FORT WORTH, Texas — Coming into the penultimate weekend of Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing last Friday and Saturday at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas, some were already prepared to etch Rico Abreu’s name into the championship trophy for a second straight season.
But in the immortal words of Lee Corso, the iconic analyst for years on ESPN’s College GameDay, “Not so fast, my friend!”
After scoring his eighth win of the season in the 4-Crown Nationals finale Sept. 16 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, Abreu held a commanding 116-point lead in the championship standings with just four races remaining.
But a 12th-place finish and a disqualification during two nights of racing Oct. 9-10 at Lakeside whacked Abreu’s advantage down to just 45 points heading into the All-In Championship Weekend this Friday and Saturday at The Dirt Track at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, the home track for Dallas-based Interstate Batteries, title partner of High Limit Racing.
Abreu’s untimely misfortune coincided with the good fortune of his closest championship rivals – second-place Gio Scelzi and third-place Aaron Reutzel.
Before rolling into Lakeside, Scelzi was second in the title chase, 116 points behind Abreu. Reutzel was third, 117 points back.
On Friday night when Abreu finished 12th, Reutzel found victory lane to end a 12-race winless streak. Scelzi, meanwhile, finished third. This put Reutzel second in the title chase, 89 points down to Abreu. Scelzi fell to third, 97 points off the lead.
Saturday at Lakeside is when chaos reigned. Scelzi won, Reutzel crashed, and with Abreu disqualified, a championship that seemed ironclad a week prior was suddenly very much in play, with just 45 points separating Abreu from second-place Scelzi.
“I feel like we’ve been the hunter all year long,” said Scelzi, whose two wins for the first-year Spire Motorsports team have been augmented by a series-best 41 top-10 finishes this season. “It felt like we were a fifth-to-eighth-place car every night in the beginning of the year, but after Skagit there in early September, we’ve gotten our car a lot closer. We’re not really making many changes throughout the night. We seem to unload fast, which makes your night go a lot smoother. Honing in on our setup has been the biggest thing and really elevated our confidence of late.”
Despite two nights of racing at Lakeside that quickly consumed 71 points of Abreu’s once imposing advantage, the reigning champion goes into Texas with a winning mindset. After all, Abreu swept last year’s two-day finale at Texas to take the title.
“I’m very determined to win these races,” Abreu said. “Last year we doubled up and swept the Texas championship weekend, and that was really, really special. Knowing where we’re at this year, it’s just about putting yourself in the right position, and that’s the mentality I’ve always had – big picture, consistency and maximizing points.”
Abreu has also shown the ability to rebound. After finishing 17th and 22nd, respectively, at Santa Maria (Calif.) Speedway and Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, California, Aug. 20-21, Abreu finished outside the top-10 just once in the 17 races leading up to Lakeside, earning four wins and seven podiums during that stretch. The Tony Stewart Racing driver turned a 69-point deficit to then-leader Reutzel into a 117-point advantage.
“When the pressure’s on and you’re out on the racetrack in the most crucial of times, you want to just stay calm, slow things down and not overthink anything,” Abreu said. “Watching a guy like Tony Stewart, seeing how he dissects a racecar and listening to him, has helped me a lot with how I approach things. It’s helped me mature as a racecar driver.”
It’s appropriate that Abreu’s steadiness and Scelzi’s ascension converge in the All-In Championship Weekend at Texas.
