INDIANAPOLIS — On a night that Justin Grant became the only driver in the five-year history of the prestigious Driven 2 Save Lives BC39 to start in all five A-Main features, the California native also become the fifth different winner in as many tries as he rocketed his No. 2 Honda to victory on a thrilling night at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“He was an awfully good race driver, great person, and it’s an honor to race here in his memory,” Grant said of Clauson, who died in August 2016 after a racing accident. “To come in here and win at IMS, to win a race for Bryan Clauson, everything in his honor, it really means a lot to me.”
I wrote earlier this morning that the fifth edition of the BC39 would be just as good, if not better than the previous four races and boy was it ever.
It started early and often with a 39-lap, $20,039 to win main event looking more so like a 12 round heavyweight prize fight. Lap after lap after lap it was the heavy hitters up front trading sliders and despite getting marred in lap traffic for the second half of the race, the leaders shined and put on a riveting display of hard-nosed driving that was a sight to behold.
Front row starters Emerson Axsom and Thomas Meseraull traded blows early with Axsom leading Lap 1 but TMez passing the Franklin, Ind native on the top lane on Lap 2. The duo would have an intense battle early before a frightening crash on Lap 5 for Daniel Whitley who flipped end-over-end several times down the straight and got some massive air before landing in the Turn 1 catch fencing.
Whitley would quickly climb out under his own power but the race was red flagged for a period of time for repairs needing to be made to the fence to make it suitable to continue on.
When we did get back to action with 35 laps remaining, Meseraull led Axsom, Taylor Reimer, Grant and Chase McDermand to the restart.
Grant made a bold move to make it three-wide on Lap 9 to take the lead for the first time of the night. Axsom got him back off Turn 2 exit to retake the lead. The three-way fight was now on and it was a doozy.
Meseraull got by Grant then Axsom on Lap 15 in Turn 4 to take the lead back himself. Grant then went from third to first for a second time of the night with a slider a lap later.
At this point, it was an RMS race to lose as Grant and Meseraull pulled away from Axsom and traded friendly fire against one another.
“Our RMS race cars are fast. I feel like it could be a slugfest between me and Thomas tomorrow. Neither one of us are very good at playing nice guy,” said Grant after his prelim night win on Friday.
“Should be entertaining, should be exciting tomorrow.”
Boy was it ever between these two. Meseraull passed Grant for the lead on Lap 25. Grant then got into the back of a lapper and nearly lost power before getting back going again. While he didn’t lose second place, he did lose a lot of ground to his teammate.
However, Grant came charging back. On Lap 32, he got not only to TMez but by him. Meseraull tried to fight back but got into the Turn 4 wall and lost not only the lead, but Grant pulled too far away to do anything with him.
“I was hustling as hard as I could there, and I know T-Mez (Meseraull) was hustling hard, too,” Grant said. “It was really, really tricky down there. It felt like we got to pushing each other harder and harder and harder. It’s unbelievable.”
Grant cruised to his second straight win and 16th of his USAC Nos Energy Drink Midget National Championship career.
Axsom took second place while Logan Seavey went from 12th to finish third. Tanner Thorson was fourth and Meseraull a disappointing fifth.
Grant Went Back To What He Knew Best
Justin Grant at one time drove for Tim Clauson. They had success together. With Grant being winless in 19 starts this season, Clauson gave Grant a piece of advice heading into this year’s BC39. While Clauson no longer signed Grant’s paychecks, he still left him with a message that would stick.
Clauson told Grant to reminisce of what it was like to drive for him. Grant recalled that those cars were a handful to drive. Clauson reminded him while they weren’t necessarily easy to race, they were fast and most of all – they won.
Grant had an ephipany. Go back to that.
So, the days leading up to Indy, Grant burned the midnight oil in the shop. He wanted to get his car dialed in and while he knew it would be more challenging inside of his race car, it could get him back to the victory circle too.
He even had some help from his kids and late nights with pizza and beer, well the beverages for him, they got to work.
It was all worth it.
Grant was quickest in hot laps on Friday, won this heat race by over 5 seconds, won his qualifying race and won Friday night’s feature. A night later, in the main event, he won again.
“It was really hard when you get to lapped traffic,” Grant said. “You couldn’t get in at the rate you needed to get in, so your car was unloaded behind those guys. It was almost really hard to pass lapped traffic, so I felt like we kept getting back to each other in lap traffic. Just a ton of fun.”
Axsom Could Be A Star
Emerson Axsom celebrated a birthday on Saturday. The teenager at a ripe old age of 19, brought his Keith Kunz Motorsports No. 68 Toyota home runner-up in the BC39.He did so in front of his home fans as the Franklin, Ind. native showed that one day, he may be running on that big track going around this massive facility instead of the .25-mile dirt one located inside of Turn 3.
Axsom, a former Clauson Marshall Racing driver joined KKM for a Midget opportunity this weekend. Boy did he ever make the most out of it.
He led the first 20 laps but was passed for runner-up on the final lap in the final corner of Friday night’s preliminary night feature. On Saturday night, he earned the pole via the other five drivers picking coozies to determine their starting spot for tonight’s A-Main drew spots 2-6. Axsom, the last one to pick, got the one coozie left – the pole.
He led early. Fought in the middle and just didn’t have enough to get back to Justin Grant. Still, a runner-up finish on his 19th birthday, a year after being a senior in high school is saying something.
In 2021, he ran Midgets full-time. Last year, he moved up to Sprints. It was a massive year for him. Rookie of the Year with being fifth in points. It was the first time in nearly two decades (18 years) that a rookie has done so. It’s been 19 years since a driver scored their first USAC win on opening night at Bubba Raceway Park down in Ocala, Fla. He’s the 5th youngest driver to ever win a race and became the series’ first teenage winner in 7 years.
This year, he’s not done much Midget stuff.
He had a stretch during Midget week of finishes of 5th, 2nd, 2nd. In fact, he now has 4 runner-up finishes in only 13 starts this season.
He said his inexperience on Friday night led to Grant winning. But, with finishes of 3rd and 2nd in 24 hours, KKM has to see what we all see. A future star.
Axsom may be wise to go back to Midgets and join a Toyota development plan. He’s young enough and talented enough to join a path of Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell in this same program.
Seavey Starts New Streak
On Friday night, Logan Seavey finished seventh in the prelim night. But, with it being scored as a feature, his 14-race streak of top five finishes came to an end. On Saturday night, he started a new one. Despite starting 12th, the California native charged hard to finish third in his No. 57 Indy Fuel sponsored Midget to score his 15th top 5 finish in the last 16 races and extend his points lead even further.
TMez Comes Up Short
Thomas Meseraull was third a year ago. He had a car capable of winning in 2021 but it was late race contact with Justin Grant of all people that stopped his potential race win and gave it to Kyle Larson. Unfortunately, heart break came in for TMez here again.
A night after Meseraull led all 30 laps on Friday night to score the opening night win, TMez led a handful of laps on Saturday but contact with the Turn 4 wall while battling for the lead with Grant with 7 laps remaining dropped him to 5th in the end.
Meseraull has 4 top 10 finishes in his last 5 races on the season but coming into the weekend, hadn’t had a top 5 though in his last 7.
He leaves Indy with results of 1st and 5th.
RMS Sweeps The Weekend
They led 40 of the 60 feature laps and took home both wins in the two preliminary night races. Thomas Meseraull led all 30 laps on Thursday night while Justin Grant led the final 10 on Friday. Grant was perfect though in going from quickest in hot laps to winning his heat race to winning his qualifier to winning the A-Main. He remained perfect on Saturday with scoring the BC39 triumph. TMez was 5th.
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