Grandview Modified Pit Notes 7/22/23 – Mike Gular Makes It Two Wins in a Row at Grandview Speedway  

Mike Gular moved into the lead on lap 24 and then proceeded to check out on the field to post his 3^rd modified win in row with two at Grandview and one at Big Diamond.

Polesitter Darrin Schuler led the first 14 laps until Jared Umbenhauer moved into the lead on lap 15 with Brett Kressley right his bumper in second.   Lap 22 was the only restart of the race when 3^rd place Mike Gular got under both Umbenhauer and Kressley to take the lead then checking out on the field to take a comfortable 2.5 second lead into victory lane for his second consecutive Grandview win.

Heat race winners for the 34-car modified field were Ron Haring Jr., Craig Von Dohren & Kevin Graver Jr.

Ryan Grim won the consolation race.

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

1. MIKE GULAR, 2. Jared Umbenhauer, 3. Brett Kressley, 4. Jeff Strunk, 5. Craig Von Dohren, 6. Doug Manmiller, 7. Kevin Hirthler, 8. Eddie Strada, 9. Ryan Watt, 10. Ryan Grim, 11. Kevin Graver Jr., 12. Joe Funk, 13. Ron Haring Jr., 14. Darrin Schuler, 15. John Willman, 16. Nate Brinker, 17. Eric Kormann, 18. Mike Lisowski, 19 Ryan Beltz, 20. Carroll Hine III, 21. Ray Swinehart, 22. Chris Esposito, 23. Bobby Trapper Jr., 24. Mark Kratz, 25. Eric Biehn, 26. Bobby Gunther-Walsh, 27. Chris Gambler, 28. Tim Buckwalter, DNS – Jesse Leiby

DID NOT QUALIFY: Lex Shive, Jimmy Leiby, Craig Whitmoyer, Mark Malcolm, Justin Grim

MODIFIED PIT NOTES –  7/22/23 NASCAR POINTS RACE # 12

Mike Gular won the race from his 15^th starting position and posted his 3^rd win in a row with  two wins here at Grandview and a Friday night win at Big Diamond.   Mike is the only driver at Grandview with three wins in the 12 point races so far this season.  He has posted three wins, one second place and one fourth place finish in his eight Grandview appearances this season.

In victory lane Mike reflected “This thing is bad ass fast right now and a lot of fun to drive.  Things are falling our way right now and that’s how it goes sometimes.  We got up into 3^rd which turned out to be a good spot since the 19 & 19k were going at it and they got together just before the only yellow on lap 22.  I thought I was going to have a shot at them when the yellow came out.  On the restart, I tip toed around the bottom, and went three wide to get by both the 19 & 19k at the same time to take the lead off the restart.  That’s three wins in a row and I hope we can keep this going.  We have a fast hot rod right now.”

Back at the trailer Mike commented “ We are rolling really good now and I’m very thankful to have a fast car like this right now.  Early in the season we struggled with qualifying but in recent weeks we have our heat qualifying program down and able to make the handicap each week.  Those two 19’s got to racing each other and gave me an opportunity to get by them on the bottom.  Sometimes starting 3^rd on a restart can be an advantage and it seemed to be tonight.  We had a dominate car once we got to clean air.”

“This is the same car we won with at Big Diamond on Friday night. We do all maintenance, washing, and convert the car to our Grandview setup at my home garage which is just ten minutes away from Grandview.”

Jared Umbenhauer finished 2^nd from his 10^th starting position and posted his 3^rd top five finish in the last three weeks after an awful previous month that was plagued mechanical failures and just plain bad racing luck.  In his last three starts Jared has picked up a win, 5^th, and a 2^nd place finish tonight.

Jared noted “We had a tough heat race and with some early contact but still managed a 4^th and got in the almighty handicap.  Our heat race had 12 cars, and everyone got jammed up.  I find that a 12 car heat race here at Grandview seems to increase the probability of contact or a wreck.  It just seems we race cleaner with heats of 8 & 9 cars and that makes for far less carnage and repair expenses.”

“In the feature we got to 3^rd by lap 10 but also got to lapped traffic too.  I got clipped by a lapped car and my front end got run over.  We were going at it with the 19k, and I got too focused on him allowing Gular to sneak by on the bottom after the lap 22 restart.  Our car went away a little after the restart and we had a tire starting to come apart.  I’m very pleased with three weeks of top five finishes and being able to pay some bills.  I hope we can do just a little bit better next week.”

Brett Kressley finished 3^rd from his 13^th starting position.  Brett stated “The car was average in the heat.  We made a huge swing at it for the feature, and it was the best the car has felt all year.  We got used up on the last restart by the other 19 and it cost us the race.”

Jeff Strunk finished 4^th from his 20^th starting position and he made a strong run to the front in the feature.

 In the heat race Jeff had trouble getting out of the back of the field and found himself in 9^th place on the lap 11 restart, but Jeff was able to make the best of the final lap dash and secure the 7^th and final qualifying spot for the feature.

