Grandview Sportsman Pit Notes 4/20/24 – Colton Perry Collects First Sportsman Win

Colton Perry battled to his first Grandview Sportsman win by holding off Steve Young in 2^nd and Jesse Hirther in 3^rd place.

Polesitter Colton Perry took the earlier lead until Jesse Hirthler made side by side contact and took over the lead.  When caution came out on lap 21 a two-lap penalty was imposed moving Perry back into the lead which is where he stayed to take the checkered flag and drive into victory lane for his first sportsman win at Grandview Speedway.

Heat race winners for the 42-car sportsman field were Colton Perry, Mike Stofflet, Logan Watt, and Mark Gaugler.

 Logan Bauman and Dylan Swinehart won the consolation races.

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

1. COLTON PERRY (1), 2. Steve Young (3), 3. Jesse Hirthler (14), 4. Brett Gilmore (8), 5. Logan Watt (15), 6. Parker Guldin (11), 7. Kaitlyn Bailey (6), 8. Cody Manmiller (13), 9. Dylan Swinehart (22), 10 Logan Bauman (21), 11. Ronnie Solomon (12), 12. Nathan Mohr (23), 13. Mike Stofflet (5), 14. Decker Swinehart (26), 15. Nicholas Hamm (17), 16. Adrianna Delliponti (18), 17. Tyler James (19), 18. TJ Mayberry (7), 19. Ryan Graver (16), 20. Dom Roselli (20), 21. Dakota Kohler (9), 22. Kenny Bock (2), 23. Gavyn Krupp (24), 24. Michael Toth (4), 25. Mark Gaugler (10), 26. Nathan Horn (25)

DID NOT QUALIFY: Mark Mohr, Zane Roth, Lawson Szerencits, Troy Bollinger, Mike Schneck Jr., Joey Vaccaro, Nick Faust, Dennis Graber, Jesse Landis, Brett Grim, Shannon Slaughter, Teague Miller, Bobby Kupp, Randy Graber, Zach Steffey, Addison Meitzler

GRANDVIEW $100 HARD CHARGER: Decker Swinehart (+13)

4/20/24 – SPORTSMAN PIT NOTES  

Colton Perry held off a strong Kenny Bock who was on his back bumper for 9 laps until Bock broke a shock tower bolt and had to pull off.  Then Jesse Hirthler moved into 2^nd and picked up the chase on Perry’s bumper.  Hirthler took the lead on lap 16 with a pass that made heavy contact Perry and knocked him off his line and up toward the wall and from 1st into 3^rd place.  Jesse then led until lap 21 when the 4^th caution of the race came out and track officials then imposed a 2-position penalty on Jesse for the contact on the pass which put Colton back into the lead.  From there, Colton pulled away from 2^nd place Steve Young in the final 4 laps to take his career first win and trip to victory lane at Grandview.

In victory lane Colton Perry noted “I wasn’t going to give up on this one and really wanted it for my dad and I may have pinched him, and I got to look at the tape.  I did everything I could to get this one for Dad and it just worked out in my favor tonight.  After the contact with Jesse, I had a vibration, and the car was pushing like a truck.  So, I just put it on the bottom and held on for four laps for the win.”  

Back at the trailer Colton reflected “In hot laps the car was a little too tight we made some adjustments. In real time I really thought I was going to let another feature slip through my grasp again when Jesse made contact and went by me.  But the whole situation definitely gave me a kick in the ass to try to do anything I could to get the lead back.  I’m happy they made the call and then luck just worked in my favor with Mayberry having that flat or I think he would’ve had that one in the bag because I started fighting a vibration after that contact.  Once I got back on pole with 4 to go, I knew I had to do anything I could to not let this chance for a win to get away, so I made sure I hugged the bottom and hoped for the best.”

“There were some bugs that we had to work out with the car this past week.  But the credit for this win goes to my crew – Mike, my grandfather Clarence, my wife, and my Great Uncle Paul had this thing set up pretty well.  Then all my family support in these last couple weeks has really meant a lot to me and just seemed to calm me down and not try to over think things when I’m out there. This week was the most poised I have been this year thanks to all of them.  It’s been a long journey, but I am happy finally get into Victory Lane and now I am just waiting for Mike to get his 38 into victory lane this year because I know he’s capable but just hasn’t had any luck this year.”

