KANSAS CITY, Kan. — There was upheaval around every corner on Saturday night as Lakeside Speedway’s Heartland of America Showdown presented by Hasty Bake Charcoal Grills brought pure bedlam to Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing.
Everything went sideways on Lap 7 of the 30-lapper when seventh-running Aaron Reutzel got into Tanner Holmes on the restart. The No. 87 went airborne flying down the frontstretch into turn one and the field coming up at him full speed had no chance to avoid.
Aaron Reutzel, Joel Myers Jr., Chris Martin, and Kerry Madsen all went for vicious flips. Rico Abreu, Justin Henderson, Brent Marks, Justin Peck, and Ryan Timms were also involved in some fashion.
Reutzel’s No. 87 burst into flames, but he quickly climbed out as did all drivers stuck in the nine-car melee.
The drama was far from over, however, as championship leader Rico Abreu was disqualified during the cleanup process as the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanain Racing team was caught re-fueling the No. 24 in the work area.
Following the chaos that engulfed his championship counterparts, Giovanni Scelzi fired back off and finished the job as he led all 30 laps for his third score at Lakeside Speedway. It was his second victory aboard the Spire Motorsports, Chili’s Grill & Bar No. 77 – first since he won the $100,000 Bob Weikert Memorial at Port Royal Speedway win in July.
In the aftermath of everything, the see-saw results will send Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing to Texas Motor Speedway’s All-In Championship Weekend (Oct. 16-17) with a trio of drivers in title contention. Abreu/TSR lead Scelzi/Spire (-45) and Reutzel/RSR (-77) with two nights in Fort Worth to decide it all.
Behind Scelzi was the red-hot Daison Pursley, who fell short of delivering his first win with Kasey Kahne Racing by a mere 0.189-seconds at the checkered flag. The Locust Grove, Oklahoma native has now rattled off three-straight podiums with High Limit and back-to-back runner-up results in the NAPA Auto Parts No. 9 at Lakeside Speedway.
Closing out the podium was Brady Bacon with his best run yet aboard the Vermeer Motorsports No. 55 in third. Tanner Holmes’ brought the Buch Motorsports No.13 home in fourth while Tyler Courtney claimed another fifth-place run in the Clauson-Marshall Racing machine.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 77-Giovanni Scelzi[1]; 2. 9-Daison Pursley[6]; 3. 55-Brady Bacon[2]; 4. 13-Tanner Holmes[4]; 5. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[7]; 6. 9R-Chase Randall[14]; 7. 88-Tanner Thorson[12]; 8. 28-Jace Park[22]; 9. 4-Kasey Kahne[8]; 10. 22M-Rees Moran[11]; 11. 10-Ryan Timms[13]; 12. F1-JJ Hickle[23]; 13. 19-Brent Marks[18]; 14. 26-Justin Peck[24]; 15. 24D-Danny Sams III[25]; 16. 45X-Ashton Torgerson[20]; 17. 27-Carson McCarl[17]; 18. 87-Aaron Reutzel[5]; 19. 5P-Joel Myers Jr[10]; 20. 44-Chris Martin[9]; 21. 17GP-Kerry Madsen[16]; 22. 7SL-Justin Henderson[19]; 23. 19H-Kaleb Johnson[15]; 24. 88W-Austin McCarl[3]; 25. (DQ) 24-Rico Abreu[21]
