BECHTELSVILLE, Pa. — During a night of seemingly non-stop, edge-of-your-seat racing action from qualifying through to the main events, Louden Reimert, Logan Watt and Kenny Bock of Birdsboro all emerged with a feature win during the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series race program Saturday night at Grandview Speedway.
Reimert scored his second feature win of the season and second of his Grandview career in the 30-lap modified main event, after having just scored his first career win back on April 20.
Reimert was seemingly cruising to the win, but encountered lapped traffic in the closing stages and managed to hold off a late charge from Doug Manmiller to pick up the win, becoming the first driver to visit victory lane for a second time this year after the season began with four different winners.
The T.P. Truck Equipment Sportsman division ran two 25-lap main events on Saturday with Logan Watt scoring the win in the first event which was a carryover from a May 11 rainout, while Bock ended a nearly two-year win drought by scoring the win in the regularly scheduled main event.
Watt marched forward from his fifteenth starting spot, mainly running the top groove of the track, and finally caught and passed rookie Teague Miller entering Turn One with just six laps to go, then motored on to the victory, his second of the season.
For Bock, his win was a relief after a terrible string of bad luck to start the season. He grabbed the lead at the drop of the green, survived just one mid-race caution flag, late race lapped traffic and raced home to his first win since June of 2022. It was his third career Grandview victory.
The winners received bonus money (Modified $300, Sportsman $200) from T.P. Trailers and Truck Equipment, sponsors of the two divisions at Grandview Speedway in a race program run under the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series banner.
Following some wildly exciting qualifying heat race action set the stage for a competitive night of racing, the 25-lap Sportsman feature from May 11 started the night’s feature race action. First-year driver Teague Miller grabbed the lead at the drop of the green flag.
Miller led the way while Shannon Slaughter, TJ Mayberry and Brett Grim followed, while Zach Steffey and Mike Stofflet fought for the top spots behind the leader.
The first of just two cautions regrouped the field on lap 6, and following the restart, Miller continued to lead while a great three-car dual then developed between Slaughter, Mayberry and 11th-starting Brett Gilmore, who had quickly joined the battle up front for the second spot.
Lap 8 would be the final caution, and by this point, 15th starting Watt had been marching his way forward running the outside lane of the track, finding himself in sixth position.
Following the lap 8 restart, Gilmore would advance two spots to second while Watt would continue his outside march and eventually move by Mayberry, Slaughter and then Gilmore to find himself in second spot by lap 11.
The chase was on as Miller built up a comfortable lead, but Watt would slowly erase the disadvantage closing in to challenge the leader.
While this was happening, some great side-by-side racing was happening between Slaughter and Mayberry for fourth, while Grim, Adrianna Delliponti, Dylan Swinehart and Addison Meitzler all battled right behind them for top ten spots.
Watt would finally catch Miller and work the low lane while Miller ran the top putting on a several-lap duel for the lead. Entering Turn One on lap 19, Watt would throw a slider under Miller to take a lead he would not surrender the remaining six laps, and then motor on to his second win of the season.
At the checkered, it was Watt, Gilmore who grabbed second on the final lap, Miller for his career-best finish, Mayberry, Delliponti who picked up a top five in the closing laps, Slaughter with a career-best finish, Stofflet, Grim, Swinehart and Meitzler.
The 30-lap Modified feature was also an exciting one from start to finish, and Ron Haring Jr. was the early leader, while sixth-starting Reimert quickly advanced into second position by lap 2.
A lap 2 restart would see Reimert power under Haring entering Turn One and eventually grab the lead with a power move off of Turn Four to score lap 3.
With Reimert comfortably out front, Haring ran in second followed closely by Doug Manmiller, who quickly moved forward from eighth, and Mike Lisowski, while some hot and heavy action quickly developed behind them between Tim Buckwalter, Kyle Smith, Brett Kressley, Craig Von Dohren, Ryan Watt and Jeff Strunk for the top 10 positions.
The second and final caution waved on lap 12 to reset the field, with Reimert taking off on the restart and maintaining the lead, while Manmiller would advance to second, Kressley to fifth and Strunk to sixth position.
Multiple battles developed in the ensuing laps with Buckwalter, Kressley and Strunk fighting for fourth, with Kressley advancing to fourth on lap 17 and then battling with Haring for third, leaving the other two to fight it out for fifth.
Kressley would power by Haring on lap 23 to grab third with Strunk following him through for the fourth spot.
Reimert would see his comfortable lead vanish with five laps to go as lapped traffic came into play, allowing Manmiller to reel him in, while the action still raged on behind them between Kressley and Strunk, followed by Haring and Watt for the top five spots.
Manmiller drove harder and harder in the final laps, closing quickly on Reimert, who was moving through the lapped traffic but not as quickly as when he was in open track. With the white flag waving, Manmiller was on Reimert’s back bumper and chased him the final lap, but the lapped traffic was spread out too much to leave any lane for a challenge, allowing Reimert to score a thrilling one-car length win at the wave of the checkered flag.
At the finish, it was Reimert, Manmiller, Kressley, Strunk, and Watt who won the battle for fifth, Buckwalter, Haring, Mike Gular with a late charge, Lisowski and Von Dohren.
The final feature of the night was the regularly scheduled 25-lap Sportsman main event which saw Bock, who has had nothing but troubles since the season began, grab the lead right from the drop of the green flag.
Bock would lead, followed by several battles for position between Teague Miller and Mike Stofflet and another between Joey Vaccaro, Brett Grim, Brett Gilmore and Ryan Graver.
By lap 10, Bock had built a commanding lead with Miller in second and Stofflet fighting with TJ Mayberry for the third position with Grim, Vaccaro and Graver making up the top five.
The race’s only caution waved on lap 14 just as Bock was encountering lapped traffic and Miller, Stofflet and Mayberry were closing right up on his back bumper.
After the restart Bock, would walk away to a sizable lead, leaving Miller and Stofflet to fight for second. Mayberry, Graver and Grim fought for fourth, and Vaccaro, Brett Gilmore, Gavyn Krupp and Dakota Kohler all fought for the remaining top ten positions.
In the closing laps, Bock would again reach some lapped traffic, but nothing to slow him down as he raced to his first feature win since June 2022 and his third career Grandview feature win.
The final laps would see positions still changing in the highly competitive race, and following Bock at the checkered were Stofflet for his best run of the season and second top ten of the night.
Qualifying heats for the 38 cars on hand were won by Grim, Krupp, Miller and Bock while Nathan Mohr and Jesse Hirthler won the consolations.