CORNELIUS, N.C. — No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota driver David Reutimann knows he has a lot of ground to make up in a very short amount of time to earn a spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series “Chase for the Championship.” With races remaining at Bristol, Atlanta and Richmond, Reutimann finds himself 18th in points trailing the top-12 by 165 points. But Reutimann and the Michael Waltrip Racing crew have reason for optimism. In the spring races at both Bristol and Atlanta, Reutimann raced in the top-five chasing down the leaders before mechanical problems ended both races early. He recorded a 15th-place finish at Richmond after starting second.
QUOTES
ON THE FINAL THREE RACES BEFORE THE CHASE CUT OFF: “I love Bristol! I love Atlanta. Richmond is one of those places that I really like, we’ve struggled a little bit there, but I do like the racetrack. We have some good racetracks coming up for us. I’m looking forward to getting back to the mile-and-a-half at Atlanta. We had a really good run going there earlier this year, but again, we didn’t get the finish we would have liked. We had two great races going earlier this year at Bristol and Atlanta, but ended the race early due to some issues that forced us behind the wall. I was second at Bristol and hanging around the top-five at Atlanta and we weren’t able to finish either of those races – so I’d like to get back there and run the way I know we are capable of running. We have a great team. The guys on the No. 00 have been working hard and I know we have some good cars capable of running up front. Hopefully we’ll see that again in these last three races before the (Chase) cutoff.”
SATURDAY’S RACE AT BRISTOL: “We had an excellent Aaron’s Dream Machine our first trip to Bristol this year – probably the best car we’ve ever had there. It didn’t turn out the way we’d of liked, but I know that we’re going to have a good car this time around. Goodyear’s got a little different tire this time, but in our business you can never just go back with the exact same stuff and expect to run well. That never seems to work – you always have to constantly evolve and change this up. I feel good about going back there this time – I’m pretty excited about it because we’ve struggled a little bit lately.”
No. 00 TEAM PERFORMANCE SINCE WINNING CHICAGO: “Honestly, we just haven’t been very good. Since our Chicago win the rest of our races have been pretty disappointing. We just have to get back on our game and start running like we are capable of doing. That’s really the long and short of it. I know everybody is working really, really hard, but sometimes things just don’t go your way. Things haven’t gone our way. I know that we’re a much better team than where we’re running right now, and that makes it even worse. We’ll get back on the other side of it. Hopefully we’ll do it at Bristol this week.”
ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST
• Reutimann chose “The Game” by Motorhead as his introduction song prior to Saturday night’s race. Motörhead is a British rock power trio well-known in the professional wrestling community for performing “The Game” as the entrance music for popular WWE wrestler Triple H.
• Reutimann has finished on the lead lap in 18 of 20 races that he was running at the finish and 18 out of 23 total races in 2010. He has finished 20th or better in 16 of the 20 races that he has been running at the finish in 2010—and 15th or better in 12 of the 20. Reutimann has collected 25 bonus points for leading laps in five races in 2010.
• Reutimann won the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 10. The Sprint Cup Series win is his first of the season and second of his career. Reutimann led 52 laps in the win — the second highest total of any race in his career (Best, 104 laps at Richmond in fall 2008).
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