George Brunnhoelzl III

George Brunnhoelzl III Comes Up One Position Short of Bowman Gray Stadium Win

Second-Place Finish Pads Points Lead in Southern Modified Tour Championship Chase

The Modified racers knew that when they headed to Bowman Gray Stadium (NC) for the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour 199-lap event on Saturday, August 1st, that there would be a lot of mayhem and madness. For George Brunnhoelzl III, surviving the night was the key to his success as he managed to finish second with a bent up rim while others went home on the tow truck.

"It was a crazy night,"said Brunnhoelzl. "We had an awesome car and got up front early and just tried to drive around. It’s just Bowman Gray. Double-file restarts are tough, but it was a good crowd-pleaser I guess. It’s hard to race at a place like this double-file and unfortunately all it did was tear up racecars."

Brunnhoelzl’s run to the runner-up spot started a day earlier when the driver of the #28 Modified qualified third, but redrew the pole position to start the race. Early on during the feature, Brunnhoelzl ran at the point, but after a yellow flag slowed the field, a multi-car incident placed damage on his machine, something he had to drive with the entire race.

“We got caught in that altercation early and went to the back,” said Brunnhoelzl. “To be honest with you, I’m not 100-percent sure what happened. We got into the corner when the yellow flag came out. (Brian) Loftin and I got together and it bunched everybody up. We really knocked the left front. The rim was destroyed. I don’t know how it even held air.”

Bent rim and all, Brunnhoelzl ran second during the race to Luke Fleming and tried to get the lead in the last 10 laps, but rather than risk tearing up his Modified or wrecking Fleming, Brunnhoelzl used his head and raced like a gentleman, finishing second.

“I was going to bump him and run into him a little,” explained Brunnhoelzl. “I just wasn’t going to get into him hard enough to turn him around. I just don’t race that way. If I can’t win a race without turning somebody, I won’t. There are other people that would have, but I’m not like that. I like to earn my wins.

“It was the #13’s (Fleming) first race on the Tour, so congratulations to those guys. I could get to him, but I am not going to win a race by turning somebody. All and all it was a good night considering what we went through.”