Grant, Bunting, Crump Take Headline Wins at Hemelgarn/SuperFitness Opening Day Twin 100s
Grant, Bunting, Crump Take Headline Wins at Hemelgarn/SuperFitness Opening Day Twin 100s
A wet Saturday morning rang in the new year at Toledo Speedway for the running of the Hemelgarn/SuperFitness Opening Day Twin 100s presented by Marco's Pizza, featuring the USAC Silver Crown Hemelgarn/SuperFitness Rollie Beale Classic presented by Marco's Pizza, the CRA JEGS All-Star Tour season opening feature, and the Churchill Transport Factory Stocks Opening Day 25-lapper. Fans and teams alike were greeted with new merch, new concessions, and some vintage cars in the concourse at Toledo Speedway. The Beale Bunch came with a great party as always, bringing a couple of throwback cars which gave fans a great look at racing's past in victory lane.
After morning and early afternoon rain, track crews persistently kept the track up to good standing, not giving up on a chance to go racing into the evening in the Glass City.
With an amended schedule and a slightly later start, racing would begin at 3:34 PM with USAC Practice and CRA JEGS All-Stars Tour pole qualifying.
On track, the temps were cool, and the speed was blistering.
USAC Silver Crown
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 (Ione, California) 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 1/2-mile paved oval in his Hemelgarn Racing/NOS Energy Drink – Super Fitness – Hemelgarn Enterprises/Beast/Speedway Ford.
In the process, 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 brand new 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 Toledo 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.”
Overall, 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.”
Meanwhile, 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, which was the best ever result for his Newman Racing team. The performance earned Roahrig the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
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 career 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.
In his first USAC Silver Crown start since 2023, Kyle O’Gara earned Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors. O'Gara started 13th and finished seventh in what was also the series debut for the #141 machine owned by Charles and Brandi Maxwell.
Floridian Colton Bettis, meanwhile, became the youngest driver ever to compete in a USAC Silver Crown event at the age of 15 years old. Bettis was running eighth on lap 37 when a fuel cable snapped, ending his series debut early.
Churchill Transport Factory Stocks
The Bunting family stole the show in the middle portion of the Twin 100s. Josh Bunting took the lead on lap 15 from Matt Bunting, never looking back in an enjoyable caution-free 25 lap feature.
Overall, the Buntings would finish 1-2-3 -- 2023 champion Josh Bunting in front, followed by Ayden and Mat Bunting completing the podium.
The Churchill Transport Factory Stocks return to action in three weeks time as a part of Central Avenue Truck Parts School Bus Figure 8 Night at Toledo! You can get your tickets now.
CRA/JEGS All-Star Tour
The Hemelgarn Super Fitness 100 at Toledo Speedway marked the points-paying season opener for the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Presented by Chevrolet Performance, and the excitement from the 2024 season seemed to continue unabated.
The race started with Kyle Crump (131) redrawing in the top spot. The 29-year-old had a strong weekend leading up, going quickest in both practice sessions, qualifying, and pulling the top spot in the redraw. Quickly, the defending JEGS Tour Champion, Blake Rowe (71), found his way into the second position, passing the likes of Albert Francis (33) and Chase Pinsonneault (14).
Caution was thrown with 79 laps to go as Avery Demland (15) caught the grass in turns 3 and 4, beaching her Pro Late Model. The field was set for a restart as Blake Rowe powered off the outside lane to take the lead. While third on back continued to shuffle for position, Kyle Crump slowly started closing on back, taking the lead with 40 to go. Both Rowe and Crump exchanged blows fighting for position until the caution came out again. Will Sahutke (5) spun in turns 1 and 2, resulting in a restart with 39 laps to go. The action continued with Blake Rowe and Kyle Crump going back and forth for the lead, but a yellow flew once more for Jeff Vrsek (20) and Brian Campbell (47) collecting each other on the front straightaway.
The stage was set for a 23-lap run to the finish, as the leaders went through the restart zone, Blake Rowe fired before the box, a restart violation, prompting a caution and sending the 71 to the rear. This time Albert Francis lined up outside of Crump, but by the time the leaders got to turn 2, Crump was gone.
Kyle Crump ended up winning the Hemelgarn Super Fitness 100 at Toledo Speedway, marking his third points-paying race win in a row. The next round for the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour is the Great Deals 100 at Anderson Speedway.
Up Next
Up next - come to Toledo Speedway on Friday, May 9th for the running of Central Avenue Truck Parts School Bus Figure 8 Night Presented by Monroe Superstore! This family-friendly event will provide some incredible action from the stars of the School Busses. You can get tickets for this bus-load of racing TODAY, only at ToledoSpeedway.com.
