By Alex Nieten
JOLIET, IL (October 18, 2024) – Aaron Reutzel doesn’t know how to lose at Dirt Oval 66.
The Clute, TX native rolled into the Federated Auto Parts Route 66 Showdown and put his perfect record on the line. Reutzel beat the All Stars at the Illinois oval back in 2018 and 2019 and was prepared to face off with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars as the Series returned for the first time since 2017.
Five years since his last race at the track. The country’s toughest competition. Could Reutzel rise to the occasion and make it three straight at Dirt Oval 66?
Absolutely he could.
Reutzel earned the pole for Friday’s main event and never looked back during the 25-lapper. A sketchy restart and late lapped traffic created some drama, but ultimately neither were enough to derail the Ridge & Sons Racing driver. Reutzel fended off a final lap charge from David Gravel to secure his third consecutive win in Joliet.
“This is awesome,” Reutzel said. “It’s been a long time. Just not going up and down the road like I used to you kind of lose your race craft a little bit. This feels great. I couldn’t feel more excited. My entire family is here. This is the first Outlaw win they’ve ever seen. Brian and Lisa Ridge, this is their first true Outlaw win. I just couldn’t be more happy to get it for them. They deserve it. They’ve given me everything. This one is definitely for them.”
Reutzel’s win ended a drought dating back to 2021 as he scored his first victory with The Greatest Show on Dirt in three years. It’s the seventh of Reutzel’s career, equaling him with Chad Kemenah, Brian Brown, and Jeff Shepard for 57th on the all-time win list. He’s the seventh different competitor to visit Dirt Oval 66 Victory Lane with the World of Outlaws.
A win in the Toyota Racing Dash set Reutzel up on the pole for the NOS Energy Drink Feature. Second-starting Chris Windom gave him a fight on the opening circuit, but ultimately Reutzel powered ahead of the Vermeer Motorsports No. 55 to lead Lap 1.
An early caution for Windom slowing with problems set up a chaotic restart with 15 laps left. Gravel, who inherited third, got into Reutzel as the field came to restart. The collision caused a stack-up behind them and dominoed through the field until Sterling Cling and Geoff Dodge wound up upside down. Both drivers were okay.
Reutzel and Gravel both escaped with no considerable damage and prepared for the restart.
A fierce battle between Gravel and Carson Macedo was unleashed when the green lights returned. The two traded several slide jobs and crossovers before Gravel finally secured the runner-up spot.
A few more yellow flags continued to keep the leaders out of traffic, and one final one with seven laps remaining looked like it might seal the deal for Reutzel. But he wasn’t safe quite yet.
As the laps faded, he got closer and closer to the tail of the field, and Gravel managed to pace him aboard the Big Game Motorsports No. 2. With only two circuits remaining, Reutzel found himself in traffic.
The white flag waved, and Gravel erased most of the gap between the two as they navigated Turns 1 and 2. Reutzel looked to dive under a lapped car in the final set of corners, but the car ahead also went low. Reutzel quickly adjusted and aimed back toward the top and slid in front of Gravel. As Reutzel caught the cushion Gravel turned underneath him but didn’t quite have the power needed to drive by. Reutzel used the momentum of the top to finish off his first World of Outlaws win in 1,176 days.
“I just had a lapped car make an erratic lane change,” Reutzel said of the final lap. “I knew I needed to do something, so I hurried up and went back to the top, and I just slid into it too hard. I’m glad we came out on top of that. That would’ve really sucked to lose it that way.”
Gravel had to settle for second, his 10th World of Outlaws runner-up of the season. While he was hungry for his 15th Series triumph of 2024, Gravel came away satisfied with a strong points night as he looks to close out his first championship.
“I thought we were a little bit better than Aaron there at the end,” Gravel said. “He really had to lean on the cushion, I thought. I felt like he was coming back to us a little bit, and obviously lapped traffic was coming there. He got over the cushion that one time. That lapped car looked like he was going high and then went low, and Aaron was going low then he went high. I was committed to the top at that point, so I couldn’t really do much from there. It was superior grip on the top of (Turns) 3 and 4. Man, it was close.”
Rounding out the podium was Carson Macedo and the Jason Johnson Racing crew. They tallied their Series-leading 31st top three of the year. The Lemoore, CA native felt the race could’ve been even more interesting if traffic became more of a factor.
“He (Gravel) was able to slide me with a big run into Turn 1,” Macedo explained. “And, man, once somebody gets by you, the top has a lot of speed once you get up there leaning on it. It was going to be tough to get back by him. Seems like we really needed traffic to kind of mix things up. When we got there, it was one of those deals where a red or a yellow would come out.”
