Just as he did the year prior when he led the initial 22 laps, outside front row starter Danner established the early pace and thoroughly dominated the first half of the feature. In the meantime, Grant displayed his meddle early in the going as he advanced from fifth to second within the first three circuits all while experiencing the ever changing track conditions.

“Honestly, the track had changed so much,” Grant explained. “Normally you get going on the cushion, so I kind of pick it a part the first few laps and get settled in. But every couple of laps, it was changing and never for the good. It was getting harder every time.”

Despite the early maneuvering, Grant still had much ground to make up as Danner’s lead had ballooned to a full three seconds by the 15th lap. That said, slowly but surefootedly, Grant edged his way back into the fold as Danner combed through the back end of the field, which subsequently sliced Danner’s advantage to under one second.

On the 19th lap, Danner ducked low in turn one to place 14th running Kayla Roell a lap down. But as Danner slid through turns one and two, he drifted up toward the outside guardrail. At that same moment, Grant got an excellent bite through the middle that propelled him past Danner at the exit of two and into the lead with only 12 laps to go.

“Getting by Briggs there, I was just hoping to catch him in lapped traffic, and I knew I could catch myself in the middle off two if I ran a soft slider across there,” Grant recalled. “I was hoping I could get to him with a run off four behind lapped traffic one time and it worked out really good. Other than that, I didn’t really know what I was going to do. But it worked.”

Danner refused to go quietly into the night and remained in lockstep with Grant as the laps dwindled down. With nine to go, Danner returned fire by making another run at Grant and pulled even before slotting back behind, which served notice to Grant which gave proof through the night that he was still right there.

“I kept looking at the flagman like, ‘are you sure? Where’s the white? Let’s finish this thing,’” Grant reflected. “I about crashed a couple times getting into three. One time, real big! I got way biked up and started having to cheat my entrance into three, which doesn’t get you a good run off four. But I was bicycling every other time trying to make speed. It’s tough. You get to leading and it’s like you can’t beat yourselves here, but when you have a guy like Briggs behind you, you know he’s smashing and getting everything he can out of it trying to hunt you down.”

On the final lap, Danner had closed his deficit to Grant down to a single car length. Through turn three, Grant’s left eye was full of Danner who had once again surged even alongside. It all played into Grant’s mindset after his most recent Port Royal start, in a USAC Silver Crown car in June of 2024, which saw him get passed for the win on the final turn of the final lap.

“I wasn’t really surprised to see Briggs coming to the white,” Grant admitted. “I was having flashbacks, I can tell you that. Trying to find that balance of not getting soft and not crashing yourself, especially in three and four, and trying to figure out what to do in one and two, really, it was a tricky and fun to race.”

Ultimately, Grant successfully kept Danner at bay en route to victory by a 0.759 second margin over runner-up Briggs Danner with Eastern Storm point leader Kyle Cummins third, Mitchel Moles fourth and Robert Ballou rounding out the top-five after starting 12th.

(full unofficial results listed below from Port Royal Speedway)

Results: USAC National Sprints Eastern Storm At Port Royal Speedway

1. Justin Grant (5)

2. Briggs Danner (2)

3. Kyle Cummins (4)

 4. Mitchel Moles (3)

5. Robert Ballou (12)

6. Jake Swanson (7)

7. C.J. Leary (1)

 8. Logan Seavey (6)

9. Gunnar Setser (9)

10. Hayden Reinbold (8)

11. Kale Drake (10)

12. Kevin Thomas Jr. (11)

 13. Joey Amantea (14)

 14. Kayla Roell (13)

15. Steven Drevicki (15)

 16. Ed Aikin (16)

17. Dale Schweikart (17)

 18. Jason Cherry (18)

 19. Olivia Thayer (19)

20. Braydon Cromwell (21)

21. Billy Ney (22)

 22. Dirk Rimrott (20)