OCALA, Fla.  Justin Grant kicked off Winter Dirt Games XVI at Ocala Speedway Wednesday night with another USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship win.

The $6,000 score came at the expense of outside front row starter Daison Pursley, who looked to be headed to his third series victory until Grant caught him in a gaggle of lapped cars with four laps remaining in the 30-lap feature.

Kyle Cummins also disposed of Pursley, dropping the fleet youngster to third ahead of fast-timer Mitchel Moles and Jake Swanson.

Something happened there, offered the sixth-starting Grant after climbing out of his NOS Energy Drink/Topp Motorsports mount. Either they got worse or I got better. I love this place! The lapped cars helped a lot and it helped when Chase Stockon dropped out, but Ill take em any way I can get em.

Pursley got the drop on polesitter Stockon on the initial break, with Brady Bacon, Grant and Cummins dropping in line behind them. They ran that way until Mark Smith and Briggs Danner tangled on the frontstretch on lap five to draw the races first yellow.

Grant, who had been working Bacon hard on the inside line, went right back to work when the green flag waved but could not put him away.

Meanwhile, Pursley caught the backmarkers on lap ten but two laps later another yellow flew and got him back out of traffic.

The caution was for Bacon, who suffered a bad ignition box and coasted to a stop, finally moving Grant into the top three.

Pursley prevailed again on the restart, which only went three laps before Ricky Lewis stalled on the backstretch for a third caution. That time, Grant got alongside the second running Stockon on the restart but couldnt get all the way by. But yet another caution for a slowing car on lap 19 saw Stockon pit under the yellow, moving Grant within striking distance of the leader.

The top six cars edged away from the field when green reappeared but eight laps later Pursley got into lapped traffic again and the writing was on the wall. Grant pounced and grabbed the lead when Pursley was held up momentarily, a move duplicated by Cummins and despite a final caution, the finish was set.

The lapped cars me hurt a little, but not bad, tipped a surprisingly calm Pursley. Justin is really good, so it wasnt a surprise that he got to me.  I just couldnt run any harder because I was pulling the front wheels when I did.

Cummins was equally calm about his second-place run, saying: Im not thrilled but Im happy. I was too tight before I started and it got worse, so I couldnt have done anything different.

Robert Ballou led a second five that included Englishman Tom Harris, Logan Seavey, 15^th-starting C.J. Leary and Kale Drake.

USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Ocala Speedway, Ocala, Fla., Feb. 12, 2025

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.347; 2. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.373; 3. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-14.534; 4. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-14.608; 5. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-14.610; 6. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.635; 7. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.688; 8. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.700; 9. Ricky Lewis, 74B, Lewis-14.717; 10. Mark Smith, M1, Smith-14.776; 11. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-14.812; 12. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-14.893; 13. Kale Drake 2B, 2B Racing-14.923; 14. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-14.939; 15. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-14.947; 16. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-14.965; 17. Nic Harris, N2, Harris-15.014; 18. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming/Swanson-15.034; 19. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-15.078; 20. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-15.095; 21. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-15.131; 22. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-15.189; 23. Matt Goodnight, 39G, Goodnight-15.237; 24. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE-15.251; 25. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-15.387; 26. Stevie Sussex, 5, Baldwin/Fox-15.403; 27. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-15.451; 28. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-15.460; 29. Kyle Jones, 79, Hall-15.543; 30. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-15.556; 31. John Mollick, 4J, Clever-15.970; 32. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-16.189; 33. Eddie Vancil, 7v, Vancil-16.551; 34. Oliver Akard, 32, Rase-18.717.

ROD END SUPPLY FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Tom Harris, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Kale Drake, 4. Nic Harris, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Ricky Lewis, 7. Trey Osborne, 8. Kyle Jones, 9. Eddie Vancil. 2:03.783

CAR IQ SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson, 2. Harley Burns, 3. Mark Smith, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Stevie Sussex, 8. Kayla Roell. 1:58.602

K1 RACEGEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kobe Simpson, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Matt Goodnight, 6. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 7. Jadon Rogers, 8. John Mollick. 2:02.354

HOOSIER TIRE FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Hayden Reinbold, 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Carson Garrett, 6. Gunnar Setser, 7. Joey Amantea, 8. Troy Carey. 1:59.911

ELLIOTTS CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Ricky Lewis, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Jadon Rogers, 4. Gunnar Setser, 5. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 6. Trey Osborne, 7. Kyle Jones, 8. Kayla Roell, 9. Stevie Sussex, 10. John Mollick, 11. Troy Carey, 12. Eddie Vancil. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (6), 2. Kyle Cummins (3), 3. Daison Pursley (2), 4. Mitchel Moles (5), 5. Jake Swanson (7), 6. Robert Ballou (12), 7. Tom Harris (10), 8. Logan Seavey (11), 9. C.J. Leary (15), 10. Kale Drake (17), 11. Hayden Reinbold (9), 12. Chase Stockon (1), 13. Jadon Rogers (24), 14. Harley Burns (21), 15. Gunnar Setser (19), 16. Matt Goodnight (22), 17. Nic Harris (20), 18. Kevin Thomas Jr. (18), 19. Kobe Simpson (8), 20. Mark Smith (14), 21. Brady Bacon (4), 22. Carson Garrett (23), 23. Ricky Lewis (13), 24. Briggs Danner (16)