Grandview Modified Pit Notes 5/27/23 – Doug Manmiller Collects his Second Modified Win of the Season at Grandview Speedway 

Doug Manmiller moved into the lead on lap 14 and won the 2 caution feature leading the final 18 green flag laps to take the win over a top five of Brett Kressley, Craig Von Dohren, Jeff Strunk, and Mike Lisowski.

Bobby Trapper Sr grabbed the early lead and pulled off during the lap 8 caution due to mechanical issues giving the lead to Mike Lisowski on the next restart.  On lap 14 Doug Manmiller passed Mike Lisowski to take over the lead.  By lap 21 Mankiller’s lead was 3 seconds over 2^nd place Brett Kressley.  In the final 9 laps Kressley reeled in Manmiller but it was too little too late as Manmiller took the checkered flag to take his second win of the season by two car lengths.

Heat race winners for the 34 car modified field were won by Ray Swinehart, Eddie Strada and Jeff Strunk.

 Jared Umbenhauer won the consolation race.

T.P. TRAILER NASCAR MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (30 laps):

1. DOUG MANMILLER, 2. Brett Kressley, 3. Craig Von Dohren, 4. Jeff Strunk, 5. Mike Lisowski, 6. Ryan Grim, 7. Tim Buckwalter, 8. Dylan Swinehart, 9. Jared Umbenhauer, 10. Eddie Strada, 11. Kevin Hirthler, 12. Ryan Watt, 13. Rick Laubach, 14. Jesse Leiby, 15. Justin Grim, 16. Jimmy Leiby, 17. Mark Malcolm, 18. Joe Funk, 19. John Willman, 20. Ryan Beltz, 21. Ray Swinehart, 22. Eric Biehn, 23. Bobby Trapper Jr, 24. Bobby Trapper Sr., 25. Chris Gambler, 26. Kevin Graver Jr., 27. Craig Whitmoyer, 28. Ron Haring Jr.

DID NOT QUALIFY: Eric Kormann, Darin Schuler, Lex Shive, Mark Kratz, Bobby Gunther-Walsh, Steve Young

MODIFIED PIT NOTES – 5/27/23 NASCAR POINTS RACE # 5

Doug Manmiller posted his 2^nd win of the season at Grandview Speedway from his 10^th starting position and is the first driver to post two wins at Grandview this season.  His other three races have been a first lap wreck, a tangle, and a flat tire.  The car has been really good but the racing luck not so good.  The car that barrel rolled opening day on the front stretch was rebuilt and since that wreck has posted two wins in 4 outings.

Doug noted “This year we have been running well but have had bad breaks on the three races that we haven’t won.  We had a good shot at a win last week and while running 7^th but had a flat tire on lap 17.  We didn’t have any bad luck this week and picked up our 2^nd win of the season today.”

“With all our bad luck this year we have been getting the benefit of starting a few positions in front of the points leaders and it definitely helps to get to the front ahead of them before we had the long green flag run of 18 laps to the checkered flag.  I just kept a steady pace and just figured they were coming.”

“Can’t say enough about my crew guys who are making all the right calls this year.  This week the track was 360 degrees different than the track last week and they gave me a perfect race car.  In prior years we use to make the wrong calls, but now we seem to make much better calls when making adjustments and it shows with two trips to victory lane already this season.”

Doug continued “Cody had a bad rollover on the first lap of the first heat tonight and he was pretty banged up. The crew chief is my son-in-law and he said he could fix the car for in time for the consolation.  We had the Watts, Ron Haring’s guys and many others jumping in to help get him on track.  I would like to thank everyone that was involved in the thrash to get him out for the consolation.”

Brett Kressley finished 2^nd from his 13^th starting position and was again strong on the outside line and charging to the front all night long.  Brett raced three nights in a row and posted a win Friday night at Big Diamond; a 2^nd at Grandview’s regular Saturday night points race, and  a 4^th at the Sunday night TOTH Balls to the Wall 50.

Brett stated “We had an excellent weekend.  All three races were good solid finishes and top five finishes which we will take any day.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 3^rd from his 12^th starting position and continues his consistent weekly runs at Grandview. He is quietly creeping closer to the points leaders in a very close four way points battle in the early season points standings.

