What led to Duane Howard earning his first win in four years at Grandview Speedway? Him switching the cars he runs at Grandview and Big Diamond speedways.
Admittedly, Howard doesn’t know why his old Big Diamond car (“black car”) won at Grandview when his old Grandview car (“white car”) couldn’t win there.
Both cars are 2025 Bicknell modifieds.
Both cars ride on Dig Race Products-prepared shocks.
And they both cars use Nick Gatto Racing Engines power.
“We just decided to switch it up,” Howard, of Oley, Pennsylvania, said. “We found that one car took a liking to Grandview Speedway, the other didn’t. The black car seemed so well balanced for Grandview. It maneuvers so well — you can make your move anywhere around the racetrack and it is very responsive.”
The cars have just one notable difference between them.
“The black car’s chassis was built with a torsion bar rack, in case you wanted to run a torsion bar, which we don’t use,” said Howard. “The white car can only run on coils — there is no rack, and no ability to switch to a torsion bar setup.
“The configuration of the black car’s chassis has a few extra pipes to support the torsion rack — could that make a difference in performance? Or, I ask myself if it is just a mental thing.”
The recent win upped the number of victories for Howard at Grandview to 278. In 40 years of racing, he has competed in numerous cars, yet the swap still confounds Howard.
Either way, Duane Howard said he has no plans to change what’s working, especially when it seems to be helping at both Big Diamond and Grandview speedways.
“Since I made the switch, the white car feels very good at Big Diamond Speedway,” Howard said. “I feel the trade was a good one.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
