Jesse Landis made it through an early pileup on lap zero and then chased down Katlyn Bailey on lap 11 to take the lead and drive into victory lane with a 1.5 second lead for his first win of the 2025 season.
Polesitter Tom Miller led the field to green only to see a large 14 car pile-up unfold and bring our red flag. Eight cars from the front of the field where out of the race before lap 1. On the restart Zack Steffy moved into the lead only to see another tangle bring out a red flag and eliminate three cars. On the next restart it was Katlyn Bailey moving into the lead and being pursued by Jesse Landis. Jesse Landis moved into the lead and drove to his first checkered flag of the 2025 season. Katlyn Bailey and Zack Steffey posted strong 2nd and 3rd place finished respectively.
Heat race winners for the 42 car sportsman field were Ebby Ridge (from 1st); Tom Miller Jr (1); Parker Guldin (2); Brad Brightbill (from 2).
Mike Stofflet ( from 2nd) and Nathan Mohr (from 1st) won their consolation races.
T.P. TRUCK EQUIPMENT NASCAR SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH (25 laps): 1. JESSE LANDIS (7), 2. Kaitlyn Bailey(2) , 3. Zach Steffey (3), 4. Ebby Ridge (4), 5. Parker Guldin (5), 6. Gavyn Krupp (6), 7. Decker Swinehart (7), 8. Brad Brightbill (6), 9. Mike Schneck Jr. (19), 10. Colin Cox (25), 11. Chase Gular (13), 12. Adriana Delliponti (16), 13. TJ Mayberry (11), 14. Teague Miller (26), 15. Brett Gilmore (10), 16. Kyle Hartzell (27p), 17. Mike Stofflet (21), 18 Lawson Szerencits (23), 19. Nathan Mohr (22), 20. Mark Gaugler (17), 21. Ryan Graver (24), 22. Tom Miller Jr.(1) , 23. Addison Meitzler (8), 24. Brett Grim (12) , 25. Joey Vaccaro (14), 26. Mark Mohr (18) , 27. Dylan Swinehart (20)
DID NOT QUALIFY: Kenny Gilmore, Stephen Laubach, BJ Joly III, Tom Miller Sr., Jason Graber, Bryce Bashore, Dakota Kohler, Colton Perry, Nate Horn, Taylor Kramer, Dennis Graber, Kenny Bock, Dylan Cappel, Brayden Shelton, Mark Behm
GRANDVIEW $100 HARD CHARGER: Colin Cox +15
SPORTSMAN PIT NOTES – 5/24/25
Jesse Landis finished 1st from his 7th starting position to post his first win of the season.
In victory lane Jesse noted “I decided I might as well run the top and run it hard. I got into Kaitlyn by mistake and used both top and bottom to finally get around her. Later I saw Kaitlyn was still second when I glanced up at the scoreboard and I was just counting down laps, limiting mistakes and looking for the checkered flag. I have been on a roll since the middle of last year.”
Back at the trailer Jesse commented “The switch to right side Panhard has made little to no difference in my car. I guess the car reacts a little slower than the car was last year to now, but I really don’t think you could tell the difference in the car.”
“Just having only hot laps this week was pretty nice, my only concern was keeping the heat into the motor with the cold temps and sitting for so long and not having many laps to get the motor to temp. Just started car up early for the feature and let it run like I was warming it up at start of the night. I was lucky that starting 7th had put me starting on the bottom because when I saw the 82 sideway on the front stretch, I was able to go low and slide right by.”
“Restarting 6th, I was able to pick my way to second in a few laps and start to run down Kaitlyn. It took about 5 laps to get to her bumper. She was running a very good middle line, and didn’t leave much space on the corner exit to go around the outside. I ran down the front stretch and tried the bottom in 1&2 but unfortunately made some contact with Kaitlyn but luckily it was rub rail to rub rail so we both were able to continue. I got another run at her; this time I was in the outside lane where I was able to make the pass in 3&4. From that point on I just counted down the laps, saw the back of the pack with 5 to go. I felt like the pace was good enough to just continue what I was doing right to the checkers. My car runs really well when we are able to avoid any contact issues or mechanical malfunctions.
In the opener I went from 14th to 3rd by lap 15 in the feature. We had an electrical issue start around that lap 15 point and a few laps later the right front shock came off the shock tower ending my night. The next week the car wouldn’t start after hot laps, making me miss the heat race. I think it’s a few different issues from my wreck in the 38er last year. Having electrical stuff sit for 6 months always seems to be bad news sooner or later in the next season. This was the first race that the car ran well for all 25 laps so that probably better information than the actual win was.”
Kaitlyn Bailey finished 2nd from her 2nd starting position and held a solid 4 second lead over 3rd place Zach Steffey at the checkered flag while posting her best finish since arriving at Grandview in late 2023.
