Brunnhoelzl Grabs Fourth Win of NWSMT Season at Tri-County
Win Just What GBIII Needed to Strengthen His Series Point Lead
George Brunnhoelzl, III did exactly what he needed to do on September 24th to pad his NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour point lead despite the looming threat of rain. Brunnhoelzl and his Ideal Racing team made all the right moves to get their No. 09 machine on the pole and then in victory lane in the Tri-County 150 at North Carolina’s Tri-County Motor Speedway, which now leaves them with a 154-point lead over teammate Andy Seuss in second.
As far as strategy in Saturday night’s 150-lap event, Brunnhoelzl made it clear that they had the winning plan.
“It was definitely strategy,” said Brunnhoelzl on his secret to success. “We wanted to lead some laps tonight. We had a really good car for the long run, so we rode as hard as we needed to then Jason (Myers) and Dean Ward got to us so we kind of let them go. Then the rain started coming a little bit. I saw some drizzles on the windshield, so we went back to the front. And then from there on out we just kind of rode as hard as we needed to and saved it for the end.”
Although he was able to carry out his plan to make his way back up to the top spot by the time the checkered flag flew, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded as Brunnhoelzl had to work his way through some tough traffic to get there.
“The lapped cars were tough tonight,” explained Brunnhoelzl. “I mean, I know it’s tough being a lapped car and I’ve been there myself, it’s just that you need a little more courtesy when you’re coming up on a lapped car, especially at a track like this because the leaders are coming up on the lapped cars pretty quick. They need to kind of just abide a little bit better.”
By the original NWSMT schedule, the next race for the series would be the spotlight event at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 13 to decide the championship; however with two rainouts at the series’ most familiar track, Caraway Speedway, the Tour has to make two return trips there to make up events before the champion can be crowned.
The next stop for George Brunnhoelzl III and his #09 Ideal Racing team will be this Saturday night’s Caraway 150, rescheduled from March 26th. From there the team will head to Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 13th, followed by the final event of the season, the Caraway 150 rescheduled from September 17th.
And as the current leader in the points standings, a second championship is all that’s on the 2009 titlist’s mind.
“We’re not going to run anything else for a little while,” said Brunnhoelzl. “We’re going to focus on the three remaining races and then maybe go from there for the rest of the season.”
