Grandview Modified Pit Notes 8/27/22 – Ray Swinehart holds off Hard Charge of Strunk and Kressley to Claims his First Win of the Season

Ray Swinehart, 70 years young, was able to handle three restarts and hold off a hard charging Jeff Strunk and Brett Kressley in a three car breakaway from the field to take his first trip of the season to victory lane for his 32^nd career Grandview win.  

Ray Swinehart moved into the lead on lap 2 after a long red flag delay for tangle between Craig Whitmoyer and Justin Grim who also flipped hard and required a double hook to get back to the pits.  Ray Swinehart was able to fend off a hard charging Jeff Strunk for the final 18 laps and hold onto a .2 second margin of victory over Strunk for his first win since 2020.

Heat winners for the 35 car modified field were Ron Haring Jr, Ray Swinehart and Brett Gilmore.   The last chance consolation was won by Dylan Swinehart.

 MODIFIED 30 LAP FEATURE FINISH (30 Laps):

1.RAY SWINEHART, 2. Jeff Strunk, 3. Brett Kressley, 4. Jared Umbenhauer, 5. Craig Von Dohren, 6. Ron Haring Jr., 7. Bobby Trapper Jr., 8. Duane Howard, 9. Brett Gilmore, 10. Tim Buckwalter, 11. Doug Manmiller, 12. Michael Storms, 13. Kevin Hirthler, 14. Ryan Grim, 15. Dan Waisempacher, 16. Jesse Leiby, 17. Kevin Graver Jr., 18. Kyle Lilick, 19. John Willman, 20. Mark Kratz, 21. Nate Brinker, 22. Dylan Swinehart, 23. Ryan Beltz, 24. Bobby Gunther-Walsh, 25. Mike Lisowski, 26. Craig Whitmoyer, 27. Justin Grim, 28. Joe Funk

DID NOT QUALIFY: Brad Arnold, Cory Merkel, Addison Meitzler, Brad Grim, Ron Kline, Steve Swinehart, Carroll Hine III

Grandview Modified Pit Notes 8/27/22 –

Ray Swinehart finished 1^st from his 2^nd starting position and picked up his first win of the season with 2 weeks remaining.  In 2019 and 2020 Ray didn’t win his first race of the season until the last race of the season so this year he’s two weeks ahead of schedule.  The 70 year old driver picked up his 32^nd Grandview win of his career.  Ray has had some racing bad luck this season with flats and tangles but tonight he was able to stay clear of all that and proved his low budget team can run with the best of them holding the big budget teams at bay to take his first win of the season.

In victory lane Ray noted “I started up front but it’s still not easy to hold these guys off.  We had some bad luck with a couple of wrecks and flats, but we have been getting better & better and now here we are in victory lane.  I ran the bottom in 3 & 4 and the top in 1 & 2 and that’s how I did it.  I figured they were coming but didn’t know where they were ,so I gave it my all I had right to the end.  Never thought I’d get this far, and I’ll take my 32^nd career win.”

Back at the trailer Ray commented “Seems like we sort of took our time getting this car dialed in, I guess.  Car has  been getting better and better every week, but I keep getting wrecked most weeks.  I watched a couple of features this year and I know how good these guys are and I feel pretty darn good about being able to stay out in front of those guys.   They have a whole lot of money behind them, and we are a low budget team, so I feel very good about this car and this whole race.  The car was locked down and the track was different tonight which it has been a little different each race this year.  The heat races are very important and sets your whole night.  The heats here are tough, and Grandview is one of the toughest tracks around.”

Jeff Strunk finished 2^nd from his 14^th starting position and posted his sixth 2^nd place finish in 14 points races at Grandview this season.  Jeff and Brett Kressley battled side by side for the final half of the feature which allowed Ray Swinehart to maintain his lead and take his first win of the season.”

Jeff noted “ Solid 2nd again this week .  We had a great car in the 3 heat race format which I don’t think many of the competitors like much, but that’s one of the things you go up against some nights and some things go your way others not so much.  Ray ran a mistake free race, and I had a great clean race with Brett for 2^nd, but that allowed Ray get away from us a little bit until we got back up to him.  The lapped cars then came into the picture, but the race was already over.  Another 2^nd, which pays the bills but being so close so many times makes us really hungry for another win there.”

