Grandview Sportsman Pit Notes 5/27/23 –  Kyle Smith Claims his First Sportsman Win of Season at Grandview Speedway

Kenny Bock led for the first 19 laps for the sportsman feature until Kyle Smith came from his 13^th starting position to get in a six car battle at front of field with leader Kenny Bock, Dakota Kohler, Logan Bauman, and TJ Mayberry on lap 10.  When the dust settled Smith took the lead on lap 20 and drove away from the field and into victory lane by a 2.25 margin for his first sportsman win of the season at Grandview Speedway.

The 25 lap feature ran with only two cautions on lap 4 & 5 with the final 20 laps running green to the checkered flag.

Heat race winners for the 42 car sportsman field were Zach Steffey, Kyle Smith, Tom Miller Sr and Brad Grim.

 Jesse Hirthler and Brian Hirthler won the consolation races.

T.P. TRUCK EQUIPMENT NASCAR SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH (25 laps):

1.KYLE SMITH, 2. Dakota Kohler, 3. Logan Bauman, 4. TJ Mayberry, 5. Kenny Bock, 6. Zane Roth, 7. Mark Kemmerer, 8. Brad Grim, 9. Parker Guldin, 10. Addison Meitzler, 11. Logan Watt, 12. Adrianna Delliponti, 13. Brett Gilmore, 14. Decker Swinehart, 15. Cody Manmiller, 16. Jesse Hirthler, 17. Nathan Mohr, 18. Brian Hirthler, 19. Ryan Graver, 20. Mark Mohr, 21. Zach Steffey, 22. Nicholas Hamm, 23. Michael Burrows, 24. Tom Miller Sr., 25. Jesse Landis, 26. Ronnie Solomon, 27. Andy Ressler

DID NOT QUALIFY: BJ Joly, Keith Haring, Tom Miller Jr., Kaitlyn Bailey, Troy Gibson, Tyler Vidal, Colton Perry, Molly Struss, Mark Gaugler, Mike Stofflet, Nick Faust, Kyle Hartzell, Dallas Breidenbach, Nathan Horn, Hunter Iatalese

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

Kyle Smith finished 1^st from the 13^th starting position and moved into 2^nd in the early season points standings behind Logan Watt.  Kyle has 3 top 5 finishes; 1 top ten and a 19^th place finish when he broke a u-joint while running 6^th with 10 laps to go.

Kyle reflected “Car was bad fast in the heat even from the back.  I went 9^th to 4^th in one lap and won the heat race going away.  The track this week in the heat was dry which was in my favor and that was a huge difference from the heavy track last week when I couldn’t get out of the back at all in the heat.”

“In the feature I started 13^th and was in 4^th by lap 6 after two restarts.  I started all the restarts on the bottom and went back to the top and moved past Dakota and into 2^nd on lap 10.  But  Dakota went right back by me on the bottom and at that moment I knew there was rubber down there and made the ultimate decision to go to the bottom.  I figured I was going to be 3^rd but luckily, I was able to drive under Dakota in the rubber and move into 2^nd and then had enough drive off the corner to get past Kenny for the lead.  This car was bad fast all night and virtually drove itself.  I can’t thank my dad enough for giving me a fast car.  There were 26 cars in the feature out of 42 entries today and not a bad driver out there in the feature.”    

Dakota Kohler finished 2^nd from his 9^th starting position and his best finish of the season in only the 4^th outing in his new car.

Dakota noted “In the heat we were alright and was got through to 3rd quickly before the red and then got 2nd on the restart.   About halfway through the heat, the plug wires on the distributor were getting caught up in the throttle linkage and  pulled one of the plug wires off the distributor so we were only running on 7 cylinders at the end of the heat.

“We started 9^th in the feature and was able to make it through quickly while just trying to keep the nose clean for the first couple laps as the front 3 or 4 cars were moving all over. On the first restart I knew I had to get going because the track had only been watered and not cut before our feature and it was only watered for the modified feature as well, so it was going to take rubber.  I got to 2^nd on the restart and was following Bock trying to get a good enough run on him going in to turn because he would wash high going into the corner.  Once Kyle got by, I knew it was going to be tough to get back past him especially if he was on the bottom.  We made a lot of changes today and very pleased that we came out with a very strong car.”

Logan Bauman finished 3^rd from his 8^th starting position and his car has been strong car every week this year.  He has qualified for every feature, but some bad racing luck has resulted in contact incidents and  back of the field finishes in the features until his 3^rd place finish tonight.  Logan was leading in the final lap last week when heavy contact broke his steering and he limped to the checkered in 7^th.”

Logan commented “ This track was totally different from last week.  It was super slick in the heat which I love because it brings the drivers with throttle control and a good setup to the front. The feature track was way different,  I tried running the top but there just wasn’t anything up there to run on. I went back to the bottom and picked some cars off when it rubbered up and drove from 8^th to 3^rd. We had a good night  that we can use as a baseline for the Sunday night TOTH show which I’m really looking forward to.”

TJ Mayberry finished 4^th from his 10^th starting position and posted his 2^nd consecutive top five/ten finish.

