Grandview Modified Pit Notes 7/23/22 – Craig Von Dohren Wins his 5th Modified Points Race at Grandview

Craig Von Dohren quickly moved from 14^th to 1^st on lap 27 while points rival Brett Kressley got bogged down in 14^th  and involved in a late race tangle on lap 28 with Brett Gilmore and Duane Howard which relegated Kressley to a 20^th place finish.  In the meantime, Von Dohren continued to move forward until he tracked down race leader Kyle Lillick to take his 5^th Grandview points race win of the season out of 10 races and move into a commanding 100 plus points lead over Brett Kressley.

Bobby Trapper led the first 13 laps until hard charging modified rookie Kyle Lillick took command of the race lead until lap 26 when the green flag run ended with the first caution of the night.  On the lap 27 ensuing restart, Von Dohren moved into the lead which he held through two more cautions to drive into the Grandview victory lane for his 8^th overall win this season.  

Heat winners for the 38 car modified field were Dylan Swinehart, Craig Von Dohren, Brett Gilmore and Kyle Lillick.  Jeff Strunk and Kevin Graver  won their last chance consolations.

MODIFIED 30 LAP FEATURE FINISH:

1. CRAIG VON DOHREN, 2. Kyle Lillick, 3. Ryan Grim, 4. Ray Swinehart, 5. Bobby Trapper Jr., 6. Jared Umbenhauer, 7. Kevin Hirthler, 8. John Willman, 9. Jeff Strunk, 10. Doug Manmiller, 11. Dylan Swinehart, 12. Brad Grim, 13. Cory Merkel, 14. Eric Biehn, 15. Kevin Graver Jr., 16. Steve Swinehart, 17. Michael Storms, 18. Brad Brightbill, 19. Duane Howard, 20. Brett Kressley, 21. Darrin Schuler, 22. Justin Grim, 23. Brett Gilmore, 24. Brad Arnold, 25. Joe Funk, 26. Tim Buckwalter, 27. Mike Lisowski, 28. Craig Whitmoyer, 29. Ryan Lilick, 30. Ryan Beltz

Did Not Qualify:

Dan Waisempacher, Anthony Tramontana, Carrol Hine III, Mark Kratz, Nate Brinker, Frank Cozze, Jesse Leiby, Bobby Gunther-Walsh

MODIFIED PIT NOTES – 7/23/22

Craig Von Dohren won his 5^th points race of the season from the 13^th starting position by moving into the lead on the lap 27 – first restart of the night.    Kyle Lillick was in the lead by 1.5 seconds over Von Dohren after 26 laps of green flag racing when the first caution of the night bunched the field up for a single file restart where Von Dohren moved into the lead for the final 3 laps to take the win over modified rookie Kyle Lillick in second place. 

In victory lane Von Dohren noted “Lillick was out there, and I couldn’t see him when the caution came out for the first time on lap 26 which brought him back to us after we had just moved into 2^nd place a lap or two earlier.  The breaks went our way tonight and we were in the right place at the right time for the first time all season.   The car is pretty good, and we are rolling right along at the right time in the season.”

In addition to picking up his 5^th Grandview points win, and 8^th win at Grandview overall win, Craig also moved into the Grandview modified points lead with a 200 swing in points over 2^nd place Brett Kressley in one night.  Unfortunately for Kressley he was involved in a late lap 28 tangle which relegated him from a 10^th place finish to a 20^th place finish on the night.

Craig also picked up his first back to back wins of the season with a win at Big Diamond on Friday night and then a Grandview win on Saturday night.

Kyle Lillick finished 2^nd from a 3^rd starting position for his best finish of his rookie modified season at Grandview.  Kyle passed Bobby Trapper on lap 14 to take the lead and he held a 1.5 second lead over Von Dohren until lap 26 when the first caution of the night came out.  On the restart Kyle fell to 2^nd but still posted the best finish of his modified rookie season.

Kyle  replaced his brother Ryan as the driver of the Dennis Becker #49 modified ride at the beginning of the 2022 season.  In his 8 modified starts he has qualified for 4 of his 8 races with a best finish of 2^nd place tonight.