Jeff noted “Heat race was not what we wanted and just made it into the show in 20^th starting position.  We made a lot of changes for the feature and the car improved and was really good in the feature getting us a solid forward run to 4^th from our 20^th starting position.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 5^th from his 14^th starting position in the feature.  Craig

 maintained his points lead over Brett Kressley by 42 points.  Craig continues to lead the mid-season points standing by 42 points over second place Brett Kressley.

Craig had a great heat race going from 12^th to 1^st in six laps and taking the win going away from the field.

In the feature Craig started 14^th but got bottled up early and was back in 18^th on lap 5.  When the one and only yellow flag flew on lap 22 Craig was already up to 7^th.  After the restart Craig picked up a couple more spots to post his 10th top five finish of the season along with a 6^th and 9^th in the 12 races so far this season at Grandview.

Doug Manmiller finished 6^th from his 12^th starting position and continues to maintain his 4^th place standing in the mid-season points standings.

Doug reflected “Our heat race was just fine, and we got in the invert which is all your looking to do in the heat.”

“In the beginning of the feature, we got held up in traffic and three others got through.  The race ran green to lap 22, our row didn’t go on the restart and that was the race for us.  A 6^th along with rolling a straight car into the trailer is always a good night.” 

Kevin Hirthler finished 7^th from his 7^th starting position in only his 2^nd time out in his newest car.

Kevin commented “The new car is running ok.  I think we were stronger in the other car, and I had that one dialed in a little better.  First real solid run on this new car and we still need to tune on it a bit.  Being a veteran driver, I am not very happy with seventh when that is where I started.  I did pass everyone that started in front of me, but everyone that finished in front of me started behind me.  That is not what we are looking for. Car needs to be more neutral with better balance in the car. We will definitely put some time into the car this week and see what we can find for a better feel and corner speed.  I was very pleased that the car was straight at the end of the night.”

Eddie Strada finished 8^th from his 16^th starting position to rebound from a motor issue and a back of the field finish last week.

Eddie stated “We had motor issues last week and got it back together just in time to run this week.  In the heat we were good but just again wrong place wrong time to make the passes.”

“In the feature we got better after the lap 22 caution and was able to gain some more spots late in the race which is where we want to be. We are definitely happy that we are making strides forward every week.  We just need everything to click together one of these weeks for us to find that real comfortable setup for feature conditions and then we will be fine.”

Ryan Watt finished 9^th from his 9^th starting position in what was a unique and different path to a top ten finish for the Boyertown driver.  In hot laps the motor of the 14w broke just as Ryan took the checkered flag.  Logan’s rollback hauler came in handy as the crew just loaded the 14w up for a quick ride home and brought Logan’s 4M modified back in time for the heat race.  After switching cars, Ryan came out in the heat and put the car in an invert position from his 9^th starting position.

Ryan Watt noted “We broke the 14W motor at the checkered flag in hot laps.  We switched to our 4M modified which is set up pretty much just like our 14W.  It just so happened we had the car ready for Logan for the last TOTH show which got rained out so for that reason the car was sitting ready to go for a race at Grandview.  We made some changes for the feature that got the car too tight but we still finished 9^th which was not bad  considering I just jumped into the 4M car for the first time this year.”

Ryan Grim finished 10^th from his 22^nd starting position.  Most cars run good in the heat and then struggle with the finish in the longer feature.  Not Ryan, he runs “awful” in the heat, finds some speed in the consolation, and then makes a solid feature run pretty much out of nowhere.

Back at the trailer Ryan commented “We were junk in the heat again.  We tried some different shocks in the heat, but we are just plain and simple struggling in the heats week after week and I don’t know why.  For the second week in a row, we were good in the consolation.”

“We tighten the car for the feature, and it was OK.  We went from 22^nd to 10^th and I’m not really sure how.  I’m still struggling with grip in the black and must figure out why.  This is the 4^th season on this car, and maybe it is tired, or we may just be missing something.  I think we found a little bit of the way to go with the car on this type of track but next week could be completely different track.”

Joe Funk finished 12^th from his 5^th starting position and posted his best feature finish of his season.

Joe stated, “Last week the sprint cars slicked the track off.  I totally missed the setup and then the track took rubber in the consolation last week.”

“This week the track was back to normal , and I hit the inside wall in the heat race while running second and blew the left front tire but hung on to make the handicap.”

“In the feature I think we may have been able to hang onto a top ten, but I got punted into the homestretch wall and lost 5 spots late in the race. All in all, I am very happy to be in one piece and finishing 12^th in the feature.”

Tim Buckwalter had another tough luck feature and was towed off before lap 1 for the second week in a row but he continues to maintain 7^th place in the mid-season points standings.

Jesse Leiby was another driver with tough luck DNS in the feature when he couldn’t keep his car lite for the feature and had to be pushed off before the parade lap.

For the second week in row, the a the 1^st alternate was called from the infield to take the green.  This week it was 1^st alternate Bobby Gunther-Walsh taking the last minute call for the feature.

Next Up on Tuesday, July 25  is the THUNDER ON THE HILL RACING SERIES – High Limit Sprint Car Series – $23,023 to win 410 Sprints – 7:30 pm.

On Saturday, July 29 will be back to the weekly 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.