Member
The Dirt Oval at Route 66 in Joliet, IL 6-29-19
All Star Sprints & USAC National Midgets
Results & Story for All Stars and USAC National Midgets
Aaron
Reutzel rallies from
ninth to win Bill Waite, Jr. Memorial Classic at
Route 66 JOLIET,
Ill. (June 29, 2019) - Powered by perseverance,
as well as a healthy serving of determination,
Clute, Texas’ Aaron Reutzel did what some would
consider the impossible on Saturday night during
his visit to the Dirt Oval at Route 66 in
Joliet, Ill., ultimately concluding his evening
with an impressive charge from the inside of row
five, all after rebuilding a destroyed race car
as the result of a flip during his respective
Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of
Champions presented by Mobil 1/IRA Outlaw Sprint
Series dash. With
the help of an array of sprint car teams
scattered throughout the pit area, Aaron Reutzel and the familiar
Baughman-Reutzel
Motorsports, No. 87 entry made the main event
call, eventually leading over half of the 30-lap
program to score the $5,000 payday. The victory
not only bumped Retuzel’s 2019 All Star
Circuit of Champions win total to four, leading
all competitors this season, but the win also
bumped Reutzel back on
top of the All Star driver championship
standings, now with a two point lead over 2019
Ohio Sprint Speedweek champion, Hartford, Ohio’s
Dale Blaney. Incidentally,
Dale Blaney finished second on Saturday night at
Route 66, followed by Paul McMahan, Cory
Eliason, and multi-time IRA champion, Bill
Balog. “What
an effort by this team. I really can’t say
enough about these guys. We weren’t sure what to
do, but we ended up fixing the car that we
flipped. Actually, if
it wasn’t for everyone else jumping in to help
us, I’m not sure we would have been able to get
back out there without having to go to a back-up
car. Being able to start ninth rather than 24th
made all the difference,” Aaron Reutzel said, driver of the
Folkens Brothers
Trucking/Nattress Construction/Hollywood Coating
& Blasting/No. 87 sprint car. “A big thanks
to the entire Rudeen
Racing team, Brian and Stacy Kemenah, Paul McMahan, Mike
McGhee and his guys, Thomas Meseraull; they all helped
us get things back together. What a group of
guys out here traveling with the All Stars this
year. They all jump in and help each
other.” Kyle
Larson, who started from the pole position on
Saturday night before leading the first 13
circuits, was eventually disqualified during a
red flag break on lap 14. A work area violation
forced the disqualification, as one of Larson’s
crew members left the designated work area to
speak with Larson under caution. Regardless
of Larson’s speed and eventual disqualification,
Reutzel was a
sure-fire favorite, as the defending All Star
champion climbed ahead from ninth to fifth in
just four circuits. By lap seven, Reutzel was third, charging
his way around Paul Nienhiser and Parker
Price-Miller as the trio battled in
traffic. A
caution on lap 13 allowed Reutzel the opportunity to
drive by Paul McMahan for second. Although the
opportunity prevailed, action was soon halted
yet again, this time for a red flag incident on
lap 14. Larson’s aforementioned
disqualification occurred at that
time. Although
two additional red flag incidents would halt
action on lap 22, and again on lap 30 - setting
up a green-white-checkered finish - it was all
Reutzel, pulling away
every time to a commanding
advantage. “I
felt like I was catching Kyle [Larson]. I’m not
sure what kind of a pace he was keeping because
I know when I got the lead, I slowed my pace
down,” Aaron Reutzel
continued. “I think I was just as good as Kyle
was during that first half. I know we are tired
of getting beat by him, and he doesn’t like to
lose races. I’m sure it would have been a great
race with us two up front.” With
the month of June officially in the books, Tony
Stewart’s All Star
Circuit of Champions will now prepare for an
action-packed month of July, kicking things off
with an Independence Day weekend doubleheader on
Friday and Saturday, July 5 & 6. The holiday
weekend will commence on Friday evening, July 5,
at Lernerville
Speedway in Sarver, Pennsylvania. Originally
slated for early May, the Lernerville visit was
eventually canceled with only engine heat being
completed. An early evening storm, which doused
the entire facility, forced the eventual
cancellation. Action
will move to Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio,
on Saturday, July 6. Honoring 2013 National
Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee, Lou Blaney,
the coveted Lou Blaney Memorial will be on tap
at the northeast Ohio venue, awarding a top
prize equalling
$6,000. For
more information pertaining to upcoming events
at Lernerville
Speedway and Sharon Speedway, fans should visit
each facility online at www.lernerville.com and
www.sharonspeedway.com. Contingency
Awards/Results: Dirt Oval at Route 66 -
Saturday, June 29, 2019: Qualifying Group
(A) 1.
