Justin Sanders, the current NARC King of the West 2025 points leader, will fill in for the injured Aaron Reutzel during the upcoming Knoxville Nationals.

Reutzel’s team Ridge & Sons Racing, owned by Brian and Lisa Ridge, made the announcement on Facebook stating, “We’re grateful to have Justin fill in for Aaron while he recovers, and on such short notice. We’re confident he’ll represent the team and all of our partners at the highest level.”

“Aaron’s surgery went well and the medical team was very optimistic about a speedy recovery,” the team added. “We hope to get him back in the seat as soon as possible!”

Sanders is expected to compete with the team in both the 360 Knoxville Nationals that take place between July 31st and August 2nd as well as the 64th Annual NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals Presented by Casey’s that takes place between August 6th through 9th.

As noted above, Sanders currently leads the NARC King of the West series by 20 points over DJ Netto. He’s won six times with NARC this year. His most recent win came at Ocean Speedway during the Howard Kaeding Classic on July 19th. He’s also gone to victory lane at Skagit Speedway and Silver Dollar Speedway this year. Sanders won the 2024 NARC King of the West series last year beating out Cole Macedo by 6 points. He was runner up to Corey Day in 2023 only being best by 25 points. He finished in 6th in 2022 behind Dominic Scelzi, Willie Croft, Bud Kaeding, Mitchell Faccinto, and Shane Golobic. In 2021, he finished 8th.

Reutzel suffered a fractured right foot during a crash at Eldora Speedway during the Knight Before The Kings Royal. While running in second on lap 15, Reutzel clipped the cushion and then flipped end over end while getting into turn 1. While airborne his wing caught the catch fence and turned the car so it landed on its side. He was then hit by Zach Hampton that lifted Ruetzel’s car airborne. Seconds later Steven Snyder Jr. plowed into him sending his car into the middle of turns 1 and 2. Reutzel exited the car under his own power, but immediately fell to the ground and began crawling away from his vehicle.

The team reported on Friday that Reutzel underwent successful foot surgery, but did not provide a timeline on when Reutzel might be back in the car.

Reutzel and the team are in a highly competitive championship chase with the High Limit Racing series. Reutzel is currently third in the standings just 25 points behind current leader Brad Sweet. Both he and Sweet took medical provisionals for the series’ most recent at Lernerville. The series is on break until August 15th when it makes a trip out to California beginning at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare.

NEXT: Injury Update: Brad Sweet Suffered A Concussion After A Violent Wreck At Eldora