Moneymaker Modified Pit Notes 4/08/23 – Mike Gular Wins Bruce Rogers Memorial and 61st Season Points Opener at Grandview Speedway

Mike Gular decided to stay close to home this week with a trip to Grandview Speedway and it paid off in a big way when he came home with a bucket list $7,500 win at the Bruce Rogers Memorial Moneymaker.

Mike Gular took the early lead and was able to hold off  the hard charges of both Jared Umbenhauer and Brett Kressley until lap 32 when Kressley drove around Mike Gular to take the lead. But a persistent Gular took the lead back on a lap 38 restart and then held Kressley at bay for the final twelve laps to take the checkered flag for his first Bruce Rogers Memorial victory.

Heat race winners for the 39 car modified field were Kevin Hirthler, Craig Von Doren, Brett Kressley and Justin Grim.

 Joe Funk and Eddie Strada won the consolation races.

T.P. TRAILER NASCAR MODIFIED BRUCE ROGERS MEMORIAL MONEY MAKER FEATURE FINISH (50 laps):

1. MIKE GULAR ($7500), 2, Brett Kressley, 3. Jeff Strunk, 4. Craig Von Dohren, 5. Tim Buckwalter, 6. Jared Umbenhauer, 7. Eddie Strada, 8. Justin Grim, 9. John Willman, 10. Dylan Swinehart, 11. Ryan Grim, 12. Ryan Watt, 13. Jimmy Leiby, 14. Nate Brinker, 15. Bobby Trapper Jr., 16. Bobby Gunther-Walsh, 17. Kevin Graver Jr., 18. Craig Whitmoyer, 19. Jesse Leiby, 20. Doug Manmiller, 21 Kyle Weiss, 22. Joe Funk, 23. Chris Esposito, 24. Kevin Hirthler

DID NOT QUALIFY: Glenn Owens, Carroll Hine III, Darrin Schuler, Ron Haring Jr., Mike Laise, Mark Levy, Eric Biehn, Bob Trapper, Kenny Gilmore, Ray Swinehart, Mark Malcolm, Lex Shive, Chris Gambler, Mike Lisowski, Ron Myers

MODIFIED PIT NOTES –  BRUCE ROGERS MEMORIAL MONEY MAKER

Mike Gular led the first 32 laps only to see Brett Kressley take the lead in lapped traffic on lap 32.  Six laps later Gular reclaimed the lead back from Kressley on a lap 38 restart and  moved back into the lead for his second time of the night.

In victory lane Gular noted “We lost a close one to Stewart Friesen in the first year of this race and I am thrilled to finally get to win Bruce’s race which has been on my bucket list since the inception of his race. It is an honor to win Bruce’s race and great racing with Brett today. When Brett passed me in lap traffic, and I thought I had just lost the race. Once he gets by you for the lead; you usually are not going to get back by him here at Grandview. I had a chance at Brett on a couple of late restarts; and on the second restart I was able to get side by side with him down the front stretch and then make it stick and get the lead back from Kressley. I let a big one get away last week in Delaware and figured I must make something happen this week.  I was not going to let another one get away two weeks in a row.”

Back at the trailer Mike stated “When Brett passed me in lapped traffic on lap 32; I thought that we just got screwed for the night again, but we were lucky on a restart today. On the second restart, I was able to get a perfect start, hung with him down the front stretch to get to the top and then rolled him up to take the lead back on lap 38. Yes, we are the current points leader, but we have not planned to run any track weekly this season and I’m glad to be able to win this race in honor of my friend Bruce Rogers.”   

Brett Kressley finished 2^nd from his 7^th starting position and was a late restart away from his first win of the season. Kressley passed Gular for the lead in lapped traffic on lap 32 only to see Gular reclaim the lead on a lap 38 restart. Brett couldn’t  find a way back around Gular in the final 12 laps and settled for a solid second place finish.

Brett stated “It was helpful to start up front in the feature this week since the track was a bit narrow and did not allow for a lot of side by side racing but that’s just part of early season racing conditions you must deal with this time of year. Mike had a great car tonight and congrats to him. I made the wrong decision on the final restart, and it cost me the win but that’s just how it goes.”