Brett Kressley finished 3^rd from his 15^th starting position and picked up a handful of points on Craig Von Dohren who finished in 5^th.  Addison Meitzler was in  Kressley’s 1B car which was his Big Diamond car last year.

Brett stated “car was really strong in the heat. No major changes in the feature and the track was a perfect fit for my style tonight.   Feature track was a slight curveball.  We missed one small adjustment which made us a tick off, but we will take a 3^rd  place finish.”

Jared Umbenhauer finished 4^th from his 13^th starting position.  Jared stated “the car was a little tight mid race but the last 10 laps it felt a lot better.  I was running some of my older tires that I had sitting around, and the stagger wasn’t where we wanted it be after the race, but I’d take a 4th any day of the week with the car is in one piece.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 5^th from his 19^th starting position.  Craig leads the points chase by 167 points with two races remaining in the season.

Ron Haring finished 6^th from his 7th starting position and posting his 2^nd top ten finish in his past 3 starts with his new chassis.  Ron noted “We missed on a shock change for the feature and was running too tight on the cushion.”

Bobby Trapper finished 7^th from his 6^th starting position and qualified at both Big Diamond and Grandview this weekend.  Bobby commented “we are definitely happy about having our fifth top ten finish of the season.  We kept the car clean all weekend and simply did maintenance on Saturday morning to turn the car around from Friday night at Big Diamond for Saturday at Grandview.  Car was pretty good all night.  No issue with tire sealing during the red flag delay since it was early on and don’t think we ran enough laps for the tires to seal.  I just need to get a little more comfortable in the car and keep learning and getting the car better.”

Duane Howard finished 8^th from his 18^th starting position.  Duane won his 9^th Big Diamond points championship on Friday night.  Duane noted “We are still missing getting our setup right at Grandview.  Heat races continued to be hard racing with too many cars trying to get to an invert position in the three heat race format.  The Grandview car is a different car from the Big Diamond car.  After the Coal Cracker we are thinking about bringing our championship win car to Grandview to finish out the season.  Starting position means so much in the feature.  Heat races are just becoming more and more important everywhere you go. “

Brett Gilmore finished 9^th from his 4^th starting position.  Brett state “Well, we were on torsion bars since the TOTH race, and the car was almost undriveable.  So, this week I switched back to coils and I can feel the track and actually maneuver the car a lot better.  In the heat race the car was really good only a little bit tight but nothing I couldn’t handle.  In the feature we made a small adjustment that went very far.  The car was really tight but came to me towards the end of the feature.  I’m happy with our results tonight after a couple weeks of struggling to get the car to turn. Felt good to get back in the top ten for sure.”

Timmy Buckwalter finished 10^th from his 17^th starting position and continues to hold  a solid 6^th position in the season points championship.”  Timmy has returned his early season motor to his coil car to finish out the season and is hopefully that he will pick up a win at Grandview in the final two point races of the season or the 76er.

Justin Grim had a big air in a turn 3 flip during the feature.  Justin was fine but the car was double hooked to the pits.  Justin stated “Yes I am fine just not 100% yet.   What made it start bouncing was either getting over the front of a car or hitting a massive rut which dug the RF nose in and there was nothing to do after that.  I just need to repair in front of the shock towers and the bumper slugs but overall, the car is not that bad all things considered.  I have the black car sitting with no engine and I like that chassis better anyway so we’re going to swap the engine into that car for next week.  I still look for my first Grandview win every week.”

Racing next weekend on the Grandview Speedway schedule will be Saturday, September 3, featuring the T.P. Trailer NASCAR Modifieds and the T.P. Truck Equipment NASCAR Sportsman in another NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Racing Series program, that will also see the Wingless Super Sportsman Racers joining the show starting at 7:30 pm.

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 $20, while children ages 11 and under are admitted free of charge.

Friday, September 2 will feature Round 8 with the Outlaw Racing Series Enduro and Outlaw Racing Series Vintage Cars in action starting at 7 pm. Pit gates open at 2 pm., Grandstand gates open at 6 pm. Grandstand admission will be $10, with children ages 12 and under admitted for free. Pit admission is $30 for the Friday event.