Justin Grant was just out of bandwidth.
The 34-year-old USAC Sprint Car and Silver Crown champion has nothing bad to say about the four years he spent racing the No. 2 for Dave and Matt Estep and alongside Lacey Doyle and Joe Kocjan. After all, they won the BC39 at Indianapolis, Turkey Night Grand Prix and Hangtown 100 alongside two Chili Bowl preliminary night victories.
He just feels like they fell behind somewhere and it was going to take a shake-up for both parties to get where they wanted to be. For Grant, that destination is the Chili Bowl Main Event and a National Midget Championship in order to complete the USAC Triple Crown.
“I really enjoyed racing with those guys,” Grant told Sportsnaut. “I really enjoyed them as people. Like any race team, we got very close and they are great friends of mine. None of this is a discredit to them because they gave me everything I ever asked for over there.
“At the end of the day, if there was a shortcoming, it was on me. It was my shortcoming. I was just out of bandwidth. I had a really good package around 2021 and 2022 and we won a lot of races and whether it was in the tire change or everyone else caught up, I wasn’t able to find it back. It’s unfortunate because I really like those guys and leaving them is just as much a me issue than it is them. I told them, if I was better, I would have stayed but I was out of bandwidth and not getting any younger.”
While Grant had Doyle, an accomplished car chief in her own right, Grant is still amongst the most hands-on drivers in the discipline. In joining CB Industries, a Toyota Racing Development supported team and one that just captured the championship with Daison Pursley, Grant can now just primarily focus on driving and delegating some of the mechanical elements to his crew.
Team owner Chad Boat says this is a value add for both parties.
“It’s huge,” Boat said. “I have a ton of respect for Justin. We have known each other for a long time. We have raced together since we were kids in BCRA Midgets and have a ton of respect for each other. I am super excited to put a guy of that caliber on board because it adds to the program in the sense of the younger guys having someone to lean on, but even someone like Daison (Pursley) because he respects the hell out of Justin Grant because of the resume and how he’s done it.
“Also, as hands-on as he is, one of our strengths is that he doesn’t have to be now but it’s still a benefit because we add his knowledge to what we’ve learned here too. There isn’t one set way of getting where we want to be and adding another voice with experience is going to make us even more successful and win the races we want to win.”
To that point, RMS is certainly a smaller team compared to what CB Industries has grown into. And while it’s not quite at the Keith Kunz Motorsports level of infrastructure, Grant now has access to a wider array of experienced racers that he never had before.
“It’s tough when you get to struggling when you have one car and are on an island,” Grant said. “You don’t get to draw data as fast, especially after the tire change and then you fall further behind. Chad goes to the race track and can get three or four races worth of data in one night in the same way Keith can get 6, 7 or 8 nights of data in one night.
“I have only been pulling one night’s worth of data every night. It’s difficult to be a single car team and be on that island. When your package is good, and it’s going great, it’s fine but when you lose it, it’s really hard to get it back.”
Grant says he was just working overtime, trying to get it back, and it just wasn’t working and it came at the expense of his race craft too. So the decision was made to give himself his best chance to win Chili Bowl and the Midget championship while still in his prime.
“I’ve been very fortunate in my career and at this point, I come here and I expect to be in the dash and in the conversation on Saturday,” Grant added. “Anything less would be a disappointment.”
Especially now.