87-Aaron Reutzel,
13.794; 2. 71P-Parker Price-Miller, 13.839; 3.
9X-Paul Nienhiser,
13.996; 4. 73af-Joey Moughan, 14.124; 5.
65-Jordan Goldesberry,
14.186; 6. 5J-Jeremy Schultz, 14.348; 7.
14AJ-Wayne Modjeski,
14.822; 8. 63-Nick Matuszewski,
15.033 Group
(B) 1.
O7-Gerard McIntyre, 13.856; 2. 99-Skylar Gee,
14.056; 3. 70-Brock Zearfoss, 14.059; 4.
70X-Justin Peck, 14.093; 5. W20-Greg Wilson,
14.238; 6. 43-Jereme Schroeder, 14.533; 7.
40-George Hobaugh,
14.709; 8. 29-Hunter Custer,
15.108 Group
(C) 1.
11-Dale Blaney, 13.872; 2. 57-Kyle Larson,
13.926; 3. 13-Paul McMahan, 14.098; 4. 23-Russel
Borland, 14.152; 5. 73-Ben Schmidt, 14.290; 6.
1M-Jim Moughan,
14.513; 7. 44-Cory Bruns, 14.650; 8. 25-Jake
Blackhurst, NT Group
(D) 1.
2W-Scotty Neitzel,
14.073; 2. 17B-Bill Balog, 14.149; 3. 85M-Steve
Meyer, 14.156; 4. 28-Brian Paulus, 14.159; 5.
26-Cory Eliason, 14.203; 6. 64-Scotty Thiel,
14.274; 7. 9K-Kyle Schuett, 14.355; 8.
14F-Jimmy Fifield, 15.242 Heat
#1 - Group (A) (8 Laps) - Top 5
Transfer 1.
73AF-Joey Moughan [1];
2. 9X-Paul Nienhiser
[2]; 3. 87-Aaron Reutzel [4]; 4. 71P-Parker
Price-Miller [3]; 5. 65-Jordan Goldesberry [5]; 6.
5J-Jeremy Schultz [6]; 7. 63-Nick Matuszewski [8]; 8.
14AJ-Wayne Modjeski
[7] Heat
#2 - Group (B) (8 Laps) - Top 5
Transfer 1.
70-Brock Zearfoss [2];
2. 99-Skylar Gee [3]; 3. W20-Greg Wilson [5]; 4.
40-George Hobaugh [7];
5. 43-Jereme Schroeder [6]; 6. 29-Hunter Custer
[8]; 7. O7-Gerard McIntyre [4]; 8. 70X-Justin
Peck [1] Heat
#3 - Group (C) (8 Laps) - Top 5
Transfer 1.
13-Paul McMahan [2]; 2. 57-Kyle Larson [3]; 3.
11-Dale Blaney [4]; 4. 23-Russel Borland [1]; 5.
73-Ben Schmidt [5]; 6. 1M-Jim Moughan [6]; 7. 44-Cory
Bruns [7] Heat
#4 - Group (D) (8 Laps) - Top 5
Transfer 1.
28-Brian Paulus [1]; 2. 17B-Bill Balog [3]; 3.
26-Cory Eliason [5]; 4. 64-Scotty Thiel [6]; 5.
