Usac Indiana Sprint Week Opener at Indianapolis Motor Speedway 7/23/26 | Highlights

35 trips around the dirt track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, because race fans, this is what you sing your last 24! Indiana Sprint Week is underway! Justin Graham gonna pedal away with a race lead with the Taipei. Robert Blue right there in the hunt along with Swanson and 5 brakes. Danner, the BC39 champ, gonna go top-shelf through turns 3 and 4. He's got the 92, working to hit the inside. Making their way into turns 1 and 2. Graham patiently around the bottom. That's where the priority of the track work is done. Currently trying to bring that group back into play. So far, doing so now. Switched his line to the high side. Swanson down the inside of 5, looks for the race lead. Couldn't quite get there. Graham's gonna nip him in the line. Christopher, the top of the bottom, pretty evenly matched right now. Graham moving his car around. Stomble and trailing to the inside. He's gonna go down low. He protects the middle back up. Yeah, it's really fun watching these guys. Jake Swanson takes a look to see he doesn't decide turn 1 here. But he's gonna take it out at 2. Down the back straightaway. New leader. Can he come around and seal the deal? Graham with the advantage last time. Swanson gonna have it now at 5. Rick Sander really coming on on the top here. As I'm sure they say, just at 1 and 12. Kind of no-man's land. Robert's gonna slip the tires. Now allows Graham to get back to 2nd. Yeah, right now the track is just extremely dirty from all the guys running around the bottom. So I'd expect that top to get faster and faster as the race goes on. Graham moving his entry around a little bit. That time missed him just a tick. He was able to get the car back underneath him. Comes after Jake Swanson once again. Over the turns 3 and 4. Able to kind of blow the car. Oh, Jake Swanson. Oh, man. He nearly comes to a stop. And Justin Grant's gonna go back to the race. Lee Swanson's gonna come back to his inside. Grant's gonna come around and lead the way. Justin Grant back to the top spot. Jake Swanson still there in the mix, though. As they make their way up the far side of the racetrack. Top two drivers on a breakaway right now. Swanson with a better body back straightaway. Pulls right up to the inside. Battle for the lead once again. Here comes Swanson down low. Grant up top. Who's gonna have it? They come around. Advantage. Grant in fourth. Justin Grant holds on to it. Jake Swanson not done with the down the inside. Going to slide. It's gonna be the high side with the advantage open. Austin Energy number 4 gonna hold on to it. Justin Grant up top. The 5 down low. Who's it gonna be in the line? It's still Justin Grant. A great battle at the front of the field. His advantage. The best it's been so far. 2.154 seconds last time. Problems for Ricky Lewis. Problems for Trey Osborne. Both drivers clear down in the infield. We stay green. Here comes Cottle to the inside. He'll take over the third spot on the front straightaway. At 21, Gavin Miller has knocked it in to keep it on the bottom. Oh no! Cottle hits the tire. Cottle taking the joker line down to the infield. And who's got the advantage now? It's Briggs Danner. Danner up on the high side as that was all going on. Says thank you very much. I'll take over from here. He goes up to the third spot. Cottle lucky the front end is still in that thing. Oh he does it again! Twice now. He is killing tractor tires left and right. And he is not done. He grabs two more through turns three and four. That's cost him two spots now. And he is going after tractor tires like a fat kid goes after cake. Caution, it's moles. Way high to the speed shot. Coming off a turn number four. And goodnight. Takes him all the way to the top of the speedway. Exit turn number four right off of the wall. We're back underway. This time Jake's not going to go to the bottom. He's going to stay to the high side. Danner's the one who's going to go to the bottom. And Logan Seavey's going to chase him off the back straightaway. Gavin Miller and all the chaos have been up to third. Got shuffled back a little bit now. Trying to get by Robert Blue on the restart. Does so. He's got Gubbs behind him and the Avante number three right now. Still in second. Seavey trying to get one spot. Lines around the back straightaway. 57 down to the inside. 39 to the top. Slides off into turns three and four. Does Logan have it? Yes he does. Gets by Danner. Cottle behind him in that fifth spot. Gavin Miller going to run in sixth. Charles Davis Jr. Right now here. Grant has really got the line figured out in three and four. He's able to go but he's not bouncing or off the wall at all. Justin's been really in control this whole race. He stayed committed to the top when everyone else was running at the bottom. And he's got this track really figured out right now. Flag in the air. For the I own California racer. He'll work on the back row. He'll work on the turn number four. The checkered flag's going to fly. Wins here at the dirt track. Give him a hand. Justin Grant wins night number one of Indiana Sprint Week. Did you ever think you'd be sitting in the infield at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with 100 career USAC national victories? No, absolutely not. My dream when I moved to Indiana was to get somebody to let me sit in a sprint car and to go race. And then my dream was just to win a USAC race. I thought, gosh, if I could just ever win a USAC national sprint car race, it would be everything. My whole life racing, everything. My parents, everything. Everything my parents put into it. It'd all be worth it if I could win one USAC national sprint car race. And I cannot believe that was 100 wins ago. And it's been an incredible, I'm going to say career, not in terms of accomplishments. But it's been an incredible career for me to get to live through and experience. And I've just been so, so fortunate, so blessed with so many great partners. So many great car owners along the way. So many people that helped me out. People that don't necessarily work for me or have anything to do with me, but just friends I've made along the way that I can lean on when I need to. And that have helped me get into victory lane. If I had to write down every person that was responsible for me getting into 100 victory lanes, the list would be 500 people long, if not more. And this year, it's been a bit of a struggle for us. We've been really consistent running up front. But just not getting the wins like we've become accustomed to. We've been spoiled, mind you. But it was starting to get a little rough there the last couple months. But I think it's all, if you could write it up, any storybook to win 100 here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with this top motorsports team, Jeff Walker, Nick Mansker, Kevin Birchmeier. These guys have been there for the bulk of those 100 wins. And so I couldn't write it any better. To win at IMS with this top motorsports team, I'm speechless. I thank my wife, my kids, my wife. She's been there for every single one of them. And I've lost a heck of a lot more of them than I've won. And so those are the ones that she's had to deal with. And I get to talk to all you people when I win. I got to go home and talk to her when I lose. So she's got a thick skin, and she's harder on me than anybody tells me to get my act together and get back in the seat and go figure it out. And so we've been working hard, and we figured it out again. So I hate to think that I'm leaving. I feel like this is a thing, and I should thank everybody. But I'm going to hit a couple of car owners along the way that got me here. Dave Thurston was the first guy to hire me. And Ken Baldwin put me in a sprint car when I moved back here. Jeff Walker's the one that moved me to Indiana to work for him. And Ken Baldwin gave me a chance. Mark Harry raced with me for a long time and let me tear up a lot of equipment and really get my feet under me. There's been a bunch more along the way. And then I found Kevin Birchmeyer, and he's just been a blessing to me. He's let me drive this top motorsports number four for, I think, 10 years now. And so that's a big part of this, having the consistency and knowing that you've got to ride next year, and you can work and try and win these races. Yeah, I'm up here rambling, but I just don't want anybody to feel left out. Thanks to Jeff Walker. Without him, I wouldn't be here. Thanks to my parents. Without them, I wouldn't be here. My wife. If it wasn't for my wife, I'd have quit a long time ago. And Kevin Birchmeyer. Ron Himmelgarn as well, 10 years with him. And I just can't thank all these people enough. They like me more than I like myself most days, it seems like. So just thanks to everybody. Thanks, USAC. Thanks, Doug Bowles, Roger Penske, IMS for letting us come here. Couldn't think of a better place to win win number 100.