By T.J. Buffenbarger
KNOXVILLE, Iowa. (August 6, 2022) — Aaron Reutzel has won a lot of races during his sprint car racing career. After Saturday night Reutzel can add 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank champion to the list of accomplishments along with the $30,000 for winning and leading wire-to-wire during the 30-lap, non-stop main event.
While the box score will show Reutzel leading the entire distance, it didn’t come easy as though as Sam Hafertepe, Jr. was closing quickly during the final five laps. Reutzel managed to have a large enough lead to hold on as his car faded in the late stages of the feature event.
It was early, but we were struggling at the end,” said Reutzel of his main event run. “I knew probably someone was coming but you know that’s what that’s how I wanted the race to play out I just wanted to go green to checker so I can run in lap traffic and try to hide a little bit. We were off all week and honestly a little bit, but we just didn’t have the speed that we’ve been having. I don’t quite know what the deal was, but we were able to get up front, hide in traffic, and make the best of it. I just tried to make the best laps I can make, and it all worked out good.”
Lynton Jeffrey and Reutzel led the field to the green flag with Reutzel taking off into the lead with Jeffrey falling back to second and Clint Garner moving up to the third position. Garner and Thursday’s preliminary feature winner Brian Brown began to dice back and forth for the third spot on lap 12, but Garner was able to block Brown’s advance into turn one.
One lap later Hafertepe made his presence felt driving by Brown for fourth position on lap 13. One lap later while racing for third when they made contact and managed to keep their cars going. Hafertepe recovered to take the third spot while Garner dropped back to fourth.
By lap 16 Jeffrey was under fire from Hafertepe and Garner. Hafertepe moved to second position on lap 16 and started his pursuit of Reutzel, who was starting to encounter slower traffic. Four laps later Garner moved past Jeffrey for the third spot.
Reutzel’s full straightaway lead dissipated quickly during the closing stages of the feature event. Hafertepe was able to get one look under Reutzel down on the bottom of the race track, but Reutzel was able to get a better drive off the top of turn two and motored away to the victory. Hafertepe, Garner, Jeffrey, and Terry McCarl rounded out the top five.
Tyler Courtney won the B-Main event, Kaleb Johnson won the C-Main, Colby Copeland won a crash filled D-Main that took 51 minutes to run 10 laps after two massive flips where all the drivers walked away under their own power. Jett Carney won the E-Main.
360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank
Knoxville Raceway
Knoxville, Iowa
Saturday, August 6, 2022
E-Main (8 Laps)
1. 6J-Jett Carney[2]
2. 1CC-Clayton Christensen[1]
3. 42-Sye Lynch[4]
4. 5T-Ryan Timms[6]
5. 19-Wes Wofford[5]
6. 83JR-Sam Henderson[12]
7. 6C-Logan Calderwood[3]
8. 199-Ryan Bowers[8]
9. 1A-John Anderson[7]
10. 4D-Charles Davis Jr[9]
11. 3M-Mike Pennel[13]
12. 4S-Adam Speckman[14]
13. 4H-Cody Hansen[11]
DNS: 8H-Jacob Hughes
D-Main (10 Laps)
1. 16A-Colby Copeland[1]
2. 26H-Scott Bogucki[8]
3. 5M-Collin Moyle[4]
4. 21G-Gunner Ramey[2]
5. 53-Joe Beaver[14]
6. 50Z-Zach Chappell[12]
7. 55B-Brandon Anderson[10]
8. 42-Sye Lynch[18]
9. 28-Luke Verardi[13]
10. 5T-Ryan Timms[19]
11. 1A-John Anderson[24]
12. 6C-Logan Calderwood[22]
13. 22W-Aaron Werner[15]
14. 6J-Jett Carney[16]
15. 19-Wes Wofford[20]
16. 45-Rusty Hickman[3]
17. 2JR-Kelly Miller[5]
18. 99-Tony Rost[6]
19. 7B-Ben Brown[9]
20. 1CC-Clayton Christensen[17]
21. 83JR-Sam Henderson[21]
22. 22-Ryan Leavitt[11]
23. 13V-Seth Brahmer[7]
24. 199-Ryan Bowers[23]
C-Main (12 Laps)
1. 22K-Kaleb Johnson[1]
2. 4-Cameron Martin[2]
3. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[4]
4. 55T-McKenna Haase[3]
5. 27B-Jake Bubak[8]
6. 14T-Brooke Tatnell[10]
7. 35-Skylar Prochaska[15]
8. 16A-Colby Copeland[16]
9. 7M-Chance Morton[13]
10. 26H-Scott Bogucki[17]
11. 94-Jeff Swindell[6]
12. 53-Joe Beaver[20]
13. 45X-Kyler Johnson[9]
14. 50Z-Zach Chappell[21]
15. 10P-Dylan Postier[14]
16. 42-Sye Lynch[23]
17. 55B-Brandon Anderson[22]
18. 23-Devon Dobie[12]
19. 21G-Gunner Ramey[19]
20. 28-Luke Verardi[24]
21. 5M-Collin Moyle[18]
22. 5A-Alex Vande Voort[7]
23. 83-Austin Miller[5]
24. 8M-Kade Morton[11]
B-Main (18 Laps)
1. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[1]
2. 11M-Parker Price Miller[8]
3. 5-Brady Forbrook[2]
4. 49X-Cale Thomas[5]
5. 18R-Ryan Roberts[3]
6. 20-Anthony Macri[13]
7. 27-Carson McCarl[4]
8. 88-Austin McCarl[6]
9. 14-Corey Day[10]
10. 95-Matt Covington[7]
11. 39-Justin Sanders[9]
12. 64-Ian Madsen[16]
13. 26-Zeb Wise[14]
14. 21H-Brady Bacon[15]
15. 2M-Davey Heskin[19]
16. 36-Jason Martin[11]
17. 22K-Kaleb Johnson[21]
18. 44-Chris Martin[20]
19. 11N-Harli White[17]
20. 4-Cameron Martin[22]
21. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[23]
22. 75AU-Tyler Blank[18]
23. 22X-Riley Goodno[12]
24. 55T-McKenna Haase[24]
A-Main (30 Laps)
1. 8-Aaron Reutzel[2]
2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[7]
3. 40-Clint Garner[3]
4. 2K-Lynton Jeffrey[1]
5. 24-Terry McCarl[4]
6. 21-Brian Brown[5]
7. 71-Cory Eliason[12]
8. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[6]
9. 9-Chase Randall[18]
10. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[8]
11. 57-Kyle Larson[16]
12. 83H-Justin Henderson[14]
13. 11M-Parker Price Miller[22]
14. 24W-Garet Williamson[13]
15. 09-Matt Juhl[19]
16. 21K-Thomas Kennedy[11]
17. 7TAZ-Tasker Phillips[15]
18. 49X-Cale Thomas[24]
19. 5-Brady Forbrook[23]
20. 52-Blake Hahn[17]
21. 24T-Christopher Thram[9]
22. 6-Kelby Watt[20]
23. 2C-Wayne Johnson[10]
24. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[21]