8/12/2015
Aaron Reutzel
First Knoxville Nationals for Reutzel after 360 Nationals Podium!
Lonnie Wheatley, CLUTE, Texas (August 12, 2015) – It was exactly the Knoxville Raceway turnaround Aaron Reutzel was looking for; a podium finish amongst a field of 102 competitors for the driver of the Shark-powered BC Fundz/Basic One Services No. 87 Triple X Sprint Car.
No time for resting on any laurels though for the driver from Clute, TX, as he embarks upon his rookie FVP Knoxville Nationals effort with Wednesday night’s qualifying event after a pair of nights on Sunday and Monday to get the Roth Motorsport No. 83 dialed in.
Short of an 11th win of the year, last weekend’s Arnold Motor Supply Knoxville 360 Nationals was all the driver of the Wren Motorsports/Momentum Racing Suspensions Sprint Car could have hoped for with a runner-up finish in his Thursday night qualifier and then a third-place run in Saturday night’s $10,000-to-win finale.
And it was in an event where luck has been non-existent for Reutzel in past years.
“We’ve never made it out of the ‘C’ on a qualifying night at 360 Nationals before, so we were pretty pumped with our performance all week,” Reutzel said.
While ill luck has plagued Reutzel at the storied, half-mile Knoxville Raceway atop Iowa’s Marion County Fairgrounds in the past, the strong weekend performance aboard the Dissolvealloy Frac Ball Revolution machine for the current Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour points leader came as little surprise to most.
“We were really good all weekend with the 360’s,” Reutzel said. “We hurt our primary motor a little before, so I can’t thank Scottie McDonald enough for loaning us an engine, it worked out great.”
The loaner motor came into play right away.
“We drew a bad number and still turned a good lap and got some points,” Reutzel said.
For the Thursday feature, Reutzel said, “We missed the gear a little.” A red flag proved beneficial.
“We changed gears under the red and picked up three-tenths per lap, but the other guys picked up the same,” Reutzel explained.
A second-place finish on Thursday night aboard the Danny Sander Construction/ButlerBuilt machine was good enough to put Reutzel sixth in overall points to put him third row outside of Saturday’s championship feature.
“We probably overthought it a little,” Reutzel reflects. “We went for broke and tightened it up a little too much.”
“We watched what everyone was doing on Friday night, (Dusty) Zomer was killing it on the bottom and we thought that would be the way to go,” Reutzel explains.
And he made it work in the early going of the 25-lap feature.
“We were good on the bottom, we got by Wayne (Johnson) and were up to third,” Reutzel explains. “But it was too much risk and not enough reward to stay down there. We went up top, but we were too tight to run it the way we needed to.”
Still, Reutzel kept the lead duo in sight en route to capturing a third-place finish aboard the Lone Star Hydro Maintenance/Wright Way Logistics machine.
“I could catch Zomer, but I couldn’t do anything when I got to the dirty air,” Reutzel wraps up.
Less than 24 hours later, Reutzel was back in the seat of the Roth Motorsports No. 83 for Sunday night’s Capitani Classic at Knoxville and then again on Monday for the “Front Row Challenge” at Oskaloosa’s Southern Iowa Speedway.
The two nights proved valuable to prepare for Reutzel’s maiden voyage at the biggest Sprint Car event of all, the Knoxville Nationals.
“We fought the car a little bit, but we’ve thrown a few things at it and made some changes,” Reutzel explains. “Hopefully it works, we’ll find out tonight.”
Reutzel will be among Wednesday night’s scheduled field of qualifiers as he vies for Knoxville Nationals “Rookie of the Year” honors.
2015 Quick Stats: 50 races, 10 wins, 27 top-fives, 36 top-tens.
Up Next: The 55th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway on Wednesday through Saturday, August 12-15.
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.
(Photo courtesy of Knoxville Raceway)
Article Credit: Lonnie Wheatley
Submitted By: Lonnie Wheatley