Grandview Modified Pit Notes 08/23/25 – Jared Umbenhauer Battles into Victory Lane and Championship Points Lead

Jared Umbenhauer did it again.  For the past three weeks he has overcome flat tires, attrition, and wrecks in his heat races to find his way into the feature. This week he took the big step from a 7^th, 4^th and right into victory lane for his first win of the season which landed him into the lead of Grandview’s Modified Points championship by 8 points over Duane Howard.

The feature started with an early front row battle for the lead between Matt Yoder and Ron Haring. On the 2^nd lap 2 restart of the night Haring contacted the backstretch infield wall and shot across to contact Matt Yoder who was put hard into the backstretch wall.  Matt was briefly unconscious but released by the EMT’s, while the front half of the car was destroyed.  Ron Haring was sent to the rear for the incident which gave the lead to Justin Grim on lap 3.  On lap 12 Justin and Ryan Grim were running 1^st and 2^nd when Eddie Strada made a two for one pass of both Grims moving into the lead position while Jared Umbenhauer moved from 4^th to 2^nd.  On a lap 18 restart Umbenhauer blasted into the lead over Strada which he held for the final 12 laps to take his first win of the season.

Eddie Strada endured his third 2^nd place finish of the season and Duane Howard finished 3^rd from his 22^nd starting position to keep the championship points race close and interesting.

Heat race winners for the 37-car field were Matt Yoder, Justin Grim, Ron Haring and Ryan Beltz.

The four heat winners were put in the “Ernie Saxton Memorial Cash Dash” with Ryan Beltz taking the win of the 3 lap dash.  Beltz quickly moved to the top on lap one to hold off Matt Yoder and then a final lap charge of Justin Grim to win the over $1,400 cash dash award.

Consolation race winners were John Willman and Duane Howard.

T.P. TRAILER NASCAR MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (30 laps): 1. JARED UMBENHAUER (15), 2. Eddie Strada (12, 3. Duane Howard (22), 4. Justin Grim (6), 5. Ryan Watt (11), 6. Logan Watt (19), 7. Craig Von Dohren (14), 8. Cody Manmiller (9), 9. Louden Reimert (20), 10. Jeff Strunk (13), 11. Rick Laubach (17), 12. Tim Buckwalter (25), 13. Jon Kellner (18), 14. Ryan Graver (24), 15. Mike Gular (16), 16. Bobby Trapper Jr. (27), 17. Joe Funk (28), 18. Ron Haring Jr. (2), 19. Ray Swinehart (2), 20. Ryan Grim (7) , 21. Doug Manmiller (10), 22. Chris Esposito (5), 23. Ryan Beltz (3), 24. Brian Hirthler (8), 25. John Willman (21), 26. Matt Yoder (1), 27 Bobby Trapper Sr. (4), 28. Eric Biehn (26)

DID NOT QUALIFY: Clay Butler, Craig Whitmoyer, Glenn Owens, Kenny Bock, Eric Kormann, Darrin Schuler, Chris Gambler, Kyle Smith, Mike Laise

HARD CHARGER: Duane Howard +19

CASH DASH ($300): Ryan Beltz (Total winnings – $1445)

MODIFIED – TOP FIVE PIT NOTES – 8/23/25

In the past 3 weeks Jared Umbenhauer has had damage & flat tires in his heat races sending him to the back of the field, but he still managed to make the invert from the heat in two of the three weeks. The other week he went to the last starting position in the consolation and secured a qualifying position for the feature.  In these three weeks he has finished 7^th, 4^th and a win this week which has catapulted Jared into the points lead this week with consistent feature top ten finishes.

Jared finished 1^st from his 15^th starting position and moved into the modified championship points lead with three races to go.

In victory lane Jared stated “We have a fast car every week but don’t win and I kept thinking something is going to go our way.  Last week, I was on vacation when I found out I was only 19 points behind the points leader Duane Howard, and it was the only thing on my mind for my entire vacation.”

“When I was running the top, it was getting pretty close to the wall and far out there, so I diamonded off the corners.   When the yellow came out I was able to adjust and get the car to rotate better in the corners.”

Back at the trailer Jared reflected “Tonight it finally all came together but we took the same long road as we have in the past two weeks.  We got torn up in the heat race and went to the back of the field.  We had bent up quarter panels, bent axel and a bent shock that was later to be found ready to fall off.  The toe was out in the front end, but we still managed to run back up to 3^rd and make the invert.  We haven’t won a heat race this year but making the invert is just as good.”

“To get ready for the feature we borrowed a shock from CVD and left the bent axle in the car for the feature.  I ran wherever they weren’t because you can’t follow them and win the race.

Eddie Strada finished 2^nd from his 12^th starting position and led for 7 laps until eventual winner Jared Umbenhauer moved into the lead for the win.

Eddie reflected “Yeah just had a good car all night long and have been running the same package for month or two now.  Car is fast, just need some luck in the feature to get one.”

“In the heat race I took too long to get to the top and run down the leader but did make it through the field pretty decent to get in the invert.”

“In the feature it took us a bit to get going with all the cautions, but once I got into the lead, I just choose the bottom thinking it was better running off the brown out of turn 4.  The top didn’t work out as planned, so I choose the bottom on the restart and Jared made the top work to take the lead on the restart.”

“Car is in one piece, and we’ll race again and again till we get one. Thank you to all the sponsors, crew and fans that have been sticking behind us.  I want a win just as bad as everyone else wants one.”

