Lonnie Wheatley, POCOLA, Okla. (November 11, 2023) – Aaron Reutzel rose to the occasion on Saturday night by racing to the POWRi 410 Sprint Series “Salute to Service” $12,000 winner’s share in the 30-lap event finale atop the 3/8-mile Tri-State Speedway.
The Clute, TX, native emerged from a mid-race scramble for the point with Brenham Crouch and Sam Hafertepe, Jr., and then survived a green-white-checkered restart in the final stages to secure his 13th overall win of the 2023 season aboard the RSR No. 8x Sprint Car.
After setting the night’s quick time of 12.966 seconds over the field of 26 in qualifying, Reutzel went on to earn the pole position for the feature and outgunned fellow front row starter Crouch at the outset.
The young Crouch kept pace with Reutzel however as lapped traffic came into play after just a handful of circuits with Friday night winner Hafertepe, Jr., joining in on the lead chase as well.
Crouch kept the pressure on and slid into the lead in turn two on the 13th round only to have Reutzel successfully counter the move. Hafertepe, Jr., carried his momentum past both Crouch and Reutzel in turns three and four before Reutzel rallied back to the front in the next pair of corners.
“It was time to get after it,” Reutzel said of the mid-race challenges for command.
Back out front, Reutzel turned up the wick and stretched his advantage out to a half straightaway only to see the yellow lights flick on for the only time of the race just as the white flag was presented when Matt Covington got a piece of the wall exiting turn four and spun on the frontstretch with Paul Nienhiser toppling over in the ensuing scattering for position.
Hafertepe, Jr., had capitalized on a Crouch miscue exiting turn two with just a handful of laps remaining to capture second and restarted on Reutzel’s tailtank with a shot at a “Salute to Service” sweep, but to no avail as Reutzel launched into a healthy advantage when the green flag dropped a final time that he maintained to the checkered flag.
“I had a great restart after that caution,” Reutzel summed up.
Hafertepe, Jr., settled for runner-up honors with Cory Eliason making a late move to claim the show position. Crouch slipped to fourth in the closing laps with Noah Gass rounding out the top five. Landon Crawley claimed sixth in just his second night of 410-ci competition with Jake Park, current POWRi 410 points leader Ayrton Gennetten, 16th-starter Zane Devault and 20th-starter J.J. Hickle completing the top ten.
With his seventh-place finish, Gennetten stretched his series advantage to 230 points over Joe B. Miller with only Sunday evening’s card at Tulsa Speedway remaining on the slate.
After Reutzel set quick time in qualifying, Hafertepe, Jr., Eliason and Nienhiser scored heat race wins with Gage Montgomery best in the “B” Main.
POWRi 410 Sprint Cars
Tri-State Speedway (Pocola, OK)
November 11, 2023, Results:
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 8X-Aaron Reutzel[1]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[4]; 3. 8-Cory Eliason[5]; 4. 1-Brenham Crouch[2]; 5. 20G-Noah Gass[9]; 6. 7S-Landon Crawley[3]; 7. 87J-Jace Park[11]; 8. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[7]; 9. 6Z-Zane DeVault[16]; 10. 22X-JJ Hickle[20]; 11. 52-Blake Hahn[12]; 12. 17GP-Cole Duncan[13]; 13. 22-Riley Goodno[18]; 14. 84-Brandon Hanks[15]; 15. 51B-Joe B Miller[14]; 16. 95-Matt Covington[6]; 17. 79-Gage Montgomery[17]; 18. 37-Bryce Norris[19]; 19. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[8]; 20. 16TH-Kevin Newton[22]; 21. 11-Roger Crockett[10]; 22. G6-Cody Gardner[21]
B Feature (12 Laps): 1. 79-Gage Montgomery[2]; 2. 22-Riley Goodno[1]; 3. 37-Bryce Norris[3]; 4. 22X-JJ Hickle[10]; 5. G6-Cody Gardner[7]; 6. 16TH-Kevin Newton[9]; 7. 67-Jonathan Hughes[4]; 8. 50K-Kyle Bellm[5]; 9. (DNS) 88R-Ryder Laplante; 10. (DNS) 91-Riley Kreisel
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[2]; 2. 8X-Aaron Reutzel[4]; 3. 95-Matt Covington[3]; 4. 87J-Jace Park[5]; 5. 51B-Joe B Miller[1]; 6. 22-Riley Goodno[6]; 7. 67-Jonathan Hughes[9]; 8. 88R-Ryder Laplante[7]; 9. 16TH-Kevin Newton[8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8-Cory Eliason[2]; 2. 1-Brenham Crouch[4]; 3. 11-Roger Crockett[1]; 4. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[3]; 5. 6Z-Zane DeVault[5]; 6. 37-Bryce Norris[6]; 7. 50K-Kyle Bellm[7]; 8. G6-Cody Gardner[8]; 9. (DNS) 22X-JJ Hickle
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[1]; 2. 7S-Landon Crawley[4]; 3. 20G-Noah Gass[2]; 4. 52-Blake Hahn[5]; 5. 84-Brandon Hanks[6]; 6. 79-Gage Montgomery[7]; 7. 17GP-Cole Duncan[3]; 8. 91-Riley Kreisel[8]
Qualifying 1: 1. 8X-Aaron Reutzel, 00:12.966[10]; 2. 1-Brenham Crouch, 00:13.030[13]; 3. 7S-Landon Crawley, 00:13.270[14]; 4. 95-Matt Covington, 00:13.281[21]; 5. 19-Ayrton Gennetten, 00:13.334[23]; 6. 17GP-Cole Duncan, 00:13.386[5]; 7. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 00:13.395[6]; 8. 8-Cory Eliason, 00:13.395[26]; 9. 20G-Noah Gass, 00:13.395[12]; 10. 51B-Joe B Miller, 00:13.479[8]; 11. 11-Roger Crockett, 00:13.481[22]; 12. 9X-Paul Nienhiser, 00:13.529[24]; 13. 87J-Jace Park, 00:13.604[2]; 14. 6Z-Zane DeVault, 00:13.649[9]; 15. 52-Blake Hahn, 00:13.650[25]; 16. 22-Riley Goodno, 00:13.693[1]; 17. 37-Bryce Norris, 00:13.775[7]; 18. 84-Brandon Hanks, 00:13.781[18]; 19. 88R-Ryder Laplante, 00:14.019[19]; 20. 50K-Kyle Bellm, 00:14.048[15]; 21. 79-Gage Montgomery, 00:14.084[17]; 22. 16TH-Kevin Newton, 00:14.096[16]; 23. G6-Cody Gardner, 00:14.104[4]; 24. 91-Riley Kreisel, 00:14.127[3]; 25. 67-Jonathan Hughes, 00:14.481[11]; 26. 22X-JJ Hickle, 01:00.000[20]