The finish for Jake Anderson and Cristian Grady was crystal clear. Anderson crossed the line first, Grady second in the sport compact feature at Benton County Speedway on Sunday. Who won the track championship, though? The two were tied in points.
“I was pretty sure I had it — I did the math, but I didn’t want to say anything until it was announced,” Grady, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said. “I told Jake I was happy for him if he got the championship, he told me he would be happy for me if I won.”
Benton County Speedway did not inform the drivers of who won the track championship, according to Anderson and Grady.
“No one at the track told us anything,” said Anderson, of Garrison, Iowa. “One official said on paper that I won the championship, but he would have to clarify it with IMCA.”
By Wednesday, neither driver was informed yet of who won the track title for sport compacts at Benton County Speedway. Virginia Lindsey, IMCA Director of Points and Membership, explained how the IMCA points system worked.
“You compare the finishes, going down the list from first until you break the tie,” Lindsey said.
Lindsey said both drivers earned two feature victories this year. When it came to second-place finishes, Anderson had two, but Grady, by virtue of his finish on Sunday, had three. That broke the tie, making Cristian Grady the 2025 Benton County Speedway champion, per IMCA rules.
“[Jake] was not giving up,” Grady said. “He knew he had to win. I knew I had to stay with him, right behind him if I had a chance to win the championship. I will remember this season forever. It was awesome that we had such respect for each other right down to the last single point.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
