Dylan Swinehart Claims Grandview Win

It started like any other steamy Saturday night points race at Grandview but ended with some of the most exciting and unexpected feature race finishes of the season so far.  Dylan Swinehart took the modified win in dramatic fashion with Brett Kressley braking an axle moving him to 3^rd and then hard racing between Jeff Struck and Tim Buckwalter taking the 1^st and 2^nd place cars out on the last lap opening the door for Dylan Swinehart to collect his first modified win of the season.

The sportsmen feature was just as dramatic with Brian Hirthler over 4 seconds behind the leader Mike Mammana.  Hirthler closed the gap and then worked lap traffic to take the lead on an underneath pass on the white flag lap for the win.

Dylan Swinehart was scheduled to start outside pole but was moved to pole sitter when Joe Funk opted to the back on the start.  Swinehart lead the first 9 laps.  On lap 10 Jeff Strunk came from his 9^th starting position and made the pass on Dylan Swinehart for the lead.  Brett Kressley moved into second behind Strunk on lap 15 and got within 2 tenths of a second and was threatening Strunk for the lead but Kressley contacted a lapped car and broke an axle on lap 27 ending his night and brought out caution # 2 of the event.  With Kressley falling out of second place this put the red hot Timmy Buckwalter in second for a lap 27 restart.  Buckwalter put the car underneath Struck and on the white flag lap Buckwalter had the lead by .03 on Struck.  Strunk and Buckwalter battled into turn 1 on the final lap and just as Buckwalter started to pull away contact from Strunk took both cars around bring out caution # 3 while Dylan Swinehart weaved past them and into the lead on lap 29.   Swinehart looked like an old pro on the green/white flag restart and keep Jared Umbenhauer at bay to take his 2^nd career trip to victory lane.

The top ten was round out with 2^nd place Jared Umbenhauer, Brad Grim, Duane Howard, Doug Manmiller, Ryan Gram, Kyle Weiss, Rick Laubach, Craig Von Dohren, and Joe Funk.

Dylan Swinehart has had a tough season in the first 2 points races with two 27^th place finishes this season and like last week with Hirthler going from DNQ to winner again showed the difference one week can make at Grandview.  Dylan also won his first race of the 19 year old’s career at this very same weekend last year.  In victory lane Dylan noted “I was going to settle for 4^th; then Kressley broke; I was not good enough to beat the front two; I saw them getting rammy and put myself in position to clear them and ended up with a good night.”

The sportsman race got off to a rough start with outside pole sitter Kenny Bock spinning in front of the field in turn 1 and collecting 15 cars in the red flag incident.  Only 9 cars got through without stopping or damage and the starting grid of the field was completely shuttle before lap 1.  Once the racing started pole sitter Mike Mammana was quick to check out on the field in the first 10 laps extending his lead to nearly 4 seconds.  Brian Hirthler worked his way from 5^th to 2^nd and moved in on Mammana and lapped traffic by lap 16.  Lapped traffic started on lap 17 and was equally challenging for both drivers but on lap 24 it was Hirthler making the pass Mammana while he was bottled in by lapped traffic.  Hirthler took his second Grandview win of the season and extended his points lead for the 2020 season.

The top ten was rounded out by Mike Mammana, Jesse Leiby, Jack Butler, Jack Butler, Kyle Lillick, Brad Arnold, Chris Esposito, Brad Brightbill, Parker Guldin and Jimmy Leiby.

Modified Pit Notes

An intense battle for the win between Jeff Strunk, Tim Buckwalter and Brett Kressley ended with none of them getting the win today.  Kressley broke an axle on lap 27 while running in 2^nd place.  Buckwalter then inherited 2^nd behind Strunk and on the ensuing 3 lap dash Buckwalter took the lead at the white flag by .03 and in turn 1 and 2 contact between Strunk and Buckwalter put both drivers around and out of the race as 3^rd place Dylan Swinehart drove past them both and into the lead on the final lap.

