Grandview Modified Pit Notes 5/28/22 –  Craig Von Dohren Takes 4th Modified Win of Season

Grandview Speedway held their second 602 Crate tripleheader program of the season with 106 Modified, Sportsman and 602 Crate Sportsman in the pits. 

Craig Von Dohren scored his 3^rd modified win in four races over Brett Kressley, Brett Gilmore, Doug Manmiller and Duane Howard.  Despite his three Grandview points race wins Von Dohren is already in an early too close to call points battle with Brett Kressley, Doug Manmiller, Duane Howard, and Tim Buckwalter.

Craig Von Dohren charged from the 15^th starting position on the field to take his second consecutive modified win and fourth win of the season overall.  Brett Gilmore led the first 20 laps with Von Dohren taking the lead on lap 21 after a restart.  Von Dohren held on to take the win by only .23  after a hard charge by arch-rival Brett Kressley in 2^nd place.

Heat races were won by Craig Von Dohren, Brett Gilmore, Brett Kressley and Steve Swinehart.  Last chance consolation winners were Jeff Strunk and Mike Lisowski.

MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (30 laps):

1.CRAIG VON DOHREN, 2. Brett Kressley, 3. Brett Gilmore, 4. Doug Manmiller, 5. Duane Howard, 6. Craig Whitmoyer, 7. Kevin Hirthler, 8. Steve Swinehart, 9. Kevin Graver Jr., 10. Dan Waisempacher, 11. Kyle Lilick, 12. Jeff Strunk, 13. Brad Arnold, 14. Tim Buckwalter, 15. Jesse Leiby, 16. Dave Dissinger, 17. Justin Grim, 18. Mike Lisowski, 19. Cory Merkel, 20. Carol Hine III, 21. Frank Cozze, 22. Mike Gular, 23. Brad Grim, 24. (alt) Dylan Swinehart, 25. Darrin Schuler, 26. Bobby Trapper Jr., 27. Ray Swinehart, 28. Ron Haring Jr., DID NOT START: Jared Umbenhauer

DID NOT QUALIFY: John Willman, Nate Brinker, Brad Brightbill, Jordan Henn, Mike Laise, Tanner Van Doren, Eric Biehn, Mark Kratz, Bobby Gunther-Walsh, Joe Funk,

Modified Pit Notes  –

Craig Von Dohren picked up his 2^nd Grandview win in a row and his 4^th overall win this season at Grandview.   The only thing that has stopped him from sweeping the Grandview modified races so far this season was a flat tire and Brett Kressley.  Craig finished with the feature win this week from his 15^th starting position.  Despite a dominant early season performance at Grandview; Craig is still behind by 10 points to Brett Kressley in the early season points standings.  The standings show just how competitive Grandview is when you can win 3 out of 4 points races and still not be leading the 2022 Grandview early season point standings.

In victory lane Craig Von Dohren stated “The restarts were key tonight like they always are.  I didn’t want to get off the top and knew we had to stay up there to win.  We just tweak and fine tune our setup and motor every week to stay in victory lane.”

Brett Kressley finished 2^nd from his 13^th starting position.  To say that every position means something is spot on in the current Kressley VS. CVD battle.  Kressley leads the current points standings only by a 10 point advantage over CVD.  Brett is exactly one position better than Craig Von Dohren so far this season.

 Back at the trailer Brett Kressley noted “We had a great car again last night and we are just a few small tweaks away from being spot on with our setup.”

Brett Gilmore finished a season best 3^rd  place from the pole position and led the feature for 20 laps.  Brett also held off the thundering heard for 3 of 4 restarts until Craig Von Dohren took over the lead on the 4^th restart at lap 21.   

Postrace Brett stated “Things turned around for us tonight and we started on the pole and won our heat race.  Car was good and smooth, but we did have a vibration for unknown reasons.  After watching the sportsman feature, I made the decision to run the top since the upfront sportsman were running up there.  At the green I went right to the top and stayed there.  On the 3^rd restart I got a bump from Craig and knew he was back there.  I fired good on the restart but got tight and Craig went by me and later Kressley did too, but I don’t have any complaints about tonight.  Car was really fast tonight.  We have been struggling with car not being good, a blown rear and U joint problems in the last few weeks so this 3^rd place couldn’t come at a better time for us.”

Doug Manmiller finished 4^th from a 12^th place starting position.  Doug has finished in the top 5 in all five Grandview starts this season and currently sits a solid 3^rd in the early season point standings only 28 points behind points leader Brett Kressley.   

Doug commented “I am happy with our consistency so far this season.  We are looking for a bit more speed and will continue to make changes to get faster.”

Duane Howard had a challenging day, but in the end finished 5^th from a 26^th starting position.  Duane had a flat tire late in the heat race and finished last in the heat.  He qualified 26^th and ran through the field to a 5^th place finish and was able to keep his streak of top 10 finishes in the 4 points races this season.

 Craig Whitmoyer posted a season best 6^th place finish from a 6^th place starting position after enduring two DNQ and 20^th place finish to start the 2022 season after his top ten points finish in 2021.

