After being suspended from racing for a month, Aaron Reutzel has returned to the sport of sprint car racing, seemingly as comfortable as ever.
The driver, notorious amongst some fans as being the villain of the sport, can now be seen roaming the pits by his Ridge & Sons Racing No. 8 car and T-shirts that dawn the words ‘Jailbreak Tour.’
Now firmly into his start with his new team, Reutzel carries a bit of a bigger smile and a relaxed vibe along with it.
“So far we’ve had some good runs and we’ve had some struggles,” Reutzel said. “We’re just trying to work hard and get better and better. I think with the group of guys here, Brian Ridge, and everyone that’s a part of it, I only see good things to come from it.”
Reutzel is committed to the RSR team to run full-time with them during the 2022 season on an open schedule throughout the year.
That’s something that thrilled Reutzel, and that was just with a microphone in his face. It’s obvious that this offer was one that appealed to the Clute, Texas native.
“They gave me a call, we went and sat down and talked, and it only all made sense,” Reutzel said. “With them being local and where they wanted to race… I think it’s going to be a really good deal. (Running an open schedule) is awesome. You can go to all the cool races and if the weather doesn’t look good you can just stay home.”
Reutzel and RSR will be approaching the schedule with a new wrinkle to their program, as well. The team ran a Toyota engine during its last race at the FVP Platinum Battery Showdown at Lakeside Speedway.
It’s part of the Toyota-TRD program that Reutzel has been apart of for a number of years.
“It’s actually something I’ve been part of since the end of 2018,” Reutzel said. “I think we were actually supposed to get (the engines) in 2019, but some things got delayed. Obviously we had the pandemic and we just couldn’t get parts and what not. I’ve been part of the program for awhile, things just finally worked together where (the product) came my way.”
The program has been a work in progress, and has found its way into the sport before with Gio Scezli.
So far, with Reutzel, they’re hitting on something. The guys brought home a P4 run at Lakeside with a Toyota under the hood for the first time.
“For the first night, I thought it was good,” Reutzel said. “It’s a work in progress. It definitely had differences – a little bit in everything. You saw how long it took, I thought, to get the Ford (engines) right. I feel like we’re already pretty close with this thing.”
The motor was quick off the get go, with Reutzel going from P4 to P2 in the first heat race of the night.
What comes next for him has yet to be figured out, though. It’s the first time he’s ran an engine let alone had time to reflect on the feedback he’ll give them.
“I’m excited aboutit,” Reutzel said. “I just couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity that TRD and Toyota is providing. I can’t thank all those guys enough for believing in me. This is the first time I’ve been a part of really having a motor, so I’m not too sure what really goes on after this.”
Toyota is the latest engine manufacturer to come into the sport, joining Ford – who supplies engines for the pair of Tony Stewart Racing cars – and Chevrolet which supplies the others.
That’s something that could end up being healthy for the sport in the next five or 10 years, if everyone plays their cards right.
“When you start getting corporate involved with Ford and Toyota, I think it’s really great for the sport itself to get those guys involved,” Reutzel said. “For them to want to be a part of sprint car racing, I think there’s only good things to come from that.”
Reutzel and the RSR team will be racing this weekend with the World of Outlaws at Lawton and Devils Bowl before joining the rest of the dirt racing brigade at the World Finals in Charlotte from November 4-6. Fans interested in watching the black-and-white RSR No. 8 can tune into DirtVision and catch all of the action from the rest of the racing season.
