DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Aaron Reutzel's big World of Outlaws penalty explained | DIRTRACKR Daily 8/5/21
Today is Thursday, August 5th, two thousand and twenty one. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we dive into the big penalties for Aaron Reutzel and Roth Motorsports, talk last night's USAC midget and Super DIRTcar Series races, and look ahead to tonight's opener for the 360 Knoxville Nationals and USA Nationals.
Before we dive in, if you like what I'm doing here, please subscribe to the show, leave a review, and hit those follow and notification buttons depending on where you consume this. Make sure to follow @dirtrackr on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. And don't forget dirtrackr.com has a bunch more cool dirt racing stuff. Now, let's get going.
The news I alluded to late in yesterday's show finally dropped last night. There had been rumors flying around for days, but we finally got the official release from the World of Outlaws about Aaron Reutzel. Following the weekend in New York, Reutzel was discovered to be using a chassis that had previously been declared to have tubing that was too thin, hence making it illegal. Reutzel and his team repainted the chassis, and then used an inspection sticker from a legal chassis to try and cover it up. For the violation of the rules, Reutzel has been fined $10,000 which must be paid in full by August 28th to not incur further penalties. He's also lost 1000 driver points and is suspended for 30 days from Outlaw competition. Along with that, Roth Motorsports has been fined $10,000, deducted 500 owner points, and is on probation through the 2022 season.
As of right now, Reutzel has not been stripped of the Friday night win at Ransomville. According to Jeremy Elliott, his car passed post race inspection. This all went down on Saturday at Weedsport, and when confronted by series officials, Reutzel admitted to the violations. He used a legal car for the Weedsport race.
So, with all that said, there is a lot to unpack here. First, with Reutzel unable to race, Roth is moving forward this weekend at Pevely with Parker Price Miller in the car. We don't know going forward who will race it, as PPM is committed to Guy Forbrook for the Nationals. There are a lot of rumors flying around about Reutzel's future with the team. I've seen a lot of comments wondering why it's just Reutzel suspended and not Roth as a whole, but it's important to understand here how the team is setup. When Reutzel joined Roth in the offseason, he wanted things his way. He wanted to choose his own crew, and run chassis and engines that he likes. So in essence, this is Reutzel's team with a Roth paint job and Roth backing. I'd say it's nearly certain that Dennis Roth and Todd Ventura didn't know anything about this. I think that's also probably a big reason why it's PPM this weekend, because he has his own equipment. They can sticker PPM's car up like the 83 and move forward.
As for the history of this particular car, Triple X tweeted out the chassis was built in 2011 and was legal and has passed Outlaw inspection five times. Word is this car was teched earlier in the season at Knoxville and was found to be illegal. On the TJSlideways podcast, Jeremy Elliott kind of made it seem like the Outlaw officials swept that under the rug, but the information I got is that Reutzel did have to use a spare that night. And that's usually the process. Tech official Tom Devitt comes around and checks cars, and if they are found to be illegal, drivers aren't allowed to use them. It's that simple, and there are no further penalties. Often times teams attempt to run cars without even knowing they are illegal. Sometimes through the repair and maintenance processes, chassis can lose thickness. In this case with Reutzel, the tubing thickness is almost secondary to the situation. The bigger problem is that Reutzel knew the car wasn't legal, and tried to circumvent the system to race it anyway. Why he did that, I don't know. Reutzel hasn't spoken publicly. There doesn't seem to be consensus on if thinner tubing is really a competitive advantage. I've heard weight savings and a chassis that flexes more, but whether those are big enough advantages, I don't know. It's also possible, and this is just simply speculation on my part, that Reutzel was using the car because of the supply chain issues plaguing everyone right now. The car manufacturers have struggled just like Hoosier and the engine builders. He may have decided to race the car because he needed it in rotation in case something happened and he crashed another car. Again, I don't know that for sure, just thinking out loud.
I know that many in the sprint car community were unhappy this week, especially that the process took so long and it was Wednesday before penalties were announced. I get that, but in defense of Carlton Reimers and Mike Hess and Tom Devitt, it's better to take the time to get things right. This was a clear attempt to circumvent the rules and the process, and the series needed to take the time to get the information straight and make the right decisions. They dropped the hammer on Reutzel and Roth, and they should have. There is no place for this at any level. Going forward, even if Reutzel somehow keeps the ride, this will have a big impact on his season. Both Knoxville and the All Stars are upholding the penalty, so Reutzel's options will be limited for the next 30 days. He's missing out on big money shows at Pevely and Knoxville, plus races at River Cities, Red River Valley, Huset's, I-80, and Black Hills. He wouldn't be eligible to race again until Skagit in early September. The loss of 1000 points will put him behind James McFadden in the standings, and JMac continuing to race for the next month will separate the two even further for rookie of the year. What was going to be an easy win for Reutzel is now gone for that award. So massive points losses in the standings, the fine, a big hit to prize money, and probably merchandise sales. For those of you that don't think the penalties were harsh enough, consider all the fallout from this.
There are still more rumors flying around about the races last weekend and what could potentially happen in the coming days, so we'll just have to see what plays out. As a general rule for me and this show, I'm not super interested in talking about unsubstantiated rumors or breaking news on this show. There are plenty of other places to find those things, and I don't like the slippery slope that can come from that. All in all, it's an unfortunate situation that Reutzel and his actions created. He's going to pay a hefty price, and hopefully this will deter others from doing this in the future. Drop me a comment below or on social and let me know your thoughts on the situation.
Moving on to some actual racing.