Logan Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild completed the top five.
A 19th to eighth drive earned Garet Williamson his fourth KSE Racing Hard Charger of 2024.
Sheldon Haudenschild earned his eighth Simpson Quick Time of 2024 and the 37th of his career in Sea Foam Qualifying.
NOS Energy Drink Heats One, Three, and Four belonged to Sheldon Haudenschild, David Gravel, and Logan Schuchart. Milton Hershey School Heat Two went to Carson Macedo.
Aaron Reutzel topped the Toyota Racing Dash.
Brock Zearfoss won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.
The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race belonged to Buddy Kofoid.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars are back at Dirt Oval 66 on Saturday, Oct. 19 for the Federated Auto Parts Route 66 Showdown finale. For tickets, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS:
NOS Energy Drink Feature (25 Laps): 1. 87-Aaron Reutzel[1]; 2. 2-David Gravel[3]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[4]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart[7]; 5. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[5]; 6. 15-Donny Schatz[15]; 7. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[10]; 8. 23-Garet Williamson[19]; 9. 17B-Bill Balog[18]; 10. 99-Skylar Gee[11]; 11. 27-Emerson Axsom[16]; 12. 17X-Zach Hampton[14]; 13. 7S-Landon Crawley[8]; 14. 45X-Scott Bogucki[22]; 15. 6-Dylan Cisney[13]; 16. 32-Bryce Lucius[17]; 17. 51-Ayrton Gennetten[24]; 18. 2KS-Danny Sams III[6]; 19. 55-Kerry Madsen[20]; 20. 55C-Chris Windom[2]; 21. 34-Sterling Cling[9]; 22. 77-Geoff Dodge[23]; 23. 83-Michael Kofoid[12]; 24. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[21]
V MicroLite Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps): 1. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[2]; 2. 45X-Scott Bogucki[10]; 3. 77-Geoff Dodge[3]; 4. 51-Ayrton Gennetten[8]; 5. 17GP-Kelby Watt[1]; 6. 15K-Creed Kemenah[13]; 7. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[14]; 8. 7N-Darin Naida[12]; 9. 79-Blake Nimee[15]; 10. 14T-Tim Estenson[4]; 11. 5E-Bobby Elliott[9]; 12. 22-Riley Goodno[6]; 13. 12-Corbin Gurley[16]; 14. 22M-Rees Moran[5]; 15. 70-Kraig Kinser[7]; 16. 10V-Matt VanderVere[11]; 17. 15JR-Cole Mincer[17]; 18. 70K-Chris Klemko[18]
Toyota Dash (6 Laps): 1. 87-Aaron Reutzel[2]; 2. 55C-Chris Windom[1]; 3. 2-David Gravel[4]; 4. 41-Carson Macedo[6]; 5. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[5]; 6. 2KS-Danny Sams III[3]; 7. 1S-Logan Schuchart[7]; 8. 7S-Landon Crawley[8]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[1]; 2. 7S-Landon Crawley[2]; 3. 34-Sterling Cling[5]; 4. 6-Dylan Cisney[3]; 5. 32-Bryce Lucius[4]; 6. 77-Geoff Dodge[7]; 7. 70-Kraig Kinser[6]; 8. 10V-Matt VanderVere[10]; 9. 79-Blake Nimee[8]; 10. 15JR-Cole Mincer[9]
Milton Hershey School Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 41-Carson Macedo[3]; 2. 2KS-Danny Sams III[1]; 3. 99-Skylar Gee[2]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz[6]; 5. 23-Garet Williamson[4]; 6. 22M-Rees Moran[7]; 7. 5E-Bobby Elliott[9]; 8. 15K-Creed Kemenah[8]; 9. 17GP-Kelby Watt[5]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[1]; 2. 87-Aaron Reutzel[2]; 3. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[3]; 4. 17X-Zach Hampton[6]; 5. 17B-Bill Balog[4]; 6. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[5]; 7. 22-Riley Goodno[9]; 8. 45X-Scott Bogucki[7]; 9. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[8]; 10. 70K-Chris Klemko[10]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart[1]; 2. 55C-Chris Windom[3]; 3. 83-Michael Kofoid[2]; 4. 27-Emerson Axsom[4]; 5. 55-Kerry Madsen[5]; 6. 14T-Tim Estenson[6]; 7. 51-Ayrton Gennetten[7]; 8. 7N-Darin Naida[8]; 9. 12-Corbin Gurley[9]