Back at the trailer Kyle noted “We are always a little down on power but tonight it played to our favor on a very slick track, and I can’t thank Mark Malcom of Malcom Motors for giving us a great motor this season.  The car worked great all night and our plan was to run the bottom which we did in our heat race win.  In the feature we had to change the plan and move up to the top to stay up front.  When I saw Bobby Trapper gap the 33R using the top, I knew the top was the place to be.  The top was there until lap 25 which was much longer than usual.   My sportsman experience with lapped traffic was put to good use as I got through the lappers smoothly, quickly and without incident.   Bobby Trapper got free, and we were able to pass him for the lead.  Without any cautions we would have won this race, but 2^nd is really alright.  On the restart I threw everything I could at Craig but he’s just that good right now he can counter every move you got.  I would like to thank Dennis Becker for the opportunity to drive his 49 entry this year.”

Ryan Grim finished 3^rd from his 9^th starting position posting his second 3^rd place finish of the season and coming off a 22^nd place finish last week due to being involved in a multi car tangle last week. 

At the trailer Ryan stated “We had our best starting position of the season in the feature in 9^th.  We had a good car all night and were good on the bottom.  The final yellow hurt me and cost me a 2^nd place finish and I think we even had a shot to win this race if we could have gotten around the 2^nd place car.  This was the first time all year that I’ve been comfortable in the car.”

Ray Swinehart finished 4^th from  a pole starting position.  Ray noted “We had a different issue or problem every week but this week we put it all together for our best finish of the season.  We have a history of winning races late in the season so let’s hope we can keep that going as he 2022 season closes out.”  Ray has won in September at Grandview in the last two seasons.

Bobby Trapper finished 5^th from a 2^nd starting position.  Bobby led the first 14 laps with a strong separation gap from 2^nd and the field.  Bobby noted “We purchased a used chassis from the Breitenstein racing and put our engine in it and was ready for last week’s race that rained out.  For our first time out in this car it felt decent enough.  We had a few minor issues with the engine breaking up that we have yet to resolve which hindered the car in the heat race and some in the feature.  It was nice to get a decent run in again after struggling so much with the other car.  We need to work on getting this car a little better when the track dries out and slicks off as we got really loose towards second half of the feature this week.”

Bobby continued “The biggest thing we struggled with on the old car was it being to unsettled and pushy when getting into the corner. This car gets into the corner much easier. We got the car without shocks, so we did start out with our same shocks we had on the old car that worked best.  We hope to start tweaking the setup this week and get better adjusted to the new car.”

Jared Umbenhauer finished 6^th from a 16^th starting position.  Jared commented “The car is pretty good right now, I can make moves on the top, bottom and through the middle . I was surprised how good the car was tonight.  With all the top guys starting in front of me, I knew it was going be tough getting to the front.  I was a little tight the first few laps and got stuck on the bottom losing some ground before I got rolling to the front.  I could have used a few cautions before the first yellow on lap 26 because I really think we had a top two car, which was  getting better every lap right to the end.  We have the car where we want it, and it is really crazy how the smallest changes can make the biggest difference.”

Kevin Hirthler finished 7^th from an 8^th starting position. Kevin reflected “We were good in the heat with car working high and low on a pretty wide and racy track for a heat race.  Made some adjustments for the feature and track was wide and fast in the beginning and then started to slick off a bit.  Car was good and we are going in a good direction with the shocks and setup.  We need to be better at the end of the feature.  We just got the new car fixed up from the flip a couple weeks ago and on Friday night at the vintage race we went out to shake it down.  I had Jesse take out my white modified car and I shook down the new one that flipped.  Jesse got his first laps behind the wheel with 600 hp and loved it.  It was only about 6 laps, but I think it helped him gain confidence and I saw it really paid off  Saturday as he was driving a lot harder in corner entry.  Jesse is already doing his own adjustments on his car so I can focus on mine.  Jesse is handling the driving, maintenance, and adjustments really well.  Steph and I couldn’t ask for anything more out of him we are very proud with his progression in his rookie sportsman season.”

The “Underdog” is back with a car that now can race.  John Willman finished 8^th  from a 7^th starting position and has officially conquered the gremlins he has been chasing for the first 9 weeks of the season.

Back at the trailer John noted “ We had a good 8^th place and had a car that could race for the first time all year.  We went forward early and then the car faded due to bad stagger which got us too free.  We got stuck behind a car and struggled to clear him and got ate up by the top guys but still managed a solid 8^th place finish.  We got up to 3^rd tonight when I moved to the top and later, I searched and went back to the bottom when it came back in.  Now that we have the car back to racing, we have a lot of adjustments  we can make to get our first real baseline of the season better.”

John continued “We found our brake rotor problem last night at Delaware with 74W and it is built identical to our 291 Grandview car.  Both Logan and Ryan have made the same change and they were back up front on Friday night.”

