Story By: A2DPR / KYLE REINHARDT RACING – PORT ROYAL, PA – Kyle Reinhardt loaded up and headed to Ohio riding a nice wave of momentum from a career best Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek performance that resulted in a top five finish in series points.
Heading into four consecutive nights of the toughest fields and potentially most lucrative races of the season in the first ever Eldora Million and 40th Annual King’s Royal, he would need every bit of that momentum and the confidence that came with it.
A massive field of 83 sprint cars made their way to western Ohio’s Eldora Speedway to take their shot at the sports first ever million dollar to win race. Just making the starting field would pay more than most could earn for winning a feature event.
For Wednesday’s preliminary night program, the field was split into two groups and each ran their own complete show, earning points throughout the night that would set the lineups for Thursday night’s heat races. Reinhardt timed 19th quickest in Group A.
Reinhardt started 4th in his heat race, needing to stay in the top five to make the preliminary night’s Group A feature. He did just that, coming home 5th.
The qualifying run put Reinhardt 14th on the starting grid for the A-main. In only his fourth career start at ‘The Big E’, he had the Capitol Renegade, Capitol Custom Coaches & Trailers, Coors Banquet Beer, Henry’s Wrecker Service No.91 on point as he moved into the top ten as the race approached the halfway mark.
The caution flag waived at the halfway mark with Reinhardt running 11th. The ensuing restart cost the Neptune City, NJ native a couple spots and he ultimately finished 14th.
The field of 83 returned for Thursday’s finale with six heat races already laid out based on Wednesday’s results. Only the top three finishers would transfer directly to the Eldora Million starting field, while the rest would be thrust into the dogfights known as the C-main and B-main to scrap for one of the remaining starting spots.
Reinhardt started 5th in his heat race but was unable to make any forward progress and was relegated to the B-main. That’s where he started to turn some heads.
On the opening lap, Reinhardt broke into the top ten and by lap ten he was knocking on the door of a transfer spot. The following trip around he claimed the 6th spot and held on to the end to take the final transfer spot into the Eldora Million.
Reinhardt wasn’t done passing cars. After the ceremonial driver introductions and class photo for the first ever million dollar sprint car race, he strapped in and went back to work.
From his 24th starting spot in the 50-lap A-main, Reinhardt climbed to 17th just before the halfway mark and held on to finish there.
Friday night brought a shift of gears to the World of Outlaws sanctioned Knight Before the King’s Royal. Kyle Reinhardt was back at it Friday night right along with 66 other teams who remained in the house for the show.
After qualifying 17th in Group B, Reinhardt drove from 8th to 6th in his heat race, one spot shy of transferring to the A-main. In the B-main, Reinhardt hung tough in 4th throughout the race to claim the final transfer spot once again.
For the second consecutive night he was in the show and he would have his work cut out for him from the 24th starting spot. On this night, Reinhardt only had 30 laps to work with, not 50 like the night before. Once again Reinhardt started his progression early and managed to make his way into 17th at the checkered flag.
After making three of the toughest feature fields of the season on three consecutive nights, Reinhardt was feeling optimistic about his team’s chances to race their way into the $175,000-to-win 40th Annual King’s Royal on Saturday night against 60 other capable teams.
Unfortunately, Reinhardt developed engine issues after hot laps and didn’t compete the remainder of the night.
“I’m really happy with our effort at Eldora Speedway this past week! We improved every night while making some of the biggest shows of the year.“, Reinhardt said.
“We felt really good going into Saturday’s King’s Royal and went P4 in hot laps. Unfortunately, our engine started to lay down in qualifying. I made two laps in the heat race but it was still struggling, so that ended our week. I want to thank everyone who has a hand in our program, plus of course Chris, Lawton and Kent for busing their butts all week long!“
Reinhardt will take on the World of Outlaws on his home turf at BAPS Motor Speedway’s Bricker’s Bash on July 19th and (tentatively) the Summer Nationals at Williams Grove Speedway on July 21st-22nd. The latter is tentative because the team is awaiting completion of a repair to the motor they need for that event.