BARBERVILLE, FL (Nov. 23, 2024) — Kyle Strickler’s taken home his fair share of DIRTcar UMP Modified trophies from Volusia Speedway Park over the past 10 years, and now has one of the most coveted in track history to add to his collection.
Strickler, of Mooresville, NC, led all 50 laps of the 11th annual Emil & Dale Reutimann Memorial Saturday night to bank his second career win in the event and first at Volusia Speedway Park. With that comes the $10,000 check and signature tractor trophy by Crystal Tractor of DeLand — the first in Strickler’s collection.
The 41-year-old won the 2018 running of the event, which was held in Ocala, FL, but the tractor trophy tradition had not yet been established. In winning the 2024 edition, Strickler now joins David Reutimann (2015, 2016) and his new car builder, Nick Hoffman (2021, 2023), as the only two-time winners of the Reutimann Memorial.
“This is awesome at Volusia,” Strickler said. “The one at Ocala — we beat Nick, and it was a big battle to see who it was gonna go back to Mooresville with. Now, we’ve got [three] tractors in Mooresville between Nick and I.”
After years spent racing as bitter rivals on the UMP Modified circuit, Strickler and Hoffman put their differences aside in 2024 and came together to form one of the strongest driver/car-builder combinations — already two-for-two in marquee UMP Modified action after Strickler’s win in the World Short Track Championship at The Dirt Track at Charlotte three weeks ago.
“I remember when I first came down here, it was such a big accomplishment to run good and win races [at Volusia],” Strickler said. “Now, we’ve kinda tailored our program to this place, which is huge, and Eldora and Charlotte. Everybody loves Eldora, and this place is so special, and then Charlotte — our home track.”
For 50 laps around the half-mile, Strickler put on a display of dominance like few others have, not once letting his competition get close enough to make a bid for the lead. He took the lead on the opening lap and never looked back, surviving multiple restarts, red flag periods, and beating the fuel milage game to earn his trip to Victory Lane.
Illinois racer Kyle Hammer chased Strickler for the first half of the race before fellow Illinoisan Trevor Neville took the runner-up spot on a restart at the halfway point.
“[Hammer] picked the top and I picked the bottom, and I just drove in there,” Neville said. “I knew the only way here, you’ve gotta take air off somebody’s nose. It’s aero racing, so you have to gain a little bit of traction and use air to your advantage. That was kind of the secret.”
Over the next 25 laps, Neville gave full effort in his efforts to catch Strickler, and by Lap 32 had slimmed Strickler’s lead down to 0.7 seconds as they began to work through traffic.
With six laps left, the field had come to a halt and sat under red-flag conditions while an incident was cleaned up on the backstretch. During the pause, both of the leaders pondered the situation and devised their plans for the upcoming sprint to the checkered flag.
“I was stressing out really bad down there,” Neville said. “We had the red, and I knew the tire was getting cold, I knew we were all running low on fuel. Kyle (Hammer) had beat me off the top on that last restart, so I was like, ‘I’ll just have to take the top, I guess.’”
While Neville looked for a path to get the lead from the driver who had led from the start, Strickler was trying to defend his spot and conserve fuel.
“The reds actually helped because we could stop and sit on the front stretch while they cleaned the wreck up,” Strickler said. “That one where they couldn’t get the car cleaned up or whatever, we paced around for like five or six laps, and then we fired off for the green and then they wrecked again, and we paced around for five or six laps. That one was the most frustrating.
“It gave me a lot of time to think and be worried about running out of fuel because we were just burning a bunch of fuel and no laps are getting counted.”
Despite his concern, Strickler had the fuel to go the distance and held Neville off in the final six laps, though Neville still contested the speed from his car throughout the race.
“I don’t know what I would’ve done had I caught [Strickler], but I definitely felt like we were the best car here,” Neville said. “I’m not one to ever say something like that, but I definitely thought we had the racecar to beat tonight.”
Strickler, the 2023 Big Gator champion and 14-time Feature winner at Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals, has now won every major UMP Modified trophy at Volusia. The Reutimann Memorial was the last on his list at the historic half mile, and his relationship with the Reutimann family has only grown since his first win in the event, now six years ago.
“I can’t thank the Reutimann family enough for having this race,” Strickler said. “Shawn [Reutimann] and I talked a bunch throughout the season. It’s such a big race for them and their whole family, and it’s awesome to be on that list of winners and be a part of the history.”
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)
Reutimann Memorial (50 Laps): 1. 8S-Kyle Strickler[2]; 2. 777-Trevor Neville[8]; 3. 41-Brad Goff[1]; 4. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[4]; 5. 33M-Jeff Mathews[28]; 6. 45-Kyle Hammer[3]; 7. 35-Carder Miller[16]; 8. 23Z-Austin Self[24]; 9. J82-Treb Jacoby[17]; 10. 43A-Mark Anderson[26]; 11. 60-Jim Manka[18]; 12. (DNF) 33W-Ashton Winger[10]; 13. (DNF) 2-Devin Dixon[19]; 14. (DNF) 07-Eric Moon[11]; 15. (DNF) 00B-Buzzie Reutimann[27]; 16. (DNF) 21-Devin McLeod[20]; 17. (DNF) 72-Todd Neiheiser[12]; 18. (DNF) 1H-Ben Harmon[9]; 19. (DNF) 00D-Ethan Dotson[7]; 20. (DNF) 97-Mitch Thomas[5]; 21. (DNF) 80-Paul Shead[29]; 22. (DNF) 21J-Clay Harris[13]; 23. (DNF) 7G-Seth Geary[15]; 24. (DNF) Z1-Zac Oedewaldt[14]; 25. (DNF) 3S-Josh Sanford[25]; 26. (DNF) 64-Austin Sanders[21]; 27. (DNF) 27G-Jason Garver[23]; 28. (DNF) 23B-Ethan Boomsma[30]; 29. (DNF) 31G-Stephen Pedulla[22]; 30. (DNF) 99-Wade Olmsted[31]; 31. (DNF) 5E-Glenn Elliott[6]
PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Anderson
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