BECHTELSVILLE, Pa. – After three-straight weeks of bad luck, Jeff Strunk finally found his way to victory lane in Saturday’s 30-lap TP Trailers NASCAR 358 Modified feature at Grandview Speedway.
It was an emotional win for the Boyertown leadfoot as he thanked everyone for the patience and for sticking by him in the roller-coaster ride of the struggling team.
It wasn’t a totally drama-free night for them since they were experiencing fuel pump system problems and he was just thankful no cautions came out once he had the lead after several laps of side-by-side racing earlier with rookie Mike Lisowski.
Richie Hitzler, also a rookie, motored into the early lead with another rookie Steve Wilson, Lisowski, Danny Erb and Ryan Lilick in pursuit.
The yellow was out with seven laps in the books when Ray Swinehart slowed along the homestretch after contact with Tim Buckwalter which put him out of contention and Swinehart continued The restart was brought back to the line when Wilson spun between turns three and four and triggered a chain reaction-type multi-car pile-up that eliminated last week’s runner-up Skylar Sheriff, Kevin Hirthler and Clay Butler.
When action went green again Lisowski was the new pacesetter trailed by Strunk, Hitzler, Erb and Louden Reimert. A blanket could have been thrown over third through fifth since that’s how close they were running. Trying to get into the mix was last week’s winner Brett Kressley.
Lisowski and Strunk battled side-by-side for numerous laps and it wasn’t until lap 19 that Strunk put the Ray Carroll-powered mount into the lead.
Strunk built up a commanding lead by the 23rd lap, but at the same time encountered lap traffic and had to use heads up driving with the top five now comprised of Lisowski, Kressley, Erb, Alex Yankowski and Doug Manmiller.
No one was able to reel Strunk in to even attempt to challenge and he went on to record Saturday night career win number 70. Chasing him across the line were Kressley, Lisowski, who also had a change of luck; Yankowski, recipient of the Hard Charger award and Manmiller.
Nathan Mohr also had Lady Luck on his side in and got rid of the gremlins to cop his first win of the season in the TP Truck Equipment 25-lap Sportsman NASCAR feature. The previous week while leading the race, engine problems sidelined him erasing his chance at a possible win.
This week the East Greenville driver led from the moment the green flag waved until the waving of the checkered. He had to endure lap traffic and restarts to pull off the win, but he had no easy time accomplishing the feat as first he dueled with rookie Joey Vaccaro, then Kenny Bock and finally runner-up Brad Brightbill.