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Reutzel Ready for Knoxville on Saturday after Strong Eagle Run

Lonnie Wheatley, CLUTE, Texas (May 14, 2015) – Playing the weather. That’s all that can be done this time of year.

After squeezing in his National Sprint League debut at Nebraska’s Eagle Raceway between a pair of Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour rainouts last weekend at Kansas City’s Lakeside Speedway and Little Rock’s I-30 Speedway, Reutzel and the Shark-powered BC Fundz/Basic One Services No. 87 Triple X Sprint Car team will try their hand at Knoxville Raceway on Saturday.

Original plans had called for an NSL outing at Jacksonville, IL on Friday night, it has however already fallen victim to Mother Nature.

With last Thursday’s Lakeside card washed out, Reutzel and the Wren Motorsports/Momentum Racing Suspensions team decided to drop the 410-ci powerplant in for Friday’s Eagle action.

After averting near disaster on the original start of the feature, Reutzel rallied back through the field to post a solid 12th-place finish aboard the Dissolvealloy Frac Ball Revolution entry.

Making just his tenth career 410-ci Sprint Car start, the current Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour points leader looked strong again with a qualifying effort that was seventh-best among the 30 car field and then a fourth-place run in his heat race, good enough to make into the redraw for the feature.

After drawing the five to start the feature inside the third row, the initial start was a good one for the Danny Sander Construction/ButlerBuilt machine.

“The first start we were up to fourth, it looked good until a yellow came out,” Reutzel commented.

The restart wasn’t what Reutzel needed in the Lone Star Hydro Maintenance/Wright Way Logistics machine, with his Sprint Car bouncing, twisting, writhing and nearly flipping through the opening pair of corners before coming to rest next to the turn two guardrail on the upper groove of the track.

“The second one tripped me up, I guess with the full fuel load and then I hit that rut sideways, it was enough to upset the car,” Reutzel explained. “It bounced, hit the wall and kind of turned over.”

Amazingly, there was no apparent damage and Reutzel rejoined at the tail of the 24-car feature field.

And he wasted little time slicing through the field before settling in for a 12th-place finish.

“We got to 12th really quick, I thought we had a good chance to get into the top ten but then everything kinda evened out with everyone running the bottom,” Reutzel said.

En route to Arkansas, Reutzel got word of the I-30 rainout just a bit too late to make it back to Knoxville in time for Saturday’s action.

“We were caught in the middle,” Reutzel said. “To run Knoxville, we were gonna run the same car we ran at Eagle. And after that ride, we really needed all day to go through it and make sure there wasn’t anything damaged, there just wasn’t time to get there and do all that.”

If all goes according to plan, Reutzel will get that chance for his first 410-ci laps at Knoxville Raceway this Saturday.

“We’ll just have to watch the weather and see what it does, but I’m hoping we can get our first 410 laps at Knoxville this weekend,” Reutzel wraps up.

2015 Quick Stats: 22 races, 6 wins, 14 top-fives, 15 top-tens.

Up Next: Winged 410-ci Sprint Car action on Saturday night at Iowa's Knoxville Raceway.

Keep Track: Keep track of Aaron Reutzel’s on-track action including schedule and results at http://www.aaronreutzelracing.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aaron-Reutzel-Racing/117666254913127 or on Twitter at @AaronReutzel. You can also e-mail Aaron at aaronreutzel@yahoo.com.

If you would like Aaron Reutzel Racing press releases e-mailed directly to you, send your e-mail address to Lonnie Wheatley at lonniewheatley@gmail.com.

Penning the recurring series of “The Wheatley Chronicles” articles on www.sprintcarmania.com, Lonnie Wheatley provides media, public relations and more for select tracks, drivers and events. For more information, Wheatley may be contacted at lonniewheatley@gmail.com.

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