Jeff Strunk finished 3^rd from his 12^th starting position in his return to the Hill in the iconic 126 of Glenn and Bonita Hyneman. Jeff’s strong forward run to a podium finish has given notice that the 126 is ready to give chase to the 2023 NASCAR modified championship.

Postrace Jeff noted “Today was great to be back on the hill and to see all our diehard fans back in the stands on a brisk April night. This was a good solid run for us right out of the box going from 12th to 3^rd. We passed some really good cars and put ourselves in contention late in the race. The Grandview track crew did an excellent job and gave us a fast and racey track and you had to be up on the wheel all 50 laps.”

Glenn and Bonita Hyneman give me all the resources and the best equipment to win races and championships. I have the same great group of guys on the crew whose families make a lot of sacrifices to support our team.  I’m very grateful to Glenn, Bonita and everyone on our crew and look forward to a great season on the Hill.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 4^th from an 11^th starting position and made  his typical methodical move forward to a 4^th place finish and just ran out of laps as does happen sometimes.  Von Dohren is poised to defend his 2022 NASCAR points championship and improve on his eight regular season race victories last season on the Hill.

Tim Buckwalter finished 5^th from his 9^th starting position. Tim is off to a pretty good start in 2023 and has already posted his best finish ever at the Tulsa Shootout, Chili Bowl, a win at Trenton 600 indoor race and a solid 4^th place finish in a 50 car field of wingless 600’s at Bridgeport on Friday night.

Tim reflected “ We did a lot of testing this winter and it may have actually hurt our balance in the car a bit.  The track was heavy, and we gave up five spots early which is something you just cannot do at Grandview and still be in the hunt for a win.  We also got stuck on the bottom on restarts and had to wait for holes to open to get back up top because there was a big old hammer down cushion up top tonight. The car really came in for the last ten laps and we moved back up to a 5^th place finish in our first time out with our new Jason Leindecker engine program which I was very happy with tonight.”

“This is a 2022 car that we ran at the 76er last year. We are sticking with coils all season this year and will not be experimenting with bars at Grandview like we did last year. We also decided to make an engine builder switch this winter after ten years with Pat Morrison to a more local engine builder Jason Leindecker.”

Jared Umbenhauer started on the pole and finished 6^th. Jared enters his second year as the driver/team owner of the #19 car and he is looking for a return to his 2021 form where he finished 3^rd in the Grandview modified points standings.

Jared noted “The car was fairly good until around the halfway mark when the car got very tight. It was getting hard to turn the car, especially on restarts and when I was in traffic. The car getting tighter was the reason we lost so many spots and fell back in the field at the end of the race. I did have a better finish in me for this race, but the harder I wanted to drive, the less the car wanted to turn. I tried to slow my entry, but then I started to get sliders thrown at me. In the end I was just holding on and trying not to lose any more spots.”

Eddie Strada finished 7^th from his 18^th starting position to add to his 5^th place finish at the Big Diamond opener on Friday night.  Eddie only has one car and has been able to start his season with a 5^th place finish at Big Diamond on Friday and take the same car to a 7^th place finish at Grandview’s Moneymaker on Saturday.

Eddie stated “We started the night with a good pill pull and just missed qualifying from the heat by one spot and ended up in 5^th place in our heat.  We won our consolation race and really checked out on the field when we got in clean air. We are new at Grandview and have been learning things about this track all day.  We had an exceptionally good car in the feature, and I actually saved the car during the early laps to have something at the end of the feature race.  We were right next to Manmiller when he rolled, and he went away from us allowing us to stay clear of the wreck on the front stretch.  We are pleased with our 7^th place finish considering the company we were in.  I will take this finish at Grandview any day. I’ll be back.”

Justin Grim won his heat race and carried his momentum over into the feature with a 8^th place finish from his 4^th starting position.  After an extremely difficult season in 2022, Justin is coming out of the box for the 2023 season with his best start to a season in recent memory.