Craig noted “Got banged around in the heat race like usual, got punted, ran over and knocked back to last early in the heat race.  Car was very good, and we came back through the field and was able to qualify in the handicap and stay with Gular during the heat race.  We started 6^th and was able to run in 2^nd place for about 15 laps and we were catching Brett Gilmore in 1st.  We haven’t run a full feature all year, so we had a very basic setup in the car and ended up with a very good night.”

 Kevin Hirthler had his best finish of the season with a 7^th place finish from his 20^th starting position.  Kevin had a busy day driving to a win in the crate division and son Jesse racing in the sportsman division.

Kevin noted “We got our setup better this week in our primary car and this was only the 2^nd time we had this car out with our new engine from Jeff Murray.  In the heat we were in the wrong lane on a restart and got hung out and missed the invert.  We had a good car and were able to run up to 7^th from 20^th starting position.”

Steve Swinehart finished 8^th from his 2^nd starting position and posted his best finish of the season.

Steve noted “Last Saturday we had motor issues that started in the valve train, and we damaged some pistons too.  Car owners Dennis and Donna Weller wasted no time purchasing a  stout piece and that was a key contributing factor in our heat race win and first feature top 10 of the season. Our setup in the car is getting closer every week and I hope that trend continues.   All in all, I’m starting to have fun getting back into the groove thanks to the opportunity Mr. and Mrs. Weller has given to me.  I’m not 100 %  with the car yet but we are getting closer every week.”

Kevin Graver posted his second 9^th place of the season from a 4^th starting position.  Kevin reflected “We had a decent car in the feature, but we seemed a little down on power.  I made a bad in-car adjustment during one of the cautions which made the car too tight, and we ended up in no man’s land losing a few spots.  I got it gathered up and kept digging to the 9^th place finish which we were really happy with.”

Dan Waisempaucher finished a season best 10^th from a 7^th starting position and continues to improve on his feature finishes over the past two weeks.

Dan noted “Just been making some small changes and knocking the rust after last season.  We have a good basic setup to work from and I have some good people that help dial the car in.  The heats are tough since a lot of bite is in the track and makes everyone fast. We also must take advantage of any opening or slip ups from the guy in front of you on the starts.  Once I know I’m in a handicapping spot, I pretty much just try to hold my line and not make any mistakes.  Heat races don’t pay, so it’s not worth taking a risk if you are already in a qualifying spot.  I’ve been lucky and have had good starting spots so far this year and I can just run my line.  This week I’ll probably start back a little further and this will be a good test to see how competitive our car is from the back. Our features are getting better. A decent, consistent car is making it easier for me to focus on what I need to do differently driving wise and what I need to improve on the car to get faster.  We have had easy weekly maintenance without any mechanical or wreck issues to address so have been able to focus on making the car better and reliable when we unload the car at the track.”

Kyle Lilick is in his rookie modified season replacing his brother Ryan in the seat of DB Motorsports 49 entry. Kyle posted his best finish of the season with an 11^th place finish from a 17^th place starting position.  He called on his years of experience in the sportsman ranks to make an evasive move and just miss a spinning 16 car in the feature to preserve his best run of the season.

Jeff Strunk had a rough outing after a tangle with Ray Swinehart on lap 6 in the feature which sent him to the pits for repairs and to the rear of the field.  Jeff was able to return and moved back through the field for a 12^th place finish from a 21^st starting position.

Brad Arnold finished 13^th from an 18^th starting position.  Brad stated, “ I made a driving error in the heat race which put me out of the handicap, but we are still going forward every week after a slow start this year.”

Tim Buckwalter finished 14^th from a 14^th starting position and couldn’t move forward due to a cracked distributor cap.  Tim came in as the points leader, but in a rare non-moving forward 14^th place finished for Buckwalter he dropped to 5^th in the early point standings.  “Never had a cap break ever before” Tim noted.

Jesse Leiby finished 15^th from a 25^th starting position posting for another consistent finish that move him into 10^th in the early season point standings.

Jesse stated “Went out for the heat and felt the car was really fast.  I shot under another competitor to attempt a pass twice and when he came down the track after hoping the cushion and it bent our front axle back which made it very hard on entry for the rest of the night.  We were able to get 3rd in the last chance and didn’t really make any changes due to the amount of front end damage we had from the heat.  Just took what I could get for the feature, and we had an okay run.  I feel like every week we get better so hopefully we continue to build this momentum forward and are able to finish every race this season.”

Bobby Trapper returned from nearly a two year hiatus and was able to put his #2 entry in the field from the last chance consolation.  Bobby pulled off with apparent engine smoke in both hot laps and his heat race.  He was able to make repairs and get into the field through the last chance consolation race.

Brad Grim, Mike Gular and Mike Lisowski all had some bad luck in the feature that dropped them out of the race from a top 10 position running position late in the race.

Next weekend the T.P. Trailer NASCAR Modifieds and T.P. Truck Equipment NASCAR Sportsman will be competing in a two-division program on Saturday, June 4 starting at 7:30 pm. The program will include qualifying events for both divisions leading to the 30-lap T.P. Trailer Modified feature and the 25-lap T.P. Truck Equipment Sportsman main event. Pit gates will open at 4 pm. with grandstand gates opening at 5:30 pm. and warm-ups starting at 6:30 pm. Adult grandstand admission is $18, while children under age 12 are admitted free of charge.