Reutzel Rules High Limit Field In Triumphant Eldora Return

Aaron Reutzel (87) passes Rico Abreu for the win Friday night at Eldora Speedway. (High Limit Racing photo)

ROSSBURG, Ohio – In his return to Eldora Speedway, two months after a Kings Royal incident that left him with a broken foot, Aaron Reutzel took one back from the half-mile dirt oval Friday night.

The Clute, Texas native stormed past Kubota High Limit Racing point leader and season-long dominator Rico Abreu on a restart with two laps left and never looked back on his road to glory.

Reutzel traded slide jobs with Abreu in turns one and two before diving underneath the No. 24 in turn four and making the winning pass coming to the white flag.

After throwing a block to the bottom in turn one, Reutzel drove back to the finish line for his sixth win of the season and the seventh of his High Limit career – and arguably his most emotional one thus far.

“How’s that song go? Hello, darkness, my old friend, that’s kind of what it felt like rolling into this place,” Reutzel said in victory lane. “I thought I was going be a little nervous at first. Of course, it wasn’t nice and easy. It was rough early, and my car was not handling the ruts very good, and we went to work on it.

“I thought I was going to be a little nervous, but I guess I’m just too stupid to be nervous [because] once I strapped in, I forgot all about it. Through the holes I went up against the wall and felt right back at home.”

Abreu settled for second, two days after winning at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway for his 10th score of the year in High Limit action.

The Abreu No. 24 continues to lead Reutzel’s Ridge & Sons Racing No. 87 team by 19 points in the race for the owner’s championship, while Abreu extended his advantage in the driver standings to 56 over defending titlist Brad Sweet.

Chase Randall capped the podium finishers Friday during day two of the 4-Crown Nationals ahead of Rudeen Racing’s Justin Peck and Hinck Motorsports’ Brady Bacon.

Brenham Crouch, Brent Marks, Gio Scelzi, Daison Pursley, and Sweet were the rest of the top 10 finishers.

The crash which set up the final restart was notable, as second-running Anthony Macri was trying to chase down then-leader Abreu when he got over the cushion in turn three and flipped hard into the outside fencing before coming down the track and getting broadsided by Parker Price-Miller.

Macri climbed out of the car before being taken to an ambulance to be checked over by safety workers and medical officials. No further updates from his team were given prior to publication Saturday morning.

Abreu set the fastest time overall in qualifying of 12.858 seconds. Macri, Ashton Torgerson, Sye Lynch, and Randall won their respective heat races, with Macri taking the pole dash and Steven Snyder Jr. topping the B-Feature to lead the transfer cars into the main event.

Daison Pursley charged from 11th to win the companion Great Lakes Super Sprints 360ci event Friday night, driving the CB Industries No. 86.

Pursley made the winning pass of D.J. Christie with four laps left and beat J.J. Hickle to the checkers by a whopping 4.368 seconds once he got into clean air.

Christie, Alex Hill, and Max Stambaugh filled out the GLSS top five.

The finish:

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 87-Aaron Reutzel [4]; 2. 24-Rico Abreu [3]; 3. 9-Chase Randall [6]; 4. 26-Justin Peck [10]; 5. 21H-Brady Bacon [13]; 6. 5-Brenham Crouch [16]; 7. 19-Brent Marks [11]; 8. 7BC-Giovanni Scelzi [2]; 9. 49-Brad Sweet [14]; 10. 88-Tanner Thorson [9]; 11. 13-Daison Pursley [18]; 12. 24D-Danny Sams III [17]; 13. 42-Sye Lynch [5]; 14. 14-Justin Sanders [15]; 15. 23-Chase Dietz [7]; 16. 51-J.J. Hickle [20]; 17. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek [23]; 18. 15K-Creed Kemenah [24]; 19. 27H-Steven Snyder Jr. [21]; 20. 10RR-Darin Naida [19]; 21. 6K-Kaleb Johnson [22]; 22. 39M-Anthony Macri [1]; 23. 71-Parker Price Miller [12]; 24. 1A-Ashton Torgerson [8].