Justin noted “ This is definitely a good solid start to our 2023 season. This was only our 3^rd outing on this car with races at Lincoln and BAPS in March.  We have a different shock package on the car this year from Ron Seltmann and it has already improved the car’s handling. The engine was rebuilt by Nick’s Precision machine who made some changes to get the power to be more usable and it seemed to work well and make a difference. I can’t thank all my crew for all the hard work they’ve been putting in this winter and my sponsors for all of their continued support. It’s always good to get out and race early in the season. We certainly enjoyed the trip to Lincoln and that car has fresh Leindecker engine in it which we also took to big diamond Friday.  I ended up getting in a tangle up with a spinning car that ended our night at Big Diamond on Friday. We are very happy with this Leindecker engine.”

John Willman finished 9^th in the Kam Racing Fueled 291 entry and is looking to have a consistent season of weekly top ten finishes and continue his tradition of getting one or more wins every season on the Hill.

John Willman recalled “The motor was great today, but our handling was not so good for us  and made it tougher for us.  In the heat I was just hanging on for dear life and managed to stay in 3^rd place.   We changed a whole bunch of things and could not get the car to improve today. This is a much better start to our season last year and we are looking for consistent top ten finishes and a return to victory lane this season.”  

Dylan Swinehart finished 10^th in his debut on the Hill in the Pink Panther Motorsports 74.  Dylan noted “we battled fuel pressure issues on Friday night at Big Diamond’s season opener. We replaced everything possible in the fuel system but still had fuel problems in hot laps today. Problem turned out to be a faulty gauge.  My first on throttle laps of the season were in the heat today and we finished 2^nd.  We had a tight car in the feature and were on the right rear too hard. I was up on the wheel hard for the entire race since the track was very fast.  After struggling with fuel issues, we were very pleased for our new team to start the season with a solid 10^th place finish to open our 2023 season at Grandview.  We just need to dial both the driver and car in together, and I believe we have a shot to be able to run with the big dogs this year.”

Ryan Grim finished 11^th but showed promise with a strong heat race and running 5^th  for 37 of the 50 lap feature.   Ryan commented “We have the same car and motor that we had last year but we changed from torsion bars to coils this winter. For our first time on coils, it ended up being a decent night and we ran top five most of the night until one mistake cost a bunch of spots.”

Ryan Watt finished 12^th from his 15^th starting position after being involved in a red flag incident on lap 8 and heading to the pits for repairs.

Watt noted “In the heat the track was very narrow, and the race went nonstop. We tried some things that did not work, but we still made the redraw and drew 15 of 16. In the feature we were involved in a red flag incident and took some damage.  I got out of the car on the track because a nearby car was smoking but jumped back in and drove to the pits were the crew only had to fix sheet metal damage. Later we found we had a bent shock but were still able to pass cars and move forward to a 12^th place finish.”

“It is great to have only an eight minute drive with no traffic to race on Saturdays this year at Grandview. We have also gained three new crew members since we are now so close to home on Saturdays which is great since we have a lot of Friday and Saturday race weekends on the schedule this year.”

Jimmy Leiby finished 13^th from a 23^rd starting position in his first time in weekly modified race. In his heat Jimmy moved from 9^th to 6^th which sent him to the consolation were he secured the final qualifying position for the feature.

Jimmy reflected “ The night started off with a rough pill draw, but knew we just had to make this dance for a $1,000 to start. We were side by side with Jesse in the starting grid of our heat race. It was cool racing next to my brother in my first official modified feature race.  The feature was just a survival test for the new guy and learning to deal the speed of a modified  on every lap.  You have to be perfect on every lap to be fast in the modified.  We were extremely happy to get a 13^th place finish and a good start in our first true modified outing.”  

The feature ran in 34 minutes with 4 cautions and one red flag for a front stretch tangle on lap 8 which saw Doug Manmiller barrel roll a few times, but he was able to walk away from the incident.  Manmiller, Joe Funk and Kyle Weiss all saw there night end with a tow into the pits while Ryan Watt and Bobby Gunther Wash were able to continue racing.

Next up on Saturday, April 15 will be a two-division program under the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series banner for the T.P. Trailer 358 Modifieds and T.P. Truck Equipment Sportsman. The program will consist of qualifying races leading up to the 30-lap Modified and 25-lap Sportsman main events.