PORT ROYAL, Pa. — Aaron Reutzel ascended to the top of his new ride, the Ridge and Sons Racing No. 8, Sunday night at Wayne County Speedway in Orville, Ohio, and enjoyed every bit of his latest victory.
He pointed the checkered flag skyward. The cascade of boos rained down. Like a conductor prompting his choir to turn up the volume, Reutzel controlled the tune. He waved his arm up and down, then side to side.
“Cheater! Cheater! Cheater!” the chants proclaimed.
The disapproval grew louder. Reutzel egged it on one more time.
“Check the chassis! Let them check the chassis!”
“Man, he is getting hounded!”
Just one weekend into his return from a 30-day suspension for circumventing the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series inspection process, Reutzel is consumed with a new reality.
He and his new team are embracing their treatment as sprint car racing’s villains.
“If I’m getting some kind of noise, that means I’m probably on the frontstretch making money,” Reutzel said. “So that’s good.”
The team’s owner, Brian Ridge, is leveraging his new driver like a clever World Wrestling Entertainment act.
“Jailbreak Tour” is the campaign name for Reutzel’s comeback from one of the harshest penalties in recent memory and subsequent fallout from Roth Motorsports.
Ridge’s new team shirts are orange that mimic prison jumpsuits. “DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS” and “INMATE # 000008 REUTZEL” are spaced across the chest.
“He likes all the controversy,” Reutzel said. “He likes getting booed. All that’s helped me keep a job [in racing] with him.”
Reutzel was caught trying to use an unapproved chassis manufactured in 2012 during a World of Outlaws race at Weedsport (N.Y.) Speedway on July 31. An official noticed Reutzel powder-coated the white chassis that had undersized tubing. The inspection sticker had been tampered with too.
It wasn’t the first time Reutzel was in the middle of controversy. In May, he was recorded in a fist fight with World of Outlaws driver Wayne Johnson. During the exchange, Reutzel threw his bicycle at Johnson.
When asked if he left Roth Motorsports on his terms, Reutzel said, “Things happened. I’m just excited to be here.”
“You can come out and support,” Reutzel said, answering a question if he had something to say to sprint car followers. “I’m here.”
After his raucous win at Wayne County late Sunday, Reutzel fired up his Chevy pickup truck and lugged five hours, through the middle of the night, to Central Pennsylvania.
He stopped at a hotel around 4:30 a.m. Monday, just past State College, in advance of Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway’s Labor Day Classic at 1 p.m.
In the 25-lap feature, he blistered his normal top groove early on to power from 10th and into second place. Reutzel couldn’t reel in eventual winner Danny Dietrich and settled for a runner-up finish.
That gives Reutzel a 17th-place finish, a DNQ, a win and a second-place finish in his first four races for Ridge and Sons.
“So far, so good,” Reutzel said. “The first two nights we weren’t very good. We’ve just been clicking away and figuring things out. What I need, what the car needs, that combination. Last night we were really good. [Saturday] I thought we were really good.
“Off on a couple spots early, but I thought in the A-Main, we were really close,” Reutzel said on his run Monday at Port Royal. “Just a couple little things and we’ll be right there.
“I’m ready to go back to the bar,” Reutzel said as he continued the long walk back to the pits from Port Royal’s frontstretch where he received more disapproval from afar for another podium run.
A smile, however, appeared on his grimy face.
“This is going to be a lot more fun, a lot more style,” Reutzel said of his new handpicked schedule.
On Saturday, the three-time champion of the All Star Circuit of Champions gets another shot at the $54,000-to-win Tuscarora 50.
When Reutzel won the Crown Jewel in 2019, his victory roar could be heard throughout Port Royal Speedway.
.@AaronReutzel is PUMPED (and $52k richer) pic.twitter.com/HSx1CO17Q5
— Kyle McFadden (@ByKyleMcFadden) September 8, 2019
Another victory roar would likely get drowned out by something louder.
He smiled.
“Let’s do it again,” Reutzel said.