Modified Pit Notes 6/01/24 – Louden Reimert Claims Second Modified Win at Grandview Speedway  

Louden Reimert made his second trip to modified victory lane at Grandview this season in 5 starts with a podium of Doug Manmiller in 2^nd and Brett Kressley in 3^rd.

A resurgent Ron Haring took the early lead, but Louden Reimert quickly moved from his 6^th starting position and took over the lead on a lap 2 restart.  Louden led the next 28 laps and held off a late charging Doug Manmiller and Brett Kressley in lapped traffic to pick up his 2^nd Grandview win since returning this season to his childhood home track.

Heat race winners for the 38-car modified field were Louden Reimert, Ryan Watt, Jeff Strunk, and Ron Haring.

Eddie Strada & Bobby Trapper Jr won the consolation races.

T.P. TRAILER NASCAR MODIFIED VP RACING FUELS BRUCE ROGERS MEMORIAL FEATURE FINISH (30 laps): 1. LOUDEN REIMERT (6), 2. Doug Manmiller (8), 3. Brett Kressley (9), 4. Jeff Strunk (15), 5. Ryan Watt (11), 6. Tim Buckwalter (10), 7. Ron Haring Jr. (2), 8. Mike Gular (17), 9. Mike Lisowski (4),10. Craig Von Dohren (13), 11.Jared Umbenhauer (12), 12. Eddie Strada (21),13. Duane Howard (14), 14. Kyle Smith (5), 15. Kevin Hirthler (18), 16. Michael Storms (28), 17. Justin Grim (3), 18. Jimmy Leiby (7), 19. Ryan Grim (24), 20. Bobby Gunther-Walsh (27), 21. Bobby Trapper Jr. (22), 22. Ryan Beltz (25),  23, Kevin Graver Jr. (23), 24. John Willman (16), 25. Chris Gambler (1), 26.Craig Whitmoyer (26), 27. Eric Kormann (20), 28. Eric Biehn (19)

DID NOT QUALIFY: Bryan Rhoads, Mike Laise, Joe Funk, Frank Yankowski, Chris Esposito, Carroll Hine III, Nate Brinker, Jon Kellner, Darrin Schuler, Ray Swinehart

Hard Charger – Jeff Strunk +11

MODIFIED PIT NOTES – 6/01/24 Points Race # 5

For the second time this season Louden Reimert took the modified win from the 6^th starting position posting his 2^nd win in 5 starts in his 2024 return to Grandview as his Saturday home track.

In victory lane Louden noted “I’m very thankful we came back to the track that I grew up at and we have been able to run well right away.  We didn’t make any changes in the feature and the track slicked off more that I thought it would.  That one yellow was good as it gave me a breather.”

Back at the trailer Louden noted “We came into the feature with good speed and confidence.  Tonight was a matter of hitting my marks and keeping up with a track that changes every lap.  I ran the bottom in the beginning then went to the top in the middle of the race and came back to the bottom of the track at the end of the race. When you’re running out in front you have no idea what is going on behind you and you must be watching for were the grip is every time you come around for another lap.”

“Without a doubt the key to winning here is getting to the front quickly.  The winner is usually the one that gets to the front first.  I try to be aggressive here, but you also must stay smart and on your toes for each lap from 1 to 30.  Winning here has always been at the top of my list.  We have done our homework and built our notebook to come back home to what I believe to be the top tier track around with the toughest competition around.  As a kid it was a ritual to go to Grandview every week and I grew up here every weekend.  It’s great to be back at Grandview and I am confident in my car and my guys.  We are very happy that we have had everything come together so early in the season and we have been fast and successful this spring at Grandview.”

Doug Manmiller finished a season best 2^nd from his 8^th starting position. Doug has had a strong car every week this season only to have an incident or flat tire relegate him to a subpar finish for a few of weeks. Nonetheless, Doug is still in the top ten in the early season points standings in 9^th place.

Doug commented “Car has been really good all season. I have made a few mistakes in the closing laps of features that have cost us a couple of good finishes. This week was finally a complete race for us.”

Brett Kressley finished 3^rd from a 9^th starting position. As the defending 2023 track champion, Brett has had an up and down start to his season with anywhere from a 1^st and 3^rd to a DNQ and several wrong place wrong time wrecks leading to back of the field finishes this season.

