Grandview Sportsman Pit Notes 7/20/24 – Jared LaBagh Claims his First Sportsman Win at Grandview

Jared LaBagh passed Brayden Shelton for the lead on lap 14 and then weathered two late races cautions to drive into victory lane for the New Yorker’s first Grandview win.

The heat races for the field of 37 cars were won by Ronnie Solomon, Brett Gilmore, Teague Miller and Kaitlyn Bailey.

The consolation races were won by Dakota Kohler and Mark Mohr.

T.P. TRUCK EQUIPMENT NASCAR SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH (25 laps): 1. JARED LABAGH (7), 2. Brayden Shelton (1), 3. Ronnie Solomon (4), 4. Dylan Swinehart (14), 5. Gavyn Krupp (5), 6. TJ Mayberry (10), 7. Teague Miller (6), 8. Jesse Landis (16), 9. Brett Grim (8), 10. Addison Meitzler (15), 11. Logan Watt (20), 12. Colton Perry (2), 13. Brett Gilmore (12), 14. Mike Schneck Jr. (23), 15. Jesse Hirthler (13), 16. Logan Bauman (19), 17. Kaitlyn Bailey (3), 18. Ryan Graver (17), 19. Mark Mohr (22), 20. Tyler James (18), 21. Adrianna Delliponti (26), 22. Kenny Bock (24), 23. Joey Vaccaro (11), 24. Zane Roth (9), 25. Mike Stofflet (25), 26. Dakota Kohler (21)

DID NOT QUALIFY: Parker Guldin, Nick Faust, Stephen Smith III, Troy Bollinger, Steve Young, Shannon Slaughter, Nathan Mohr, Lawson Szerencits, Stephen Laubach, Mark Gaugler, Alex Bartorillo

HARD CHARGER: Dylan Swinehart +10

7/20/24 Race # 12 – SPORTSMAN PIT NOTES

Jared Labagh made the five hour round trip to Grandview for the 5^th time this season and it paid off with a win from his 7^th place starting position.  The New York native and Middletown OCFG refugee has migrated south to Grandview and has already made his presence known in 5 short weeks.

In victory lane Jared noted “I didn’t know I would come here and be this competitive right away, but we knew from the start we had something here, it’s been awesome and keeping us coming back.  Last week we gave away the big race, but we got some redemption this week with a win this week. We are fortunate to have a Teo Pro car that we can put in victory lane over a field of Bicknell’s.   This track really suits my driving style of balls to the wall on top and ease it in on the bottom. I usually run the top no matter where I am racing.” 

Back at the trailer Jared reflected “Our heat race was a wild start to the night.  I started 5^th and got held up and cars were all over the place and I fell back to 7^th but somehow found my way to the top and back into the final handicap spot.  Patience was a virtue on this one.  There were four cautions in that heat.”

“In the feature we started 7^th and went outside as soon as it opened.  I went higher than everybody else and found the grip that got me to the front relatively quickly.  I took the lead on lap 14 and the cautions scared me but was able to bring home the win.”

Brayden Shelton finished 2^nd from his pole starting position.  Brayden finished 2^nd in only his second sportsmen feature in only 5 races this season.  The fifteen-year-old driver comes from the ranks of the quarter midgets where he raced since the age of 5.

Brayden noted “So this has far exceeded all my expectations in my first 5 weeks of racing after switching from quarter midgets to 602 Crates.  To qualify twice already, make a handicap, start race from the pole and then finished second is like a dream coming true and especially at a track like Grandview that attracts about 40 crates a week.”

Ronnie Solomon finished 3^rd from his 4^th starting position posting his best finish of the season.  Ronnie started his night off on the right foot and won his heat race from the 3^rd starting position.

In the feature Ronnie started 4th and finished 3^rd which was his best finish of the season.

Dylan Swinehart finished 4^th from his 14^th starting position and posted the hard charger with a +10 positions on a very tricky track surface that most cars in the back could not find their way forward on.

Dylan switched into Decker’s #83 again this week while Decker continues a medical leave from driving.

Dylan is currently 3^rd in the mid-season points standings but in the most unlikely way.  Four of his top 5 and to 10 finishes have come off of back to front runs after qualifying for the feature from the consolation in 21^st to 26^th position.   

Dylan noted “We made some changes from last week and car was hooked up in the heat.”

“In the feature the car was good, but I just got caught in traffic getting to the front.  We have been working on a setup between my car and Decker’s car and have been able to put a good combination between the 2 cars even though they are totally different setups.  Deckers’s car has a newer motor, so it runs a little stronger which is why I keep running his car.  As for future plans I am not sure yet, debating on pulling the motor out of his car and putting it in mine, but not sure yet and I will decide later in the week.  It also is a lot easier because the car stays at our house, and I have more help with that car.”

