Grandview Modified Pit Notes 6/25/22 –  Brett Kressley Flies Around the High Side to 3rd Grandview Win of the Season

For the second time this season, Mark Kratz has led the feature for over half of the 30 laps only to have Brett Kressley take the lead on a lap 17 restart.  From there it was all Kressley checking out in the two caution 30 lap feature to nearly a 4 second victory over 2^nd place Craig Von Dohren for his 3^rd  trip to Grandview’s victory lane this season. 

Heat winners for the 37 car modified field were Mark Kratz, Brett Kressley, Kevin Hirthler, and Ray Swinehart.  Craig Von Dohren & Michael Storms won the last chance consolations.

 MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (30 laps):

1.BRETT KRESSLEY, 2. Craig Von Dohren, 3. Doug Manmiller, 4. Duane Howard, 5. Jeff Strunk, 6. Tim Buckwalter, 7. Kevin Hirthler, 8. Ryan Grim, 9. Brett Gilmore, 10. Brad Arnold, 11. Mark Kratz, 12. Cory Merkel, 13. Ryan Beltz, 14. Mike Lisowski, 15. Dan Waisempacher, 16. Michael Storms, 17. Bobby Gunther-Walsh, 18. Kevin Graver Jr., 19. Carroll Hine III, 20. Glenn Owens, 21. Brad Grim, 22. John Willman, 23. Justin Grim, 24. Dylan Swinehart, 25. Eric Biehn, 26. Jared Umbenhauer, 27. Ray Swinehart, 28. Craig Whitmoyer

DID NOT QUALIFY: Nate Brinker, Brad Brightbill, Darrin Schuler, Steve Swinehart, Chris Gambler, Jesse Leiby, Jordan Henn, Bobby Trapper Jr., Ron Haring Jr.

Grandview Modified Pit Notes 6/25/22

Brett Kressley picked up the win from his handicapped 16^th starting position and passed Manmiller, Buckwalter and Howard enroute to his 3^rd trip to the Grandview victory lane this season.  Von Dohren qualified from the consolation for the first time this season and started 21^st and when it was all said and done, he finished right behind Kressley in 2^nd place.  Kressley and CVD are in a weekly battle for the points championship for the 2^nd season in a row.

Brett noted in victory lane “The last restart was perfect, and I let them string out and then went to work going from 4^th to 1^st.  Hats off to the track crew who gave us a racy track and hopefully the fans enjoyed that one.  With two laps to go, a lapped car changed lanes and slammed into my side but kept going for the win.”

Back at the trailer Kressley noted “I’d say the key to our night was making the invert and getting by some of the other heavy hitters early.  Our car has pretty much been the same all year it just depends, if it’s my type of track or not.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 2^nd from his 21^st starting position.  Craig went to the consolation for the 1^st time this season and started the feature back in 21^st position.  Nonetheless he still ran through the field to 2^nd place to keep the pressure on Kressley in the points standings.

Last season through eight races Kressley lead the points with 4 wins to Von Dohren’s one win.  This season Kressley has 3 wins and has a 49 point lead over Von Dohren who has 4 wins.   Brett and Craig have dominated this year with 7 wins between the two of them and the only other winner has been Doug Manmiller who is currently 3^rd in points.  

Doug Manmiller finished 3^rd from his 15^th starting position.  Doug continues to keep pace with Kressley and Von Dohren posting 7 top five finishes including a win and one 7th place top ten finish.  

Postrace Doug stated “We were decent in the heat and made the invert.  We were decent in the feature, but we still need to find something to be able to run with Kressley and Von Dohren.”

Duane Howard has found some consistency with another 4^th place finish from a 13^th place starting position.  Howard was able move from 8^th to 5^th on the second and final restart of the feature.  Howard’s only finish outside of the top ten this season was a 14^th due to a broken steering box a few weeks ago .

Jeff Strunk finished 5^th from his 17^th starting position.  Strunk has 5 top 5 finishes but also has three finishes outside of the top 10 due to flat tires and wrecks.  Strunk continues to look for enough speed to claim his first win of the season, and he still sits 6^th in the points.

Timmy Buckwalter posted another 6^th place finish from his 14^th starting position.  Tim continues to post top ten or better finishes with only one out of the top ten finish which was a 14^th due to a cracked distributor cap.

Back at the trailer Tim commented “Pretty good run for us but we did get shuffled around a little in the beginning.  We tried a couple of things different with the car tonight and we weren’t as good in the beginning and middle, but we did have something at the end for Howard and Strunk and just wish we had a yellow because we did start to reel them in at the end.  Hats off to my guys working on the car, they know the only way we are going to beat Kressley and Von Dohren is to keep trying stuff until we find something for those guys.  We were OK on the top tonight, but me being on coils it’s kind of hard for us to rip the top like all the bars guys.”

