WHEATLAND, Mo. — There was nothing fluky about Aaron Reutzel’s victory in the second annual Kubota High Limit Racing Diamond Classic opener on Thursday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Reutzel was fast all night, from setting quick time in qualifying to driving to the 30-lap feature victory — though he had to withstand a frantic charge from Tanner Thorson over the final three laps.
“Just a super cool weekend and great way to get it started,” Reutzel said. “I’m not gonna call it a dominant performance by any means. He made me work for it, for sure.”
Reutzel, a Texan who now lives in Knoxville, Iowa, took the lead on lap 12 and held off Thorson in a frantic finish by a scant .101 seconds. He picked up the win on a program that was part of High Limit Racing’s Roto Rooter Midweek Series and grabbed the season lead there.
It was Reutzel’s fourth High Limit victory of the season and he drew within four points of Brad Sweet for the High Limit championship lead.
Thorson came from 10th to make it a thriller at the end.
“It comes down to having a really good race car,” Thorson said. “Hats off to our guys. I can’t thank those guys enough for the effort they put into this thing.”
Tyler Courtney started outside row one and grabbed the early lead, firing out to a two-second command over third-starting Reutzel by lap five. Courtney was closing on lapped cars by lap 10 as Reutzel was on the move, closing within a half-second.
Two laps later, Reutzel blew past Courtney on the outside of turn two for the lead. Right after that, Kasey Kahne suffered a flat tire and slowed on the speedway to bring out the first caution.
Reutzel continued to roll after the restart, pushing his lead to one second by lap 16. He was .846 seconds clear of Courtney on lap 21 when Courtney slowed as Ashton Torgerson rolled to a stop in turn four for the race’s second caution.
Thorson quickly moved into second after the restart and caught the leader with three to go and pulling alongside on the white flag lap. But Reutzel would not be denied, holding off Thorson’s final-turn slider for the win by .101 seconds at the checkers.
“Reutzel was getting tight down there and I was able to make up a lot of ground off of (turn) two,” Thorson said. “I wasn’t able to clear him and pass him, but I knew I had to try to because of how tight he was getting in the turns. Hats off to those guys. He drove a hell of a race.”
Reutzel said he was fortunate not to spin when the last caution flew and stay in position to win.
“It was nice to have our speed in qualifying, like we’ve been having,” Reutzel said. “I don’t think our car is where it needs to be to come from 10th or so to win, but we’re getting close. We were really, really good tonight early. I started struggling at the end.
“I saw the big screen and saw the 88 (Thorson) coming and I went as hard as I could the last three. I wasn’t surprised to see the 88 coming. I told Tanner today that I hope he doesn’t figure out qualifying because that car has been bad-fast race-wise. He’s really, really good right now.”
Sweet, the reigning High Limit Racing champion, drove from 11th to third with Randall finishing fourth and NASCAR champion Kyle Larson, who started ninth, rallying to fifth.
Sweet called it “a good start to the weekend. “We’ve struggled the last couple of weeks,” Sweet said. “We’ve had struggles in qualifying and struggled tonight to get the balance right but when it mattered, in the A-Main, we were pretty close.”
Reutzel set fast qualifying time at 13.308 seconds. It was about a half-second shy of the track record of 12.829, set by Rico Abreu on June 29, 2024.
The finish:
Feature (35 Laps): 1. 87-Aaron Reutzel[3]; 2. 88-Tanner Thorson[10]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet[11]; 4. 9R-Chase Randall[4]; 5. 57-Kyle Larson[9]; 6. 19-Brent Marks[7]; 7. 13-Daison Pursley[1]; 8. 20G-Noah Gass[8]; 9. 19H-Kevin Thomas Jr[5]; 10. 24-Rico Abreu[20]; 11. 26-Justin Peck[14]; 12. 74-Xavier Doney[13]; 13. 14-Spencer Bayston[12]; 14. 5-Brenham Crouch[18]; 15. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[16]; 16. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[2]; 17. 79-Gage Montgomery[24]; 18. 42-Sye Lynch[21]; 19. 45X-Landon Crawley[23]; 20. 21-Brian Brown[15]; 21. 9-Kasey Kahne[6]; 22. 21X-JJ Hickle[22]; 23. 1A-Ashton Torgerson[19]; 24. 22M-Rees Moran[17]
