Grandview Modified Pit Notes – 7/06/24 – Brett Kressley Scores 3rd Win of the Season After Fierce Battle with Duane Howard

Brett Kressley took his 3^rd Grandview win of the season passing Duane Howard back on lap 27 for the win.

Nate Brinker took the early lead until Brett Kressly moved into the lead on lap 14 from his 10^th starting position.  On the 3^rd and final restart of the night, Duane Howard took over the lead, but Kressley stayed within striking distance and battled side by side until he passed Howard on lap 27 to take his 3^rd trip to Grandview’s victory lane this season.

Heat race winners for the 37-car modified field were Ray Swinehart, Jon Kellner, Ryan Grim and Brett Kressley.

 Justin Grim and Ryan Watt won the consolation races.

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

1.BRETT KRESSLEY, 2. Duane Howard, 3. Jon Kellner, 4. Craig Von Dohren, 5. Doug Manmiller, 6. Craig Whitmoyer, 7. Kyle Smith, 8. Ryan Watt, 9. Louden Reimert, 10. Nate Brinker, 11. Mike Gular, 12. Jeff Strunk, 13. Kevin Hirthler, 14. Jimmy Leiby, 15. John Willman, 16. Jared Umbenhauer, 17. Justin Grim, 18. Mike Lisowski, 19. Frank Yankowski, 20. Eddie Strada, 21. Ryan Beltz, 22. Darrin Schuler, 23. Ryan Grim, 24. Bryan Rhoads, 25. Joe Funk, 26. Eric Kormann, 27. Kevin Graver Jr., 28. Ray Swinehart

DID NOT QUALIFY:

Tim Buckwalter, Carroll Hine III, Bobby Trapper Jr., Chris Gambler, Cody Manmiller, Brian Hirthler, Eric Biehn, Chris Esposito, Ron Haring Jr.

HARD CHARGER: J Ryan Watt +14

MODIFIED PIT NOTES – 7/06/24 Points Race # 9

Brett Kressley took the win from his 10^th starting position and posted his third Grandview win of the season which ties him with Louden Reimert for the most wins at Grandview this season.

By lap 5 Brett moved from his 10^th starting position to 4^th then it was side by side with Duane Howard for 3^rd place until Brett used his traditional top side slide to capture the lead on lap 14.  On the lap 17 restart Brett choose the bottom lane and Howard used the top of the track to drive past Kressley into the lead.  Kressley stayed with the bottom lane which was taking rubber and on lap 27 it paid off as he passed Howard to retake the lead and from there Kressley motored into victory lane for his third Grandview win of the season.

In victory lane Brett reflected “We buried by grandfather this week so this is an emotional win, and I would like to dedicate this win to him.”

“I knew the top wasn’t going to last, so I found a rhythm on the bottom and baited Duane to stay up there long enough to figure out how deep I could roll it in there.  When I showed him a nose, I knew he would be putting the left turn signal on, but I was already underneath and by him.  On the white flag lap, I was a little nervous as I approached lapped traffic, but we got the checkered before the lapped traffic.”

“We had good speed in the heat and the car was so good early in the night.  In the feature, I was surprised how quickly we got up to 3^rd.  I lost the lead on a restart, but just kept searching and found where the car wanted to be.  It was our best car all year for sure.”

Duane Howard finished 2^nd from his 12^th starting position.  Surprisingly, the leader Kressley gave the top lane to Howard on the lap 17 restart and Duane was able to take the lead.  Kressley continued to pursue Howard from the rubbered up bottom lane and passed Howard back for the lead on lap 27.

Duane is currently 4^th in the modified points standing.  Duane has been looking for more speed at Grandview and two weeks ago he tried his Big Diamond car, but this week returned to his regular Grandview car.  With a second place finish this week and a win at his last Big Diamond outing, it looks like Duane may have found the speed and consistency he has been looking for this season.

Duane noted “Yes, we had a good car with minor changes from where we normally are every week.  We were able to get to the front quickly and when the top went away the 19K felt the bottom stickiness.  When you’re the leader you’re sitting duck.  After a good battle and race with the 19K we are moving in the right direction and the last few weeks have been very encouraging for us. We are hoping to be able to carry this momentum into the final half of the season.”

Jon Kellner finished 3^rd from his 5^th starting position.  This week was by far Jon’s best outing of the season.  Jon battled CVD for 10 laps and was able to take 3^rd place and hold CVD back in 4^th place.