Sea Foam Qualifying A (2 Laps): 1. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 00:13.605[2]; 2. 2KS-Danny Sams III, 00:13.711[7]; 3. 7S-Landon Crawley, 00:13.727[11]; 4. 99-Skylar Gee, 00:13.744[9]; 5. 6-Dylan Cisney, 00:13.764[10]; 6. 41-Carson Macedo, 00:13.765[4]; 7. 32-Bryce Lucius, 00:13.898[3]; 8. 23-Garet Williamson, 00:13.906[5]; 9. 34-Sterling Cling, 00:13.922[6]; 10. 17GP-Kelby Watt, 00:13.933[8]; 11. 70-Kraig Kinser, 00:13.950[16]; 12. 15-Donny Schatz, 00:13.978[17]; 13. 77-Geoff Dodge, 00:13.992[15]; 14. 22M-Rees Moran, 00:14.072[19]; 15. 79-Blake Nimee, 00:14.075[1]; 16. 15K-Creed Kemenah, 00:14.212[13]; 17. 15JR-Cole Mincer, 00:14.266[12]; 18. 5E-Bobby Elliott, 00:14.459[14]; 19. 10V-Matt VanderVere, 00:14.582[18]
Sea Foam Qualifying B (2 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel, 00:13.654[9]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 00:13.739[17]; 3. 87-Aaron Reutzel, 00:13.771[7]; 4. 83-Michael Kofoid, 00:13.774[13]; 5. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 00:13.812[5]; 6. 55C-Chris Windom, 00:13.880[6]; 7. 17B-Bill Balog, 00:13.890[10]; 8. 27-Emerson Axsom, 00:13.974[16]; 9. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 00:14.023[19]; 10. 55-Kerry Madsen, 00:14.033[2]; 11. 17X-Zach Hampton, 00:14.051[14]; 12. 14T-Tim Estenson, 00:14.137[4]; 13. 45X-Scott Bogucki, 00:14.177[15]; 14. 51-Ayrton Gennetten, 00:14.178[11]; 15. G5-Gage Pulkrabek, 00:14.184[8]; 16. 7N-Darin Naida, 00:14.203[18]; 17. 22-Riley Goodno, 00:14.408[12]; 18. 12-Corbin Gurley, 00:14.412[1]; 19. 70K-Chris Klemko, 00:15.002[3]
Hot Laps: 1. 87-Aaron Reutzel, 00:13.475[26]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid, 00:13.582[32]; 3. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 00:13.734[36]; 4. 27-Emerson Axsom, 00:13.735[35]; 5. 55C-Chris Windom, 00:13.753[25]; 6. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 00:13.789[24]; 7. 2-David Gravel, 00:13.789[28]; 8. 17B-Bill Balog, 00:13.797[29]; 9. 45X-Scott Bogucki, 00:13.836[34]; 10. 55-Kerry Madsen, 00:13.884[21]; 11. 14T-Tim Estenson, 00:13.890[23]; 12. 15-Donny Schatz, 00:13.892[17]; 13. 7S-Landon Crawley, 00:13.905[11]; 14. 32-Bryce Lucius, 00:13.972[3]; 15. 17X-Zach Hampton, 00:14.008[33]; 16. 41-Carson Macedo, 00:14.013[4]; 17. 2KS-Danny Sams III, 00:14.022[7]; 18. 70-Kraig Kinser, 00:14.025[16]; 19. 99-Skylar Gee, 00:14.052[9]; 20. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 00:14.098[2]; 21. 51-Ayrton Gennetten, 00:14.106[30]; 22. G5-Gage Pulkrabek, 00:14.108[27]; 23. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 00:14.185[38]; 24. 34-Sterling Cling, 00:14.273[6]; 25. 15K-Creed Kemenah, 00:14.280[13]; 26. 77-Geoff Dodge, 00:14.286[15]; 27. 7N-Darin Naida, 00:14.320[37]; 28. 22-Riley Goodno, 00:14.365[31]; 29. 22M-Rees Moran, 00:14.420[19]; 30. 17GP-Kelby Watt, 00:14.441[8]; 31. 6-Dylan Cisney, 00:14.567[10]; 32. 23-Garet Williamson, 00:14.577[5]; 33. 79-Blake Nimee, 00:14.716[1]; 34. 10V-Matt VanderVere, 00:14.993[18]; 35. 70K-Chris Klemko, 00:15.080[22]; 36. 12-Corbin Gurley, 00:15.237[20]; 37. 5E-Bobby Elliott, 00:15.466[14]; 38. 15JR-Cole Mincer, 00:15.589[12]
20 entries
Wisconsin WingLESS Sprints