Jared Umbenhauer came from a 12^th place starting position to finish a strong 2^nd place finish for the second week in a row.  The two 2^nd places finishes together with a 5^th place has Umbenhauer at the top of the points after 3 weeks.  Particularly impressive for Umbenhauer is that the 5^th place finish came the night after a violent front stretch end over end flip at Big Diamond.

There were some real strong front to back runs during race with only 3 yellows:

Duane Howard 4^th place finish from 21^st starting position

Rick Laubach 8^th place finish from 24^th starting position in the 14 car which was the first race at Grandview for the weekly Big Diamond ride.  The 7 Grandview car was found to have a broken flywheel from last Sunday at Bridgeport as it was being loaded for Grandview and some last minute phone calls saved the day for team Laubach.

Craig Von Dohren 9^th place finish from a 19^th starting position.

Kevin Hirthler has been riding the Grandview rollercoaster of ups and downs.   His win of last week has been bookended with two DNQ’s due to driveline and mechanical issues.  His DNQ this week was due to damage incurred in the heat race and for the second time this year couldn’t make the call for the consolation.  If the pattern continues he will win next week.

Sportsman Pit Notes

The melee at the start of the race changed the complexion of the event before lap one was completed.  Only 9 drivers made it through the incident without damage or having to stop and lose their starting position.  Brain Hirthler advance from 16^th to 5^th while Kyle Lillick from 19^th to 6^th before lap 1 was even completed.  Others benefiting were Parker Guldin moving from 20^th to 7^th and Brad Arnold moving from 15^th to 4^th.

Sportsman rookie Decker Swinehart has been on a fast track progression this year despite a few growing pains and setbacks.  Decker has gone from qualifying in consolation to qualifying in the heats and starting in the A main at a pretty quick pace.  He’s in the same car his brother Dylan drove in his younger days ………..yeah Dylan 19 now.  Dylan has done what big brothers do and been there all the way with Decker as he enters his first year of sportsman racing.  Decker ended up on the boiler plate a week ago and had heavy damage to 38 entry.  It was an all week thrash by Decker, Dylan, their dad and crew of Scott Saylor, Ryan Werner, Gage Phillips and Nicho Flammer to get the car ready for this week.   The panels on one side of the car were not painted but Decker and the 38 was back and racing this week with a 17^th place finish while bother Dylan got his second career win in modified.

The Leiby brothers have been real active in recent weeks.  Jimmy had frame damage 2 weeks ago in the heat race while Jesse’s car had frame damage in the heat race last week.  Both cars were fixed in their own shop and were back and ready to race this week.   Jesse earned the highest finishing crate award with a 3^rd place podium finish and Jimmy got a top ten finish.   Much better week with neither of the brothers coming in on the hook this week and just routine maintenance in the shop this week.

Grandview Results – 7/11/20

name	finish	start
Dylan Swinehart	1	2
Jared Umbenhauer	2	12
Brad Grim	3	3
Duane Howard	4	21
Doug Manmiller	5	14
Ryan Grim	6	8
Kyle Weiss	7	13
Rich Laubach	8	24
Craig Von Dohren	9	19
Joe Funk	10	1
Mike Gular	11	20
Brett Gilmore	12	9
Ryan Watt	13	23
Ryan Lillick	14	6
Craig Whitmoyer	15	27
Dan Waisempacher	16	25
TJ Lilley	17	15
Bobby Gunther Walsh	18	4
Timmy Buckwalter	19	11
Jeff Strunk	20	7
Ron Kline	21	22
Brett Kressley	22	10
Louden Reimert	23	16
Ray Swinehart	24	5
Clay Butler	25	26
Richie Hitzler	26	17
Mike Lisowski	27	18
Justin Grim	28	29
Mark Kratz	29	28
Darin Schuler	DNQ
John Willman	DNQ
Corey Merkel	DNQ
Eric Biehn	DNQ
Mark Levy	DNQ
Briggs Danner	DNQ
Ron Myers	DNQ
Ron Haring	DNQ
Colt Harris	DNQ
Kevin Hirthler	DNQ