Grandview Modified Pit Notes 08/30/25 – Eddie Strada Lands Long Awaited First Modified Win

Eddie Strada has been close to winning Modified at Grandview too many times this season to count but this time he was not to be denied and claimed his career first modified win at Grandview.  Strada passed Matt Yoder on lap 22 for the lead and held off Ryan Grim in second to take his first Grandview modified win.

The only caution was  a red flag on lap 9, when points leader Jared Umbenhauer flipped down the backstretch after receiving contact from another competitor. 

Heat race winners for the 38-car field were Bobby Trapper Sr. Matt Yoder, Jon Kellner, and Craig Whitmore.

Consolation race winners were John Willman and Logan Watt.

T.P. TRAILER NASCAR MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (30 laps): 1. EDDIE STRADA(13) , 2. Ryan Grim (8), 3. Matt Yoder (5), 4. Rick Laubach (10), 5. Logan Watt (22), 6. Duane Howard (15), 7. Jeff Strunk (12), 8. Louden Reimert (20), 9. Ron Haring Jr. (4), 10. Mike Gular (14), 11. Jon Kellner (7), 12. Craig Von Dohren (21), 13. Craig Whitmoyer (9), 14. Doug Manmiller (29P), 15. Alex Yankowski (16), 16. Bobby Trapper Sr. (5), 17. Eric Kormann (25), 18. Brian Hirthler (27), 19. Bobby Gunther-Walsh (5), 20. Cody Manmiller (28), 21. Chris Esposito (24), 22. Mike Laise (18), 23. Bobby Trapper Jr. (74w), 24. Eric Biehn (6), 25. John Willman (23), 26. Chris Gambler (1), 27. Jared Umbenhauer (19), 28. Ryan Watt (11), 29. Tim Buckwalter (26)

DID NOT QUALIFY: Ryan Graver, Kyle Smith, Kenny Bock, Glenn Owens, Clay Butler, Joe Funk, Darrin Schuler, Justin Grim, Ray Swinehart

HARD CHARGER: Logan Watt +17

Grandview Modified Pit Notes 08/30/25 – 

Eddie Strada posted the win from his 13^th starting position.  After four 2^nd place finishes this season, Eddie broke through into victory lane in convincing fashion for his first Grandview modified win.

In victory lane Eddie reflected “We wanted this one really bad and had a hell of a week leading up to it so it couldn’t have come at a better time.  Like always, it was a race to the front and the red flag helped and then I found the middle, so I made a move, and it stuck.  This time it all worked out for us.”

Back at the trailer Eddie Noted “In hot laps I think we were quick time in our group, and which helps us know if we have a good car starting off the night. The heat races were hectic just trying to find a clean opening to make a pass and we got into the handicap which makes your whole night this year.”

“In the feature we started 13th and picked our way through to 6th by lap 9 when we had the red.  The outside starting spot helped us get our way to 3^rd, then had a great battle with the 5 & 17 and I just happened to find the middle in 3 and 4 to make an aggressive move to get to the lead. I thought the 17 had us till I found the middle in 3 and 4 and that really just made the race for us.”

“Thanks to all my guys and gals on the 33 team we have a blast running Grandview every week and finally got that monkey off our back. Thanks to Bobby Yeager for letting me drive this thing and all the sponsors that help us get there every week to do this.”

Ryan Grim finished 2^nd from his 8^th starting position and posted his best finish of the season.  Ryan has qualified at every race this season until his first DQ a few weeks ago.  After some motor changes, Ryan was on a strong run last week when the power steering belt dropped him out of the top 5 late in the feature.  This week the belts stayed on, and Ryan was able to stay the course and drive to a 2^nd place finish.   

Ryan recalled “We had motor troubles for a couple of weeks recently but made some changes that corrected that last week. Then we had the power steering issue that caused our DNF last week. Then this week we tried a little something different with the motor which kind of woke it up.  Ron Seltmann came and helped with a little set-up tweaking and we hopefully took a few steps in the right direction.   You never know if you found something or it’s just track variances from week to week.  This week for once we finally had a good heat run and made the invert.”

