JOLIET, Ill. — Kyle Reinhardt led all 25 laps to earn his first FloRacing All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 feature Saturday night at the Dirt Oval at Route 66. Reinhardt earned $8,000 aboard the RQM Enterprises, Capitol Renegade No. 91 sprint car and became the second series rookie to win this weekend after Tyler Courtney won on Friday at I-96 Speedway.
“This is pretty unreal,” Reinhardt said, an engineer by trade who traded in the workplace for a steering wheel. “I just can’t thank all of the people who stuck behind me enough. I wouldn’t have been able to stop working to race without their help and support. This is just unreal.”
Although Reinhardt was able to control all 25 circuits, it was not a walk in the park, as Courtney and Rudeen Racing’s Cory Eliason each did their best to overtake the Garden State native, giving little slack especially during single-file restarts. Lapped traffic also played a major role over the course of the 25-lapper.
Between laps 13 and 21, slower cars attempted to create a near-impenetrable road block for Reinhardt around the track’s bottom groove, ultimately allowing Courtney to keep pace with his fellow series rookie. A late-race caution with four laps remaining actually sealed the deal for Reinhardt, creating a clear track and clean air for his final four circuits.
“I had a good pace going and I was able to get by a couple slower cars, but I ended up getting held up a lot by one. Even then, I wasn’t sure what was going on behind me,” Reinhardt continued. “When that last caution came out and they said over the raceceiver that there were 21 laps down, I actually took a big breath and relaxed a little bit because I thought we were going to be ‘OK.’”
Courtney held on to finish second, followed by Eliason, Cap Henry and Bill Balog.
Ryan Zielski won the Auto Meter Wisconsin Wingless Sprint Series feature.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 91-Kyle Reinhardt [1]; 2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [3]; 3. 26-Cory Eliason [2]; 4. 4-Cap Henry [10]; 5. 17B-Bill Balog [8]; 6. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [5]; 7. 11-Ian Madsen [11]; 8. 67-Buddy Kofoid [9]; 9. 39-Jake Blackhurst [15]; 10. 8M-TJ Michael [19]; 11. 2W-Scotty Neitzel [17]; 12. 5-Paul McMahan [7]; 13. 65-Jordan Goldesberry [16]; 14. 21BP-Brinton Marvel [14]; 15. 68-Dave Uttech [22]; 16. 23-Russel Borland [13]; 17. 4B-Scott Biertzer [18]; 18. 5J-Jeremy Schultz [20]; 19. 20R-Robbie Pribnow [23]; 20. 29-Hunter Custer [24]; 21. 9K-Kyle Schuett [21]; 22. 10-Zeb Wise [12]; 23. 24-Rico Abreu [4]; 24. 13-Justin Peck [6] Lap Leaders: Kyle Reinhardt (1-25)