TJ stated “Starting 6th in the heat I knew it was important to get a good start.  On the initial start I jumped the RR of the 5th place car shuffling me back to 8th or 9th.  We passed a few cars and very narrowly missed a major wreck which shuffled us forward several positions.  We  finished 4^th in our heat and made the handicap but  we did get a lot of cosmetic damage from the heat race and bent the front axle which we straightened the best we could before the feature.”

In the feature we started 10^th, and I knew right away the bottom was going to be the preferred line. The car got better the longer we went into the race.   We posted a 4^th place finish and our first top five of the season. We were very happy to post a career best finish with a field of 42 cars in the pits tonight.”

Kenny Bock finished 5^th from the pole position for his best finish of the season.  Kenny has been plagued with parts attrition and contact breakage resulting in three DNQ’s and one 27^th place finish prior features.  A new motor and transmission appear to have been the key to getting the ship righted and returning to weekly contention.

Kenny noted “We had rotten luck all year so far.  Tonight, didn’t look any different in hot laps as we got pushed off after the battery fell over and melted the terminals, but we did have a strong car before we had the battery issues.  We then had another close call and nearly missed coming out for the heat race but we made it out just in time to get our pole starting position in the heat.  We finished 2^nd in the heat which landed us the pole position in the feature.”

“In the feature we lead all but a few of the first 19 laps.  When Kyle Smith flew under me for the lead on lap 20, I lost my rhythm and got shuffled back to 5^th.  I developed a right front flat and had to fight the car in the final laps.  All in all, a very good night and just great to our ship finally righted after five races this season.”

Zane Roth finished 6^th from his 5^th starting position and posted his 2^nd top ten in his last 3 races.

Zane recalled “In the heat we had a good run on the outside line of the track. The car was getting a good bite on the topside, so I decided to stay up there and finished 2nd.”

” We made some changes for the feature knowing that the track was going to be dry would slick off.  Early in the feature, we were rolling the bottom really good and made it up into 2^nd place.  Starting on the outside on a restart, the top was working for me and ran side by side with leader Kenny Bock for a few laps then hit the rut on the high side going into turn 3 and I fell back to 6th finish. The top lane went away very quickly, and everyone was locked on the bottom.  It was a very good run for us and much needed after a rough outing last week.  We look forward to keeping it rolling now.”

Mark Kemmerer finished 7^th from his 19^th starting position.  Mark commented “I kept the car free for the feature expecting it to rubber up and unfortunately it did.  I felt we could have gone forward further if the track stayed wide and we were good top or bottom until the bottom rubbered up and locked down.  All in all, a good night for us that could have been better if track conditions cooperated.  I apologized to Parker Guldin as I’m pretty sure I chopped him off trying to get back to the bottom at the end when I thought I would give the top one more try.”

Parker Guldin finished 9^th from his 17^th starting position and has now posted top ten finishes at 3 of the last 4 races with the only exception being a DNS due to failure of a u-joint after taking the checkered flag and qualifying in the consolation a few weeks ago.

Parker noted “Saturday night couldn’t have worked out better in our favor.  I didn’t feel very confident in our heat race given our starting position.  After the start, I increased my doubt a lot after some jostling around which faded me back.  It’s terrible what happen to Cody Manmiller, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Because of that incident, it took 2 cars in front of me out allowing us to qualify and I was relieved to be able to get in the handicap from the heat. The feature was a good run for us, and we made up a ton of time coming from 17th to 9th.  We found a good setup and just hope to continue with our recent consistency tomorrow night at the TOTH event.”

Adie Delliponti finished 12^th from 12^th starting position and for the first time in three races did not have to qualify from the consolation or use a provisional.  She has made three consecutive strong back to front runs to 14^th to 16 place finishes from her 26^th to 28^th starting positions.  These back to front runs from the consolations has Adie sitting 6^th in the early season point standings right next to teammate Brett Gilmore who is currently in 5^th in the point standings.

Adie stated “We had fast time in the warm-ups, and it was a relief to not have to deal with the consolation this week.  We made some changes that didn’t pay off in the feature.  We had drive off the corner but lost our drive into the corner and had no grip so car.  If we had the same setup when we started in the back of the field for the past three weeks, we would have finished top five tonight.  But we are very happy to make headway with our heat race setup.”

Brett Gilmore finished 13^th from a 27^th provisional starting position which maintained his 5^th place in the early season point standings.

Brett commented “the car was backfiring and carrying on during hot laps for unknown reasons.  In the heat the car just shut off and we were a DNS.  Amongst a lot of confusion, we changed the distributor and made a bunch of other changes. The car then went out and ran best it has all season in the consolation, but we missed qualifying for the feature by one spot and had to use a provisional to start 27^th.  In the feature we had the car running well but was on a rubbered up one lane track otherwise we could have finished far better.”

The first lap of the first heat race of the night saw Cody Manmiller go into a violent barrel roll after contact with another car and then the yuke tire.  Cody’s crew chief Mike Storms went to work with help from Ron Haring’s crew, the Watts and many others and got car ready for the consolation.  Cody visibly limped to the car but went out for the consolation and qualified the car into the feature were he finished 15^th in the feature from a 25^th starting position.  Cody was able to maintain his 4^th place standing in the early season points standings.

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.