After The Checkers: Brent Marks Scores Season-Best High Limit Finish At Butler
Brent Marks earned his first podium finish of the 2026 Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing season. He chats with Walkapedia at Butler after the checkers.
Video Transcript
After the checkers, take two here at Butler Motor Speedway, the Mason Thomas Classic in the books.
Aaron Reutzel gets the win, Brent Marks second place finish.
you said it in victory lane, feels like a win.
first podium of the year, best run for you in this really kinda makeshift new team, right?
A lot of new people involved.
Just how good does it feel to be up front again at these races?
Yeah, so for take two, I thought my first take was perfect, so here we are again.
no .
no, I mean, it just, this feels like a win to us tonight.
you know, our, our season to start just been really bad and, and, you know, the, to come away with a podium tonight just, just feels good.
So Robert and Graham, you know, they've been working really hard.
Been through a lot of adversity this year, and just trying to overcome these hurdles, and it's been really hard.
It's been tough.
And, that's racing.
It humbles you really fast.
So you know, this, everybody's just kept their head down, continued to work, you know, and then just never give up.
And, and, you know, a night, sun, night like tonight just means a lot to us.
So you know, we have a lot of races coming up here in a short period of time.
you know, I think the next seven races in like nine days or whatever it is, and, and we're just, we're really excited for that.
So to come, this, to start this swing with, with some good finishes really, propels us into, to those next races.
And, and to try to dig ourselves out of our, our points situation we have.
So you know, we came into this event the last two years being in, I think, top three or four in points, and you know, we, now we're sitting Well, we were 10th, I guess, or 9th.
So we have a big hole to dig out of and, you know, these are the type of runs we need to be able to do that.
I wanna give you a chance to spotlight your guys, your crew guys, your family too, everyone involved in this operation.
When it's, when it's, you know, go, you go through a trying period, which you did early in the season, so many of them not even your fault, right?
Just wrong place, wrong time, whatever happens.
How do you guys dig deep, you know, your wife, your kids, your crew guys, you, everyone involved, how do you keep fighting through?
Just good attitudes.
You know, I'm, I'm surrounded by really good people.
you know, they, they have a great attitude no matter what happens and, you know, and it's y- it's hard to keep your head up, you know?
It's, you know, I do this professionally.
It's my, what I do for a living, so i- it's easy to get down.
but you know, like I say, I'm surrounded by good people, great supporters.
everybody, everybody that's involved in this team just, really helps, keep me, uplifted and, and you know, you just can't dwell over, you know, the bad times, and you can't dwell over the bad finishes and, the crashes and, you know, the, the parts failures.
I- it just, you know, it's no good to do that.
So we just concentrate on, you know, tonight.
You know, I'm not even worried about the next race.
I wasn't worried about the last race.
Just concentrate on tonight, put everything in the past, and just go out there and have fun, you know, and race.
I mean, that's what we do, you know?
I'm, I'm a racer and I get to travel the country racing sprint cars.
I mean, what's better than that?
I mean, it's just really cool.
Speaking of traveling the country racing sprint cars, this next stretch, I believe it's We got Monday, Davenport's on Amazon Prime.
Wednesday, Red Sears on FS1.
Thursday, Gondick Law.
Friday, I-94.
Saturday, Dakota.
Then we're going to Eagle Nationals for 50K and Shelby County on, Prime Video before the stretch ends.
Whole lot of new tracks for really everyone in this pit area, including yourself.
What do you think about this next little run we're going on?
Yeah, I'm excited.
You know, I love going to new tracks.
You know, I haven't heard of a lot of them.
So I'm really excited to, to go to these new tracks and, and everybody has a clean slate.
You know, we all start fresh, and, and it really shows guy, who the guys are that have a good, consistent program 'cause, you know, going, going into a place you've never been to, you know, you just have to be on your game.
And so I think those guys really, you know, propel, them, them, themselves.
And so I'm excited.
I feel like we, we always have had good runs at new, new racetracks.
you know, I'm not trying to predict the future, but you know, may- maybe, maybe, maybe we will too.
But I'm just, I'm just excited about tonight, man.
Like I said, it feels like a win.
I'm just ready to, ready to celebrate it.
you know, I know second sucks, but at the same time, you know, this is something that we need to celebrate after our year.
Yeah.
Last one for you.
We got some really good lighting for this.
I mean, you're re- we're working on the car obviously, but a new look for the 19, the hauler, everything, looking really nice, the, the white and the black.
You know, still a little, little shade of the yellow, but talk about the changes to, you know, the, the look and, the new sponsors.
Yeah.
You know, we, had K&L Utilities come on board for the, for these five, first five races of the swing in the Midwest, and really excited about that partnership and, hoping that grows into something, you know, in the future.
So we actually were supposed to do that partnership for the Weickert, but that got canceled, so we, we moved it to this.
And, and you know, they were great with it, so I was really excited about that.
And great people.
And you know, we got, McGroupBid.com.
Just love working with, with, with them and their whole company, and been, supporting me for the last several years now, and it's just great to have them, you know, on board and, and continuing to, support Brent Marks Racing and my, myself.
So we do a lot of work together, and it's a lot of fun.
And BAPS Paints, Livewire Customs, Fredericksburg Eagle Hotel.
Livewire just recently did the interior in our trailer, which is, they did a awesome job on that.
Very nice, yeah.
So yeah, the, the work that they do and the, the van conversions is just spectacular.
And, and, for what they did to our trailer, it's just awesome to bring it to every race, to be able to show people, if they, you know, when they wanna go see it.
It's just, it's really, really cool.
So we, we did a s- little video on it, for, for everybody on social media to see.
We're gonna do one more in-depth here soon, and, and just kinda show it off and what it's about.
So they, they've done a great job for us.
So like I said, I'm just surrounded by great people, great companies, and, and it's just a lot of fun.
Yeah.
There you go.
Brent Marks after a strong run tonight at Butler, getting ready for a busy week in the Midwest with High Limit.