Brett reflected “We had a good car in the heat for sure and we came from the back after a questionable penalty.  The track seems to be going through stages where you need to be in the right lane and a few times I made the wrong calls and that kept us back in traffic for a while.  I feel like we are getting close to being where we need to be, and the car is much more drivable to my liking.”

The points leader Jeff Strunk keeps posting top 5 and top 10 finishes and this week was no exception with a 4^th place finish from his 15^th starting position.  Jeff Strunk posted +11 run to the 4th place earning the hard charger from the 15^th starting position despite only two caution flags on lap 2 and 12.

Jeff commented “It’s always competitive at Grandview but this year more so with car counts up and every high-profile car staying home at Grandview this year or returning home.  In both heat and feature every lap is more intense than ever.  The track has been very technical but there are so many good drivers and cars with a lot of experience and success that it’s got to be hands down the best racing ever for the fans.  It’s extremely hard to be the points leader when you have Reimert, Strada, Manmiller, Buckwalter, Umbenhauer, Watt, Von Dohren, Howard, Gular and Kressley all in front of you and 30 laps to try to get to the front.  So, getting 4^th tonight was a very solid run for us.”

Ryan Watt finished 5^th from his 11^th starting position and he posted his best Grandview finish of the season.

Ryan stated “We had a good car and got our first top five of the season tonight.  We had a good car last week but got caught in somebody else’s mess.  In the heat we drove up from 8^th to get the win.”

In the feature we were free in the beginning, but the track came around and we were picking off cars around the bottom.  The car felt like a good setup for the 76er.   Strunk and Kressley got by us, and we were able to run them back down later in the race.  The track was very wide and very good considering it had three features on it tonight.  Track had a top and a bottom grove all night long.”

Timmy Buckwalter finished 6^th from his 10^th starting position and continues to post solid top 5 & 10 finishes in the past few weeks.  Timmy noted “We are getting better each week but still need to get the feature setup better to venture into the top 3.”

Ron Haring finished 7^th from his 3rd starting position and posted his best finish of the season.  Ron has been going to Big Diamond on Fridays to try to help dial his car in for Grandview on Saturday.  This week was another Big Diamond DNQ and Ron came into the tonight still looking to find his base setup.  In his heat race Ron found what he was looking for and ran from 3^rd to 1^st for his first heat race win of the season. In the feature Ron continued in the right direct with a 7^th place finish.

Ron commented “I brought my older car out and biked it up and almost flipped it in warmups, so we changed shocks before the heat race.  We then had a good car in the heat and could run on both the top and the bottom in the heat.”

“In the feature I had a good car on top and I was able to stay in 3^rd place until lap 23 when the track took rubber. I should have moved down but I didn’t and fell back to 7^th.  We have been going to Big Diamond on Friday nights which has helped us figure out what does what setup wise.  We have determined that not all Bicknell’s are the same and just cuz its new doesn’t mean it’s better.”

Mike Gular finished 8^th from his 17^th starting position and continues to hold 2^nd in the early season points standing only 65 points behind points leader Jeff Strunk.

Mike reflected “We ran 17^th to 8^th but should have done better as motor issues slowed us down in the end.   We kept getting boxed out in traffic and the crap luck always getting stuck in lanes with guys driving like window wipers out there.  It’s hard to race to the front when you keep getting chopped and run out.  Chopping, running out and right turns is not racing but maybe I need to start that too.  I got in front of Strunk but then got stuck in the wrong lane again and beat around with Watt then shuffling back again.  When it goes your way, it goes your way but unfortunately right now we are at when it doesn’t go your way it just doesn’t go your way.”

Mike Lisowski finished 9^th from his 4^th starting position.  Mike reflected “We are just not as good as we should be right now and it’s just that plain and simple.  We caught a couple of breaks in the heat that put us in the handicap.  In the featuring we were just hanging on.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 10^th from his 13^th starting position.  Craig quickly moved up to 7^th but after a lap 12 restart Craig was shuffled back to 10^th which was where he stayed for the final 18 green flag laps.  It was a disappointing outing after he looked like the Craig of old last week charging forward to a 2^nd place finish, but CVD fans stay tuned.

Next up on Saturday, June 8 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 4:00 and Spectator gates at 5:00 with hot laps at 6:00 and racing at 7:30.