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 91-Jimmy Sivia[2]; 2. 40-Clayton Rossmann[3]; 3. 19B-Jack Berger[8]; 4. 38-Allen Hafford[5]; 5. 70H-Tate Hensley[11]; 6. 57-Tristan Furseth[7]; 7. 8-Adam Taylor[6]; 8. 29JR-Nathan Crane[14]; 9. 7-Scott Uttech[9]; 10. 11-Austin Hansen[12]; 11. 46H-Ken Hron[10]; 12. 70-Chris Klemko[15]; 13. 29J-Ralph Johnson[16]; 14. 29OG-Tom Eller[18]; 15. 4G-George Gaertner III[19]; 16. (DNF) 711-Tyler Kuxhouse[1]; 17. (DNF) 10V-Matt VanderVere[20]; 18. (DNF) 17-Bryce Andrews[4]; 19. (DNF) 7D-Josh Davidson[13]; 20. (DNS) 5J-Chris Lewis
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Bryce Andrews[4]; 2. 8-Adam Taylor[1]; 3. 711-Tyler Kuxhouse[2]; 4. 91-Jimmy Sivia[3]; 5. 7-Scott Uttech[7]; 6. 11-Austin Hansen[5]; 7. 7D-Josh Davidson[8]; 8. (DNF) 70-Chris Klemko[6]; 9. (DNF) 5J-Chris Lewis[9]; 10. (DNS) 10V-Matt VanderVere
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 57-Tristan Furseth[1]; 2. 40-Clayton Rossmann[4]; 3. 46H-Ken Hron[7]; 4. 38-Allen Hafford[2]; 5. 19B-Jack Berger[5]; 6. 70H-Tate Hensley[3]; 7. 29JR-Nathan Crane[9]; 8. 29J-Ralph Johnson[8]; 9. 29OG-Tom Eller[10]; 10. (DNF) 4G-George Gaertner III[6]
Qualifying: 1. 17-Bryce Andrews, 00:17.917[6]; 2. 40-Clayton Rossmann, 00:18.145[13]; 3. 91-Jimmy Sivia, 00:18.183[9]; 4. 70H-Tate Hensley, 00:18.277[19]; 5. 711-Tyler Kuxhouse, 00:18.287[20]; 6. 38-Allen Hafford, 00:18.301[10]; 7. 8-Adam Taylor, 00:18.323[8]; 8. 57-Tristan Furseth, 00:18.453[15]; 9. 11-Austin Hansen, 00:18.516[2]; 10. 19B-Jack Berger, 00:18.518[17]; 11. 70-Chris Klemko, 00:18.554[11]; 12. 4G-George Gaertner III, 00:18.613[3]; 13. 7-Scott Uttech, 00:18.680[16]; 14. 46H-Ken Hron, 00:18.689[5]; 15. 7D-Josh Davidson, 00:18.700[7]; 16. 29J-Ralph Johnson, 00:18.748[12]; 17. 5J-Chris Lewis, 00:18.767[4]; 18. 29JR-Nathan Crane, 00:18.916[14]; 19. 10V-Matt VanderVere, 00:19.187[1]; 20. 29OG-Tom Eller, 00:19.300[18]
ARTICLE: https://worldofoutlaws.com/sprintcars/all-a-aron-reutzel-survives-gravels-last-lap-charge-to-keep-perfect-dirt-oval-66-record/
EVENT INFO: https://worldofoutlaws.com/sprintcars/schedule/event-info/?event=6235
TRACK INFO: https://www.dirtoval66.com/
FAN 101: https://about.worldofoutlaws.com/
The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink® Sprint Car Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: NOS Energy Drink (Official Energy Product), DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), iRacing (Official Online Racing Game), Milton Hershey School (Official Education Partner), Racing Electronics (Official Radio Supplier), Simpson Performance Products (Preferred Safety Gear Partner), SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider), Toyota (Official Vehicle), and VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel); Contingency sponsors include: ARP (Automotive Racing Products), Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams, Evolve Transporters, Federated Auto Parts, KSE Racing Products (Hard Charger Award), Lifeline USA, Micro-Lite LLC, MSD, Quartz Hill Records, Stone Country Records, Smith Titanium Brake Systems, and WELD Racing. Manufacturer sponsors include, FIREBULL, and Intercomp, and Sea Foam.
Founded in 1978, the World of Outlaws®, based in Concord, NC, is the premier national touring series for dirt track racing in North America, featuring the most powerful cars on dirt, the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. Annually, the two series race nearly 140 times at tracks across the United States and Canada. CBS Sports Network is the official broadcast partner of the World of Outlaws. DIRTVision® also broadcasts all World of Outlaws events over the Internet to fans around the world. Learn more about the World of Outlaws.