Justin Grant had won just about every event the Terre Haute Action Track has to offer over the years under the USAC banner. However, after 15 tries dating back to the year 2010, he had come up snake eyes in terms of capturing victory at the Tony Hulman Classic.

Overall, Grant had reigned victorious five times at the western Indiana 1/2-mile dirt oval between USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship and USAC Silver Crown competition. He picked off the Jim Hurtubise Classic in 2019 before grabbing the Don Smith Classic in 2020 and 2023. With the Crown car, he’d won the Sumar Classic twice in 2018 and 2022. Yet, to date, his best Hulman Classic result was a runner-up finish back in 2020.

All that said, it turned out it was the 16th start that was the charm for Grant to finally get his Hulman Classic rifle. No driver in Friday night’s Terre Haute field owned more Hulman Classic feature starts than Grant, and throughout the 30-lap feature, no driver could keep up with Grant and his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – TOPP Industries – LA Poly/Maxim/Kistler Chevy.

Starting fourth on the grid, Grant (Ione, California) charged by Mitchel Moles on the fourth lap and led the remaining 27 laps to earn his sixth career USAC victory at Terre Haute, his series-leading 11th USAC National Sprint Car triumph of the 2025 season, the all-time leading 65th series win of his career, and on this night, most importantly, his first ever Hulman Classic win, which completed yet another task on his personal checklist.

“I’ve been really fortunate to have some success here at Terre Haute, but I’ve never been able to get a rifle,” Grant stated. “I’ve wanted to win the Hulman awfully bad and we’ve been close a few times. This one feels really good tonight.”

Grant’s $10,000 score came on a night in which Pancho Carter was on hand to serve as the grand marshal 50 years after his first Hulman Classic win in 1975. Eventually, Carter won the race again in 1979 to become the first two-time Hulman Classic winner. On Friday night, Pancho was there in victory lane to present the rifle to Grant and officially welcome him into the exclusive Hulman Classic winners club.

“To win the Hulman, especially with Pancho Carter as the grand marshal, that’s really neat. I saw him earlier and I’m glad he’s handing me a rifle now. He’s not nearly as scary as he was back when I first moved back here,” Grant said with a laugh.

USAC National Sprint Cars Results: Tony Hulman Classic At Terre Haute

 1. Justin Grant (4)

2. C.J. Leary (3)

3. Ricky Lewis (10)

 4. Kyle Cummins (6)

5. Jake Swanson (11)

 6. Kevin Thomas Jr. (1)

7. Chase Stockon (5)

 8. Hayden Reinbold (15)

9. Gunnar Setser (7)

 10. Briggs Danner (9)

11. Logan Seavey (8)

12. Shane Cottle (19)

13. Saban Bibent (14)

14. Chance Crum (13)

15. Wyatt Burks (12)

 16. Brandon Mattox (16)

 17. Adam Taylor (21)

18. Tony Helton (20)

19. Mitchel Moles (2)

 20. Hunter Maddox (17)

21. Todd Hobson (18). NT