Piqua’s Grant wins ‘one of the big ones’ at Eldora

Prior to Saturday, Justin Grant’s biggest victory at Eldora Speedway came on Mother’s Day weekend in 2015.

On Saturday, Grant earned perhaps the granddaddy of them all.

Grant, a California native who lived in Piqua in recent years, held off a hard-charging Chris Windom to win the USAC sprint car feature at the prestigious 4-Crown Nationals. Grant led the final 19 laps of the 30-lapper, but it wasn’t that easy.

Two laps after Grant took the lead from Matt Westfall of Ludlow Falls, a caution bunched up the field behind him on the restart. Grant held off Windom’s side-by-side challenge.

With lapped traffic in front of them, Windom again pulled alongside of Grant with five laps left. On the final lap Grant pulled off a daring slide job. He roared into Turn 1 with a pair of lapped cars in front. Grant stayed on the gas and went low, then found just enough room to slide up the track between the lapped cars.

“I don’t know what it was like behind me, but it was exciting looking out of the front of the No. 17 car,” Grant said of his view. “The holes in (turns) one and two were a handful. It seemed like it was fastest just to run right through them. Three and four were tricky. You had to be careful not to get into the fence down there. When you get in lapped traffic you’re just kind of on a hope and a prayer.”

Grant beat Windom by 0.24 seconds to the finish line. Bacon finished third, Dave Darland fourth and Tyler Courtney fifth. Fletcher’s Dallas Hewitt was sixth, Westfall – who led the first 11 laps from the pole – finished eighth and Tipp City’s Landon Simon 24th.

As for Grant, his other United States Auto Club sprint car victory at Eldora came when driving for Piqua’s Mark Hery.

“This race has always been one of the big ones for me, if not the biggest one,” Grant said. “I lived in Piqua for a long time and drove for Mark. We were fortunate enough to win a USAC race here together. But the 4-Crowns are on a whole ‘nother level of special.”

The 35th running of the 4-Crown Nationals featured four sprint car divisions: USAC’s sprints midgets and Silver Crown divisions and the Tony Stewart-owned All Star Circuit of Champions.

Midgets: California's Rico Abreu, who finished 17th in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in New Hampshire earlier Saturday, dominated the 25-lap feature. He sped past race leader Chad Boat to lead lap 2 and after a short battle put the field behind him.

Abreu – who flew into Darke County on Stewart’s plane – lapped 17 cars in the 23-car feature. He also set a new eight-lap track record in his heat race victory.

Tanner Thorson, Bacon, Boat and Holly Shelton rounded out the top five.

Silver Crown: Windom, from Illinois, erased a 10-point deficit in the point standings to capture the Silver Crown points championship with the win.

Kody Swanson entered with the lead but ran into some tough luck on lap 15 of the 50-lapper. Swanson’s car made contact with a lapped driver, causing damage to Swanson’s front bumper and steering. Swanson, who had to finish no worse than third, returned from the pits in pursuit of the title. He worked his way through the field before finishing fifth.

Windom, meanwhile, led by 16.9 seconds with a little over 10 laps to go. He finished by lapping all but three cars in the 22-car field. Grant, Courtney, Bacon and Swanson rounded out the top five.

All Stars: Australian Ian Madsen inherited the lead when leader Abreu – who led 21 of the 30 laps – spun in turn 3 and was hit by another car. Madsen clicked off the final laps for his first Eldora victory, holding off Chad Kemenah by 1.8 seconds.

Randy Hannagan, Kraig Kinser and Bacon made up the top five along with runner-up Kemenah.

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