Grandview Modified Pit Notes 7/13/24 – Cody Manmiller Holds off Final Lap Charge by Ryan Grim to Pick up Career First Modified Win

Polesitter Cody Manmiller broke away from the field early in the feature and with five laps to go the gap quickly closed but Cody Manmiller held off a charging Ryan Grim by a .21 margin of victory to take his career first modified win at Grandview.

Cody took the early lead and after two lap 3 cautions it was Eric Biehn moving into 2^nd place as the race then went green for the remaining 27 laps.  Cody opened nearly a 2 second lead until Ryan Grim passed Biehn for 2^nd and then Ryan closed the gap every lap until the final margin of victory was only .21 seconds for Cody’s first career modified win.

 Heat race winners for the 33-car modified field were Joe Funk, Timmy Buckwalter and Cody Manmiller.

 Craig Von Dohren won the consolation races.

T.P. TRAILER NASCAR MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (30 laps): 1. CODY MANMILLER (1), 2. Ryan Grim (8),  3. Brett Kressley (15), 4. Mike Gular (14), 5. Eric Biehn (4), 6. Jared Umbenhauer (13), 7. Jeff Strunk (23), 8. Craig Von Dohren (22), 9. Eddie Strada (21), 10. Tim Buckwalter (10), 11. Louden Reimert (25), 12. Ryan Beltz (2) 13., Ryan Watt (16), 14.Kyle Smith (24), 15. Joe Funk (3), 16. Mike Lisowski (26), 17. Jon Kellner (20), 18. Doug Manmiller (12), 19. Chris Esposito (17), 20. Eric Kormann (27), 21. Justin Grim (9), 22. Bryan Rhoads (19), 23. Darrin Schuler (28), 24. Nate Brinker (6), 25. John Willman (29), 26. Frank Yankowski (7), 27. Kevin Hirthler (11), DNS – Ron Haring Jr. (5), Kevin Graver Jr. (18)

DID NOT QUALIFY: Glenn Owens, Jimmy Leiby, Duane Howard, Ray Swinehart

HARD CHARGER: Jeff Strunk +14

MODIFIED PIT NOTES – 7/13/24 Points Race # 10

Cody Manmiller took his career first modified win from his pole starting position.  Cody ran the entire 27 green flag laps on the top side, but late in the race the bottom took rubber and by the final laps to top’s advantage had evaporated. Cody had enough left to take a tight .21 margin of victory into victory lane for his first trip to Grandview’s modified victory lane.

In victory lane Cody reflected “Well it’s easier to win from the pole instead of dead last on the field like we started a few weeks ago.  Our goal this season was to get my feet wet in modified at Big Diamond and continue to run the Crate at Grandview.  We got a 2^nd in modified at Big Diamond and then blew up the Crate motor the very next night at Grandview.  So, we decided that since we are racing Grandview every week, we might as well run the modified at Grandview and throw me to the wolves a little bit.  The last couple of weeks in modified were tough, but things quickly turned around for us tonight.  A lot of cars start on the front row but don’t win so to be able to get this one is awesome.”

“I started to slow down in the last ten laps and really think it was some kind of mental block thing.  I had no idea what lap I was on until five laps to go.  I stayed on the top despite the car kept getting tighter and tighter every lap.  We are very happy with our first modified win at Grandview.”

Postrace Cody noted “Saturday was incredible. I’ve felt confident and comfortable in the car. The car felt good in the heat race which we won so all we did was change tires and rolled out for the feature.  

“Obviously, the starting position was extremely helpful, and I knew we had a good enough car to lead laps and stay up front for a bit.  I wasn’t worried about anyone else, lap counting or anything else, but I was just focused on getting through lapped cars as quickly as I could.  When I got to Bryan, he was doing his job and kept his line and I’m not sure if it was actually a mental block for me or the RF was too hot, but I got very tight on the curb towards the end.  I was getting a little frustrated and could feel my pace slowing down.  I didn’t see Ryan Grim at all and didn’t know what lap it was either.  I came off 4 and I just saw Ray waving the white flag and remember being kind of shocked I was on the last lap.  I lowered my line in 1 and 2 and then made sure I was close enough to Rhoads so that nobody would be able to clear me on the bottom.  I did screw up in 1 and 2 one lap and was out over the curb, when I didn’t see anyone there, I figured I was in a decent spot.”

“I’m very thankful for my dad. He runs a business, runs his own cars, works on his own cars, and he still finds time to help me out in the shop every week. We have quality help at the track, but during the week it’s really just him and me.  I’ve been coming to Grandview since I could walk. I never imagined racing here let alone winning, so it’s been quite the experience to win in just a handful of modified starts.”

“My dad started racing modifieds the year I was born, and I was always at Grandview watching him. My start in racing happened so fast. I never raced anything until after I graduated from college and stopped playing college soccer.  Last year I won at Grandview in a crate the same night my dad won in modified and that was an unbelievable night.”

“This year I was content racing crates but suddenly then everything changed very quickly.  The “get my feet wet in modified” plan at Big Diamond went much better than expected with a quick 2^nd place finish on Friday night but then the next day my crate blew up. The plan changed again, and we took the next logical step which was to move modified on Saturdays at Grandview.  It has been remarkable for all of this to happen and then on top of that to get my career first modified win after only a handful of modified starts at Grandview.”

Ryan Grim finished 2^nd from his 8^th starting position and posting his season best finish.

Ryan commented “Going home with a straight race car is a huge accomplishment at this point after the month we just had.  We have been making progress with our speed in the past few weeks and now with a straight car tonight can focus on maintenance and dialing in our setup.”

