Grandview Modified Pit Notes 6/03/23 – Brett Kressley Storms to 2nd Win of the Season at Grandview Speedway 

Brett Kressley used the top lane to slash through the field and overtake the lead from Mike Lisowski on a  lap 13 restart and opened a 2.5 second lead over Jeff Strunk and Craig Von Dohren until two late race restarts bunched the field back up for a final lap shootout to the checkered.  Kressley continued his dominance of the night taking the final one lap shootout by a 1 second margin of victory and driving into victory lane for his second win of the season followed by Jeff Strunk in 2^nd and Craig Von Dohren in 3^rd .

Ray Swinehart led the first 9 laps until the first restart of the night when Mike Lisowski took the lead with Kressley moving into second.  The second caution flew on lap 12 and the ensuing restart saw Kressley move into the lead with Von Dohren and Struck close behind.  Kressley pulled away from the field and overcame two additional late race restarts to take his second win of the season.

Heat race winners for the 32 car modified field were won by Justin Grim, Ray Swinehart and Ron Haring.

 Eric Biehn won the consolation race.

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

1. BRETT KRESSLEY, 2. Jeff Strunk, 3. Craig Von Dohren, 4. Mike Lisowski, 5. Doug Manmiller, 6. Bobby Trapper Jr., 7. Kevin Hirthler, 8. Ryan Grim, 9. Kevin Graver Jr., 10. Ryan Watt, 11. Tim Buckwalter, 12. Ray Swinehart, 13. Jimmy Leiby, 14. Bobby Gunther-Walsh, 15. John Willman, 16. Jesse Leiby, 17. Joe Funk, 18. Jared Umbenhauer, 19. Chris Gambler, 20. Ron Haring Jr., 21. Ryan Beltz, 22. Chris Esposito, 23.Eric Biehn, 24. Craig Whitmoyer, 25. Eddie Strada, 26. Justin Grim, 27. Dylan Swinehart, 28. Darrin Schuler

DID NOT QUALIFY: Glenn Owens, Mark Kratz, Nate Brinker, Eric Kormann

MODIFIED PIT NOTES –  6/03/23 NASCAR POINTS RACE # 6

Brett Kressley took the win from his 13^th starting position posting his second Grandview win of the season.  His Grandview stats so far are very impressive – two wins; two 2nds; a 4^th and 15^th place finish.

Kressley moved from his 13^th starting position and took the lead on lap 13.  He then proceeded to walk away from the field to a 2.5 second lead and into lapped traffic.  There were two late cautions on laps 24 and 29 but they did not present any challenge to Brett who pulled away from the field on both restarts.  As much as Kressley looked like an absolutely dominate car; the current points leader Jeff Strunk was right behind in 2^nd place while the reigning 2022 Grandview points champion was close by in 3^rd place.  Brett is only 15 points behind Strunk for the points lead.

Brett reflected “The heat racetrack, was very narrow and was tough to pass on for sure, but we were able to claw our way to a solid run and make the handicap to get us our best available starting position for the feature.  We left the car alone for the feature, since were unsure of how the track would be.  It worked out for us as the track came to us and played right into our hands for our 2^nd win of the season.”

Points leader Jeff Strunk finished a solid 2^nd place from his 14^th starting position.  Jeff has posted five top 5 finished and one 9^th place finish to date landing him atop of the points standings by only 15 points over Brett Kressley with CVD lurking 3^rd in season point standings only 51 points behind Strunk.  

Jeff stated “The track was very technical all night long.  Hats off to the track crew for working on the track all night and giving us a very good track for the feature.  We posted a good solid run.  “Brett is driving with a lot and is on the top of his game right now.  He got through traffic really quickly tonight and then once he’s out in front he’s really tough to beat.”  We have a good balance car for all conditions and that is very good for us going forward.  We will keep adjusting our baseline for each night’s conditions and keep getting better.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 3^rd from his 12^th starting position and continues to stay within striking distance of the early season points leader.  Craig had a dominate car in the heat race and seemed to pass a car every time he was coming out of the apex of turn 4.  Craig may not have posted a win yet, but his stats this season are very solid with three 3^rd place finishes, a 4^th, a 6^th, and a 9^th in six points race starts.

Mike Lisowski finished a strong 4^th from his 8^th starting position and led the race for 5 laps and ran 2^nd until the final lap when he fell back to 4^th with Struck and Von Dohren making a last lap pass.  The previous week he also led or ran 2^nd for nearly 20 laps and finished 5^th.  Mike has posted three top 5 finishes in 6 Grandview point race starts this season.

Mike commented “In the heat we were able to finish 3^rd and make the handicap.  In the feature we started 8 and had a good car and was able to get to the front.  We couldn’t hold off Brett because his car is just better than we are right now, but we are getting the car closer every week.  I made a mistake on the last lap which cost us two positions and dropped us from 2^nd to 4^th but still all in all a very good run for us.  We are beginning to show some solid consistency with top five finishes in 3 out of 4 recent starts at Grandview point races.”

Bobby Trapper finished 6^th from his 21^st starting position and posted his best finish of the season a week after his first DNF finish.”