9K-Kyle Schuett [7];
6. 85M-Steve Meyer [2]; 7. 2W-Scotty Neitzel [4]; 8. 14F-Jimmy
Fifield [8] Dash
#1 (4 Laps) 1.
57-Kyle Larson [1]; 2. 9X-Paul Nienhiser [2]; 3. 70-Brock
Zearfoss [3]; 4.
28-Brian Paulus [5]; 5. 87-Aaron Reutzel [4] Dash
#2 (4 Laps) 1.
13-Paul McMahan [1]; 2. 71P-Parker Price-Miller
[4]; 3. 17B-Bill Balog [2]; 4. 99-Skylar Gee
[5]; 5. 73AF-Joey Moughan [3] B-Main
(12 Laps) - Top 4 Transfer 1.
O7-Gerard McIntyre [1]; 2. 2W-Scotty Neitzel [2]; 3. 5J-Jeremy
Schultz [4]; 4. 70X-Justin Peck [9]; 5.
85M-Steve Meyer [3]; 6. 44-Cory Bruns [7]; 7.
14F-Jimmy Fifield [11]; 8. 63-Nick Matuszewski [8]; 9. 1M-Jim
Moughan [5]; 10.
29-Hunter Custer [6]; 11. 14AJ-Wayne Modjeski
[10] A-Main
(30 Laps) 1.
87-Aaron Reutzel [9];
2. 11-Dale Blaney [10]; 3. 13-Paul McMahan [2];
4. 26-Cory Eliason [11]; 5. 17B-Bill Balog [6];
6. 70-Brock Zearfoss
[5]; 7. W20-Greg Wilson [13]; 8. 99-Skylar Gee
[8]; 9. 73AF-Joey Moughan [12]; 10. O7-Gerard
McIntyre [21]; 11. 70X-Justin Peck [23]; 12.
65-Jordan Goldesberry
[17]; 13. 9X-Paul Nienhiser [3]; 14. 9K-Kyle
Schuett [18]; 15.
2W-Scotty Neitzel
[24]; 16. 43-Jereme Schroeder [19]; 17.
23-Russel Borland [14]; 18. 71P-Parker
Price-Miller [4]; 19. 64-Scotty Thiel [15]; 20.
57-Kyle Larson [1]; 21. 28-Brian Paulus [7]; 22.
5J-Jeremy Schultz [22]; 23. 40-George Hobaugh [16]; 24. 73-Ben
Schmidt [20] Lap Leaders: Kyle Larson (1-13),
Aaron Reutzel
(14-30) LARSON
FINDS LATE NIGHT REDEMPTION AT ROUTE 66 By:
Richie Murray – USAC Media Joliet,
Illinois (June 29, 2019)………Not that Kyle Larson
needs any extra motivation when he straps into a Keith Kunz
Motorsports/Curb-Agajanian midget, but any
little bit that’s added to the equation just makes it that much more
difficult for the competition. In
the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car
feature that preceded the night’s midget feature, Larson was leading when,
under a red flag, the Elk Grove, California driver was disqualified from
the event for having a crew member outside of the designated work
area. When
the time came to jump back in the midget for the late-night cap, there
seemed to be no stopping Larson. By the end of the first lap of
Saturday’s USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget "Summer Slash" feature at
the Dirt Oval at Route 66, Larson was contending for the lead. All
this after starting sixth by virtue of setting quick time in his first
ever visit to the 3/8-mile dirt oval. Larson
just missed the lead by a wheel at the line on both laps one and two as he
rolled the bottom and series Rookie Jesse Colwell ripped the top.
