Timmy Buckwalter Charges to First Modified Win of Season at Grandview – Quote & Notes
RPW EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY: Mark Hackett – RACE PRO WEEKLY – BECHTELSVILLE, PA – On lap 4 Dylan Swinehart took the early lead from polesitter Mike Laise but meanwhile Tim Buckwalter moved from his 12th starting position into 2nd on lap 11 and started closing in on the leader Swinehart until taking the lead on lap 16. Jeff Strunk followed Buckwalter through to the front and it wasn’t long before Buckwalter knew another blue car was showing their nose for the lead, but Buckwalter held off Strunk for the final ten laps to take his first modified win of the season.
Tim Buckwalter won his first modified feature of the season from his 12th starting position. Tim runs the same car at Big Diamond every Friday night where he has posted five second place finishes making this his first modified win of the season.
In victory lane Tim reflected “Grandview is the hardest place in the country to win with the level of weekly competition, feature field invert, and the way the track changes and races it doesn’t get any tougher than Grandview USA.”
“My car didn’t feel too good to the first caution, but than my tires came in and the track cleaned off bringing the track right to us. All the cautions worked out well for us. You just have to be patient.”
“Dylan had a good car but looked like he overheated his tires which brought him back to me. I knew Strunk was right behind me and he’s really good when the track cleans off in the middle. The top lost grip for me, so I protected the bottom while slowing to the pace of the lapped traffic which can go either way but tonight it went my way this time.”
“Can’t thank Dennis and Donna Weller enough for giving me a shot three years ago and sticking with me.”
Back at the trailer Tim stated, “ We improved our equipment this year and continued to build the team as well as keeping up to date on the technology as it changes during the season.”
“The difference from last year is we where searching every week; while this year we improved our weekly base package. We also raced the same car on Friday night at Big Diamond that we won with tonight. Running the same car and converting overnight to our Grandview setup is what we have always done. As an open wheel driver this is all I know and works for us with the modified too.”
Tim continued “In our heat race we had the good fortune of having the seas part for us allowing us to go from 9th to 3rd and handicap into the invert for the feature.”
“Your night at Grandview is essentially determined by the 1st lap of your heat race because if you don’t make the invert, you just made your night that much more difficult amongst some of the best talent on Saturday night racing anywhere in the country. We built our program to run from the back of the field every night.”
“In the feature we started 12th and floundered until the lap 8 restart when the tires started to fire and we started picking them off one by one running 3 wide and diamonding in the corners. I saw the leader Swinehart hanging and coming back to me so I diamond the corner and took the lead.”
Jeff Strunk finished 2nd from his 15th starting position and was closing in on Tim Buckwalter in lapped traffic finishing with a final margin of only .27 at the checkered flag.
Jeff reflected “It was a good night for us. We ran from 11th to 4th in the heat race which made the invert, but we did get heavy front end damage in the heat, and my guys did a great job to change the complete front axle for the feature.”
“The track was drier then it was last week for the twin 25’s; but we chased it with adjustments and had a good car under us for the feature. We had some luck on our side and had to pass a lot of good cars to get from 15th to 2nd and be in contention for the win. A huge thank you to my crew and sponsors and Grandview for giving us a great passable track every week . It’s so hard to run up front at Grandview with the level of competition every week this year.
Jared Umbenhauer finished 3rd from his 14th starting position and maintains 4th place in the Grandview point standings.
Jared noted, “We had a wreck in the first feature of the twin 25’s last week that bent the rear up so we were not good for the 2nd feature and had two sub-standard finishes.”
“Things really turned around for us this week; going from 11th to 2nd in the heat. In the feature the car was good on top or the bottom all night long but the timing on the cautions did not help us tonight. I just got past Timmy on the top, and the caution came out which gave Timmy the secret that the top was there and that’s exactly where he went on the next restart.”
Logan Watt finished 4th from his 16th starting position to continue a streak of 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 4th and 4th place finishes in his last 5 starts after a slow start to the season in his first 3 races – 17th, 14th, & 14th. Logan currently sits in 2nd in the modified point standings and is only 120 points behind leader Eddie Strada.
Dylan Swinehart finished 5th from his 4th starting position but led the race until lap 16th and posted his best finish of the season.
Dylan commented “The car has had this potential all season long, but we just couldn’t keep the car rotating onto the right front under throttle. We just needed to fine tune the setup and fixed our issue this week and it immediately showed how good we can be.”
In the feature we shot out to an early big lead and when you’re leading you just don’t know where you need to be. I felt the top getting thin but still had good drive coming out of 4. I was struggling in turn 2 and probably should have moved down a bit.”
“The car was good and we just have to fine tune now to be able to keep up with the big guys. It was a great night for our team and I’m thankful for everyone’s help each week as we plug away.
MODIFIED PIT NOTES – 6/13/26
Eddie Strada qualified in the last transfer position in his consolation race, putting him starting 28th in the feature. Eddie was once again the hard charger going from 28th to 11th in the feature for his second hard charger in a row. Eddie is averaging 6th place finish in eight races.
The back to front runs didn’t end there; with Mike Gular going 20th to 7th; Anthony Perrego 21st to 8th and Rick Laubach going from 22nd to 9th.
Craig Von Dorhen got collected in an early wreck and was unable to return dropping Craig from 8th to 11th in the Grandview point standing.
On lap 9 Brett Kressley moved into 3rd from his 9th starting position only to have the car break and be towed back to pits to once again end his night early.
MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (30 laps): 1. TIM BUCKWALTER, 2. Jeff Strunk, 3. Jared Umbenhauer, 4. Logan Watt, 5. Dylan Swinehart, 6. Louden Reimert, 7. Mike Gular, 8. Anthony Perrego, 9. Rick Laubach, 10. Mike Laise, 11 Eddie Strada, 12. Ryan Grim, 13. Craig Whitmoyer, 14. John Willman, 15. Matt Yoder, 16. Ryan Watt, 17. Cody Manmiller, 18. Jax Yohn, 19. Jack Butler, 20. Bobby Butler, 21. Jim Housworth,22. Duane Howard, 23. Ryan Beltz, 24. Brian Hirthler, 25. Mike Lisowski, 26. Brett Kressley, 27. Nathan Mohr, 28. Craig Von Dohren
UPCOMING EVENTS –
Tuesday, June 16 – THUNDER ON THE HILL RACING SERIES –JESSE HOCKETT CLASSIC EASTERN STORM – USAC National Sprint Tour, 358 Modifieds* – 7:30 pm
Saturday, June 20 – MACMILLAN OIL COMPANY OF ALLENTOWN NIGHT – T.P. Trailers & Truck Equipment Modifieds & Sportsman, LDE Sportsman Match Races, TRIVIA NIGHT – 7:30 pm.
Saturday, June 27 – A.D. MOYER LUMBER COMPANY NIGHT – T.P. Trailers & Truck Equipment Modifieds & Sportsman, Outlaw Racing Series Vintage – 7:30 pm
Tuesday, June 30 – THUNDER ON THE HILL RACING SERIES – PA POSSE 410 SPRINT CAR SERIES – PA 410 Sprint Car Speed Week – $10,000 to win 410 Sprints, 358 Modifieds* – 7:30 pm