Jeff Strunk finished 9^th from a 21^st starting position and managed to get a top ten on an up and down night with contact damage in the heat that sent him into the consolation for the first time this season.  Things settled down in the feature and Jeff was able to move forward 12 positions in what was virtually a green to checkered race until 3 yellows in the final 4 laps.

Jeff reflected “We shouldn’t have been in the consolation as we were in an invert spot and took heavy contact for no good reason.  It’s very frustrating knowing we were qualified in the invert as was the car that still took us out and he ended up not qualifying so hopefully he learned something from the experience.  With a tire shortage we are forced to run spare tires in the heats which made the car super tight tonight.  Once again, my guys shined and worked their butts off to give me a good car in time for the consolation.  It is very difficult to get a top five here at Grandview when your that far back (21^st) and especially with no cautions for 26 laps but we had a good fast Zubi’s 88z and just haven’t been able to get the finishes we are looking for recently.  It has been frustrating being so close with four 2^nd place finishes and yet so far other weeks, but this Zubi’s team will keep pluggin and hopefully we will finish the season out strong with some wins and good runs.”

Doug Manmiller finished 10^th from his 12^th starting position to continue his string of all top 5 & 10 finishes this season in the Grandview points races with 8 top fives and 2 top ten finishes in his 10 starts.  This season Doug has been on the fast pass to the front every race except tonight which appeared to be due to an almost green to checkered feature race with exception of 3 cautions in the final 4 laps of the feature.

Doug stated “This was a tough track tonight that it seemed like nobody could move forward on except Craig who went forward early.  We managed to stay in the top ten this week, so we will regroup and  try to get ourselves back into the top 5 next week.” 

Dylan Swinehart finished 11^th from his 4^th starting position but the big news was he was back on track racing and finished the night without any engine damage this week.  Dylan has had his toughest season in recent memory, suffering part failures in their motors four times this season.  Each one appearing to be season ending; only to have the 81 team find a way to get back on track the next week.

Dylan reflected “Motor felt good but couldn’t get a true feeling since we have fuel issues through the corner all night never got to fix the issue. We will fix it this week and really find out what it can do next week.  The car itself was great again thanks to FastFour shocks.  Since we have been on FastFour shocks the car has been hooked up.  Just need to fix our fuel issues and we have a shot.  This week was a good result for our first time out for a new used motor.”

Surprise of the night was the return of Ryan Lillick in the iconic Rio Bros R10 entry.  Ryan was shaking down the car for the first time and managed to qualify for the field as a bonus.  Ryan picked up his first modified win last year in the Dennis Becker 49 which his brother Kyle drove to a 2^nd place finish tonight in what was almost a win for Kyle.

Ryan noted “It is awesome to be in the R10 Rios Brothers car just knowing the history behind this car.  Much to my surprise we were able to qualify our first time out at Grandview no less.  Early in the heat I was cautious, and we were here to just get laps, but car felt great, and I saw the opportunity to get into the program, so I stepped it up and the car responded with a qualified position.  We have a fresh build on the car and the car was good right out of the box tonight.  In the feature we had brake issues and pulled in.”

Except for Craig Von Dohren (winner) & Doug Manmiller (10^th) it was an unusually rough night for the rest of the top 5 in season points.   Tim Buckwalter pulled off early with a blown motor while Brett Kressley and Duane Howard were involved in a lap 28 racing tangle with Brett Gilmore effectively ending the night for all three drivers.

The T.P. Trailer NASCAR Modifieds and T.P. Truck Equipment NASCAR Sportsman will be joined by the United Racing Club Sprint Cars in a three-division program next Saturday, July 30 starting at 7:30 pm.  The program will include qualifying events for all three classes leading to the 30-lap T.P. Trailer Modified feature, the 25-lap T.P. Truck Equipment Sportsman main, and the 25-lap URC Sprint car feature race.

Pit gates will open at 4 pm. with grandstand gates opening at 5:30 pm. warm-ups will be starting at 6:15 pm.  Adult grandstand admission is $25, while children ages 6-11 are $10, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge.

It will be Christmas in July on Saturday, July 30, as V&M Towing along with SDS Photography will be providing bonus money for both the Modified and Sportsman racers in the features plus the addition of cash dashes for both divisions.  Santa Claus will also make an appearance for the youngsters that evening as well.

The T.P. Trailer Modified feature winner will pocket a cool $3500 total payoff with purse and bonuses for the 30-lap main event, while the T.P. Truck Equipment Sportsman winner will collect a total prize of $1000 for the 25-lap main event on July 30.