For an amount of time going into the weekend at Bristol, it looked like it might be a parade of cars on a one-groove race track.
Not only did the World of Outlaws and Aaron Reutzel prove that wrong on Friday night, but the 83 made a run from ninth-to-second that was only halted by a yellow flag flying with five laps to go.
Oh yeah, and they did it after changing their second engine this weekend.
“It’s rewarding, but I still would have rather not had the problems in the first place and started out front,” Crew Chief Dylan Buswell said after the race. “It’s always nice when you can turn a bad night into a good result.”
Reutzel went out for his hot lap session and took the green flag, before pulling off the track and going back to his pit by the blue-and-white 83 hauler.
The crew would have to execute an engine change with just one hot lap session in front of qualifying remaining. If they missed their scheduled qualifying spot, it could have resulted in a loss of a qualifying lap or even just a last-place result.
Yet, they got the job done and Reutzel attributed to it saving their entire night.
“My guys did a phenomenal job – even today when we had to change motors after hot laps,” Reutzel said. “It’s pretty tough to make it back out for your qualifying spot. My guys did a great job today getting us back out. It salvaged our night.”
The crew, lead by Buswell has a plan in place for situations like this.
Any time they need to change an engine, a wing, or anything the like they know exactly who is doing what and where.
“Aaron ran his own team for many years as well – he’s always been kind of a hands-on guy, so it’s never really an issue to him (to go to work on the motor as soon as he steps out of the car),” Buswell said. “We always have an engine-change plan in place as far as who’s job is what. It’s really no stress.”
The team has gotten a little better at them as of late.
The issues didn’t just sprout out of the ground this weekend, however, that’s not to say its holding the team back any.
Most of the issues have been minor ones that just required the engine to be changed at the track.
“We’ve had a couple of problems, but nothing’s been major,” Buswell said. “It’s no one’s fault – just little things here or there. It’s frustrating, but we have a good engine builder, good owners that will provide us with whatever we need. We’ll work through it. Like I said, nothing’s blown up – we’ve just had a few problems that we’ve had to change engines at the track – no big deal.”
Regardless of the drama that was had leading up to the historic 25-lap main event, Reutzel drove a hell of a show.
He plus-seven’ed and got the hard charger award, thanks to that work ethic that he’s shown in year’s passed.
“It’s kind of dejecting,” Reutzel said. “You kind of think that’s going to ruin your night, but qualifying is the biggest part of an Outlaw night. If you’re not on the front row of that heat race, you’re really penalizing yourself big time. At that point you don’t even know if you’re going to get back out there or not. You just have to put your head down and get to work.”
Reutzel’s P2 run moves him up to fifth in the World of Outlaws standings, and maintains his spot as the Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year leader.
He’ll try to build on this win and come out as sharp as he did tonight during Night 2 of the Bristol Throwdown, and if Reutzel gets himself a better A-Main starting spot, he might be the guy to win it.
| World of Outlaws Sprint Car Standings | ||||
| Position | Driver | Points | Behind | |
| 1 | Brad Sweet | 2014 | – | |
| 2 | David Gravel | 1932 | -82 | |
| 3 | Sheldon Haudenschild | 1916 | -98 | |
| 4 | Carson Macedo | 1910 | -104 | |
| 5 | Aaron Reutzel ® | 1892 | -122 | |