“In the feature, the car worked much better on a track that was a little different than the heat races. So, you hope you make the right decisions for the feature.  Felt like I had a decent car that didn’t change much throughout the feature, just the driver made too many mistakes to win the race.”

Matt Yoder finished 3^rd from his 3^rd place finish and posted his best finish of the season.  Matt started the season driving for Floyd Bobst in his #17 entry and then switched to his family owned # 5 three weeks ago.  Matt has been fast right away, but the results of the first two outings have been disappointing.  He led 22 laps of his first feature only to have contact move him back to a 5^th place finish.  The second week was a backstretch incident that destroyed the entire front half of the car and knocked him unconscious briefly.

What looked like at least a two-week front half project was turned around in a matter of days by Bobby Strunk and to everyone’s surprise Matt’s car was ready to go without missing a week on track.  The newly front halfed car didn’t miss a beat and rolled out just as fast and strong as in prior week’s posting a strong 3^rd place finish.

Matt reflected “The week was just plan crazy. I worked all week, so my dad did all the running around getting parts, changing tires, and fixing sheet metal. The rear needed to be fixed, and Bobby Strunk put a new front clip on in 24 hours. We spent late nights putting it back together. I didn’t fully finish up until around noon on Saturday.”

“Car was decent in hot laps, but something was a little off.  I made a right front shock adjustment to compensate for the 4-degree axle I had to put in the car versus my 8 degree I normally run.  Car was really good in the heat. We won by over a straight away.”

“We were good in the feature.  In hindsight, I think I should have pushed a little more in the last 10 laps.  I could have ran slightly higher to get into more of the moisture.  It’s a fine line between pushing your car in that top lane or jumping the cushion and smacking the wall.” This was my 4th feature ever in a 358 at Grandview, so I’m still learning how hard I can push the car on this track. I was extremely pleased to finish 3rd.  Car was in great shape after the feature which is a win in itself after the past two weeks of coming home with some pretty gnarly damage to repair.”

“Congrats to Eddie on the win. He was definitely the fastest car out there.  It was nice to run the last 2 laps side by side with Rick Laubach; he’s a veteran that you can run side by side with and not worry about being stuffed into the wall. We were able to hold him off at the line for 3rd.”

Rick Laubach finished 4^th from his 10^th starting position and posted his best finish this season after switching to Grandview in mid-June for weekly Saturday racing.

Rick reflected “We changed back to Grandview midseason which presented a challenge starting the first three weeks from the back.  Our luck in the heats hasn’t been the greatest sending us to consolations and missing the feature invert.”

“In hot laps, I was fastest in my group.  We were scheduled to start 7th in the heat, but we ended up starting 6^th in a stacked heat.  The car felt really good and got into the invert for the feature which set our night up.”

“In the feature, I think we had a shot to win. Unfortunately, the red came out for Jared, and it halted our momentum.  I battled side by side with Yoder and came up .030 seconds short of ending our night on the podium.”

“We debuted a new Murray powerplant under the hood, and it showed great speed. After the heat, we made minor changes since the handling was off just a tick.”

Logan Watt finished 5^th from his 22^nd starting position and earned the hard charger of the night again.

Logan noted “I got behind the eight ball in heat and choose every wrong lane out there and made driver errors.  In the consolation I found the bottom worked and won as we tried some different setups things for the 76er.”

In the feature I slowly worked may way through the field and got in a rhythm.  After the caution I found the top and in lapped traffic had some anxious moments and almost threw it away three times.  The LR tire was going flag and blew right at the checkered flag.”

Last week’s winner and points leader Jared Umbenhauer was involved in a racing contact incident that sent him hard into the turn 2 wall and destroyed his car ending his night as a DNF.  Unfortunately for Jared, he went from the high of a win taking over the points lead last week to a DNF and a wrecked race car this week.

Duane Howard finished 6^th and is now the points leader by 160 points over 2nd place Mike Gular with two events remaining.

Next up on Saturday, September 6 Grandview will present Modified, Sportsman and USAC East Coast Sprints on a three-division card with hot laps at 5:45 and racing at 7:00 pm.