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Steve Young comes out of nowhere after two weeks of DNQ’s and the experienced veteran driver takes advantage of handicapping to the front row of the heat and then earns the 3^rd starting position in the feature.

Steve Young finished 2^nd from his 3^rd starting position and had a shot at the win in the final 4 laps when a penalty on Jesse Hirthler moved him into 2^nd on a restart with four laps to go but Colton Perry was able to hold on for his career first win.

Jesse Hirthler has been racing hard all season and tonight was no different.  Some weeks it works out and others it doesn’t but regardless he is always in the mix and a factor in the race.  Last week with a completely bent race car he was up to 6^th in the feature from a 22^nd starting position with 2 laps to go but then had to go in for a flat tire.  

Jesse finished 3^rd from his 14^th starting position and took the lead on lap 16 after contact with Colton Perry on the pass but then on the lap 21 caution Jesse was penalized two spots back to 3^rd for the contact on the pass for the lead.

Jesse reflected “I made a few driving changes for Saturday night and right from hot laps they were effective. In the heat race I started 8th and took what I could get and finished 4th which was the first time that I made the handicap all year so relieved that I was going straight to the feature without a consolation race tonight”  

“I knew starting 14th was going to be a task to get to the front and I was worried about potential accidents in the front of the field.  Right from the green I was able to maneuver through the field.  I think on the first yellow I was up to 7th and knew I had a really good car that could seal the deal.  When we went back to green the car was perfect.  I was able to work by a couple more cars on the restart and was able to pick them off one by one till I got to 2nd.”

Jesse continued “I want to explain my thoughts on the lap 16 contact when taking the lead.   I will 100% flat out say that there were other ways to pass the leader cleanly and I never intended for the pass to involve that amount of contact.  With my eagerness to win my first race and lack of experience passing on a semi single file track, I was set on passing him on the inside of entry.  I do need to get better in thinking fast in the moment because it will prevent things like this in the future.”

“Back to the feature, I was able to get the lead and didn’t look back. I knew if I wanted to win, I was going to have to keep my head on straight and not make any mistakes. The yellow came out with 4 to go after two yuke tires were out on the track.  One in each corner for several laps with no yellow but it threw me off at first when they put me back because they did it so late in the yellow. That lap I thought we were going to go green, but then suddenly I found myself in 3rd with 4 laps to go on a single file restart.”

“Overall, I’m not mad on how the night went. If that call was the right decision for them then that’s fine with me and it will make my first win this year feel that much better.  It was the first night where I made the handicap and the first solid night in the feature without something going wrong.  We will be coming back next week with a good car, a good mindset, and hoping to clean up some of my flaws from last week like I always hope to do every week.”

Brett Gilmore finished 4^th from his 7^th starting position and posted his best finish of the season.

Brett commented “My car was good in practice and felt smooth, but I could tell the track was going to be hard to get ahold of later in the night. With the wind and sun all day, the track dried out a bunch in the heat races. Our heat race was decent and held my spot after getting a little bump from behind, so I decided to slow down and hold it down.  If they want to pass me, they better do it on the top because I will not get passed on the bottom.”

“Started 8th in the feature and told my dad track was going to take rubber, so I figured I’d try to stay out see where we stacked up on a rubbered-up track.  I gave the people what they wanted by staying out and proving we are a top 5 car when we want to race.  I had an awesome side by side battle with Logan Watt and I can’t express the respect I have for that kid.  He’s an awesome competitor.  Just wanted to see if I had anything for those guys and we had a decent run.  All in all, a good night with nothing to complain about.”

Logan Watt finished 5^th from his 15^th starting position and continues to have a strong car going forward every week.  Last week he was involved in a wreck in the final laps with lapped traffic while going 3 wide for the lead with two laps to go. This week Logan was right back in the thick of it running a solid 5^th place finish on a rubbered-up track.

Logan noted “Last week was intense. In the heat race I started 8th and finished 1st. The track was one lane but sometimes later in the heats you can get the top in 3&4 to work. The car was hooked up. “

“In the feature my car was a little on the tight side and I was just trying to hold on and be consistent.  The track crew kind of threw me for a loop as I was expecting them to do track prep for the feature like they usually do, but they did not touch it for our feature this week, so it ended up being one lane dominant on the bottom.  I will definitely take a top 5 on track like that.”

“I would like to thank all my sponsors, everyone who got me to where I am today, and my crew for their countless hours in the shop.  I couldn’t do this without them!”

