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12/21/2013 |
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2013 NASCAR
WHELEN SOUTHERN MODIFIED TOUR TOP PERFORMANCES
Brunnhoelzl Steams
Along; Burt Myers Bounces Back |
The
NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour for the past
several seasons has been the playground of George
Brunnhoelzl III, but the competition is closing in
and aims to knock him from his perch.
Brunnhoelzl won his third straight tour title this
year and fourth in five seasons dating back to 2009.
The only miss was 2010 when the West Babylon, N.Y.,
driver competed for the NASCAR Whelen Modified tour
championship and raced in just three Southern Tour
events. Nineteen of his all-time tour-best 20 career
wins have come in those four title seasons.
In 2013, though, Brunnhoelzl recorded just three
victories and none after July 6. He collected five
or more in his other three championship-winning
seasons. Could this be signaling a change? Only time
will tell, but it wasn’t as if his season was
predicated on just those three events. His 11
top-five finishes in 12 starts led the tour, so
while the trips to Victory Lane were down a tick,
the consistency of running out front was still
there.
Top Driver
George Brunnhoelzl III: Other than following
a runner-up finish in the season opener, Brunnhoelzl
was atop the point standings with a lead as great as
32 markers following the penultimate race of the
year and finished with a 31-point advantage over
runner-up Kyle Ebersole. Of his 11 top fives, eight
were either first or second-place efforts. His only
blemish was a 14th-place showing in early August at
Bowman Gray Stadium where he battled persistent
mechanical problems in his No. 28 Epox-Z/Oval Speed
Chevrolet. Not even an offseason switch from Ideal
Racing back to his family-owned team slowed the
tour’s winningest driver.
Kyle Ebersole (Honorable Mention): In
just his second season of Southern Modified Tour
competition, Ebersole was alongside the four-time
champion Brunnhoelzl virtually every step of the
way. His eight top-five finishes was the
second-highest total on the tour and the
Hummelstown, Pa., driver tied Burt Myers for
second-best with 10 top 10s. A Lap 174 crash at
Bowman Gray, resulting in an 11th-place finish,
short-circuited a chance to make up some valuable
ground on Brunnhoelzl, who had his own struggles in
the event. Aside from just two finishes outside the
top 10, the performance of the No. 5 Ebersole
Excavating Ford team was as solid as any this
season.
Comeback Driver of the Year
Burt Myers: The 2010 Whelen Southern Modified
Tour champion missed a total of three races in the
2011 and 2012 seasons due to injury, but the Walnut
Cove, N.C., driver stayed on the track this season
and registered three wins. That victory total
equaled his career-best established in 2005 and
eclipsed that of his title-winning 2010 season. With
five top-five and 10 top-10 finishes, Myers piloted
his No. 1 Citrusafe BBQ Grill Cleaner/Adam’s Towing
and Recovery Ford to a third-place finish in the
final point standings up from 10th in 2012.
Andy Seuss (Honorable Mention): While
his improvement in the point standings went only
from fifth in 2012 to fourth this season Seuss got
to Victory Lane on multiple occasions for the first
time since 2011. The Hampstead, N.H., driver has
recorded at least one win in each of the last seven
tour seasons including a total of nine from 2009-11.
Three double-digit finishes in the season’s first
eight outings unraveled any championship hopes this
time around, but three victories in the year’s final
four events sets the stage for a run at Brunnhoelzl
in 2014. The driver of the No. 11 Tammie
Davis/Phoenix Pre-Owned Chevrolet’s average finish
of 6.8 and average starting position of 5.0 were
below his career marks of 8.4 and 8.3, respectively,
coming into the season.
Top Team
Brunnhoelzl Racing: After dusting off their
family-owned equipment after a pair of seasons with
Ideal Racing, the Brunnhoelzl gang barely missed a
beat with a championship season. Considering that
their equipment had not spent appreciable time on or
at the track since 2009 the feat should be given its
proper due. The team confessed to an adjustment
period early on, but with three wins and five top
fives out of the gate; it surely wasn’t noticeable.
Meyers Racing (Honorable Mention): The
team fielded by one of the most storied families in
the sport’s history just keeps rolling along. This
season, brothers – Jason and Burt – combined to add
four more wins to the Myers Racing ledger. The two
veterans also finished inside the top 10 in points
for the eighth consecutive season and have combined
for more than 200 career starts and over 160 top-10
finishes since the Southern Tour was established in
2005.
Top Breakthrough
Performance
Kyle Ebersole: In a veteran-laden tour
victories are hard to get. There just aren’t that
many to go around after the likes of Brunnhoelzl,
Seuss and the Myers brothers gobble theirs up.
Ebersole broke the ice on Aug. 31 at Langley
Speedway in his 19th tour start. After starting
seventh on the grid on the .395-mile Virginia oval,
he led the final 15 laps of the race to edge
Brunnhoelzl by a scant .181 of a second. He also
posted eight top fives this season after recording
three in his 2012 rookie season.
Gary Putnam (Honorable Mention):
Despite being 43 years of age Putnam has just 31
career starts in the Whelen Southern Modified Tour.
The Connecticut native moved to North Carolina 18
years ago and got his racing start as a crew member
in the NASCAR Sprint Cup SeriesTM. As a 40-year-old
rookie driver, Putnam collected just one top-10
finish in six starts. In 2013, the Concord, N.C.,
resident drove his No. 77 Stock Car Steel Chevrolet
to nine top 10s in 11 outings including a
career-best finish of fifth at Caraway Speedway in
July.
Top Races
Charles Kepley Memorial 150, Caraway Speedway,
March 16: The 2013 season opener seemed to be in
the hands of pole sitter Tim Brown after fending off
an early challenge from then eight-time Caraway
winner Brunnhoelzl, but the veteran’s No. 02 Hayes
Jewelers/T&C Motorsports Chevrolet ran out of fuel
with just six laps remaining. The subsequent caution
set up a green-white-checkered finish in which Jason
Myers was able to get the best of Brunnhoelzl to
earn his third-career tour win.
Spring Fling 150, Caraway Speedway, April 20:
Just as in the opener Brown seemed to be in command
after leading every lap and into another
green-white-checkered scenario. This time, Brown had
enough gas in the tank to make it to the end, but a
little contact from Brunnhoelzl on the white-flag
lap sent Brown up the track and Brunnhoelzl to
Victory Lane.
UNOH Southern Slam 150, Charlotte Motor Speedway,
Oct. 10: On one of the Southern Tour’s biggest
stages, eventual NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour
champion Ryan Preece was en route to his second
southern win of the season before the engine on his
machine soured. Reminiscent of his thrilling
Charlotte win in 2010 to claim the season title,
Burt Myers was right there to capitalize on Preece’s
misfortune to snatch his third win of the season. |
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Source: Jason Christley / NASCAR
Posted: December
21, 2013 |
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