Lonnie Wheatley
CLUTE, Texas (April 15, 2014) – “It couldn’t have been a better night, we’ve been trying to get that one for a long time,” Aaron Reutzel exclaimed after bagging his first career ASCS National Tour feature win at Little Rock’s I-30 Speedway on Saturday.
Reutzel had good reason to be excited about the Stafford Performance-powered Bob and Christie Miller’s Car Parts Machine/Wren’s Motorsports No. 87 Triple-X machine wrenched by crew member Ryan Beechler after Saturday night’s triumph over a stellar 43 car field.
“We knew going in that this was probably one of our best opportunities to win, the STN last year showed we’ve really got our car rolling good around that track,” Reutzel explained. “We unloaded fast. It was one of those things that was just meant to be, everything went just right.”
Reutzel and crew carry that momentum into this weekend’s ASCS Gulf South double at Heart O’ Texas Speedway and then the Gator Motorplex, where he is the two-time and defending winner of the Nolan Wren Classic.
At I-30 Speedway this past weekend, Reutzel’s evening began in familiar fashion with a big draw number. Unphased, Reutzel raced forward from ninth to fourth to put the Momentum Racing Suspensions/Danny Sander Construction/ButlerBuilt machine in the redraw.
Reutzel redrew the pole position for the 30-lap feature. The opportunity was there.
“We watched the B’s, the guys up top were decent but the bottom looked a lot better,” Reutzel explains. “We set up to put the right rear where it would never see the moisture, I wasn’t going to get off the bottom unless I could hear someone or traffic forced us.”
Reutzel jumped into the lead and narrowly avoided the first caution just as he approached the tail of the field. “The guy’s car went one way and the wheel went the other, we split it. Leading and trying to get that first win, you think everything is out to get you,” Reutzel laughs.
The tension thickened as the laps clicked off and Reutzel was ever closer to parking the Lone Star Hydro Maintenance/BC Fundz/Wright Way Logistics machine in victory lane.
“We ran down traffic again, we kept slowing down more and more it seemed like,” Reutzel explains of the closing laps. “I could hear a motor, someone running the middle, I started getting nervous and just barely clipped one of the tires exiting two. I told myself, ‘Don’t start that!’.”
Closing in to lap Seth Bergman in the final handful of laps, Reutzel put the No. 23 car to good use. “He was running up top and we would meet on the straightaway. I could hear someone back there still so I tried to slide up next to him on the straights (Bergman) to block the track.”
The white flag flies and the Clute, TX, driver is just one-quarter mile from that breakthrough victory.
“Now I’m really nervous. I’m thinking someone is gonna dive bomb me for the lead so I go in really hard and just smoke a couple of infield tires getting into one, I thought for sure the front end would go down.”
But the front end stays up through turns one and two and Reutzel powers down the backstretch.
“That last lap was the longest lap of my life, I was just waiting for the front end to collapse getting into three,” Reutzel exclaimed.
But it doesn’t and Reutzel negotiates the final pair of corners without incident to finally nab that first career ASCS National win after accumulating ten previous ASCS Gulf South wins.
“Thank goodness we had a Triple-X left front radius rod, it held up. It bent the axle and the tie rod, but we hung on.”
Relief is just one of the many emotions that run through a guy’s head after a monumental win like Reutzel’s at I-30 Speedway on Saturday night. “You start to wonder if it will happen. You come so close so many times, you start to wonder if it’s meant to be,” Reutzel explains.
“That was one of our goals for the year, to get that first National win,” Reutzel comments. “The further you go into the season, the more anxious you get about it and start to wonder. We got that one out of the way so maybe they’ll start coming easier now.”
“That’s the confidence booster we needed, especially before we head out to Oregon next month. Now if we can just be consistent and get good finishes we can reach our other goal for this year of finishing top five in points.”
Reutzel is well on his way to that other goal as well, climbing to tenth in a tightly-bunched points race.
Reutzel points out that, “We had a horrible points start having to use a promoter’s provisional the opening weekend, and now we’re just 62 points out of the lead. String together some top fives and we’re right there.”
And for Reutzel, the first win couldn’t have come at a better place than I-30 Speedway. “I love that place, from Micros to Sprint Cars it’s always been a fun place to race at.”
Reutzel and crew have little time to enjoy the spoils of victory as Gulf Coast Ford comes on board for this weekend’s ASCS Gulf South events at Waco’s Heart O’ Texas Speedway on Friday and then the Nolan Wren Classic at the Gator Motorplex in Willis, TX, on Saturday.
Reutzel’s second career Gulf South win came at Heart O’ Texas early in 2011 with two more wins in the initial two editions of the Nolan Wren Classic at the Gator Motorplex in 2012 and then last April. “Both places are racy, one of my wins at Willis was on the top and the other was on the bottom, they usually have a good track when the Gulf South is there.”
Reutzel says of the Nolan Wren Classic, “That’s always a big race for us, we’ve known the family a long time and were good friends with Nolan so it’s always means a lot to us to do well at that one.”
Reutzel beat Christopher Bell and Jason Johnson to the line in last year’s Nolan Wren Classic. And Reutzel would love nothing more than to be standing in victory lane for the second consecutive Saturday night this weekend as a three-time Nolan Wren Classic champion.
2014 Quick Stats: 15 races, 1 win, 6 top-fives, 10 top-tens, 1 heat race win, 2 “B” Main wins.
Up Next: ASCS Gulf South this weekend including Waco’s Heart O’ Texas Speedway on Friday and then the Third Annual Nolan Wren Classic at the Gator Motorplex in Willis, TX, on Saturday.
Keep Track: Keep track of Aaron Reutzel’s on track-action including schedule and results at http://www.aaronreutzelracing.
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.