Parker Guldin finished 6^th from his 11^th starting position to post his best finish of the season.

Parker reflected “Following Saturday night’s finish we’re all extremely happy with the results. Since the start of the season, we’ve been getting a ton of help and awesome setup advice from many teams.  I said it before and thankfully it’s still true to this day that we really do have the best people on our side.  I truly believe I have a good car every week, but it was just missing a little something which was prohibiting me from having better finishes in the first two weeks.  With some help, I believe we’ve found something that will make a difference in our speed.  Unfortunately, we are unlike most teams who have access to spring and shock machines and available parts whenever they want them.  Whatever can be done with tape measures, a set of scales, a few phone calls, and some free time after a 40+ hour work week is pretty much what we go by every week.  So not only did we have a better working car this week and arguably a better working driver, but our track position also helped a ton.”

Parker continued “With just about 45 cars weekly, where you start in qualifying heats has become crucial. The last few weeks the track surface has been dicey and tough to maneuver on which makes it even harder to get up to that 3rd or 4th position to qualify for the feature out of a 10-12 car heat. The same can be said for our consolation races, which we normally have 2 each week that can consist of 12-14 cars.  So, to circle back I believe we had a great car early on for the warmups and the heat.”

“In the feature our car seemed to be even better than it was in our heat race. I would’ve liked to advance more spots from 11th which I believe we had the car to do, but I came up short as a driver to finish in 6^th.  But all things considered, we were still very pleased with 6^th considering track conditions. Hopefully, we now have a solid foundation to work off of and advance forward in the coming weeks.  At the end of the day, I’m super happy just to be there on Saturday night.  As a smaller driver/owner the world of racing is becoming very hard to keep up with and without the help of my sponsors, amazing friends and family this year truly would not be possible.

Kaitlyn Bailey posted a career best 7^th place finish from her 6^th place starting position.

Kaithlyn reflected “The opening week was a great way to start the year for us by qualifying and running the first feature of year.  Last week we struggled with passing and had our first DNQ of the season.”

“Tonight, the car felt a little slow in warmups, but we found our quickness later on.  I talked to my dad about it, and we made a quick change for the heat race.  I went out for the heat race and finished 2nd and the car felt amazing and very quick.”

“In the feature I tried a lot of different things and learned a lot. Then, about midway through the race I really found out how to run the track. The car felt great and was quick. This was my best career crate finish and a great run for us tonight.”

Cody Manmiller finished 8^th from his 13^th starting position.  Cody commented: “We’ve just had a bad start to the year – got wrecked in week 1 and then was way off last week.  We were better this week; just wish we had a track that you could pass on a bit more in the feature.”

Dylan Swinehart did it again and posted another top ten feature finish from a consolation starting position.  That is three weeks in a row finishing 8^th, 8^th, and 9^th from 23^rd, 22^nd and 22^nd starting position sliding him into a surprising 2^nd in the early season points standings.

Dylan noted “This week in the shop we changed a few things and tested them in hot laps. The car felt good even though the track was pretty rough. I decided to stick with the changes for the heat which was not what we planned to do but I wanted to try it.  Started 9th and finished 6^th, it’s just so tough when the crates are all so equal and there is no passing when we get a one lane track.  Went to the consolation again – third straight week.  I made a change for consolation, we won from the pole and the car was awesome.”

“In the feature started 22nd again. The car just wasn’t great in the feature, but it was decent. We are missing a little something still in the heat and feature, but we will find it. Three weeks in a row the hard charger is pretty cool.  And now we are 2nd in points and I’m just trying to stay consistent and out of trouble.  This week we will throw another new setup on for week 4 and try that, maybe I’ll like setup #4.”

Logan Bauman finished 10^th from a 21^st starting position to rebound nicely from a prior week DNQ and get back on track with his run for a top five finish in the 2024 points standings.

Logan noted “Yeah, we came to the track this week with a baseline setup, and we just haven’t had a consistent track so far with one week it’s slick one week it’s tacky.”

“Today we just weren’t in the ballpark with the track that we were given for practice or the heat and when consolation time came along, we made some changes and found more speed and had a better car.”

“In the feature we started deep in the field, and it was a tossup between a hard tire and a soft tire especially with not seeing the track get watered. We put a soft tire on because we knew we needed to go forward quick before the rubber came in and we didn’t want to wait for a 50 to come in.  It was a good run and were happy with the results but there’s still more to improve in our heat races to put ourselves in a better position for the feature.”

