Modified Pit Notes 4/20/23 – Louden Reimert Claims First Modified Win at Grandview Speedway  

Louden Reimert moved into the lead on lap 12 and pulled away from the field in the final 18 green flag laps to take his first career modified win at Grandview Speedway.

Polesitter Ray Swinehart took the early lead until Louden Reimert took the lead on lap 12.  The 30-lap feature saw only two early cautions but then the final 21 laps ran green to the checkered flag with Reimert taking a nearly 2 second advantage to the checkered flag over 2nd place Kevin Hirthler.

Heat race winners for the 39-car modified field were Ray Swinehart, Kevin Hirthler, Mike Laise & Louden Reimert.

Frank Yankowski and Erik Kormann won the consolation races.

T.P. TRAILER NASCAR MODIFIED VP RACING FUELS BRUCE ROGERS MEMORIAL FEATURE FINISH (30 laps):

1.LOUDEN REIMERT (6), 2. Kevin Hirthler (7), 3. Jared Umbenhauer (11), 4. Ryan Grim (8), 5. Ray Swinehart (1), 6. Jeff Strunk(16), 7. Duane Howard (14), 8. Kyle Smith (9), 9. Mike Gular (15), 10. Tim Buckwalter (10), 11. Craig Von Dohren (12), 12. Carrol Hine III (2), 13. Alex Yankowski (13), 14. Brett Kressley (25), 15. Ryan Watt (17), 16. Jimmy Leiby (23), 17. Eddie Strada (29p), 18. Jon Kellner (26), 19. Michael Storms (30p), 20. Doug Manmiller(20), 21. Mike Laise (4), 22. Joe Funk (24), 23. Darrin Schuler (5), 24. Frank Yankowski (21), 25. Brian Hirthler (18), 26. Ryan Beltz (28), 27. Eric Biehn (27), 28. Bryan Rhoads (3), 29 John Willman (5), 30. Eric Kormann (22)

DID NOT QUALIFY: Mike Lisowski, Nate Brinker, Chris Gambler, Bobby Gunther-Walsh, Bobby Trapper Jr., Justin Grim, Ron Haring Jr., Chris Esposito, Kevin Graver Jr.

Hard Charger – Eddie Strada +12

MODIFIED PIT NOTES – 4/20/24

Louden Reimert took his first Grandview modified win from his 6^th starting position in only his 3^rd race after returning to Grandview as his Saturday home track for the 2024 season.  The last time Louden raced weekly at Grandview was in 2020 when he finished 9^th in the Grandview season points.

Louden was a DNQ at the season opener but at the 2^nd points race of the season he was running in 5^th place on lap 12 when the power steering line failed and ended his night on the hook.  But tonight, it was the third try at Grandview which was the charm for Louden, who posted his first Grandview modified win in only his 3^rd Grandview race of the 2024 season.

In victory lane Louden noted “I never thought I would get a modified win here at Grandview.  It takes everything to go right to win here and tonight it did go right for us.  In our three races here, the track has been unpredictable.  I also would like to thank my guys who never gave upon me and stuck it out with me.  Last week we had a good car, but we broke a power steering line in the feature which was frustrating.”

“After taking the lead I was praying for no yellows and didn’t know who was behind me and how far they were behind me.  When you’re leading you never want to see any cautions.”

Back at the trailer Louden reflected “We had a frustrating first two weeks, but I knew we still had a fast car right off the bat. The car was great all night, the track was slick and challenging, but we made some adjustments and managed to adapt.  Winning at Grandview has probably been the biggest challenge of my career and it means a lot to all of us to finally get it done.  The most challenging part of the race was just being patient in the beginning and letting everything sort itself out in the first couple laps.”

Kevin Hirthler finished 2^nd from his 7^th starting position to post his best finish of the season.

Kevin noted “Car felt solid right from hot laps and on. Worked on a new shock package this week and made a few setup adjustments to make the car more stable.  The track has been slicking up earlier in the night due to the early start time.  I do prefer this type of race surface as it puts more on the driving of the car and not just a stomp and steer race.  I do have a lot of experience on slick track surfaces from traveling throughout my career. The car was solid in the heat and very maneuverable high or low.”

“We made a few changes for feature time that may have been a bit too much for track conditions and it took about 5 to 10 laps for my car to really get rolling which gave Louden a jump to the front and time to open some ground on me.  We were faster at the end and slowly reeling him in, but I needed a yellow or more laps to work him over in lap traffic.  All in all, a solid night with good speed and a very maneuverable car. Something to build on in the coming weeks for sure.”