Gavyn Krupp finished 5^th from his 5^th starting position.  Gavyn stated, “Saturday went really well starting with the heat race where we went 3-2 and trying to chase the leader down but ran out of time.”

“In the feature I was just taking my time and I knew we had a good car, but the track was really tricky, and I got to learn how to run the track more on the bottom.  I had to battle for 5^th as I did fall back to 6^th and 7^th several times but on the final lap made my way back into 5^th place.”

TJ Mayberry finished 6^th from his 10^th starting position.

TJ commented “We’ve been struggling with our feature setup for the past few weeks. We have a decent heat setup but as soon as it slicks off, we’ve been loose all year.  This week we made a few changes and could feel improvement instantly in warmups.  In the heat race we were too tight on entry, but the car seemed to get better as we went on.  We managed to hang onto third in the heat and got a handicap spot despite four cautions.”

“We knew the track was going to be slick in the feature since they weren’t going to do any track prep after the modified feature.  Unfortunately, they decided to water the track right before we took the green and that really hurt us.  I think if they left the track alone, we would have been good from the start.  Turned out we were too loose in the first half of the race, but finally after halfway we got heat in the tires, and I could feel it instantly.  Fell back to 13th in the beginning but worked our way back up to 6th for a decent finish.”

Teague Miller finished 7^th from his 6^th starting position.

Teague stated “Yeah Saturday was a good night for us starting off with the meet and great out in front and we had a lot of fun with the fans and signing autographs. Last week we were up at the shop all night long trying to fine tune the car and get it back to how it was. We struggled the last few weeks trying to get the setup right and nothing was working, so last week we had changed a decent amount of stuff.”

“We went out for hot laps and the car went amazing. Started 4th in the heat race and on the start got into p2 right away and was battling for the lead. We snuck by and led the rest of the race to get our 3rd heat race win of the season.  The car was great, and I could put the car wherever I wanted, and it just went.”

“We then rolled off from 6th in the feature and battled back and forth and at one point we were up to 3rd.  I honestly thought we had a chance of winning just because of how good my car was and the tire we had on didn’t even fire up till this point.  I just kept waiting and waiting for the tires to fire sitting in 4th. We had a couple cautions, and the last caution was at 2 to go and single file. I went to the top to try and make something happen but fell short and ended up falling a few spots back. We had a really good run coming to the white flag on the outside but got squeezed pretty hard into the wall on the front stretch which killed my momentum.  We ended with another top 10. Great run for the team and we were all happy. When I went to the top you never know if it would work or not. It didn’t but if it worked, we could’ve maybe been top 3 but you just never will know unless you try it.  So overall a very good night for the team after struggling for a couple weeks. Can’t thank everyone in the crew and sponsors for making all this possible.”

Jesse Landis finished 8^th from his 16^th starting position.

Jesse noted “I thought about putting a 50 on this past week but I really didn’t have left rear that would be the right size to run with stager wise. I took stager out for the feature, and I think that hurt me a little.  We’ve been struggling a little this year with finding good used tires and getting a size that I can matched with whatever tires I have.”

“Heat race it was nice to have a two wide track since the mods had there make up feature first. The car was pretty good, just took a few laps to get settled out and get some room to run and make some passes. 7th to 4^th in the heat and it was nice to make the handicap.”

“In the feature we started out 16th on a fresh track, it took a little bit to get the lanes to develop and widen out.  I was following Dylan Swinehart for the first half of the race, and just getting into a rhythm on the outside.  Worked up to 10th by the first caution on lap 16.  Not the best restart but after a few laps I was going for 6th and missed the bottom and fell back to 8th where I finished.  Not a bad week but possible had a top 5 if I was a little better but the car drove onto the trailer, so we’ll take it.”

Brett Grim finished 9^th from his 8^th starting position.  Brett reflected “Hot laps and the heat race went fairly smooth.”

“Still just need a little bit of help on the feature setup and having trouble passing cars especially early in the race.  Still a good night I am thankful for everyone that helps me to be able to have a car that performs like it is right now.”

Addison Meitzler finished 10^th from his 15^th starting position.  Addison noted “We got boxed in on the start and fell back to 18^th early in the race.  Just picking them off the hard way one at a time moving up to 12^th when the final caution flew on lap 23.  I was able to pick up two spots  and finish in the top ten.”

Addison has moved into 2^nd in the point standing only 140 points behind leader Logan Watt with eight point races remaining on the schedule.

Next up on Saturday, July 27 will be a two-division program of modified and sportsman racing along with a 15-lap vintage feature.  Modified and Sportsman will have 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.