Justin Grant Wins 5th Career Mike Curb USAC National Drivers Championship

Story By: RICHIE MURRAY / USAC – SPEEDWAY, IN – Although his left foot was shattered, battered and tattered for the second half of the 2025 USAC national season, Justin Grant managed to pull through it all to earn the Mike Curb USAC National Drivers Championship for the fifth time in his career.

The Ione, California native collected $15,000 after earning a total of 4,982 points across USAC’s three national divisions in 2025 (Silver Crown, AMSOIL National Sprint & NOS Energy Drink National Midget). In doing so, he became the first five-time titlist of the Mike Curb USAC National Drivers Championship (2017-2021-2022-2023-2025).

“It’s really cool to have done it five times now,” Grant exclaimed. “I’ve been running races for a long time now, and I’m really fortunate to have some success year after year and come up with a few of these. It’s definitely one to keep an eye on throughout the year and one you want to win. When you’re doing all three series, you want to be the guy who does it the best, if you can. It also carries Mike Curb’s name, who’s been such an influence and supporter of our sport, and that makes it special as well.”

Despite leading all drivers with 16 USAC national victories during the 2025 campaign (11 Sprint, 3 Midget & 2 Silver Crown), this one was easily the most challenging Curb title Grant has endured. In late July during the USAC Indiana Sprint Week round at Lawrenceburg Speedway, Grant suffered a broken left foot in a crash that sidelined him for the next four races and put the balance of his season in jeopardy.

“When I broke my foot, I was potentially going to miss some races, and I wanted to know how many I could stand to miss and still be able to maintain my (Curb) lead,” Grant inquired. “I ended up not missing as many races as I thought we might.”

But Grant soon bounced back, and by the second week of August, he was back in the seat of a racecar and running up front, accumulating four more USAC National Sprint Car wins after the injury.

“Every season is challenging in some way at some point, it seems like,” Grant acknowledged. “You have some hurdles to overcome whether it’s performance or management or funding. This year, it just happened to be my foot. There’s always a little bit of something going on, but this one was a little different.”

In the 13 days between the crash and the next USAC race, Grant’s foot had three screws installed to heal his five broken metatarsals and torn ligaments. In the meantime, his Silver Crown crew chief, Dennis LaCava, was busy constructing a piece of metal that resembled a dolly at first inspection. The piece clamped around Grant’s cast and featured a plate on the bottom that could meet up to the pedal. The overarching goal was to alleviate the load off the front half of his foot, thus allowing him to use his ankle and shin to apply the brakes.

“Fortunately, I had a good surgeon who was really supportive of me getting back in the car and I have a lot of good people around me, including Dennis, who really made a lot of it happen for me. All my teams stepped up and filled some of the roles I would normally fill, like my wife, Ashley, and a ton of people who took the load off me, so I could continue to race. Normally, I’m pretty hands on and involved with things, but this year, I really wasn’t able to do that after the injury. I had a bit to overcome, but it was able to be overcome because I have a lot of really good people around me.”

Across the three USAC national divisions in 2025, Grant won his second career Silver Crown title, finished as the runner-up in Midget points and fifth in the Sprint standings. Interestingly, Grant described the distinct differences in the demands each type of car had on him post-injury, and the quest to make each car feel as natural as possible.

“The crown stuff wasn’t so bad, really,” Grant admitted. “We had the brakes rigged up really good to where it got the load off my foot and into my leg. It wasn’t an issue of being able to push on the brake pedal. The crown races are long and physical. I was fresh out of surgery and still healing when I returned. My energy level was a struggle. Just having the stamina to run 100 laps well and remain focused in the heat of the summer, that was the hard part.”

The sprint car, however, proved to be a demanding in its own unique way.

“The sprint car was easy enough to drive, but it jostles and bangs and beats you up so much,” Grant explained. “It would really jostle my foot around and it would get to being pretty sore, especially when you’re running night after night after night, which added up and really took its toll. But the sprint car has enough motor to where you can run in and stand on the brakes and motor through it. You just have to run more throttle pedal and motor through the brake pedal.”

