Full Throttle

David Reutimann won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race for Michael Waltrip Racing, using strategy to take the 50th running of the Memorial Day weekend race.

Nearly 25 hours after the 50th edition of the race was supposed to start, and with menacing storm cells dotting the radar, NASCAR called the event after 227 of a scheduled 400 laps. That made a first-time winner of Reutimann, who parlayed a strategic call by crew chief Rodney Childers into the unlikely victory.

The win in NASCAR’s longest race, which was postponed from Sunday because of rain, was the first for Michael Waltrip Racing–now in its third season of NASCAR Sprint Cup competition–and the first for a Toyota team other than Joe Gibbs Racing. Reutimann led five laps, all under the final caution. He was running 14th when rain started falling on Lap 221.

The top three finishers–Reutimann, pole sitter Ryan Newman and Robby Gordon–remained on the track when NASCAR threw the sixth caution of the race on Lap 221 after a shower hit Turn 2. Six laps later, the race was red-flagged for the fourth time. Carl Edwards and Brian Vickers, who each took two tires under yellow on lap 222, finished fourth and fifth.

“It certainly wasn’t the prettiest win,” said Reutimann, who won the race with his father, renowned short-track racer Buzzie Reutimann, in attendance. “Rodney Childers made a great call and told me to stay out.

“When you envision winning your first Sprint Cup race, this is not exactly the way you envision it. But these things are so hard to win, we’ll take it any way we can get it. … It’s fun, but I felt like I was down on pit road for a month (waiting for NASCAR to call the race).”

Reutimann gained two positions to 13th in the standings, trailing 12th-place Mark Martin by six points.

“Obviously, their crew chief made an awesome call,” an elated Michael Waltrip said of the No. 00 Toyota team’s effort. “David and I have been in position to win races before, and fate took it away from us. So I look at this as payback.”

Kyle Busch led a race-high 173 laps but was victimized by rain for the second straight NASCAR event. On Saturday night, he had the dominant car in the rain-shortened CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race, which Mike Bliss won by conserving fuel and staying out until a storm hit the speedway.

Busch passed Newman on Lap 3 and thereafter dominated the green-flag segments of the race, which were run between interruptions from intermittent thundershowers. Newman lost track position when he had to bring his #39 Chevrolet back to the pits to tighten a lug nut under a competition caution called on Lap 41.

Newman and crew chief Tony Gibson discussed strategy during the final caution and made the call that salvaged a good finish.

Coca-Cola 600 Post-Race Transcript

KERRY THARP: We should be joined by our winning driver, David Reutimann, in a few seconds, and crew chief Rodney Childers. We have team owner Michael Waltrip at the podium and we’ll roll with Michael.

Congratulations with this victory, Coca Cola 600. Your thoughts about your initial win as the owner of your own race team?

MICHAEL WALTRIP: It’s incredible to be able to progress from where we were in ‘07 as a new organization, and then compete all throughout the latter half of ‘08 and into ‘09 at a level I’ve been really proud of.

We’ve seen cars run in the top five, a couple of solid finishes for me last year late in the season with a chance late in the race at Daytona with a chance to win.

I’m real proud of the progression and real proud of the job that David did today. Obviously his crew chief made an awesome call. I think they were surprised that more people ahead of them didn’t make the same call. But what a great call.

You got to be proud of the result because these things are really hard to win. David and I both have been in position to win races before, had fate take it away from us. So I like to think of this as payback. David won the race, and I couldn’t be happier.

KERRY THARP: Speaking of David Reutimann, driver of the 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota. David, your thoughts, emotions? I imagine those minutes out there on pit road seemed like hours and hours. Congratulations on this win today.

DAVID REUTIMANN: I think we sat on pit road eight hours today is what it felt like. We just kept waiting. Rodney and I talked. I was like, I’ve been in situations like this before, obviously not in a Cup race, but different situations. This deal never goes my way, so I don’t see why it should now (laughter).

