Reinhardt Makes Presence Known At Knoxville & Oskaloosa

Story By: TYLER ALTMEYER / KYLE REINHARDT RACING – NEPTUNE CITY, NJ – Heading West to compete on sprint car’s biggest stage and working with a team for the first time, expectations were managed for Kyle Reinhardt.

Reinhardt, 23, qualified Thursday in the 5-hour ENERGY Knoxville Nationals Presented by Casey’s General Store. Coming in as a relatively unknown New Jersey native, Reinhardt brought the Marion County Fairgrounds capacity crowd to their feet in his heat race, holding off National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Member, Sammy Swindell for the final transfer spot by a mere .004.

In what were his first competitive laps at the famed Knoxville Raceway, Reinhardt certainly made his presence known. In Thursday’s A Main, Reinhardt was scored 18th. After the two qualifying nights, Reinhardt was an impressive 38th (out of 102) in total points. In the ‘old format’ that would have locked Reinhardt into the B-Main, but the recently adjusted format now requires all drivers outside of the top 26 in points to race Friday, throwing all of their qualifying nights effort out the window. While this is blessing for many, it was not for young Reinhardt.

Reinhardt drew a late pill Friday, hiccuped in his one lap and finished 5th in the program’s C main. After a tough week on equipment for Mike VanderEcken, Reinhardt decided to call it a weekend and not compete on Saturday.

Monday night at Oskaloosa Speedway, Reinhardt competed in the ‘Front Row Challenge’. With 34 cars signed in, Reinhardt finished 2nd in his heat race, good enough to qualify for the feature, where he finished 17th. Reinhardt’s 17th place finish scored him the Bryan Clauson bonus thanks to Ren’s Trucking.

The final results do not accurately show the eyebrows Reinhardt raised at ‘The Nationals’ and Oskaloosa. Qualifying for your preliminary night feature is nothing to shake your head and Reinhardt was pleased the week. “I wish the week would have ended on a better note, but we raced and beat a lot of good cars. I’m very pleased with that,” Reinhardt said. “I can’t thank Mike VanderEcken, my family, The Cushion and Capitol Renegade for giving me this opportunity.

Now Reinhardt’s focus shifts back home, where he has three scheduled starts in six days. Reinhardt, who typically has to wait weeks before getting back in the seat, starts this busy stretch Thursday night with the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions at the Grandview Speedway aboard Ed Aikin’s #7. He will race with the regional series again on Sunday at Susquehanna in the Wayne Quackenbush owned, Capitol Renegade #91. Then Reinhardt will jump back in Aikin’s car for Tuesday’s makeup date of the ‘Jersey Rush’ at the New Egpyt Speedway.