TOLEDO, Ohio — There can’t possibly be a better way to celebrate a 100th career USAC Silver Crown start the way Justin Grant did during Saturday afternoon’s Hemelgarn Racing/Super Fitness Rollie Beale Classic at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway.
Grant started from the outside of the front row, but he didn’t run second for very long. In fact, by turn one, Grant had taken a stranglehold of the lead and never relented as he led all 100 laps en route to a dominating 6.684 second margin of victory on the half-mile paved oval in his Hemelgarn Racing/NOS Energy Drink – Super Fitness – Hemelgarn Enterprises/Beast/Speedway Ford.
Grant completed the 100 lap, 50 mile contest in caution free fashion. In fact, his time for the distance of 26:38.254 (112.623 mph average) set a track record at Toledo, breaking the former mark of 27:07.40 by nearly half a minute, which was set by Jerry Coons Jr. in 2012.
But this particular one hit differently. Grant, who has driven for Toledo native Ron Hemelgarn’s team since 2017, had never finished better than third. However, on Saturday, in the very same event that Hemelgarn has supported as a sponsor for all these years, Ron’s day in the sun at his hometown track had finally arrived.
“It’s incredible to pick up a win here at Toledo Speedway for Ron Hemelgarn,” Grant exclaimed. “He’s been a great supporter of my career and he’s let me drive this number 91 for eight or nine years now. Ron said he’s never won at Toledo. It’s an honor for me to pull that off for him. It’s the least I can do to say thanks for all the years he’s let me try.”
it was Grant’s eighth victory of his USAC Silver Crown career, tying Chris Windom for 16th place all-time. Known primarily for his dirt success, Grant’s score was his second in USAC Silver Crown competition on pavement. Back in 2021, he captured a win at Indiana’s Winchester Speedway. It’s a persistence that has paid off. Over the winter, Grant put a laser focus on bettering his game on the blacktop.
“I really felt like I went to work this winter on the pavement stuff,” Grant explained. “I bet I’ve watched Kody run 5,000 laps around Toledo, in the dead of winter, and I really tried to study and get serious about this pavement stuff. I’m just super glad it paid off.”
To start the day, the question pondered among those on hand was, “who’ll stop the rain?” Early morning storms delayed the day’s activities by several hours. After Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying, the question changed to, “who’ll stop the reign?”
That, of course, refers to Kody Swanson, winner of the past six USAC Silver Crown main events at Toledo dating back to 2018. In all, Swanson owns eight Silver Crown wins at Toledo, and in qualifying, he added his ninth pole position at Toledo, the 55th overall of his career.
However, Swanson, who had led 778 of the 1,200 total laps ever run in Silver Crown competition at Toledo (64.8%) never led a lap on Saturday. Instead, Grant got the advantage over him at the start and never looked back, an ideal situation for Grant which went exactly to his plan.
“I’ve watched a lot of laps around here and the one thing I’ve learned was that it’s tough to pass here, especially if they’re good,” Grant pointed out. “You’ve got to wait for their car to fall off and you can’t count on that with Kody. I knew it would make our life a heck of a lot easier if I could get the jump on him. It’s 100 laps but I’d rather spend 100 trying to keep him behind me than trying to get by him. He’s pretty good. He’s really good.”
Tyler Roahrig moved forward to second from his fifth starting spot after dueling side-by-side with Swanson for several laps before emerging into the runner-up spot on lap 37. Seventh starting Dakoda Armstrong muscled past Swanson on the bottom of turns three and four to wrestle away the third spot on the 83rd lap.
All the while, Grant was setting a blistering pace, and shockingly, put Swanson a lap down with an outside pass in turn four on lap 95. That left only three cars on the lead lap at the finish line, a remarkable pace that placed Grant into “untouchable” mode from start to finish in the car set up to perfection by crew chief Dennis LaCava.
“Any advantage I could gain, that’s what I was looking for,” Grant admitted. “I knew on practice day that I could run between 15.6 to 15.8 (seconds) on really old tires. (Spotter Brian Karraker) kept me running 15.8s the whole race and it felt like a Sunday drive. When these pavement cars are good, they’re incredible. This might be one of the best racecars I’ve ever driven. This thing was on rails. It was incredible.”
Six days after taking second on the dirt in the USAC Silver Crown season opener at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track, Grant pummeled the Toledo field to raise his point lead to 24 after the first pair of events.
Roahrig equaled his best career USAC finish with a second.
Armstrong took third for his best performance yet at Toledo. Swanson crossed the line in fourth, which equaled his worst Silver Crown outing in 12 series starts at Toledo after also garnering a fourth in 2012. C.J. Leary rounded out the top-five in the one-of-a-kind, first ever traditional pavement Silver Crown car built by DRC chassis.
USAC Silver Crown National Championship, Toledo Speedway – Toledo, Ohio April 19, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran Binks-15.223; 2. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-15.244; 3. Kaylee Bryson, 26, Pierce-15.311; 4. Mario Clouser, 22, Rice/Abacus-15.393; 5. Tyler Roahrig, 41, Newman-15.409; 6. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi-15.414; 7. Dakoda Armstrong, 5, C & A-15.425; 8. Colton Bettis, 126, Pierce-15.429; 9. Bobby Santos, 98, DJ-15.481; 10. Jake Trainor, 6, Klatt-15.556; 11. Kyle Steffens, 8, Steffens-15.615; 12. Jackson Macenko, 124, Hayes-15.697; 13. Kyle O’Gara, 141, Maxwell-15.726; 14. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-15.819; 15. Matt Westfall, 54, 4 Kings-15.831; 16. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-16.819; 17. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-19.155.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (2), 2. Tyler Roahrig (5), 3. Dakoda Armstrong (7), 4. Kody Swanson (1), 5. C.J. Leary (6), 6. Bobby Santos (9), 7. Kyle O’Gara (13), 8. Mario Clouser (4), 9. Kaylee Bryson (3), 10. Taylor Ferns (14), 11. Jackson Macenko (12), 12. Matt Westfall (15), 13. Kyle Steffens (11), 14. Gregg Cory (16), 15. Colton Bettis (8), 16. Jake Trainor (10), 17. Dave Berkheimer (17). 26:38.254 (New Track Record)
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