Aaron Reutzel Takes The Night Before The 50

Aaron Reutzel in Victory Lane at Port Royal Speedway in Port Royal, PA (Photo: High Limit Racing Media)

PORT ROYAL, Pa. — After Thursday night’s performance at Port Royal Speedway, the PA Posse was not too pleased. The High Limit Racing series had a 1-0 on ‘em and the boys were plotting their revenge. The perfect place to do that would be Friday night with the 25-lap Night Before The Tuscarora 50.

Anthony Macri, a current member of the Posse, and Brian Brown, an alum of such fraternity, were on the front row to lead the 29-car field to the starting area in Turn 4.

Macri jumped out front early but Brown was right there and overtook him as they raced down the backstretch. But as soon as Brown cleared Macri, Aaron Reutzel came up in his draft to go to the inside of Macri. In a really close but successful slidejob, Reutzel claimed second before exiting Turn 4.

Two laps later, two battles were underway. One was for the lead and one was for third. The former saw Reutzel go to the inside of Brown heading into Turn 3 and steal third away in yet another slider. Meanwhile, the latter had Justin Whittall go to the inside of Macri as well, but he was not able to overtake the PA native.

With 17 laps remaining, Logan Wagner took fourth from Whittall as they entered Turns 1 and 2. As they raced near each other throughout the corner, Whittall fell back because he tagged the wall, giving Wagner a huge advantage.

Lap 14 saw Wagner exit the race unwontedly. Wagner was racing hard in fourth with his sights set on Brown in third who had lost second to Macri a few laps back, when he drifted up too high and hopped the cushion.

This ended up with him being sucked into the guardrail wall and hitting it hard. With each tap of the wall, Wagner slowed down a little bit until he came to a complete stop on the backstretch, ending his night early.

On the restart, Macri snagged the lead before Reutzel could, but Reutzel came back and got first place again before really going down the back chute. In second once again, Macri had to deal with hard-charger Whittall, who hugged the bottom and claimed second from Macri for mere seconds before Macri took it back by running the top.

This continued until Macri drifted up too high and tagged the wall, causing himself to flip over and barrel-roll down the back straightaway.

With eight laps to go, Chase Dietz came up on the outside of Brad Sweet for third and got it as they raced out of Turn 2. With his sights set on Whittall, he gave it everything he had but just could not make it work, earning the PA Posse a podium finish. 

After the race was over the scores were High Limit: 1, PA Posse: 0, Invaders: 1, as Reutzel is neither a Posse member or a High Limit regular. Will the Posse make the score and even 1:1:1? Tune in on Saturday night at the same place, same time, to find out!