Jared Umbenhauer posted a 3^rd place finish from his 11^th starting position.  Jared started the season with a 1^ST alternate DNQ on opening night but since then he has posted back-to-back 3^rd place finishes at Grandview placing him 6^th in the early season point standings.

Jared stated “In the heat I started 7th and quickly got to 3rd. Everyone was tip toeing around the bottom, and I had the whole top lane open. It had good bite, so I stayed up there for the whole heat race.”

Jared continued “Started 11th in the feature right next to Craig, so I knew right off the start it was going to be tough sledding.  First caution came out on lap zero and restarted me 10th up on the top lane which was really favorable for me. I was able to make the most of the high side and get some passes early on with a good car.  Last week we really didn’t know what we had because it was our first feature this year but this week, we knew what to change for the feature. I’m not sure how my lap times compared to the leaders at the end, but a caution with maybe 10 laps to go may have helped or maybe it would have hurt, you just never know.  I was definitely catching the leaders at the end.”

Ryan Grim finished 4^th from his 8^th starting position after a long week in the shop repairing damage sustained in his heat race last week gave leading to a DNQ.

Ryan reflected “We fixed an awful lot of damage from last week and I was just not comfortable with the car this week in warmups.  The track was black and slick right away and it throws you for a loop.”

“I made the inversion for the feature, but the car was dead loose early on and hanging in the turns for the first ten laps.  Then the track got some grip which made the car 100 times better.  Once the track rubbered up around lap 10, the track had grip all the way across and we were able to race forward a few spots to a 4^th place finish.”

Ray Swinehart finished 5^th from his pole starting position posting his best finish of the season after two DNQ’s in the first two races.  Ray commented “We choose the wrong tire and started to fade during the green flag laps from 1^st back to a 5^th place finish.”

Jeff Strunk finished 6^th from his 16^th starting position and is currently leading the early season point standings with a 3^rd, 5^th, and 6^th place finish in three starts at Grandview.  Jeff has also been strong with his heat race setup running from the last in his heat to a qualified 3^rd or 4^th position each week.   Jeff and the Norm Hansell 357 has shown good speed and maneuverability each week so far this season.

Jeff noted “The level of competition is higher than it’s ever been.  It’s harder than ever to come from the back to the front, no matter what the track conditions are, so a 16th to 6th is a very solid run for us. Consistency early in the season makes it so hard to win races because everyone’s equipment is fresh and every week you have some guys who have had a bad week or two that is starting towards the front. When racing to the front, you are racing with the best field that Grandview has ever had.  Great racing for the fans but a very difficult task to deal with consistently for sure.  There are so many good quality drivers with a lot of experience racing at Grandview this year.”

Duane Howard finished 7^th from his 14^th starting position.  Duane is currently 2^nd in the early season points standings with a 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th place finishes in three starts this season at Grandview.

Duane stated “I think all teams are just waiting and letting the track come through with an identity. With the weather windy every week and early start times, conditions are sure to be different moving forward. So, for our team, we are still trying to be consistent without doing anything radical until the racetrack settles itself into what we feel will be more normal race conditions.  Again, if you are not in the right line at the right time on the restarts it is tuff to make advances under racing conditions.”

Modified rookie Kyle Smith posted his career best modified finish with an 8^th place finish from his 9^th starting position.

Kyle reflected “Started 6^th in our heat race and the track was slick which is what I like.  The middle of the track worked very well for me and I was able to push to a 2^nd place finish in what I believed was an extremely stacked heat race.”

“I loved the slick track surface at the beginning of the feature and was able to quickly move from 9^th to 4^th and ready to pass the leaders when the caution came out on lap 8.  On the restart I got stuck in the bottom which at the time had no grip and I fell back to 12^th place.  I used the middle to get back into 9^th and got one more spot on the last lap moving to 8^th when Manmiller spun on the final lap.”

Kyle continued “We went forward all night and overall, it was a very good night for us.  I don’t like a rubbered-up track and really prefer a slicked off track.  Later in the race the track did latch down, but it never single lane rubbered up which was good for us.”

“I am happy that our car is fast and can run with the big guys.  I just need to get more comfortable with how quickly things happen in modified and able to make decisions quicker on track. We have qualified for all three of our modified features this year with tonight being the first one we finished with a top ten.  Overall, a very good night in which we were able to move forward all night long.”