Jeff Strunk finished 4^th from his 14^th starting and continues to lead the early season points standings.  Jeff raced for 4 days straight and posted a 5^th at Bridgeport on Thursday; a topless 2^nd at Big Diamond on Friday; 4^th at Grandview on Saturday and a 5^th at Thunder on the Hill on Sunday for a solid four days of racing.

Mike Lisowski finished 5^th from his 6^th starting position to post his second top 10 finish in the past three weeks with a 4^th and 6^th.

Mike reflected “We lead the race for about 6 laps, but we actually missed the setup tonight.  I stayed up top too long and should have come down sooner when I was leading. The car was not bad tonight, but I do have to find better lines around this place.  We had a tangle with a lapped car, but we were able to keep going and it didn’t throw the  car off  too much.  We are getting better at setting the car up for the feature.  The track has been very good the last couple of weeks.”

Ryan Grim finished 6^th from his 9^th starting position for his second top ten finish in a row – 2^nd and 6^th.  Ryan had worked his way up to 3^rd by lap 17 but dropped a few spots to 6^th by the end of the feature.

Ryan noted “Probably lost spots to Craig and Brett due to running old tires.  We run our tires longer than we should due to our budget constraints and costs.  I made a lane choice mistake which allowed Jeff to get by me for the other position”

Timmy Buckwalter finished 7^th from his 18^th starting position.

Timmy reflected “We corrected last week’s carb issues but continue to be lacking in our heat race setup and start the features behind the eight ball.  This week the track slowed down and slicked off which is good for us and good for the racing.  Tonight, the car handled the best it has all season long and hopefully we are on to something.  We have a new motor program this year and are trying to get it better every week.  We are going to pull the engine this week and take it to the dyno.”

Dylan Swinehart finished 8^th from his 7^th starting position for his best finish of the season.

Dylan reflected “Last week we broke our motor, and we were looking for a ride this week and didn’t find a motor for the 74 until the last minute.  We got a motor from Nate Brinker for this week and just got it in the car about an hour before the pit gate opened.  I got the car up as high as 2^nd early in the feature but finished a solid 8^th place at the checkered flag.”

Jared Umbenhauer finished 9^th from his 21^st starting position.

Jared commented “We just got trapped in the back of a heat race that didn’t have any cautions so we didn’t transfer to the feature from our heat.  My crew guys had the car on rails in the consolation which we won.  In the feature, we were working my way forward until Ray Swinehart spun out and bent my front suspension.  It was a handful to drive straight the rest of the race and hard to believe we were able to get another top ten out of it.”

Eddie Strada finished 10^th from his 11^th starting position.  Despite engine problems that started on lap 22 Eddie was still able to drive the car to a 10^th place finish.  Coming into this week’s race, Eddie continues to sit 6^th in the early season Grandview points standings.

Jimmy Leiby finished 16^th from his 27^th starting position racing in one of his backup cars which allowed him to continue his modified points chase after his Hig Fab chassis was damaged in barrel roll over during the consolation race last week.  Jimmy has a new Hig Fab chassis that is expected to be ready for racing next week but in the meantime one of his old Crate chassis has allowed him continue racing.

Rick Laubach finished 13^th from his 24^th starting position.  Rick made a rare Saturday visit to Grandview to prepare for the Thunder on the Hill series race in May and June.

Rick noted “This is our traveling #20 Bicknell which we blew the motor a month ago at New Egypt.  We just put the car together this week with Leindecker rebuilding the motor.  We finished 13^th tonight but car wasn’t great.  We made a lot of changes trying to get the car better for TOTH race tomorrow.  We’ll have our shop crew work on the car tonight but it’s always hard to run a car two nights back to back.”

Joe Funk finished 18^th from his 25^th starting position and qualified for his 5^th straight race at Grandview.

Joe reflected “We are having success in qualifying each week so far and now are trying to improve our finishes in the feature.  It is a good start to the season for us and we are still searching for that feature setup that will allow us to move forward and stay up front.”

On Saturday, June 3^rd, it will be a 3 division program under the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series banner as the T.P. Trailer Modifieds and T.P. Truck Equipment Sportsman will be joined by the Wingless Sprints. The program will consist of qualifying races leading up to the 30-lap Modified, 25-lap Wingless Super Sportsman, and 25-lap Sportsman main events.  Grandstand gate at 5:30 with racing starting at 7:30.