Aaron Reutzel wheeled his No. 87 Ridge and Sons Racing machine to victory lane at The Douglas County Dirt Track with High Limit Racing on Monday night, but it was not joy that Reutzel expressed, but rather remorse.

On the opening start of the race, Reutzel lifted his car’s two front tires off the ground as he launched off turn 4. As he came back down, his car moved up the track and his right rear drove over the left front of Tyler Courtney. With the contact, Courtney significantly slowed and drivers behind him had to take evasive action.

As Justin Peck slowed to avoid him, Tanner Holmes attempted to dive underneath him, but he drove over Peck’s left rear and then began barrel rolling and pirouetting down the front stretch eventually coming to a stop in turn 1.

Just shortly after Holmes began flipping, James McFadden slid sideway to avoid the slowing Courtney, but ended up going up and over his left rear tire and sending him into a flip.

After exiting his car, a dejected Tanner Holmes told FloRacing’s Tony LaPorta, “Just glad to be okay, man. That was kind of a-. It felt like I didn’t stop flipping for a minute. I have no idea what happened. I just saw the 26, I think it was, was off the pace and tried to woah up a little bit, but obviously we weren’t yellow yet, and then all of a sudden basically just over his left-. I don’t know. We all kinda got shoved over his left rear. Nothing I could do. Nothing I could do. It just is what it is.”

The wreck ended Holmes and McFadden’s nights. They ended up finishing 24th and 23rd respectively. Courtney was able to continue, but he never had a chance at the win finishing back in 15th.

Reutzel would go on to win the race after a caution with 10 to go put a stop to Brent Marks’ best chance to grab the lead and repeat his win from last year. Marks was underneath Reutzel and the two were side-by-side when the caution came out for a stopped Dylan Bloomfield. 

In victory lane, Reutzel addressed the opening start mayhem and wreck, “I don’t know what happened here with Sunshine. I hate that. Just full of fuel and that heavy. I know I lifted the front end. I tried my hardest to stay off of him. I don’t know if it was my fault or a racing deal or what, but I still feel like [crap] either way. I hate it for his guys. I consider him a friend and I definitely didn’t want that to happen to him and then all the emotions from last week. Yeah, I don’t know. It just kinda sucks that that’s how it played out.”

He later added, “Like I said, I still hate it for Sunshine and them. It’s just part of it, I guess. I guess I just hate it more that it happened to a friend. I can think if a lot of other people I’d rather it happen to and that’s not one of them.”

With the win, Reutzel was able to put a horrible weekend at Silver Dollar Speedway behind him that saw him lost the High Limit Racing Points lead to Rico Abreu. He was able to cut into that gap and is now only 36 points behind him in second.

He also narrowed the gap to Brent Marks in the Roto-Rooter Midweek Series Points. With just one race left in the miniseries, Reutzel is just 17 points behind Marks.

High Limit Racing is back in action this weekend for the $126,000 to-win ANgel of the Winds Skagit Nationals at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Washington from September 3-5.

NEXT: Aaron Reutzel Follows Dreadful California Trip With Oregon Victory At Douglas County