FREMONT, Ohio — Aaron Reutzel wrapped up his third consecutive Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 championship by winning Saturday night’s Jim and Joanne Ford Classic at Fremont Speedway.
The $10,000 victory aboard the familiar Baughman-Reutzel Motorsports/Folkens Brothers Trucking No. 87 sprint car, bumped Reutzel’s season win total to 11.
The 2020 All Star title earned Aaron Reutzel and Baughman-Reutzel Motorsports a $65,000 top prize, increasing the evening’s total value to $75,000.
Reutzel has also won the season finale in each of his championship seasons.
“I can’t say enough about the Baughmans for giving me such an incredible opportunity to drive their cars. I couldn’t be more proud of this entire team. It’s absolutely incredible what we’ve been able to do in such a short amount of time,” Reutzel said. “What we’ve accomplished, I never would have dreamed. Everyone plays a massive part.”
Reutzel led all 40 laps on Saturday night. Although slower traffic was in full force during much of the contest, entering the picture as early as lap six, Reutzel never faltered, maintaining control during each wave of lappers, which were separated by a caution on lap 13. A blessing, perhaps, the event’s second and final pause kept Reutzel from having to navigate a moving wall of traffic comprised of cars two and three wide.
From that point, Reutzel was untouchable, ultimately escaping to a commanding lead while keeping upwards of five lapped cars between himself and second-place running Cap Henry.
In hot pursuit of a Jim and Joanne Ford Classic weekend sweep, Henry would eventually fade to third, losing a last lap battle to a hard-charging Cole Duncan who surged ahead from 18th.
“Tonight just went our way,” Reutzel continued. “When you qualify well and get into the dash, you are able to try things. Last night, the ruts never went away. It got slick all around them, but the rutts never went away. I figured tonight was going to be a repeat of that, so I told (crew chief) let’s go for it. Let’s live or die by the ruts. It played out good and it was definitely a gamble. But I wanted to make $10,000 on top of that $65,000. Fremont Speedway was bad ass today.”
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 87-Aaron Reutzel [1]; 2. 22C-Cole Duncan [17]; 3. 4-Cap Henry [3]; 4. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [10]; 5. W20-Greg Wilson [7]; 6. 71-Shane Stewart [4]; 7. O7-Bill Balog [6]; 8. 70-Cale Thomas [15]; 9. 28-Tim Shaffer [20]; 10. 13-Paul McMahan [8]; 11. 81-Lee Jacobs [21]; 12. 11-Zeb Wise [23]; 13. 5T-Travis Philo [9]; 14. 3C-Cale Conley [13]; 15. 99-Skylar Gee [18]; 16. 16-DJ Foos [14]; 17. 3J-Trey Jacobs [19]; 18. O9-Craig Mintz [11]; 19. 19-Paige Polyak [12]; 20. 15K-Chad Kemenah [22]; 21. 3-Jac Haudenschild [16]; 22. 17-Ian Madsen [2]; 23. 26-Cory Eliason [5]; 24. 22B-Ryan Broughton [24] Lap Leaders: Aaron Reutzel (1-40)