Ok. If I do substitute formula with 1 space " " under old text, referring to column J text, in column O, and then in the column next to it, I copy and special paste values, it sorts the column next to it correctly, but this only works if I substitute 1 space; otherwise it sorts like the "bad" column I have.

Can you explain to me why the spaces mess up the sort, even when I copy, paste special, values or multiply the distance column by 1, which has worked in the past? How can I avoid this in the future when I remove numbers from a text string?

Also, I don't understand what you mean when you said, "Instead of placing a space in the formula I copy and pasted a space from your distance values". What does that mean? What formula are you referring to?