Grandview Modified Pit Notes 05/24/25 – Jeff Strunk Back in Modified Victory Lane at Grandview Speedway

Jeff Strunk came from his 8^th starting position passing Bobby Gunther-Walsh on lap 6 to take the lead which held for the final 24 laps driving into victory lane for his first Grandview win of the 2025 season.  Jeff qualified in his heat that was run last week before the rain postponed the final 2 heat races and feature into this week.

Chris Gambler held the early lead for the first 4 laps until a wisp of smoke appeared behind his car and he pulled off the track to end his night.  Two early tangles reshuffled the field and sent points leaders Brett Kressley and Craig Von Dohren to the pits with both returning.  Jeff Strunk moved into the lead on lap 6 and held off Logan Watt for the final 24 laps to return to the victory lane at Grandview for the first time this season.

Heat race winners for the 38 car modified field were Logan Watt ( from 9th), Nick DeSantis (from 1st), Bobby Gunther-Walsh (from 1st), and Justin Grim (from 5^th) .

Jared Umbenhauer (from 1st) and Ryan Watt (from 1st) won their consolation races.

T.P. TRAILER NASCAR MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (30 laps): 1. JEFF STRUNK (7), 2. Logan Watt (14), 3. Duane Howard (8), 4. Mike Gular (16), 5. Jared Umbenhauer (21), 6. Craig Von Dohren (15), 7. Brett Kressley (19),  8. Ryan Grim (18) , 9. Mike Laise (7),  10. Louden Reimert (26), 11. Justin Grim (10), 12. Carroll Hine III (27), 13. Ryan Beltz (3), 14. Nick DeSantis (5), 15. Bobby Trapper Jr. (28), 16. Bobby Gunther-Walsh (2), 17. Kyle Smith (23), 18. Doug Manmiller (12), 19. Ron Haring Jr. (17), 20. Brian Hirthler (9), 21. Clay Butler (21), 22. Eric Biehn (11), 23. Ryan Watt (22), 24. Tim Buckwalter (13), 25. Chris Esposito (20) ,26. Chris Gambler (26), 27. John Willman (6), 28. Ray Swinehart (25)

DID NOT QUALIFY: Cody Manmiller, Logan Bauman, Darin Schuler, Eddie Strada, Jon Kellner, Craig Whitmoyer, Eric Kormann, Matt Yoder, Bobby Trapper Sr., Matt Stangle

VP RACING FUELS HARD CHARGER: Duane Howard +21

MODIFIED PIT NOTES  – 5/24/25

Defending 2024 Grandview Modified points champion Jeff Strunk took his first win at Grandview since the 2023 season.  Jeff got the win from his 8^th starting position.

 On the opening day Jeff started the season with a 10^th place finish from his 14^th starting position which was a sub-par for the 357 team.  The defense of his 2024 Grandview Modified points championship took a turn for the worse when he blew his motor on the first lap of the first twin 25 of two races which effectively ended his chances to win back-to-back track point championships at Grandview.

Jeff reflected “I don’t think I ever needed a win as much as I needed this one. It has been a year since I won a race and year and a half since my last win at Grandview.  We had a good clean night, for the most part with no real close calls and made gains on the car in the right direction. We are still chasing the setup with the new right side Panhard rules. I kept watching the scoreboard and saw Logan Watt and Mike Gular who were right behind me.  Picking the top for the last double file restart was a crucial call.  Very thankful to all my fans crew and Norm for having me in his car. The blown engine on a twin feature night pretty much took us out of contention for the 2025 points championship so hopefully we can put together a multi win season this year instead.”

Logan Watt finished 2^nd from his 14^th starting position.  Logan’s transition to Modified at Grandview has been seamless and smooth with top five finished in 3 out of 4 races already this season placing him 4^th in the early season modified points.

Logan recalled “We qualified last week so we went right to feature without a preliminary event on the track tonight so we went into the feature blind which was something I can’t remember doing before.  Despite going into the feature with no preliminary track time; the crew gave me a very good car.  I stayed patient and got into a rhythm and picked off cars one by one until I got to Strunk who I couldn’t get passed.  We weren’t as good as Jeff was tonight.  Jeff was just better on the top then we were.”

Duane Howard finished 3^rd from his 24^th starting position to post his best finish of the season.  After the season opening DNQ Duane has posted a 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th and currently sits 7^th in the early season points standings.

Duane stated “Yeah, the motor and car combo last night seems to be what I like.  This was a different car from the twin 25’s, and you might see the black car a lot more.  I do wish I had used this car last week for the twin 25’s.  I do think if I had cleared Logan for second position; I could have possibly challenged Strunk for the lead tonight. It was great racing for the position just got tires a little too hot to advance to 2^nd.  I did see most of the wrecks developing and was fortunate to miss them.”

Mike Gular finished 4^th from his 16^th starting position to post another strong finish.  Mike has 4 top five finishes in 4 starts – 2^nd, 5^th, 8^th, and 4^th and sits behind Kressley by only 20 points in the early championship points standings.

Mike commented “We qualified last week and only ran the feature today, but we run here so much it really didn’t matter to us that we didn’t have a heat race today.  I passed six cars in the first 3 laps so knew we had a good car early.  In the first twenty laps I thought we had a chance to win this race but then the yellow came out and we were the same in the final ten laps.  Not sure if we broke or rhythm or the tires sealed but we ended up hanging on for the final ten laps.”

Jared Umbenhaur finished 5^th from his 21^st in his first feature on coils after struggling at the twin 25’s.

Jared noted “We started up front in the consolation and stayed there which put us starting 21^st in the feature.  This was our first feature on coils and the car felt decent all night long. The track was smoother tonight then earlier this season.  The track was very slick in the top of 3 & 4 and the car did a four-wheel slide.  I knew the car was good early when we got by Kressley.  I started a restart on the bottom and cars were wrecking all around us and I’m not sure how I missed the wreck, but I got through clean.  The coils had good grip and turned better tonight.”

Mike Laise finished 9^th from 7^th starting position to post his best finish of the season.  Mike has qualified for all four features this season but broke is motor in the season opener and couldn’t make the call for the feature.  Mike had a motor from Dennis and Debbie Weller for two weeks but got his motor back for this week.

Mike remarked “The car has been good all year and was good again tonight and I need to get better as a driver to catch up to the car I now have under me.  The car is better on the longer runs and we didn’t get too many last night.  My motor broke after taking the checkered on opening night and tonight was the first night back with my motor and she felt very strong.  I’m optimistic we are going to have a good year.  We just have to keep plugging and most importantly keep the car straight.”

Next up:

Saturday, May 31 – T.P. Trailer Modifieds, T.P. Truck Equipment Sportsman, Pro 4 Racing Series, TRIVIA NIGHT – 7:30 pm