We were OK in the heat and made the invert.  In the feature we slowly worked up to 3^rd place and then ran down Eric Biehn to take 2^nd place.  I then found the rubber on the bottom and should have committed to the bottom, but I kept running the top for too long while running down Cody. Cody ran the top for the entire race and was noticeably slowing during the final five laps.  I went to the bottom and if a lapped car moves up at all I would have won the race.”

“Overall, it was our best night of the season. We have been struggling since the 3^rd week of the season and hope to keep this momentum, speed, and luck with us for the second half of the season.”

Brett Kressley finished 3^rd from his 15^th starting position and has begun to post consistent top five finishes. At the halfway point of the 2024 season, Brett finds himself in a solid 6^th place in the current mid-season point standings.

Brett stated “Yeah, we have been tweaking the car every week and seem to have a good base for the stages the track has been going through.  A caution would have helped us, but we are happy with a 3^rd place finish.”

Mike Gular finished 4^th from his 14^th starting position and is back up front after a disappointing finish last week back in 16^th.

Mike noted “We got some breaks in the heat and qualified well this week.  In the feature we got forward to 5^th by lap 10.  The track was good on the bottom, but the bottom was not better than the top.  We could have used a yellow during the 27 green flag laps to regroup.  We are right there with the car setup and have a straight car which is way better than the last couple of weeks, so we are glad to have a good night to build off of for the second half of the season.”

Eric Biehn finished 5^th from his 4^th starting position.  After starting the season on coils Eric has returned to torsion bars for the past 4 weeks and has posted his best finish of the season.

Eric noted “We have been struggling for the last couple of weeks, so we took the car completely apart this week and went over everything and didn’t find any major issues.  We can’t seem to find our fast lap times in hot laps but in the heat the car was much better, and we got back in the invert which is where we want to be every week.”

“In the feature we may have gotten the car a bit too tight.  I should have gone to the bottom with five laps to go but didn’t realize how good it was down on the bottom.  We had a good car but did get tight toward the end of the heat and feature.”

Overall, a very good week for us and we are happy with how we ran considering all the changes we made from the previous week. We still need to fine tune and improve and get good enough to challenge for a win.”

Jared Umbenhauer 6^th from his 13^th starting position and has climbed into 4^th in the mid-season point standings.

Jared reflected “Well we had three heats with 11 cars tonight and it always seems like a bit too many cars and turns into a lot of torn up equipment.”  

“In hot laps we came back in with pin holes in tires again this week.  In the heat we worked our way forward and then I survived a hard hit into a tangle that was in front of me, but we were still able to make the invert for the feature.”

“In the feature the track was good all-around.  We tried something in the feature last week and finished back to 16^th, so this week we changed back to our normal feature setup and immediately jumped from 13^th to 6^th early in the feature, but we couldn’t break into the top five.”

Jeff Strunk finished 7^th from his 23^rd starting position.  Jeff continues to lead the mid-season points standings as he posts consistent top ten finishes despite starting deep in the field in recent weeks.

Jeff stated “It’s midseason and summertime on the hill and the racing at Grandview is more competitive than ever.  We have not qualified in the invert for the last 5 races and have been starting 20 something every week. We are still passing 10 to 12 cars every week to get to a top ten finish, but this is not the finish we want.  We are working on our heat race speed to get back into the invert which will hopefully position us for a feature win in the second half of the season.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 8^th from his 22^nd starting position.  Craig’s heat race went green to checkered and he did not qualify for the feature.  He then won the consolation race from the pole.  In the feature Craig ran forward +14 positions and continued his streak of top 10 feature finishes which has him sitting 2^nd in the midseason point standings.

Eddie Strada finished 9^th from his 21^st starting position.

Eddie noted “We are struggling with carb issues but even, so it still feels like we are a top 10 car every week.  The heat was tough to get to the front from where we started back in 9th since the first two heats slicked the track off.  Starting 21st in the feature we swung at it and made some good calls on setup, but I took too long to pick the right lanes and get to where I needed to be on track to be fast.  After we got some laps rolling, we ran well.  We are happy with 21 to 9th and especially with 27 straight green laps.”

Timmy Buckwalter finished 10^th from his 10^th starting position.  Timmy got as far forward as 7^th but faded in the final 10 laps back to a 10^th place finish.  The season started with some promise until the 23x suffered heavy damage and resulted in a switch to the 942 car.  The past few weeks have been just plain bad luck when a heat win turned into a 9^th place finish due to a final lap flat tire.  Timmy showed speed again this week in the heat and then in the feature with a solid 10^th place finish which should provide a solid baseline for some improved performances for the 2^nd half of the season.

Doug Manmiller finished 18^th from his 12^th starting position after being involved in an early race tangle that sent him to the pits and the rear of the field. 

Doug commented “We had a good car for the feature again, but we got torn up in the first couple of laps.  We made it back out, but the car was worse than two flats.  We are hoping to have this car fixed for next week, but we have another car if necessary.”

“It was certainly a proud dad moment to see Cody get his first career modified win at Grandview.”

Duane Howard had a Saturday to forget after heavy wall contact in his heat race essentially ending his night in the heat race as the car couldn’t make the call for consolation race.

Duane commented “We had some severe damage in the heat which caused us to load up due to an unfortunate racing incident.  It’s been a year where I just wanted to hit the reset button and start over.  We will have a long week in the shop to be ready for 3 features next weekend.”

Next up on Saturday, July 20 will be a two-division program and 6-29 modified makeup consolations and feature 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 the 6/29/24 makeup race and qualifying races leading up to the 25-lap Sportsman and 30-lap Modified 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.