Eastern Midget Week continued last night for the USAC National Midgets at Action Track USA in Pennsylvania. As usual, the track put on another fantastic night of racing. In the night's feature, things got heated right on lap one. Emerson Axsom went fourth to the lead on the first lap around Buddy Kofoid, Thomas Meseraull, and Daison Pursley. Out of turn four with TMez to his inside, Axsom carried the front wheels tryin got get a big run off, which caused his car to move to the left in a hurry. TMez had no where to go on exit, and contact with Axsom led to TMez getting spun. Justin Grant came along with no where to go, hit TMez, and ended up tumbling down the frontstretch. Afterwards, TMez was pissed, and ran down to Axsom's car where he proceeded to have choice words and hand signals inside of Axsom's car. Luck certainly hasn't been on TMez's side lately, and I think things just boiled over for him. Axsom's move wasn't intentional, just pretty clearly a mistake. There was lots of talk on social media about winning the race on the first lap, which I understand and agree with. A young driver made a mistake and TMez and Grant got the blunt end. Interestingly, Axsom said after that he was sorry for the crash with TMez, but that TMez has wrecked a lot of people too and it goes both ways. Once green again, Daison Pursley ended up officially leading all 30 laps, but inside ten to go he had to hold off sliders from Axsom through lap traffic. In the end, he made just enough moves to keep Axsom at bay. It was Pursley's second career win, and second in six races. Behind him, Axsom was second, Buddy Kofoid third, Hayden Williams fourth, and Chris Windom was fifth. The points standings remain tight with Windom 18 back of Kofoid, and Axsom 41 back. I didn't realize this until last night, but apparently Buddy is hurt. He has a broken wrist and a broken foot from a pavement late model crash at Elko Speedway in Minnesota back on July 24th. It can't be easy to drive a midget like that, and it's probably amazing that he's finished 10th and third so far this week. These injuries come at a pivotal time in the season, and it will be interesting to see if he can keep Windom and Axsom behind him. Even though he might not be super popular right now, Emerson Axsom has been on fire. He's now finished fourth or better in nine of his past ten starts, and his average finish over the last five races is a series best 2.2. Eastern Midget Week continues tonight at Bridgeport. You can watch live on FloRacing.
The Super DIRTcar Series was at Land of Legends Raceway in Canandaigua, New York last night for twin 60 lap features. The first was the continuation of the previously postponed Liberty 100, and at the end it was Peter Britten celebrating an emotional win. He slipped by Tim Fuller following a lap eight restart and was never challenged out front again. It was only his second career series win, and first since 2017. He began running Canandaigua weekly this season. Behind him, Erick Rudolph finished second, Tim Fuller third, Jimmy Phelps fourth, and Jack Lehner was fifth. In the night's second 60 lapper, we had a big crash right at the start when Larry Wight got spun around on the frontstretch. It also collected Daniel Johnson, Jordan McCreadie, and Justin Wright, with cars getting turned over. Everyone was okay. Later, Stewart Friesen rolled the bottom by leader Mike Mahaney on lap 13 and drove away to the win. It was Friesen's first win at Canandaigua since 2005 and his fifth of the season. Fuller, Mahaney, Rudolph, and Matt Sheppard completed the top five. Friesen maintains the series points lead over Sheppard, with Orange County Fair Speedway coming up next Thursday, August 12th.
Tonight is the opening night of the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. The Thursday schedule includes a complete, standard World of Outlaws show with USRA Limited Late Models also on the card. Tomorrow is heat races and the dash, which sets up Saturday night's $50,000 to win 100 lapper. There are obviously plenty of storylines to follow this weekend including the World of Outlaws points fight and who can pickup another late model crown jewel win. At the USA Nationals in 2020, it was all Brandon Overton. He led all 30 laps of the prelim feature and 57 of the 100 to bag the $50 grand. Brandon Sheppard, Ashton Winger, Chris Madden, and Jonathan Davenport all also have wins at Cedar Lake in recent seasons. This was also the race last year that Tyler Erb flipped around backwards on the track to go after Bobby Pierce under a caution, which subsequently led to his suspension from DIRTcar and Outlaw sanctioned events. Looking at some drivers to watch tonight, I'd definitely keep an eye on Davenport, Madden, Sheppard, and Overton. Ricky Weiss also has some good past runs at Cedar lake. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula heavily favors Davenport. If you can't be there, you can watch live on DIRTVision. Important note though, the USA Nationals are not part of the fast pass. If you want to watch, tonight and tomorrow are $24.99 while Saturday is $29.99. You can buy the three day package for $59.99. I've seen a lot of complaints about this, but remember that streaming continues to be way cheaper than it was in past years. It's my understanding that keeping this event pay per view is a track deal.
Also getting underway tonight is the 360 Knoxville Nationals. Tonight and tomorrow are prelim programs setting up Saturday's big show that pays $15,000 to win. At last count, we are somewhere near 93 entries for the week and the list of drivers is stout. It's the Knoxville regulars you'd expect, plus the ASCS contingent, and plenty more like Cory Eliason, Shane Golobic, Brady Bacon, Tyler Courtney, Joey Saldana, Gio Scelzi, Daryn Pittman, Sammy Swindell, and more. Kerry Madsen is the defending race winner, but it doesn't appear as though he'll be in attendance. It should be a really fun couple of nights of racing and you can watch the action live on DIRTVision with your platinum fast pass or via pay per view.
There are nine shows on the streaming schedule today, including the opening night of the 360 Knoxville Nationals and USA Nationals on DIRTVision, the USAC midgets at Bridgeport on FloRacing, the USMTS modifieds from 81 Speedway on RacinDirt, and weekly and regional action from several tracks as well. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, hope you have a good Thursday. If you have thoughts about the topics on today's show, leave them in the comments below or tweet at me.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!