Duane Howard finished 3^rd from his 22^nd starting position.  Duane posted his 8^th top five in 13 races and currently sits only 8 points behind points leader Jared Umbenhauer with 3 races to go in the points chase.

Duane commented “It was a tough heat race, and we simply got boxed in on that one, but in the end, it helped us out.  In the consolation we tried some changes which lead to more changes for the feature.  We are an adjustment or two off every week, and it will be very important to make the invert from the heat race in the next 3 weeks.

Justin Grim finished 4^th from his 6^th starting position and has posted 3 top five finishes in his last 6 starts.

Justin commented “We were the best in the heat race that I’ve been for a long time.  Got close to taking home the bucks in the cash dash but 3 laps just not enough time from 3^rd starting position.  It was a great tribute to Ernie, and I want to thank everyone who contributed to make it happen for us.”

“In the feature I just kept the car straight and avoided the early accidents and ran smooth solid run.”

Ryan Watt finished 5^th from his 11^th starting position.   Ryan has finished in the top ten in his last 7 races in a row at Grandview.

Ryan said “We were good in hot laps, but our heat race started out not so good.  We were not going anywhere when a caution came out and saved us.  On the restart everyone dove to the bottom, and I stayed up top and was able to go from 9^th to 3^rd.

“In the feature it took a lot of patience and work to pass cars.  We are experimenting with different setups for the 76er.  The only three that passed me were other cars in the top 5.  Early on someone got hard into the back of me but I only received cosmetic damage and was able to go continue.  On the ensuing cautions I was able to get through a maze of cars. After a slow start this year, we have run off a string of 7 top ten finishes which is not an easy thing with nearly 36 cars on grounds each week.”

CASH DASH & OTHER PIT NOTES

The Ernie Saxton Memorial 3 Lap Cash Dash was won by polesitter Ryan Beltz over the other three heat race winners – Justin Grim, Matt Yoder, and Ron Haring.  On the start Ryan Beltz jumped to the top and took the momentum off of Matt Yoder in the 1^st lap and then held off the charge of Justin Grim to seal the win of the $1,445 bonus check.

In victory lane Ryan Beltz stated “This is my biggest win since I won the 38er a few years ago.  I got to the top right away because I knew Yoder would be fast up there and the only way I was going to outrun him was to be up there before he got there.”

Back at the trailer Ryan Beltz reflected “It was a rough start to the season for us between the 5 rainouts and then it took us about 5 races to find our baseline with the new right-side setup.  We have also struggled with tires as sizes have been all over the place this year.  Since the beginning of July, the car has been awesome in the heat races, and we got the heat race win again tonight.  So, when I picked the pole for the cash dash, I was confident that if I got a good start and to the top, I would have very good chance to win the cash dash.”

“As far as feature runs that’s another story.  We are still struggling at feature time and don’t know what we are missing.  In the feature tonight we broke one the headers, so I just pulled in.”

In the championship points race Jared Umbenhauer moved into the points lead with his win by 8 points over Duane Howard who finished 3^rd.  Mike Gular was right with Umbenhauer & Howard in 6^th place on lap 11 when he was sent to the back of the field for an on-track contact incident which put him to a distant 3^rd in the championship points standing 128 points behind the leaders with three races remaining.

Matt Yoder has been showing great speed in the past two weeks only to have contact take him out of the lead for two weeks in a row.  This week he took heavy damage on the second caution of lap 2 in the feature.

Jeff Srunk was involved in the first lap 2 incident but returned to the rear of the field and ran through to a 10^th place finish.

Cody Manmiller finished 8^th from his 9^th starting position to post another top ten finish as he begins to amass consistent finishes and posting his 4^th top five/ten of the season.

Ryan Graver finished 14^th from his 24^th starting position after qualifying in only his second modified start.  Two weeks ago Ryan made an abrupt and unplanned change from a Crate to a Modified.

Ryan reflected “We honestly had no intention to go modified racing this year, but when the deal to trade our motor plus some money for Jimmy Wismer’s spec motor came up it felt like a no brainer for us. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity cost effectively jump to a modified.”

The differences going from Crate to Modified is the huge horsepower increase which I really had to quickly get use to pedaling the car instead of always be in the gas.  The second thing is just the respect and difference in the level of the drivers. Racing side by side with these guys is so fun because a lot of them have been doing this for so long and know the limits of how close you can be.”

Early in the feature, I was just really focused on surviving and getting through a couple of early on wrecks and found myself up to around 18^th.  I was looking around and seeing all these guys that I watched when I was first starting out and it was just so surreal. Then we go green and next thing you know I found myself passing cars going forward and feeling unbelievably comfortable.  After a caution in the middle of the feature, I was looking around me and right in front of me is Jeff Strunk, to my right front is CVD, to my right is Doug Manmiller, then Timmy Buckwalter, and Mike Gular right behind me. Then the row in front of all of us is Logan Watt, Louden Reimert, Ryan Watt and all I could think was what am I doing here in the middle of these guys.  Then we went green and next thing you know I’m actually keeping up and staying side by side with these guys. I almost had to pinch myself because I didn’t think I’d ever be able to keep up with these guys but here I am in my first modified feature racing side by side with them all.  I am really excited that in my second ever start, I qualified here at Grandview with almost 40 cars.  Hopefully we can keep things going and get another couple of good runs and maybe draw some attention for some more sponsorship next year.  I’ve never had so much fun racing.”

Next up on Saturday, August 30 Grandview will present Modified, Sportsman and Pro 4 Racing Series Four Cylinder Stock cars on a three-division card with hot laps at 6:15 and racing at 7:30 pm.