Grandview Modified Pit Notes 06/21/25 – John Willman Captures Modified Win

John Willman went from the second starting position to his first modified win of 2025 season in a caution free, green to checkered eight-minute 30 lap feature win.

Polesitter Cody Manmiller took the early lead for 17 laps until Willman moved into the lead on lap 18 as the leaders approached lapped traffic.  Eddie Strada made a late move for the lead, but Willman was able to hold Strada at bay to take his first win of the 2025 season.

Heat race winners for the 35-car modified field were Duane Howard, Louden Reimert and Brian Hirthler.

The consolation was won by Mike Laise.

T.P. TRAILER NASCAR MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (30 laps): 1. JOHN WILLMAN (2), 2. Eddie Strada (5), 3. Cody Manmiller (1), 4. Louden Reimert (10), 5 Doug Manmiller (7), 6. Ryan Grim (4) , 7. Duane Howard (9), 8.  Jared Umbenhauer (11), 9. Brett Kressley (13), 10. Justin Grim (6), 11. Rick Laubach (14), 12. Kyle Smith (8), 13. Craig Von Dohren (17), 14. Logan Watt (12), 15.  Mike Gular (21), 16. Jeff Strunk (15), 17. Brian Hirthler (3), 18. Chris Esposito (16)  19. Craig Whitmoyer (23), 20. Carroll Hine III (18), 21. Bobby Trapper Sr. (20) , 22. Tim Buckwalter (27), 23.Mike Laise (22), 24. Eric Kormann (19), 25. Jon Kellner (25) , 26. Eric Biehn (24), 27. Logan Bauman (27) , 28. Clay Butler (28), DNS – Ryan Watt

DID NOT QUALIFY: Ron Haring Jr., Darrin Schuler, Bobby Gunther-Walsh, Chris Gambler, Ray Swinehart, Glenn Owens

VP RACING FUELS HARD CHARGER: Louden Reimert +6

MODIFIED PIT NOTES  – 6/21/25

John Willman took the win from his 2^nd starting position to post his career 6^th Grandview win.  Willman stayed in 2^nd until lap 18 when he was able to make a move around a tightening Cody Manmiller.  A hard charging Eddie Strada moved into second place on lap 25 and closed Willman’s lead to only .22 seconds on the final lap when he took his first win of 2025.  John’s win turned around his season from a best finish of 19^th in the four prior starts to victory lane in his 5th race of the season.

In victory lane John noted “I dove the nose to the bottom to get by Cody as we approached lapped traffic.  The lapped traffic had decent pace, so I went to the bottom, while the lapped cars stayed on the top and clogged the top so Strada was blocked from making a pass on the final few laps when he closed in on me.”

Back at the trailer John continued “We have been experimenting with different Panhard setups, and it has been wicked fast but didn’t seem to get it right until we changed cars last race.  We had a good car last week, but the water pump broke early in the feature and we never found out what we had until tonight.”

“This week in the heat race we had no drive or side bit, so we guessed and made some different changes for the feature that fortunately took us in the right direction.  I couldn’t catch Cody early but then it looked like he started to get tight while my car stayed the same and I was able to get by him.  As Eddie Strada approached late in the race, I started to get tight.  I saw the lapped cars were running the top, so I went to the bottom and clogged the track up leaving only the middle which was not any good.  This was my first win at Grandview that did not have a caution flag to deal with in the feature.”

Eddie Strada finished 2^nd from his 5^th starting position. 

Eddie stated “Just had a very good car all night and didn’t make too many adjustments. After going to the back in the heat for being impatient; we came up through pretty good and had a good car on the bottom.”

“It took a while to get going in the feature, but once I got a line dialed in, I started to make speed, and I paced the top 5 well.  After lap 20 we started to come to life but just ran out of time to get by the leader.  Really happy with our set up and can’t thank all my sponsors and crew enough, they all work really hard to make us this fast every week and it’s showing.”

Cody Manmiller finished 3^rd from his pole starting position and by far posted his best finish of the season.

Cody reflected “Almost and we were really close on this one. I just got too free by the end of the feature.  It was a good night overall, especially considering what our season has been until now.  My dad and I have both had rough starts to the year, so it was nice that we were both able to grab a top five tonight. I’ve been fighting some issues, but we were pretty good all night long and are moving in the right direction.”

Louden Reimert finished 4^th from his 10^th starting position.  Louden is off to a strong start wherever he races and is currently 3^rd in Grandview points and 2^nd in Big Diamond points.  In five races this season at Grandview Louden’s average finish has been an 8^th place.

Louden recalled “We were able to qualify well in the heat and carried that momentum into the feature. Moved forward as much as I could with a non-stop feature event.”

Doug Manmiller finished 5^th from his 7^th starting position to post his best finish of the season.  Historically Doug has always had a tough time getting wins in the spring and his best finish in the previous four races has been an 11^th place finish.

Doug noted “It felt good to be back on track after a long time off because of the weather. I was happy with my heat race and to make the invert for the feature. The track was top dominant for most of the feature until the end when I felt I could move around to make passes. We had a good car in feature but was limited with no restarts in this one. We don’t have anything to repair after racing this week for the first time this season. Looking forward to getting the season back on track with the weather and stay running up front.”

Rick Laubach made his return to Grandview and finished 11^th from his 14^th starting position.  Rick is currently 3^rd in Big Diamond points, so coming back to another track with a similar rules package should be advantageous for Rick.

Rick reflected “We are happy to be back at Grandview on Saturdays and very pleased with how our first night back played out for us. In the heat we were up to 6th from 12th when the car shut off dropping us back to last. I was fortunate to have enough laps left in the heat that I was able to work back up to 5th and get the last invert position for the feature. It was great to get back to side by side racing with Kressley. Racing on Saturdays is fun again.”

After a DNQ at the season opener, Duane Howard has been dialed in and ripping with a 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 7^th.  Weekly consistency has returned for Duane and he’s back in contention in the points championship.

Duane noted “Tonight we were tight for the feature and struggled on entry. A non-stop race limited our chances to move around and opportunities to advance forward. Overall, the car has been feeling petty good this season at Grandview.”

Kyle Smith has started his sophomore season in modified by qualifying at all five races to date and posting an 11^th, 12^th & 13^th place finish which currently puts him 10^th in the early season modified points standings.  Kyle started 9^th in his heat and was involved in a tangle but still managed to get forward and qualify for the invert in the feature.

Ryan Watt qualified 14th for the feature but he opted to not make the call for the feature due to brake problems.  

Grandview Speedway will be presenting another NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series program on June 28th featuring the T.P. Trailer NASCAR Modifieds and the T.P. Truck Equipment NASCAR Sportsman, along with a Saturday night visit by the Outlaw Racing Series Vintage cars.

Pit gates will open at 4 pm, with grandstand gates opening at 5:30 pm, warm-ups starting at 6:15 pm, and the first race of the evening getting the green flag at 7:30 pm.