The midget had its own distinct nuances as well.

“You’re doing lighter movements with your foot in a midget,” Grant described. “You’re using a little bit of brake and you’re squeezing a little bit of brake, and it was hard to modulate those small pedal movements. I was really good at being able to run on down there and stand on the brakes. Like a crown car, you slow down and come off it, so that wasn’t too bad. You have to have a little bit of finesse on the brake pedal.”

Across the board, Grant possesses championship teams in Hemelgarn Racing (Silver Crown), TOPP Motorsports (Sprint Car) and CB Industries (Midget). That made the process of wedging his broken foot into the cockpit of a racecar as seamless as it could possibly be.

“Part of the issue was that my ankle couldn’t move,” Grant noted. “With the way you normally use the brake pedal, your foot comes off the heel riser and shoves forward, but the front of your foot and ankle has to move to allow that. We were moving the heel riser up and eight of an inch and adding a few more pounds of spring just to get it to where my foot could swing down onto the brake pedal and back to the heel riser in one motion. All that had to be just right for it to work. Fortunately, my teams are all really, really great to work with at making changes to the brake pedals, springs and heel risers and all the things to help make my foot comfortable.”

This year marked the 27th year of the Mike Curb USAC National Drivers Championship. Curb has offered the reward annually since the 1999 USAC season to honor USAC’s top overall points champion. Once known as the USAC Super License, the title was rechristened as the National Drivers Championship in recent years to more properly represent the accomplishment of achieving the feat, which so few have done. Now Grant will accept the honor once again during USAC’s Night of Champions at the Indiana Roof Ballroom in Indianapolis on Friday night, December 12, 2025.

 

MIKE CURB USAC NATIONAL DRIVERS CHAMPIONS:

 

1999: Dave Darland, Lincoln, Indiana

 

2000: Tracy Hines, New Castle, Indiana

 

2001: J.J. Yeley, Phoenix, Arizona

 

2002: J.J. Yeley, Phoenix, Arizona

 

2003: J.J. Yeley, Phoenix, Arizona

 

2004: Jay Drake, Val Verde, California

 

2005: Josh Wise, Riverside, California

 

2006: Josh Wise, Riverside, California

 

2007: Jerry Coons Jr., Tucson, Arizona

 

2008: Tracy Hines, New Castle, Indiana

 

2009: Cole Whitt, Alpine, California

 

2010: Bryan Clauson, Noblesville, Indiana

 

2011: Bryan Clauson, Noblesville, Indiana

 

2012: Bryan Clauson, Noblesville, Indiana

 

2013: Tracy Hines, New Castle, Indiana

 

2014: Tracy Hines, New Castle, Indiana

 

2015: Dave Darland, Lincoln, Indiana

 

2016: Brady Bacon, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

 

2017: Justin Grant, Ione, California

 

2018: Tyler Courtney, Indianapolis, Indiana

 

2019: Tyler Courtney, Indianapolis, Indiana

 

2020: Chris Windom, Canton, Illinois

 

2021: Justin Grant, Ione, California

 

2022: Justin Grant, Ione, California

 

2023: Justin Grant, Ione, California

 

2024: Logan Seavey, Sutter, California

 

2025: Justin Grant, Ione, California

 

2025 MIKE CURB USAC NATIONAL DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

 

PTS/DRIVER

 

4982-Justin Grant

 

4491-Logan Seavey

 

4304-Kevin Thomas Jr.

 

3568-Kyle Cummins

 

3439-C.J. Leary

 

3226-Mitchel Moles

 

3169-Gunnar Setser

 

3154-Hayden Reinbold

 

3088-Kale Drake

 

2996-Briggs Danner

 

2928-Jake Swanson

 

2619-Chase Stockon

 

2044-Daison Pursley

 

1693-Robert Ballou

 

1432-Cannon McIntosh

 

1383-Jacob Denney

 

1233-Gavin Miller

 

1192-Steven Snyder Jr.

