BECHTELSVILLE, Pa. — Brett Kressley charged through the field from his fifteenth starting spot to capture his first win of the season in the 30-lap T.P. Trailer NASCAR Modified feature Saturday night at Grandview Speedway.
Kressley was able to catch race leader Ray Swinehart and make a low groove pass entering turn one on lap 14, then hold off all challengers and survive a couple of late race restarts to score his 22nd career NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series win at the speedway.
The T.P. Trailer Modified main event began with Swinehart taking the lead at the opening green flag to set the pace until Carroll Hine III took over the lead on lap three. A caution flag for a stopping Bob Trapper on lap three set up a restart that saw Swinehart retake the top spot from Hine III.
With Swinehart out front a good battle quickly developed for second between Hine III, Mike Lisowski, Doug Manmiller and Kevin Hirthler. This fierce battle for position came to an unfortunate end when in the close racing, Hine got out of shape for a brief moment, and with everyone so close all four drivers tangled and brought out another caution on lap six, sending them to the back of the field.
With the field moving up four positions, Jesse Leiby was now second and was able to motor past Swinehart on the restart and become the new race leader. The next four laps the two drivers raced a super battle side-by-side for the top spot with Swinehart retaking the lead in turn two on lap 11.
While all of this was going on up front, action was going on behind them as Craig Whitmoyer, Bobby Trapper Jr., Eddie Strada, Ryan Watt, Kressley, Mike Gular and Jared Umbenhauer were all battling for positions.
After starting in fifteenth, Kressley reached the top five by lap nine, then moved past Whitmoyer and Leiby into second on lap 13. Kressley kept the hammer down chasing leader Swinehart, and grabbed the lead with a low groove move in turn one on lap 14.
At this point the race was green for an extended time and now traffic was a factor, but Kressley was working his way through masterfully. Meanwhile Gular and defending champion Craig Von Dohren were now moving into the top spots, as they advanced to the top five by lap 14, and second and third by lap 17.
A caution on lap 20 reset the field, putting Gular, Von Dohren, Umbenhauer, Leiby and Strada right on his bumper, but Kressley took off on the restart with ease. Gular and Von Dohren then had their own great contest for second for most of the rest of the main event, while Strada and Leiby had a side by side duel for position as well.
Behind these two separate duels was more great racing between Whitmoyer, Trapper Jr., Watt, Jeff Strunk and Manmiller who was working his way back into contention.
Kressley was fast throughout the feature and ran the final laps to the checkered flag to score his first T.P. Trailer Modified victory of the season. Following Kressley in the highly competitive feature were Gular, Von Dohren, Umbenhauer, Strada, Leiby, Trapper Jr., Whitmoyer, Strunk and Watt.
In the T.P. Truck Equipment NASCAR Sportsman 25-lap main event, it was Hunter Iatalese running a stout race from start to finish to score his first ever Grandview Speedway victory, becoming the 57th different driver to win a main event in the class since it was started in 2012.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
BRETT KRESSLEY, Mike Gular, Craig Von Dohren, Jared Umbenhauer, Eddie Strada, Jesse Leiby, Bobby Trapper Jr., Craig Whitmoyer, Jeff Strunk, Ryan Watt, Tim Buckwalter, Doug Manmiller, Jimmy Leiby, Dylan Swinehart, Kevin Graver Jr., John Willman, Justin Grim, Eric Biehn, Lex Shive, Mike Lisowski, Ray Swinehart, Chris Esposito, Carroll Hine III, Ryan Grim, Kevin Hirthler, Bob Trapper, Joe Funk, Glenn Owens