Roth Motorsports, Aaron Reutzel Open Up ’21 With Trio Of Top 10’s At Wild Wing Shootout

Story By: ROTH MOTORSPORTS – FRESNO, CA – Getting his first full season at the helm of the famed Roth Motorsports No. 83 car kicked off over the weekend at the Wild Wing Shootout, Aaron Reutzel would rack up a trio of Top-10 finishes including a fourth place run during Friday night’s opener.

“Overall, I felt like it was a good first weekend for our race team,” Aaron Reutzel said. “We have really good speed; we just need to get better come feature time. I have to send a big thank you to Dennis and Teresa Roth for this opportunity and providing us the equipment to make the transition into this car as smooth as possible.”

The curtain rose on the 2021 season on Friday night at Arizona Speedway for the first of three nights of action during the inaugural Wild Wing Shootout. Reutzel would show no signs of rust early in the night as he timed in third quickest in time trials before finishing second in his heat race.

Pulling a two in the redraw, Reutzel would find himself on the front row of feature event alongside Buddy Kofoid. Though Kofoid would get the initial jump, a lap two caution would put Reutzel back on his bumper for the ensuing restart.

When the green flag was displayed, Reutzel would take a big swing at Kofoid for the top spot as the field raced into turn one, but his advance would be denied as he continued to run in second. As the track changed, the bottom would turn into the preferred line, and as Reutzel dipped low a slight mistake would see him fall back to fourth.

In a rapid-fire feature event, Reutzel would be unable to regain a spot on the podium but was still able to close the night out with a fourth place finish.

Saturday night again saw Reutzel show sold speed early in the night as the Texan would time the Roth Enterprises/Jason, Tara, and Cole Roth Cattle Co./HR Livestock Transportation mount in second fastest in time trials before pocketing another second place finish in his heat .

Pulling the six pill on this night, Reutzel would roll off the starting grid from the outside of the third row for the 35-lap feature event. Hooking up with the likes of Rico Abreu and Dominic Scelzi on the slick surface, Reutzel would keep his machine well inside the Top-10 as he capped the night off with a seventh place finish with still one night of action left to go.

While weather threatened Sunday’s finale, crews were able to fight the saturation and get the track in shape and allow the program to run in its entirety. Running a hurry up style program, Reutzel’s final qualifying run of the weekend would be another very strong lap as he was second fastest for the second time of the weekend.

Battling a deflating left rear in heat race action, Reutzel’s fourth place finish would again put him in his third redraw of the weekend and the six pill again placed him in the third row for one final 35-lap feature event.

Jumping into fifth when the race came to life, Reutzel would hook up in an entertaining battle with Rico Abreu as he would climb up to the fourth position.

Holding down the fourth position, Reutzel would continue work the high side of the speedway as he kept the lead trio of Tony Stewart, Dominic Scelzi, and DJ Netto in his crosshairs. Getting his right rear into the wall on the 25thlap, Reutzel would give up the fourth spot but was able to gather himself back up and race on in fifth.

A yellow flag would bunch the field back up and Reutzel would take the fourth spot on the ensuing restart, but the closing laps would see him slip back to eighth where he would close his weekend out.

“We will really go to work to be there at the end of the night when we get to Georgia this weekend,” Reutzel said. “We have really good speed, so we are close to where we want to be, just have to keep at it. Again, thank you to Dennis and Teresa Roth, and the entire Roth Motorsports team.”