  Bobby Trapper noted “Last week I got that flat tire very early in the feature, but the car felt extremely off so I didn’t rush to try and fix it .  I didn’t realize until the Sunday’s show that the car had the broken torque arms. This has been a great run so far this season and it feels great to be able to be competitive week in and week out and be sitting 9^th in points at Grandview after six races. Hopefully we can keep finishing features and moving forward every week.”

Kevin Hirthler finished 7^th from his 17^th starting position and posted his best finish of the season. Kevin has hit his stride with 4 consecutive top 11 finishes.”

Kevin stated “We had a good run.  In the heat race we missed the invert which threw us behind all the good cars in the feature line up. Track conditions for heat were very narrow and rough again which was making it difficult to pass.  Our car needed to be better digging exiting the corner and not spinning the tires.”

In the feature we made some changes to help with getting out of the corner and we were better on corner exit.  I was able to miss some tangles and ran from 17th to 7th.  Car was a little too tight for the feature and I could have used a couple of adjustments to be better.  We will regroup and work on it some more for next week.  Plan is to make the invert next week and start up on the grid as far forward as we can.  Hopefully the track surface is better for the heat qualifying next week.”

Ryan Grim finished 8^th for his 16^th starting position extending his top ten finish streak to three consecutive races and moving into 10^th in the early season point standings for the first time this season.

Ryan commented “The track was very challenging and has recently been changing significantly from the heat to the feature.  The track was very good for the feature.  We tried some different things on the car for the feature and the car was not as good as the previous week, but we were horrible and managed to get another top ten finish.”

Kevin Graver finished 6^th from his 9^th starting position and posted his best finish of the season. 

Kevin noted “ We seem to have figured some things out last week that made the car better this week.  We had a decent car last weekend, but no results to show for it.  We had a very good car in the heat race on a rough bottom dominant track that required you to consistently hit your marks to hold your position.  We made the handicap and started 6^th in the feature.”

“In the feature I’m not sure if we made a few too many adjustments or not.  We were in a good rhythm running in 5^th during a long green flag run but the caution on lap 24 killed us.  We needed to be on the top, but it was a double file, and we got the bottom, so I was in the wrong lane which broke our rhythm we had earlier.  A top ten finish tonight was good for us, but I do feel that for the most part we had a top five car tonight.  My car owner Jimmy Wismer has been working hard to give us a good car.  We have been talking with Ron Seltman on weekly changes to get us better, and hopefully, we’re heading in the right direction now.”

Ryan Watt finished 10^th from his 19^th starting position and posted his second 10^th place finish of the season. Ryan has three 12^th place finishes so far this season which has landed him 8^th in the early season points standings.  Ryan is still searching for the heat race setup that can get him from the back of the heat to a handicap position for the field.  Nonetheless, Ryan has still been making strong runs from his back of the field starting positions.

Timmy Buckwalter finished 11^th from his 26^th starting position.  In his heat race Timmy just couldn’t get out of the back of the field and had to go to the consolation to make the field.  In the consolation Timmy continued to have difficulty with moving forward and he did finish 5^th from his 5^th starting position to qualify for the feature

In the feature Buckwalter got the forward drive going and he finished 11^th from a back of the field 26^th starting position.  Timmy stated, “We took the motor out this week and put it on the dyno after last Saturday’s race.  We are still working on our new motor program and getting the car better every week.”

Jimmy Leiby started 10^th and finished 13^th in a brand new Hig Fab chassis that replaced the chassis that was damaged in his rollover 2 weeks ago.  Last week Jimmy ran one of his old crate frames to bridge his points chase until his new chassis was ready.  Jimmy shook the car down at OCFG earlier in the week and debuted the car in competition tonight.  In the heat race Jimmy finished 4^th from his 6^th starting position and made the handicap.  In the feature Jimmy finished 13^th from a 10^th starting position.

Jimmy stated “That is a new car that we technically shook down for 25 laps at OCFG before we brought it to Grandview and it’s already starting to come together with the car already getting better.  The car was good in the heat race and the track was just super rutted up.  The feature we made some changes and the wrong tire choice, but we are getting better every week.  We are going to keep making changes  and trying new things every week to get better.”

Rough Night on the Hill

Jared Umbenhauer was running 7th from his 20th starting position when he spun and drew the caution but was able to maintain his 7th position by not stopping. But a lap later, he had a flat tire that ended his night and sent Jared to the pits with two laps to go.

Justin Grim had a good news bad news rough night on the hill.  He won his heat race and was leading the feature when he had a flat tire in that ended his chances of running up front for the night.  Justin reflected “We brushed the inside wall off turn two and cut a tire down, but we are very happy with the how strong the car ran in both the heat and feature.”

In the heat Ryan Beltz made broadside contact with a spinning car and then proceeded to slow roll over.  Ryan repaired the car and returned to qualify for the feature and finished the night 21^st in the feature.

In the heat Nate Brinker made hard contact with the back stretch wall and sustained front end damage which ended his night.

Next up on Saturday, June 10 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 with racing starting at 7:30 P.M.