WHEATLAND, Mo. — Tyler Courtney grabbed the lead on lap 18 and turned a close battle into a runaway Saturday night, winning the second annual Kubota High Limit Racing Diamond Classic finale at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Courtney pocketed $25,000 for his first tour victory of the season. “Sunshine” outdistanced second-place Aaron Reutzel by more than six seconds, sprinting away from the competition after a restart on lap 19 – one circuit after the fourth-starting Courtney seized the lead.
“We’ve been really good all weekend,” Courtney said. “We had a part failure on Thursday and were probably a second-place car last night and tonight, I could put this car about wherever I wanted to.
“We had won a few races up to this point last year. It sucks this is (only) our first one this year, but this is a great on to get. This is one of my favorite race tracks.”
Reutzel started third and wasted no time getting to the front, grabbing the lead away from Tanner Thorson on lap one. The night one winner pulled away to a 2.2-second advantage by lap seven with Brad Sweet pressuring Thorson for second.
Thorson then started to slice into the gap and drew within a half-second as the leaders encountered lapped traffic by lap 11. Reutzel fought him off until lap 15, when Thorson took over the top spot going by on the inside off turn two.
Meanwhile, Courtney was lurking and by lap 18 and the 2024 Diamond Classic opening-night winner took the lead when Thorson spun in turn four. Thorson kept his machine moving, avoiding a caution, but fell back to seventh place. Courtney soon had a 1.3-second lead over Reutzel when the race’s first caution flew a lap later as Xavier Doney came to a stop in turn four.
After the restart, Courtney drew away to a 2.3-second lead by lap 25, putting him a commanding position over Reutzel with 10 to go. As he entered slower traffic, instead of finding trouble Courtney kept increasing his cushion to turn it into a runaway.
“It’s tough,” Courtney said of getting to victory lane. “The whole roster we have at High Limit is incredibly talented. For us to get a win and get to drive by those guys to do it makes me feel good. You know you’re beating the best guys to do it. Just a great weekend for us, besides the first night.”
Courtney’s final margin was 6.1 seconds over Reutzel, but the runner-up took over the series points lead with another strong run. Reutzel had a win and a fifth to go with his runner-up finish and he exits with a nine-point series lead over Brad Sweet, who wound up fifth. The duo were tied at the start of the night.
“Our car is good and our team is jelling,” Reutzel said. “I think there are only good things to come.
“It was some great racing,” Reutzel added. “Just a lot of passing. The track was really, really good. I’m pumped to come back later in the year. This place truly is the Diamond of the Dirt Tracks. Hopefully they can make this event bigger and bigger and bigger.”
Night Two winner Rico Abreu finished third with Thorson rallying back to fourth and Sweet settling for fifth.
Daison Pursley set the fast qualifying time with a lap of 13.077 seconds, denying Reutzel a third straight fast time.
The finish:
Feature – 1. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[4]; 2. 87-Aaron Reutzel[3]; 3. 24-Rico Abreu[5]; 4. 88-Tanner Thorson[1]; 5. 49-Brad Sweet[2]; 6. 19-Brent Marks[7]; 7. 42-Sye Lynch[12]; 8. 13-Daison Pursley[6]; 9. 26-Justin Peck[11]; 10. 9-Kasey Kahne[13]; 11. 45X-Landon Crawley[10]; 12. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[8]; 13. 1A-Ashton Torgerson[14]; 14. 14-Spencer Bayston[18]; 15. 5-Brenham Crouch[19]; 16. 9R-Chase Randall[16]; 17. 98P-Miles Paulus[9]; 18. 19H-Hank Davis[21]; 19. 40-Howard Moore[20]; 20. 24D-Danny Sams III[17]; 21. 22M-Rees Moran[24]; 22. 20G-Noah Gass[15]; 23. 74-Xavier Doney[23]; 24. 79-Gage Montgomery[22]