Jon commented “It’s been 10 years since I last raced, suspensions are very different now and it seems to me that you have to drive the cars differently then I use to.  So far this season we have had a lot of bad luck, a few mistakes by the driver, and some tangles that I’ve gotten caught up in, but we knew it was going be a challenge to get back into racing at Grandview.  We have kept plugging away at it every week with our Mike Casey owned team and Nick Gatto power under the hood. Ron Seltmann of Fast Four Shocks has made a huge difference with our shock program improving our car’s handling.  The car was good in both the heat and feature this week and this was by far our best race of the season.  We have high hopes that we can continue to stay at this level for the 2^nd half of the season and continue to finish at the front of the field.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 4^th from his 16^th starting position.  Craig went from 16^th to 6^th in the first 10 laps of the race on his way to a 4^th place finish.  Craig currently sits 2^nd in the modified points standing behind points leader Jeff Strunk.

Doug Manmiller finished 5^th from his 11^th starting position.  Doug added a solid Saturday top five to a Tuesday win at the Thunder on the Hill to round out a solid holiday weekend of racing.

Doug reflected “We had a good car in hot laps and had some luck in the heat race to be able to make the invert.  At the start of the feature, it was better on the outside because the inside was jammed up.  We were stuck in 11^th and didn’t start moving forward until a midrace restart opened things up for us.  We were happy with another solid top five finish.”

Craig Whitmoyer finished 6^th from his 4^th starting position to post his best finish of the season.

Craig noted “We switched to our other car this week and Jason Bashore of BFP Specialty has been helping us.  I ran up top early but moved down to the to the bottom once I saw the rubber come in.  We had a really good car today and hope to continue to build and improve for the second half of the season.”

Kyle Smith finished 7^th from his 6^th starting position and posted his career best modified finish.

Kyle stated “For the past four weeks mechanical issues have held us back from a broken header, broken rear, fouled spark plugs, to mud in the wheel, so it was great to have a clean run in the top ten this week.  We ran 2^nd in the heat to Kressley and the car was great.”

“In the feature we fell back early from our 6^th starting position but held our own when the track started to take rubber.  I had fun racing with CVD and was able to drive back under him after he passed me.  The challenge in modified is trying to keep a whole list of great drivers behind you for an entire race while still trying to move forward.  We made some big adjustments on Tuesday at Thunder on the Hill, and they worked again tonight so hopefully we have the setup now.”

Ryan Watt finished 8^th from his 22^nd starting position and was the hard charger of the night.

Ryan commented “We tried a different setup tonight in the Troyer that worked good in hot laps but not so good in the heat race.  In the consolation we went back to last week’s setup and the car was much better.  The track took rubber in the consolation, so we went to a 50 tire for the feature.”

“In the feature we were a little tight on entry and were better on top until the last ten laps when the bottom rubbered up, so we dropped in and followed to an 8^th place finish from our 22^nd starting spot.  We are getting comfortable with the Troyer, and it is doing well every week.   The Bicknell is still all apart and for now we will continue to run our two Troyer’s.”

Louden Reimert finished 9^th from his 9^th starting position after getting shuffled back to 20^th early in the feature.  Louden is tied with Brett Kressley with three Grandview wins already this season. 

Louden noted “ Car just didn’t work very well in the feature, but we were able to claw our way back through the field after dropping early to 20^th position.  We will work on car this week to get back to our setup that has produced three wins in the first half of the season.”

Nate Brinker finished 10^th from his 2^nd starting position.  Nate reflected “Car was awesome all night.  We made a ton of adjustments for the feature and the car was really fast.  I lost my rhythm on the last restart on lap 17 and didn’t have enough heat in the right rear tire.  Overall, a solid night for us.  It’s been a struggle this year, but a 10^th and a straight racecar is always a win for us.”

Jimmy Leiby finished 14^th from his 28^th starting position after qualifying in the last position from the consolation  race.  Jimmy currently sits 12^th in the 2024 modified points standings.

Jimmy stated “We struggled in the heat, but the car was good in the consolation.  In the feature we made minor changes and the car just kept getting better as the race went on and we kept picking off cars right to the end.  We are making more shock improvements for this week.”

In his heat race, Timmy Buckwalter was on his way to the invert for the feature when he had a final lap flat tire that dropped him from 3^rd to 9^th in the heat race and sent him into the last starting position in the consolation where he missed qualifying for the feature by only one position with a 5^th place finish.

Next up on Saturday, July 13 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 featuring the Sportsman Firecracker 40. The program will consist of qualifying races leading up to the 30-lap Modified and 40-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.