Colwell hung tough, but on the third lap, Larson set up Colwell for a
slider, clearing him in turn two to capture the
lead. From
there, Larson set off toward a half-straightaway lead that was deleted on
lap 10 when USAC Triple Crown champ J.J. Yeley
snagged the turn four curb, sending him into a violent crash down the
front straightaway. Yeley spiraled three
times through the air before landing and flipping once more, coming to a
rest just shy of the flag stand. Yeley
escaped without injury. The
common assumption was Larson was in a zone of his own. However,
following the lap 11 restart, defending series champ Logan Seavey, who
started 12th,
was on the prowl, melting Larson’s advantage down to two car lengths by
lap 13. Seavey pasted himself to Larson’s trail and, on lap 15, dove
to the bottom of turn one, sliding up to the top in turn two to snare the
lead. “I
felt like I was running good laps,” Larson recalled. “Then, Logan
threw a slider on me. I guess I was running 90 percent. I was
like, ‘crap, I got to step it up,’ and that’s when I started making
mistakes.” There
was no mistake on the following lap on behalf of Larson. Seavey,
though, bobbled atop the turn four cushion on lap 16, allowing Larson to
get a run on the bottom, which he used to slide Seavey back into turn one
to regain the advantage up front. On
a lap 24 restart following a Cole Bodine turn three spin, Seavey’s pursuit
of Larson fell apart just as it resumed. Seavey snagged that same
turn four curb that had bitten others throughout the night, riding like a
bucking bronco for a moment before continuing
on. That allowed Larson to break away and series point leader
Tyler Courtney to capitalize with a slider of his own in turn two for
second. The
curb was definitely something that had weighed on
Larson’s mind during the feature. But he found a countering measure
in the second half that kept his mind slightly at
ease. “I
was just so scared of the curb off of four,” Larson said. “It was
really tall. These midgets, when they hit it, it’s difficult to be
consistent. There in the last half, I just started following it
around and it was definitely a lot easier to run, and I could have more
straightaway speed.” However,
the deck was reshuffled when third-running Seavey spun in turn two with
less than two laps remaining that set up a green-white-checkered
finish. Larson was perfection as soon as the green dropped, riding
the rim over the final two laps to take a 0.775 second win over Courtney,
Tanner Carrick, Chris Windom and Kevin Thomas, Jr. The
win was the first of the season for Larson, who had made two previous
starts during the recent “Indiana Midget Week.” It was also the
16th victory
of his USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget career, equaling him with
Rico Abreu, George Amick, Billy Cantrell, Lee Kunzman, Bobby Olivero and Henry Pens for 39th all-time. Contingency
award winners Saturday night at Dirt Oval at Route 66 were Kyle Larson
(Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier), Jason
McDougal (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Tyler Thomas
(Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner), Tanner Carrick
(AutoMeter Third Heat Winner), Ace McCarthy (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat
Winner), Jason McDougal (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger), Zach Daum (Wilwood Brakes 13th
Place Finisher) and Jake Neuman (Saldana Racing Products First
Non-Transfer). ------------------------------------- USAC
NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 29, 2019
– Dirt Oval at Route 66 – Joliet, Illinois – “Summer Slash” – 3/8-Mile
Dirt Oval FATHEADZ
EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Kyle Larson, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.667 (New
Track Record); 2. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall-16.708; 3. Kevin
Thomas, Jr., 5, Petry-16.715; 4. Jerry Coons, Jr., 25, Petry-16.797; 5.
Chad Boat, 84, Tucker/Boat-16.813; 6. Zeb Wise, 39BC,
Clauson/Marshall-16.830; 7. Tucker Klaasmeyer,
27, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.883; 8. Jesse Colwell, 71,
Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.896; 9. Chris Windom, 17BC,
Clauson/Marshall-16.906; 10. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-16.935; 11. Tanner
Carrick, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.943; 12. Holley Hollan, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.946; 13. Andrew
Layser, 47BC, Clauson/Marshall-16.949; 14. Logan
Seavey, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.973; 15. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-16.980; 16. Tanner Thorson, 98,
Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.986; 17. J.J. Yeley, 36,
RMS-16.986; 18. Thomas Meseraull, 7x,
RMS-17.050; 19. Zane Hendricks, 27z, Hendricks-17.075; 20. Cole Bodine,
15, Petry-17.085; 21. Jason McDougal, 76m, FMR-17.095; 22. Karsyn Elledge, 1, Tucker/Boat-17.114; 23. C.J. Leary, 21KS,
Reynolds-17.136; 24. Ace McCarthy, 28, Neuman-17.175; 25. Ethan Mitchell,
19m, Bundy Built-17.184; 26. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac-17.200; 27.
