Story By: A2DPR / KYLE REINHARDT RACING – SWEDESBORO, NJ – Kyle Reinhardt made the tow from his race shop in the heart of Pennsylvania Posse territory to his home state of New Jersey Saturday, aiming to get back to victory lane in front of a lot of family and friends.
He closed out Bridgeport Motorsports Park’s 2023 season with a $15,000 victory and he was looking for a repeat performance. He was certainly one of the favorites. His stats over the past couple of seasons at the four-tenths mile, high-banked oval proved that.
SO GOOD, SO CLOSE
The Dirty Jersey weekend kicked off with two qualifying sessions on Friday night, rewarding the fast qualifier in each session with a guaranteed starting spot no worse than 8th in Saturday’s finale.
Reinhardt clocked in 3rd quickest in the first session and then went to the top of the speed chart in the second session to claim one of the locked-in spots for his Capitol Custom Coaches & Trailers, Coors Banquet Beer, E-Z-GO Golf Cars, Henry’s Wrecker Service No.91 team.
Saturday’s show provided Reinhardt with a chance to improve on his worst-case 8th starting spot and he took full advantage. Drivers earned points through qualifying and passing points in heat races. After that, the top twenty would go to the A-main lineup and the top six would go to a dash to sort out the first three rows.
Reinhardt was fast once again in qualifying, posting the 3rd quickest trip around the Swedesboro, NJ oval. In his heat race, he drove from 6th to 4th, good enough to rank him 5th in the overall point standings at the conclusion of all qualifying events.
Reinhardt drew the number three pill for the dash lineup and posted a 3rd place finish in the 6-lap dash, earning the inside row two starting spot for the 30-lap finale.
The initial start of the feature saw contact between the two front-row cars which resulted in a caution for outside starter Ryan Smith. The caution quickly became a red flag for a melee in turn two. The ensuing restart put Reinhardt on the outside front row.
The Neptune City, NJ native settled into 2nd for the opening laps before another restart gave him a good shot at leader Justin Whittall. Reinhardt cleared Whittall on the high side off of turn two and had the advantage into turn three. However, Whittall drove in hard under him and reclaimed the top spot off of turn four.
Reinhardt got close one more time but it wasn’t enough to wrestle the spot away. He held on the rest of the way, fending off challenges by Daison Pursley and Danny Dietrich, to claim the runner-up finish.
“I don’t have an answer for why we are so good here but we are definitely one of the cars to beat when we unload here. It’s great to run well at home with so many friends and family in the stands.”, Reinhardt commented.
“I got in front of Justin (Whittall) once but he was pretty strong and got back by me. When we got into traffic I thought I would get another shot at him but the lapped cars followed him up the track and that affected my air. They were running their race too, so it’s just part of it.”
“He (Justin) was so good in clean air and I blistered my tires trying to get to him. At that point, I was just protecting to make sure I held on to second. I knew I had to stick to the top and keep up my momentum. If something happens to the leader, you want to be in position to take advantage of it.”
Reinhardt hasn’t found victory lane this year yet after a three-win season in 2023.
“We had a really good year last year but we struggled at the beginning of this year. I took us a while to adjust and find our speed after some of the changes to the tires, wickerbill, etc. We’ve turned it around and put a lot of good runs together since mid-August though. I wish we had a win but I’m happy with how strong we have been the last two months.”, Reinhardt shared.
“We will head to Charlotte and see what we can do at the World Finals, then we will come back home and wrap up our season at BAPS Motor Speedway.”
UP NEXT
Reinhardt will head south this week to compete on four consecutive nights in the World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, NC with the World of Outlaws. The event will be held November 6th-9th.
His final race of 2024 will be November 16th at BAPS Motor Speedway’s Sprint Showdown.
SEASON STATS
40 races, 0 wins, 5 top 5’s, 14 top 10’s, 21 top 15’s, 25 top 20’s