 

1183-Cale Coons

 

1155-Ricky Lewis

 

1144-Drake Edwards

 

1131-Brady Bacon

 

1111-Carson Garrett

 

1036-Matt Westfall

 

985-Kayla Roell

 

944-Jadon Rogers

 

726-Kobe Simpson

 

695-Joey Amantea

 

616-Saban Bibent

 

605-Brecken Reese

 

599-Kyle Jones

 

581-Harley Burns

 

559-Chance Crum

 

541-Jakeb Boxell

 

521-Kyle Steffens

 

510-Braydon Cromwell

 

503-Chelby Hinton

 

502-Mario Clouser

 

493-Kody Swanson

 

457-Brandon Mattox

 

453-Logan Calderwood

 

445-Karter Sarff

 

416-Mack Leopard

 

411-Todd Hobson

 

408-Charles Davis Jr.

 

375-Dave Berkheimer

 

374-Ethan Mitchell

 

373-Thomas Meseraull

 

364-Max Adams

 

345-Dakoda Armstrong

 

337-Trey Osborne

 

327-Zach Wigal

 

326-Hunter Maddox

 

314-Colton Robinson

 

299-Taylor Ferns

 

273-Gregg Cory

 

272-Bobby Santos

 

263-Nathan Byrd

 

261-Tyler Roahrig

 

251-Rylan Gray

 

238-Jake Trainor

 

237-Kaylee Bryson

 

236-Zack Pretorius

 

215-Zach Daum

 

207-Aric Gentry

 

198-Corbin Rueschenberg

 

189-Brandon Carr & Matt Goodnight

 

183-Tom Harris & Brian Tyler

 

181-Jackson Macenko

 

176-Eddie Tafoya Jr.

 

168-Chase Dietz & Carmen Perigo

 

160-Troy Carey

 

156-Danny Jennings & Mark Smith

 

155-Jimmy Light

 

152-Abby Hohlbein

 

137-Zack Merritt

 

135-Shane Cockrum

 

130-Travis Mahoney

 

125-Russ Gamester

 

112-Garrett Benson & Billy Wease

 

110-Kip Hughes

 

107-Frankie Guerrini

 

106-James Turnbull II

 

105-Derek Bischak & Jerry Coons Jr.

 

98-Nic Harris

 

97-Sam Hinds

 

96-Jack Hoyer & K.J. Snow

 

95-Travis Millar & Kyle O’Gara

 

89-Tom Savage

 

87-Kyle Robbins

 

84-Eli Wilhelmus

 

82-Cord Kisthardt

 

80-Jason Cherry

 

78-Bradley Cox

 

76-Casey Buckman & Bryan Gossel

 

68-Colton Bettis & Brian Ruhlman

 

66-Korey Weyant

 

65-A.J. Fike

 

61-Caiden Warren

 

59-Trey Zorn

 

58-Chris Hartman & Ryan Newman

 

56-Will Armitage

 

54-Rob Caho Jr.

 

50-Austin Cory & Steve Justis

 

48-Kenny Gentry

 

45-Jake Scott

 

43-Bill Rose

 

40-Oliver Akard, Blake Brannon, Shane Cottle, Tom Payet, Mathew Radisich & Jake Robinson

 

39-Ricky Thornton Jr.

 

37-Alex Bright

 

35-Dave Doran

 

31-Mark Bitner & Chris Urish

 

30-Dylan Doyle & Jacob Tuttle

 

27-Steve Gennetten & Joey Moughan

 

26-Tim Kent

 

20-Adam Taylor

 

19-Kyle Wissmiller

 

18-Ken Schrader & Joe Trenca

 

10-Mike Adkins & Hunter Wilson