GRANT MONEY: JG COLLECTS 2ND STRAIGHT USAC PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER HONORS
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (November 30, 2022)………Justin Grant’s 2022 USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season required him to get up on the horse and pass a lot of cars.
No driver advanced more positions than the Ione, Calif. driver throughout the series season. In fact, no driver passed more cars overall throughout USAC’s three national divisions than Grant, which earned him a $2,500 bonus and the title of ProSource Passing Master for the second consecutive season.
Adding it all up, Grant moved up a combined 213 positions in feature events during the 2022 USAC Silver Crown, AMSOIL National Sprint Car and NOS Energy Drink National Midget campaigns.
He achieved his 213 passes in 82 starts, averaging a movement of 2.60 positions per race. It bettered his performance in the same realm from 2021 when he picked up 226 spots in 93 feature starts at a clip of 2.43 spots per race on average. In those 82 feature starts during the 2022 campaign, Grant advanced forward from his starting spot in 43 of them.
Always on the move, Grant joked that the award doesn’t exactly say much for his efforts earlier in the night. However, when the time came to charge in the feature, Grant was the best of them all.
“It doesn’t say a lot for my qualifying efforts this year,” Grant said with a chuckle. “But we were always able to march back to the front. We were able to dig out of some holes and keep moving forward. It’s really how we were able to win the sprint car title.”
Overall, Grant passed 120 cars in USAC’s National Sprint Car division alone in 2022, best in the series. He also passed 87 more in the midgets and added six in Silver Crown competition, propelling him to top of the chart and adding even more accolades to his decorated season.
“Buck (Rice), who sponsors the passing master award, is a good friend of mine and supported me a lot early in my career,” Grant recalled. “To win his award is neat and I always enjoy taking a little bit of Buck’s money even if it isn’t exactly how you want to make money at the end of the night.”
Longtime USAC supporter ProSource posted a $2,500 reward to the USAC nationally licensed driver who advanced the most positions during feature events throughout the entirety of USAC’s 2022 national season, which encompassed Silver Crown, AMSOIL National Sprint Car and NOS Energy Drink National Midget racing.
This was the third year of the ProSource Passing Master Award with Chris Windom winning the inaugural edition in 2020 and Justin Grant capturing each of the past two in 2021 and 2022.
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2022 USAC PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER STANDINGS:
1. 213-Justin Grant
2. 155-Logan Seavey
3. 152-Thomas Meseraull
4. 144-Brady Bacon
5. 128-Buddy Kofoid
6. 119-Robert Ballou
7. 114-Cannon McIntosh
8. 106-Kaylee Bryson
9. 105-Emerson Axsom
10. 104-Kyle Cummins
11. 96-C.J. Leary
12. 95-Matt Westfall
13. 86-Jake Swanson
14. 85-Mitchel Moles
15. 81-Shane Cottle & Jadon Rogers
17. 76-Jacob Denney
18. 72-Jason McDougal
19. 68-Chase Stockon
20. 67-Bryant Wiedeman
21. 64-Dominic Gorden
22. 58-Brian Tyler
23. 57-Travis Welpott
24. 56-Brenham Crouch
25. 55-Alex Bright
26. 54-Chase McDermand
27. 51-Zach Daum
28. 44-Kevin Thomas Jr.
29. 43-Chance Crum
30. 42-Mario Clouser
31. 40-Tanner Thorson & Ryan Timms
33. 32-Eric Gordon & Davey Hamilton Jr.
35. 31-Gregg Cory
36. 30-Cade Lewis
37. 29-Max Adams, Casey Buckman & Shane Cockrum
40. 28-Ethan Mitchell
41. 25-Dallas Hewitt & Tye Mihocko
43. 24-Dave Berkheimer, Jerry Coons Jr. & Hayden Reinbold
46. 22-Brandon Mattox, Daison Pursley, Brian Ruhlman & Chris Windom
50. 20-Xavier Doney
51. 19-Cole Bodine, Bryan Gossel, Trey Gropp & Danny Long
55. 18-Nathan Byrd
56. 17-Jade Avedisian & Derek Bischak
58. 16-Briggs Danner
59. 15-Brent Beauchamp & Taylor Ferns
61. 14-Carmen Perigo & Taylor Reimer
63. 13-Terry Babb, Wyatt Burks, Jimmy Light & Jace Park
67. 12-Mariah Ede & Chad Frewaldt
69. 11-Austin Nemire & Bill Rose
71. 10-Blake Brannon, Dustin Clark & Maria Cofer
74. 9-Alex Banales, Nick Bilbee & Steven Drevicki
77. 8-Jake Day & Kody Swanson
79. 7-Mike McVetta, Cary Oliver & Kyle Robbins
82. 6-Sterling Cling, Sam Johnson, Ricky Lewis, Gavin Miller, Tyler Roahrig & Steven Russell
88. 5-Mike Haggenbottom, Jack Hoyer, Tom Paterson, Kyle Shipley & Kyle Steffens
93. 4-Patrick Bruns, Steve Buckwalter, Russ Gamester & Brandon Morin
97. 3-Mark Bitner, Travis Buckley, Carson Short & Jake Simmons
101. 2-Rylan Gray, Bobby Santos & Mark Smith
104. 1-Oliver Akard, Charles Davis Jr. & Tanner Swanson