Nathan Mohr finished 12^th from a 23^rd position and has shown qualifying consistency in his first three races of the season.

Nathan noted “Last week someone ran over my LR and cut it down and we had some bent parts on front end too which makes it hard to drive.”

“This week was crazy; I felt decent in heat race but found a hole in the right front shock leaking all air out and fluid which made car lean on RF and not rebound off of it.  So, we got another shock on and ran the consolation, and we were fast!  Didn’t change a thing for feature.  But in feature track rubbered up pretty quick and it is hard to pass when we all are the same speed! Car definitely still has speed, going to keep at it and try to be consistent all year long.”

Mike Stofflet finished 13^th from his 5^th starting position and continues to have speed as he also won his heat race this week.

Mike Stofflet stated “Our season has gotten off to a terrible start and if we didn’t have bad luck, we’d have no luck at all.  We have used the same set up three weeks in a row and the car has been fast every week but Saturday the track through us a curve ball and I’ll blame it on the breezy conditions. We came in after the warmups and for the first time all year I had a complaint about the car. So, we made some minor adjustments for the heat. I was hoping we’d be able to roll the top at the start, but I quickly found out there wasn’t much there and got down behind Bock and ran close with him trying to find were I felt we had a little more to set up a pass. When the red came out, I knew at that point we needed to get back to the bottom and had to set up something center off to get under Kenny and the cards worked almost as if I aligned them perfectly to get by and take the lead.  When we came in, I didn’t realize we got out as far as we did but I still felt we weren’t as good as previous weeks.

“In the feature we were riding in about 4th just kind of letting the car come to me and had an unfortunate incident coming off two that got me sitting head on with the rest of the field but miraculously the whole field split around me, and we were able to drive away. Kudos to all of them guys that missed us. When we restarted, we got a few guys really quick, but I found out quickly we didn’t have anything up top, so I was going to have to be patient and take what I was given to salvage a decent run, which we did get back to 13th, but I really feel we were a top ten if not a top 5 car, but that’s racing. I feel this is the best car we have had since we made the switch to dirt and our time to shine is on the horizon.  In another note how about Colton finally getting that elusive first career win after 7 years of racing, so proud of his accomplishment and our team on the efforts that were put in to get him there.”

It’s only three weeks into the season and the Crate points standings have already developed a life of their own.  Last week’s points leader Ryan Watt was going for his 2^nd win in two races when he was involved in a wreck with two laps to go ending his night as a DNF.  Logan went from points leader to 9^th.

This week Addison Meitzler, Mikey Schneck and Adrianna Delliponti came in as top three points leaders.

Addison Meitzler had transmission troubles after arriving and never hit the track, not even for hot laps.

Mikey Schneck’s heat race had a bad start and domino effect ended up making its way back to 10^th place and broke his shock tower ending his night as a DNQ.

Adrianna Delliponti actually qualified for the feature but got caught up in a hard wreck but was able to return and finish 16^th which was enough to put her into the points lead for the first time in her Grandview career.

It may only be week 3, but the points chase is already in full swing complete with provisional starting positions being cashed in.  So far, more drivers are closer in the standings than ever before so the chase for the championship this year looks to be a very tight and competitive race.   

Speaking of good cars with bad racing luck; the list has been long every week and here are this week’s unlucky participants:

Returning for a second week and another oh so close but yet so far is TJ Mayberry.  Another great car running good moving for the 2^nd week in a row into 2^nd place only to fall out with 4 laps to go due to a flat tire.  Last week he was in 2^nd and involved in a wreck with two laps to go so TJ is banking that three will be the charm and get him over the hill this week.

TJ Mayberry reflected “Unfortunately I tagged the inside wall in turn 2 which flattened the tire. I ran it like that for probably 10 laps before the caution came out. The car felt good even with the flat. It’s a shame the caution came out because we were on our way to a second-place finish even with the flat.”

Kenny Bock has been another driver without any racing luck, finding himself in two tangles in two weeks with one requiring the car to be clipped.  This week Kenny was challenging for the lead on lap 9 when a bolt holding the shock tower broke and his night ended early once again.

Kenny stated “We are really pleased as this is actually the first time this year, we got some track time before something broke and this time it was a measly bolt which is way better than a front clip on a brand-new car like last week.  The surface was rough, and something was clunking and clanging so just brought it in and found it was just a broken bolt.” 

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.