Kevin Hirthler posted a 7^th place finish from his 10^th place starting position.  Kevin stated “I wasn’t very pleased with our finish, although I passed guys who started in front of us all the real fast guys drove right past us.  Car wasn’t that good and had to overdrive to just get 7^th.  I felt if we would have started the two restarts on the outside instead of the inside, we may had been able to hold onto 5^th.  The handling of the car was not good, and I had my hands full all night.  We will dig harder and see what we can do.”

Ryan Grim finished 8^th from a 20^th starting position.  Ryan noted “We were better this week, but still struggled in the heat and not sure why.  We will check our shocks for next week.  We weren’t horrible and are still figuring out the car.  The yellows were good for me tonight.”

Brett Gilmore finished 9^th from his 5^th starting position.  Brett has a 3^rd place finish early in the season but recently has been struggling with DNQ’s.  Brett stated “Tonight was a real good run for us to be back in the top ten.  Tim Buckwalter helped us with shocks, and he has already made a different for us.  We are getting better and getting closer.  We are only a few small adjustments away from being a top five car.  We’ll be back at TOTH on Tuesday to try some new setups.”

Brad Arnold finished a season best 10^th from his 9^th starting position.  Brad reflected “We decided to change some stuff for the heat, it seemed to work, and we finally made a handicap spot for the feature.  Our feature wasn’t terrible, we just need to go a little more with the car next time.  Car is straight and we have a top ten so I can’t complain.”

Mark Kratz finished 11^th from his pole starting position. In two starts on the pole, the 15 year veteran has led both 30 lap features to halfway point only to see Brett Kressley take the lead both times on the next restart.  This week Mark held on for his season best 11^th place finish.

Back at the trailer Mark noted “Two weeks ago when we were leading at the halfway point of the feature, something hit the master switch and I didn’t realize that was the issue until I got pushed into the pits.  Now we have a cover on the switch so that doesn’t happen to us again.   On both races I have lead to the halfway  point, I just started to see lapped traffic when the caution waves.  On both restarts, it’s Brett Kressley popping up right there and away he goes.”

Cory Merkel finished 12th from his 28th starting position. Cory had a challenging night in qualifying making the field from the last chance consolation in the final 28^th starting position and continued his streak of qualifying for all 8 points races this season.

Cory commented “After running hot laps we found a crack in our frame, so we had to get that welded and changes made before the heat race.  In the heat race we finished 7th which put us in the 2nd consolation.  We saved the car in the consolation, and kept it in the 4th and the last transfer spot sending us to the feature in the 28th and final starting position.  We were up to 12th in the feature when a car spun in front of us, and we had nowhere to go. Unfortunately, because we stopped we headed to the rear to do it all over again. We still would have been a top ten last night until the right rear tire went flat. We are very happy with the progress we are making this season and none of this would be possible without my two fathers, my dad Ken and my father in-law Jason. Thanks to Troy, Jordan and Justin for always helping and getting me back on the track.  Special thank you to Jesse Leiby and Justin Grim for rushing over to help us weld our frame.  We couldn’t do this without all the help we get from people at the track every week.”

Dan Waisenmpacher finished 15^th from his 26^th starting position.  Dan noted “ We were very pleased with our strong back to front move in the feature.  It is tough to come through a consolation race and also end up with a good night. The car was not good in the consolation, but we made it in and then made some minor changes that really helped us in the feature.  Luckily our tire wear has been pretty good.  I’m on three week old tires and ran the same ones all night.  You just have to take care of your tires and try not let them spin.  We have a long way to go this season, but I feel like we a making progress every week.”

It was a three way tie for the hard luck award this week. Eric Biehn, Kevin Graver, and Brad Grim were all running in the top ten when they were collected in a tangle on lap 10 that ended what was a strong run with a good car for all three drivers.

UPCOMING EVENTS AT GRANDVIEW SPEEDWAY:

Tuesday, June 28 – NAPA Auto Parts THUNDER ON THE HILL RACING SERIES – Pennsylvania 410 Sprint Car Speedweek Series Hodnett Cup $10,000 to win, 358 Modifieds – 7:30 pm. 

Saturday, July 2 – T.P. Trailer NASCAR Modifieds, 52^nd annual FIRECRACKER 40 for T.P. Truck Equipment NASCAR Sportsman – 7:30 pm.

Friday, July 8 – Outlaw Racing Series Enduro and Outlaw Racing Series Vintage – 7 pm

Saturday, July 9 – T.P. Trailer NASCAR Modifieds, T.P. Truck Equipment NASCAR Sportsman – 7:30 pm.