Reinhardt’s Home State Runner-Up Finish Highlights All Star Swing

With twenty-seven cars on hand Thursday night, Reinhardt clicked off the 5th fastest lap overall to get his night started on the right foot.  The qualifying effort put Reinhardt on the pole of the night’s third and final heat race.

Scotty Thiel shared the front row for the heat race.  He dove hard under Reinhardt going into turn three on a tenacious opening lap but Kyle was up to the challenge.  He turned back under Theil in turn four to take command.  He never looked back and went on to win the race by 1.6 seconds over Anthony Macri.

Reinhardt drew the number four pill for the dash.  He would finish in that 4th spot, giving him the outside row two starting spot for the 30-lap A-main.

The Neptune City, NJ native held a solid grip on the 3rd spot for much of the main event after a heated early batter with Hunter Schuerenberg.  A restart with twelve laps remaining saw Reinhardt get by Freddie Rahmer for 2nd but Rahmer battled back in turn four.  The exchange almost led to a spin by Reinhardt but he gathered the No.91 back up and rejoined the battle.

The near-disaster left Reinhardt in 6th on lap twenty.  Three laps later he was back up to 3rd and was clearly on a mission.  He wrestled the runner-up spot away from Schuerenberg with three laps remaining, then began to close the gap on leader Tyler Courtney.

Reinhardt was 3-tenths of a second quicker than the leader but there wasn’t enough time left to mount a challenge without the aid of a caution.   He crossed the line with a 2nd place finish.

“Should’ve won that race.  I had a really good car.“, Reinhardt said.  “After that restart when Freddie (Rahmer) and I exchanged sliders, it took the air off my nose and I almost spun.  I dropped a few spots and had to spend a few laps getting that track position back.  Ran out of time to try to catch Tyler (Courtney).“

The finish was a fine way to celebrate Reinhardt’s 100th career All Star main event start.