Mike Gular finished 9^th from his 15^th starting position and is currently 3rd in the early season points standings.

Mike commented “Had a good heat race running to 3^rd after starting shotgun on the field in 10^th and made the invert for the feature.”

“In the feature I started 15^th and really struggled to get through traffic, and we weren’t really that good tonight.  It was a tough track technical track and much dryer than usual.  We also tried a couple of things tonight that didn’t work for us.  The one yellow on lap 8 was helpful but after the restart we still got boxed in with a bunch of good cars.  The final 21 laps ran green which also didn’t help matters for us when it comes to getting forward through a tough field of cars.”

Timmy Buckwalter finished 10^th from his 10^th starting position.  Timmy stated “We had some new car blues the first two weeks and just missed the car setup and driving.  We are working hard to figure out our new car and may have found a baseline to work off of tonight.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 11^th from his 12^th starting position.  Uncharacteristically Craig arrived late and missed the hot lap session which had no effect on his performance in his heat race where he ran from 8^th to 3^rd in the heat.

In the feature Craig posted some more results that were again uncharacteristic for him as he posted his 2^nd finish out of the top ten already this year with a 12^th and an 11^th finish. Craig was also unable to move forward only going to 11^th from his 12^th starting position. But Craig is still in the thick of the points chase sitting in 5^th and poised for another run at the Grandview points championship in 2024 for sure.

Defending 2023 Grandview Modified Points Champion Brett Kressley finished 14^th from his 25^th starting position after posting a win last week.  Racing luck has been up and down for Kressley’s new 19k entry with a heat race tangle ending his night in the season opener.  Last week things appeared back to normal for Kressley’s 19K when he took his first win of the season.

In his heat race this week Brett had a flat tire and finished dead last in 10^th.  In the consolation Brett ran from 10^th to 3^rd and looked poised to rebound in the feature.

Brett finished 14^th from his 25^th starting position in the two-caution feature and 21 green flag laps that just didn’t give enough time or opportunity for Brett to get into the top ten.

Brett reflected “After the heat race misfortune (flat tire) I threw some different things at the car setup wise which we learned not to do that again.”

It may be only the third race of the season, but provisional starting positions were used by Eddie Strada and Michael Storms to finish 17^th and 19^th respectively which is much better than a DNQ on the night.

As many teams struggled to get forward to the top ten in the feature, Doug Manmiller made his way to 6^th from a 20^th starting position only to see a white flag lap spin in turn 1 & 2 send him back to a 20^th finish. 

Doug reflected “We had a tough heat race and didn’t make the invert so started 20^th in the feature where we had a very good car.

“In the feature we were able to make passes and get toward the front despite only one caution.  On the final lap I tried to pass on the outside and clipped the rear bumper and spun out back to 20^th.”

Jon Kellner and Mike Laise both returned to full time weekly racing this year at Grandview.

Jon Kellner’s return to racing got off to a rough start on opening night with a wreck that ended his night before lap 1 of his first heat race of the season.   Jon was back on track the following week and has since qualified for both of his subsequent races in fields of 41 and 39 cars.

Mike Laise has raced part-time since 2014, but for this season he has returned to weekly modified racing.  Last week Mike was involved in a 4-car pileup in lap 1 of his heat race and it looked uncertain if he would be able to repair the car for this week. But Mike made it back out this week and proceeded to win his first heat race and qualify for his first feature of the season.

Mike reflected “We had a great night.  We had a lot to fix on the car from last week, but we still had enough time to change the setup and we went the right direction.  By qualifying for the feature, I also got more seat time which is just what I have been looking for and need to dial in my driving and the car.”

“To win a heat race in only our third time out this season was great for us.  The heat race was a blast and it’s always a good time when you are running with your buddies for a win. It was also a huge confidence booster for the driver and our team.”

“Over the past five years there have been a ton of changes to the chassis of these cars.  The rubber floor cars and coils make the cars much more sensitive and responsive, which makes consistent driving even more critical.  If you miss your mark a bit getting in the corner, you can lose a ton of ground very quickly. It definitely will take some serious seat time to get familiar with all the changes in these cars over the years.”

Next up on Saturday, April 27 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.  Pit gates open at 3:00 and Spectator gates at 4:00 with hot laps at 5:00 and racing at 6:00.