CLUTE, Texas – Aaron Reutzel is back.
After serving a 30-day suspension levied by the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series for an attempt to circumvent the sanctioning body’s inspection process and subsequently parting with Roth Motorsports, Reutzel returns to racing this weekend with the All Star Circuit of Champions at Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park.
He’ll be aboard the Ridge and Son Racing No. 8 with crew chief Tyler Swank.
“I really didn’t expect something to come together this soon,” Reutzel said in a press release Wednesday evening. “I thought it would be later in the year when other things started to shake up.”
Timing worked out for Reutzel, who replaces Lynton Jeffrey after his contract with the team expired in last weekend’s season finale at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway.
“Lynton was the one who when Aaron got suspended said, ‘You’ve got to go hire this guy’,” team owner Brian Ridge said. “He was instrumental in helping get this team going and pushing us along to that.”
Expectations for both Reutzel and Ridge aligned when they hashed out a game plan for the rest of the year.
“Once we all sat down and talked, it seemed like an ideal situation for everyone involved,” Reutzel says. “Tyler [Swank] and I both like to be at home as much as we can, so now we can pick the races that we want to go to and when we don’t want to be out traveling because of weather or stuff like that then we can stay close to home and race at Knoxville.”
The slate for Reutzel and RSR is likely to be a pick-and-choose style schedule of events.
“I hadn’t really been looking to get on the World of Outlaws tour, there was just an offer that I couldn’t say no to,” Reutzel said. “This new opportunity really fits what I had been looking for. We’ll look to do about 80 races a year.”
The Jailbreak Tour, as the team calls it, begins Friday and Saturday in familiar territory for the three-time All Star Circuit of Champions title winner, as he’s back in action with the series at the Attica clay oval.
“Attica is a place that I feel like we’ve always been really good or really bad,” Reutzel said. “Hopefully we hit it right and get things off on the right foot with RSR this weekend.”
Reutzel has been on the podium in four of his last seven All Star Circuit of Champions starts at Attica Raceway Park including a pair of wins, one of which occurred on the opening night of the 2019 Attica Ambush.
With five wins on the season thus far, including one in All Star competition to open the season, Reutzel looks to add his to his 37 career All Star Circuit of Champions wins this weekend.