PETERSEN MEDIA
Spending his weekend taking on the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour during their season finale, Aaron Reutzel was back aboard Bob and Christie Miller’s BC Funds No. 21A machine, and scored a seventh place finish on Friday night, before narrowly missing a transfer out of the B on Saturday night.
“We had a great car both nights, but unfortunately the car was just a littler better than the driver was, as I made a couple of mistakes,” Reutzel said.
Drawing the pole for his heat on Friday, Reutzel admittedly ‘drew to well’ as a ton of passing occurred in the heats, and even though he won his heat, he was not in the redraw and started the feature in the 11th spot.
When the race got underway, Reutzel got off to a sluggish start, as the leaders were on it, and slipped as far back as the 13th spot, and was nearly lapped until a caution flew just around the half way point.
On the restart, Reutzel ended his relationship with the bottom, and began moving around the Cocopah Speedway and began picking of cars lap after lap. With a ton of cars being a lap down, Reutzel was racing more for track position that actual position, but wound up working his way up to a seventh place finish.
“I was too hesitant on the start, and should have been a little more aggressive,” Reutzel said. “I was just about lapped when that caution flew, and that woke me up, and I got on the wheel, and made something happen.”
Saturday night, Reutzel again found himself on the front row of his heat, and as Jeff Swindell slid him for the lead, Reutzel failed to turn back across the slider, and ultimately got up over the cushion, and slid back to a fourth place start, putting him at the back of a B main.
In the B, Reutzel was aggressive from the start, and carved his way up to the fourth spot, on the heels of Bryan Clauson, when a caution flew, forcing a green-white-checkered finish.
With only the top three moving to the A, Reutzel threw a bonsai slide-job at Clauson for the final transfer spot that stuck, but in the last corner, Clauson had a monster run on the top of the speedway that allowed him to get the spot back, and Reutzel’s night would be finished.
“I messed up a bunch in our heat, and that forced us into the B,” he said. “I threw a huge slider on the last lap of the B that worked, and I tried to slide myself in the last corner so he (Clauson) couldn’t return the favor, but he (Clauson) had a killer run that really surprised me, and our night was over.”
Aaron would like to thank Wren Motorsports, ButlerBuilt, Simpson, BC Funds, and Triple X for their support during the 2013 season.
ON TAP: Aaron will now head to the Canyon Speedway Park this weekend for the Western World Championship where he will compete for the Miller’s in the non-wing race, and will also pilot a Tyler Thomas midget.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay updated with Aaron by following him on Twitter @AaronReutzel or visiting his website at www.aaronreutzelracing.com.