Jake Neuman, 3N, Neuman-17.255; 28. Presley Truedson, 5T, Daum-17.364; 29. Chance Morton, 7m,
Morton-17.570; 30. Tyler Baran, 11, B-Boyz-17.811; 31. Kade Morton, 8m,
Morton-18.185; 32. Adam Taylor, 7T, Taylor-18.346; 33. Aaron Schuck, 53,
Five-Three-NT. SIMPSON
RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1.
McDougal, 2. Windom, 3. Boat, 4. Larson, 5. Mitchell, 6. C. Morton, 7.
Layser, 8. Yeley.
NT COMPETITION
SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1.
T. Thomas, 2. Elledge, 3. Wise, 4. Courtney, 5.
Meseraull, 6. Seavey, 7. Baran, 8. McIntosh.
NT AUTOMETER
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Carrick, 2. Leary,
3. Daum, 4. K. Thomas, 5. Klaasmeyer, 6. Hendricks, 7. K. Morton, 8. Neuman.
2:21.24 (New Track Record) INDY
RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1.
McCarthy, 2. Thorson, 3. Bodine, 4. Colwell, 5. Coons, 6. Hollan, 7. Truedson, 8.
Taylor. 2:22.23 SEMI:
(12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Klaasmeyer, 2. Coons, 3. Hendricks, 4. Seavey, 5.
Meseraull, 6. Yeley,
7. Neuman, 8. Layser, 9. McIntosh, 10. Mitchell,
11. C. Morton, 12. Truedson, 13. K. Morton, 14.
Baran, 15. Taylor, 16. Hollan.
NT FEATURE:
(30 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Kyle Larson (6), 2. Tyler
Courney (5), 3. Tanner Carrick (11), 4. Chris
Windom (9), 5. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (4), 6. Tyler Thomas (10), 7. Tucker
Klaasmeyer (8), 8. Jerry Coons, Jr. (7), 9.
Jason McDougal (19), 10. Tanner Thorson (14), 11. Jesse Colwell (1), 12.
Zeb Wise (2), 13. Zach Daum (13), 14. C.J. Leary
(21), 15. Holley Hollan (23), 16. Karsyn Elledge (20), 17. Chad Boat (3), 18. Zane Hendricks
(17), 19. Cole Bodine (18), 20. Ace McCarthy (22), 21. Logan Seavey (12),
22. Thomas Meseraull (16), 23. J.J. Yeley (15). NT ---------------------------- **Layser flipped during the first heat. Yeley flipped on lap 10 of the
feature. FEATURE
LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Colwell, Laps 3-14 Larson, Lap 15 Seavey, Laps 16-30
Larson. KSE
RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Jason McDougal (19th to
9th) WILWOOD
BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Zach Daum SALDANA
RACING PRODUCTS FIRST NON-TRANSFER: Jake Neuman
Event: 2019 Bill
Waite, Jr. Memorial Classic
Entries:
32
C&R Racing All Star Warm-Ups: Kyle
Larson - 13.850
Lincoln Electric Fast
Qualifier: Aaron Reutzel - 13.794
Ford
Performance Heat #1: Jimmy Moughan
All Pro Aluminum
Cylinder Heads Heat #2: Brock Zearfoss
Hunt Brothers
Pizza Heat #3: Paul McMahan
Mobil 1 Heat #4:
Brian Paulus
JE Pistons Dash #1: Kyle
Larson
Fatheadz
Eyewear Dash #2: Paul McMahan
Classic Ink USA
B-Main Winner: Gerard McIntyre
Ollie’s
Bargain Outlet A-Main Winner: Aaron Reutzel
MSD Performance
Hard Charger Award: Justin Peck [+12]
Rayce Rudeen Foundation First
Non-Transfer: Steve Meyer
(Lincoln Electric,
MSD Performance, Fatheadz Eyewear, Rayce Rudeen Foundation: Need
decal to qualify for contingency
award)
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