Grandview Sportsman Pit Notes 8/09/25 – Kenny Gilmore Rebounds and Battles to his First Sportsman win of the season

Kenny Gilmore came from the 14^th starting position, endured some contact resulting in a caution and drove through the field to pass Zach Steffey on a lap 18 restart to take his first win of the season.

The two-caution feature was led by Tayler Kramer to lap 5; Mark Gaugler to lap 13; Zach Steffey to lap 18 with Kenny Gilmore taking the final lead on lap 19.

Heat race winners for the 41 car sportsman field were Mark Gaugler, Taylor Kramer, Mike Stofflet and Andrianna Delliponti.

Consolation races were won by Colin Cox and Ryan Graver.

T.P. TRUCK EQUIPMENT NASCAR SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH (25 laps): 1. KENNY GILMORE (14), 2. Zach Steffy (3), 3. Mark Gaugler (2), 4. Colin Cox (20), 5. Brett Gilmore (15), 6. Adrianna Delliponti (12), 7. Shannon Slaughter (6), 8. Brad Brightbill (17, 9. Lawson Szerencits (10), 10. Mike Schneck Jr. (27P), 11. Teague Miller (26P), 12. Mike Stofflet (8), 13. TJ Mayberry (23), 14. Joey Vaccaro (7), 15. Ryan Graver (21), 16. Stephen Laubach (4), 17. Dylan Swinehart (18), 18. Chase Gular (22), 19. Colton Perry (19), 20. Dakota Kohler (11), 21. Jimmy Leiby (25), 22. Brayden Shelton (24), 23. Kaitlyn Bailey (5), 24. Dennis Graber (28), 25. Taylor Kramer (1), 26. Gavyn Krupp (16), 27. Brett Grim (9), 28. Addison Meitzler (13)

DID NOT QUALIFY: Jesse Landis, Parker Guldin, John McGeoy, Nicholas Hamm, Troy Conrad, Mark Behm, Kyle Hartzell, Stephen Smith, Mike Loney, Alex Bartorillo, Mark Mohr, Steve Young, Tom Miller Sr.

HARD CHARGER: Mike Schneck Jr. +17

SPORTSMAN PIT NOTES  – 8/09/25

Kenny Gilmore posted the win from his 14^th starting position.  Last week Brett Gilmore won and this week his dad Kenny Gilmore won the sportsman race.  The father son back-to-back win was also accomplished in modified with Logan and Ryan Watt posting wins in consecutive weeks.

In victory lane Kenny noted “I’m always trying stuff every week and put some on Brett’s car and some on my car.  For the second week in a row the track had some grip in the middle which I used to get to the front.  I found all kind of trouble last week but none this week.”

At my age this may be my last year racing and perhaps my last win.  We are just thrilled we can do what we do with what we have.”

“I changed to a different carb space and a different LF shock.  The car felt good in the heat on a one bottom lane track.  In the feature I found grip where they didn’t.  I think the LF shock was biggest difference maker with that track surface.”

Zack Steffey finished 2^nd from his 3^rd starting position and posted his best finish of the season.  To date Zack’s season has been disappointing with 6 DNQ’s this season.

Back at the trailer Zack noted “In the beginning of the year we hurt a motor and then we were fighting electrical issues for a few more weeks.  Thanks to Bryce Bashore who has helped us with our program so much, we have a much better setup since we got the new motor in the car a few weeks ago.”

“We put less gear in the car for the feature, and the car ran well, and we lead for about 8 laps.  On the first restart with Mark Gaugler, I took the outside lane and was able to keep the lead.”

“On the second restart with Kenny, I may have overthought it and choose the bottom.  I found out that my setup did not work well on a restart on the bottom and lost the lead to Kenny.”

We ran side by side with Kenny for 4-5 laps but it’s really hard going up against that level of racing experience.  You just go to try to learn something from them and respect the fact that Kenny has been doing this at a high level for a long time.”

Mark Gaugler finished 3^rd from his 3^rd starting position to post his best finish of the season.

Back at the trailer Mark reflected “We tried a new set up for the new right-side rules and decided to adjust as we went but this turned out to be a difficult battle each week.  We changed things one thing at a time, and we slowly got better.  Just as the car set up was coming around then we started to battle some engine issues.  We had a great run in the beginning of this season with my 97 car, but it turned into a disaster with the car flipping and ending up with extensive damage including a bent frame.  So, we switched to the 96x car and three weeks ago determined our motor was underpowered.”

“ We were very fortunate to have Ron Seltman step in with his outlook and knowledge. We also have a modified that we were waiting to run at the right time.  I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way, and we felt this past Friday night at Big Diamond was as good as any.  As got in the modified not knowing what to think. When I took the green in the heat, I felt comfortable and could  run with the pack. I also was passing cars and felt good in the modified first time out.  I felt so good after running the modified I think it helped me be calm, have confidence and feel more comfortable to have a good run at Grandview this week.”

“It was great to race with Zach, and he always races clean.  You can’t give Monk (Kenny Gilmore) anything but credit, it’s hard to beat his years of experience.  Monk is not one to hammer on you, we had a little contact in the previous week e and he came over to my trailer to talk about how that incident played out.  It was awesome talking to him.”

“Last night the car felt great in the heat. I made little changes and found out I was a little loose but not undriveable.  In the feature I felt like I was faster than Kramer, so I waited for her to make a mistake. When she got a push, I made my move to take the lead. The car felt good, still loose but manageable.  So, I concentrated on hitting my marks.” We had a yellow, with Zach alongside me and I did what I could to hold him off.  He got a better bite on the top and passes me clean. I Tried the top and Kenny was smooth and found something on the bottom. I felt the car loose and decided I would run the bottom, which seemed to work.  After the race we checked the tires to see how they held up. The tires worn even which was good. All in all, we had a good night.  Hopefully the beginning of many good finishes.

Colin Cox finished 4^th from his 20^th starting position and continues to lead the point standing by nearly 600 points with five races remaining.  In 12 starts his worst finishes are 11th and a 13^th place finish with his 11 other finishes all being either a top ten or a top five finish.

Colin noted “Our car was very good all night.  It was a little harder to pass in the heats, this week than prior weeks, so I took what I could in the heat to get a good starting spot for the consolation.  I started 2nd in the consolation and won it, which started us 21st in the feature.

“In the feature I was just patient and stayed smart just trying to finish the race which would extend my points lead.  I was also able to make my way forward by getting 4th on the final lap. Overall, another great night for us and we’ll be back. next week hoping for another good run. I want to thank my crew and sponsors for all they do.”

Brett Gilmore finished 5^th from his 15^th starting position and has newfound consistency with a new motor replacing his blown motor 4 weeks ago.

Brett commented “Warmups were decent, car felt stable, and I wasn’t too worried. Track slicked off pretty good for the heat with a good lane low on the bottom that you really had to finesse to hold it down. Made it to second and into the invert.  Started 15^th and went with the same setup as last week – 4 1/2 inches of stagger and just found grip where I could.  I made some moves up top and picked up a couple of positions in the restarts.  I couldn’t run where my dad was running, and I don’t know what he found out there.  Colin just managed to get around me on the last lap, which was impressive.  I thought I was in the grip, but he got me.  I didn’t have enough gear to run the bottom the way I wanted. I Can’t complain and I’m stoked for my dad win. It’s huge for him to pull off a win after last week’s mishap in the heat and feature. He definitely deserves it, and I couldn’t be happier.”

Next up on Saturday, August 16 will be modifieds, sportsman & outlaw vintage cars. Hot laps at 6:15 and racing at 7:30 pm.