Kaitlyn stated “I came into the night with good confidence from our 2nd place run in the heat from last week. It was a little rough only having hot laps then a feature hours later because it’s difficult to read the track that way. So, I just watched the track and figured more out once I got on track. It turned out that there wasn’t much impact on our set up for the feature.”
“On the start in the beginning the incident with the 82 was a bit scary. From my perspective it seemed like the 82 ran a low line and when we fired, he got tight and started coming up the track which presented the 47z an open window that he took and then he came across the track to the top where I was and got my left front while just a second earlier the 82 had rubbed my left rear. I was just trying to hold my car and position then the red came out and I knew it wasn’t good.”
“In the first couple of races we did struggle with this right-side stuff which is all new and different style of driving. I like the right-side driving style more and more every week and I’m quickly gaining confidence. We have some amazing veteran drivers helping us and we have now found the setup that fits my driving style the best. We found our setup and next my confidence which quickly led to improved restarts that are a key link to our recent success. I hope we are making strides toward our first in the very near future but without a doubt this week was a giant step forward for us in the right direction.”
“My dad and crew work hard at the shop and I can’t thank them enough for everything they do for me all week long. Thank you to all my sponsors, family, friends and supporters.”
Zack Steffey finished 3rd from his 3rd starting position after getting through an early 12 car red flag incident.
Zack recalled “I was worried about not having any heat racetrack time, but it didn’t affect us in the least. We changed the setup with some great help from Jerry and had an amazing car tonight. We got through the big pileup early but did pick up some minor damage. I made one mistake tonight and picked the bottom on the restart and subsequently gave up the lead to Kaitlyn right off the restart. Grandview had an amazing track tonight and my tires were barely touched tonight.”
Ebby Ridge finished 4th from his 4th starting position in his first feature of the season.
Ebby commented “Our season to-date hasn’t been that great. We started off opening night blowing a motor up three laps into warm-ups, which put us behind the eight ball right off the bat. Then we got a new motor and struggled in the heat race the next week back, but we did find a problem with the car between the heat race and the consolation. We started blasting and passing cars from the back to get up to 3rd but only two cars qualified and then we tangle and spun with only a couple of laps to go.”
“The race yesterday was good starting 4th and battled with Parker nearly the whole race to finish 4th. At the start of the race not sure what exactly happened there but I managed to get I through and not get bent up which put up to third. I kind of struggled on the restart a little bit and two cars got me but the good thing about Grandview. You know what you’re going to have by the end of the feature and Jimmy Wismer had the car set up well for the long run, so I ended up working the top for a little while near the end.”
“As far as getting through the big one, I kind of saw it coming off of four on the start when the 82 got loose and then sideways. At that point you just got to watch where everybody goes and hopefully a hole opens up. On this one I was very fortunate that a hole did open up for me and I managed to get through. After that the feature did play out pretty well for us as we were able to maintain position. The car did get a little loose towards the end when the track got slick. There wasn’t much passing going on. You just had to be patient and not try to overdrive the track or the car. All in all, Jimmy and I are very happy with where we finished, and we got some good data to build from for the future.”
Parker Guldin finished 5th from his 5th starting position in his first feature start of the season. Parker broke his motor opening day and was back on track after missing only one race and that was thanks to Kenny Bock and family helping with a motor.
Parker reflected “To finally have a decent run/finish this year is a relief. It’s crazy for me to think that it’s basically the end of May and Saturday was my first feature I ran all year. Losing a motor on opening night hurt in more ways than one. A loss like that for a small driver/owner like me is detrimental but I’m forever thankful for our friends, the Bock family lending me a motor.”
“That being said, with two different motors in the car this season I showed good speed with both. Every time this year I’ve been at the track I’ve held quick time in my warmup sessions and historically I’m never fast early in the night. But I still wasn’t very confident going into Saturday night just because I’ve never been able to turn laps on a dicey track with the right-side new suspension with this car. Thankfully we weren’t bitten by the luck bug Saturday and were able to avoid all the big wrecks. I should say unnecessary wrecks. I warned people last year and all winter that with this new suspension rule taking away the left side pan hard and some adjustments in the suspension, that some young and inexperienced drivers will now be right where they don’t want to be. So far, every week this year is proving this to be true.”
“Overall, I’m happy with a top 5 finish for my first feature all year, but could it be better? Yes, absolutely and there’s a lot I didn’t know so we’ll take more notes to heart and be back better next week!”
Next up:
Saturday, May 31 – T.P. Trailer Modifieds, T.P. Truck Equipment Sportsman, Pro 4 Racing Series, TRIVIA NIGHT – 7:30 pm
More Stories
Grandview Modified Pit Notes 05/24/25 – Jeff Strunk Back in Modified Victory Lane at Grandview Speedway
Jesse Landis Lands Strong Sportsman Victory at Grandview Speedway
Jeff Strunk Back in Modified Victory Lane at Grandview Speedway