Abreu Gets Revenge In High Limit’s 4-Crown Run

ROSSBURG, Ohio – Rico Abreu served up some revenge in the Kubota High Limit Racing winged sprint car portion of Saturday’s 43rd 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway.

With a surgical pass of championship rival Aaron Reutzel, Abreu assumed control of the 30-lapper with seven to go and never looked back, going on to notch his 11th High Limit victory of the season and the 22nd of his career.

It came less than 24 hours after Reutzel snookered Abreu to take the Friday-night win at Eldora with High Limit Racing during the preliminary 4-Crown program.

Saturday night marked the second straight year that Abreu won the winged portion of championship night at the 4-Crown Nationals.

“I just put it on this team, man,” said Abreu, who also extended his lead in both the High Limit driver and owner’s standings. “I was screaming at myself in the race car to just be really patient. My guys put together incredible race cars and just keep getting faster and faster as we go, where I can showcase my talents and the love I have for this sport.

“I was out of breath after that; you’re driving the [expletive] out of these things up on the wall, but it’s why I love Eldora Speedway and the show it puts on for the fans,” he continued. “I was a little bit tight behind cars, but when guys would open the lanes up, I just had to focus on winding up the top and hitting my marks.

“Got a couple good restarts on the bottom before I timed the last one with Aaron to pop into second. From there we just made a ton of hay in [turns] three and four to run him down and get it done.”

After a fourth-to-first drive in his heat race gave Reutzel the feature pole via High Limit’s ‘Ace in the Hole’ rule, he took full advantage on the initial start, opening up two seconds over the field in just two laps as Brent Marks quickly dispatched Tanner Thorson to move into second.

But as Reutzel reached traffic and the race wound to the one-third benchmark, his advantage began to dwindle, with Sye Lynch carving it down to seven tenths of a second when he took the runner-up spot on lap 10.

Moments later, a spinning Jimmy Light brought out the caution and forced Lynch to take evasive action, as the incident happened right in front of the second- and third-place runners.

With no one else involved, Reutzel resumed command on the restart, with Gio Scelzi finding some grip on the bottom and catfishing his way to second past Lynch at the end of the 11th circuit.

Two laps later, a huge flip by 19th-place J.J. Hickle in turn four – which also collected Brenham Crouch – brought out the only red-flag stoppage of the feature and led to a complete reset near halfway.

Reutzel lost a near two-second margin at that point, but quickly reopened half of that distance by halfway once the green cloth waved again, even as Abreu rose well into the top five.

The race’s second caution came with 13 to go, when Brent Marks slowed from third place with a left-rear tire packed with mud after losing the wheel cover earlier in the race.

At that point, Daison Pursley’s bid for a sweep of all four crowns came unraveled, as he pulled to the work area with a broken right-rear shock on the Buch Motorsports No. 13.

Though Pursley was able to continue after quick repairs from his team, he ended up xx at the end.

Another quick sprint saw Reutzel hold serve over Scelzi, but the third and final caution period came with 11 laps left after Jeremy Weaver slowed from 12th place with a mechanical issue.

The race ran uninterrupted from there, with Abreu sliding to second past Scelzi on the final restart and setting his sights firmly on Reutzel’s leading Ridge & Sons Racing No. 87.

He trimmed the lead down to less than a car length with eight to go before beginning a slider duel with Reutzel for nearly two full miles before ripping the top off turn four to lead lap 24 outright.

From there, Abreu drove away, while Scelzi ended up stealing the runner-up honors from Reutzel after the latter smacked the upper cushion with five laps left and broke momentum briefly.

Reutzel had to settle for third instead of a winged sprint car sweep during 4-Crown Nationals weekend.

“I guess we were just too good early,” lamented Reutzel. “The track really changed a lot and my stuff just went away on me. I tried to make my car a little bit better than what it was last night … and it worked at first, but we were really bad at the end. I got to where I had no grip and couldn’t get the car sat down [in the corners].

“I wasn’t sure what to do in [turns] three and four late; I kept searching around as much as I could while leading, and I thought I was in the right line. But Rico went by and made us all look stupid. Their car is rolling right now and I’d say they’re the most consistent car in the country right now. He’s on rails.”

Hard-charging Ashton Torgerson came from 21st on the grid after winning the B-Main to finish fourth for Shark Racing, with Rudeen Racing’s Justin Peck closing out the top five.

With the win, Abreu’s driver point lead sits at 72 over Brad Sweet with seven races to go on the season, while the owner point battle is tighter at just 28 markers ahead of the No. 87 team.

The Kubota High Limit Racing season continues Saturday night, Sept. 27 at New Jersey’s Bridgeport Motorsports Park.

The finish:

Kubota A Feature (30 laps): 1. 24-Rico Abreu [8]; 2. 7BC-Gio Scelzi [9]; 3. 87-Aaron Reutzel [1]; 4. 1A-Ashton Torgerson [21]; 5. 26-Justin Peck [6]; 6. 49-Brad Sweet [10]; 7. 88-Tanner Thorson [2]; 8. 24D-Danny Sams III [19]; 9. 23-Chase Dietz [11]; 10. 9-Chase Randall [5]; 11. 19JR-Joel Myers Jr. [23]; 12. 42-Sye Lynch [7]; 13. 6K-Kaleb Johnson [15]; 14. 21H-Brady Bacon [12]; 15. 5-Brenham Crouch [22]; 16. 14-Justin Sanders [16]; 17. 23L-Jimmy Light [24]; 18. 13-Daison Pursley [4]; 19. 27H-Steven Snyder Jr. [13]; 20. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek [14]; 21. 19-Brent Marks [3]; 22. 7A-Will Armitage [18]; 23. 5J-Jeremy Weaver [20]; 24. 51-J.J. Hickle [17].