We talked about what we were going to change on the car when we came down pit road. Rodney told me, I’m either going to get us a win or lose us 10 spots, one or the other. It’s a gamble. I said, I’ll stay out. That’s what he told me to do. That’s what I do. When I’m told to do something, I generally do something. Don’t say nothing, Mike.

With that being said, I’m proud of the whole organization. Everybody has done a great job. Man, it’s fun, but it felt like I was out on pit road for a month. I wanted either the sun to come out and it quit or just pour. It just kind of stayed in between. Mike assured me that’s what it needed to do, we were going to be in good shape. I told him he was crazy. I continued to tell him there was no way this was going to work.

I’m still waiting for Mr. Helton to come down and say, Hold up for a second, we changed our minds, we’re going to do something different, try to finish the deal tomorrow (laughter). I’ve been avoiding him I think for that.

KERRY THARP: Crew chief Rodney Childers, talk about that decision you made that ultimately led you to Victory Lane.

RODNEY CHILDERS: Like David said, I didn’t even put much thought into it, to be honest with you. I told him, Hey, we’re running 14th, to make the adjustments we need to make, we’re going to lose four spots on pit road and come out 18th. There’s 24 cars on lead lap. So we either take a chance on winning this deal or we restart 24th. We stayed out. Like David said, it seemed like it was never gonna end standing out on pit road. Definitely wore my shoes out, for sure.

It’s just a cool deal. I’ve always wanted to win my first race here. It means a lot to me, this track. Born and raised 30 minutes from here in Moorseville. You know, I think when I was about 12 years old I told my parents I would win my first race here. At the time I thought it was going to be as a driver. It all turned around to work out good.

Just really proud of all the guys. You know, they deserve this. We kind of gave a couple of them away this year. We’ve just worked hard as a team. It’s a lot of fun.

KERRY THARP: NASCAR is a family sport. At the far right we have father of David Reutimann, Buzzie Reutimann. Your thoughts about your son winning this race today?

BUZZIE REUTIMANN: I’ll tell you what, if you could have heard our driver whining out behind the wheel of that car, I was sitting there, Rodney said, Stay out, I thought, Oh, no, we made a mistake. If they restart this race, we’re going to get killed. He complained about everything there, too tight, too loose, pushing the front end, car was going backwards, I’m getting run over out here, all that sort of stuff. I have to hand it to Rodney, he did make the right call.

(NOTE: View included video of Buzzie in action last year at East Bay Raceway in the #00 Aarons Dream Machine. Also the podcast is an interview with Buzzie the week after his second place finish - ed)

I tell you what, people, it’s been a long road. It’s taken us a long time to get here. I’m afraid I’m going to wake up in the morning and find out I’m dreaming all of this. Wow, words can’t describe how great a father would feel to see his son to win a race. Seeing that number 00 up on top of the board, one of the greatest feelings in the world.

KERRY THARP: We’ll take questions for this championship Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota.

Q. David, what did your daddy say to you during the rain delay? What has it meant to have Rodney, somebody you competed in earlier years, be your crew chief?

DAVID REUTIMANN: Well, I actually think dad was probably as nervous as I was because he kept coming over and asking me if I wanted anything to eat or drink. I said, no, I don’t want anything to eat. You should drink something. I’m fine, I don’t want anything to drink. I think he was as nervous as I was about it.

I told dad the same thing, these things don’t ever go our way, I don’t know why it should now. It felt really good to do that. To have Rodney and I race against each other in different series before, nobody expected us to have any kind of success I think right off because it takes time for a crew chief and a driver to gel. But we just brought Rodney in. Man, I like what he does. He doesn’t ever really get excited. I get excited. I get on there. His standard reply is, 10 4, man, we’ll make it better. And that automatically calms you down and I need that because I get hyper a lot of times. It doesn’t always benefit us.

I’m proud of the guys. We had good pit stops today. We didn’t have exactly the car we needed, but we were working on it to get it to that point. Rodney made the great call and got us the win. That’s what it comes down to.

Q. Michael, can you talk about why David is one of your drivers. He’s not young, you had to find sponsors for him every year.

MICHAEL WALTRIP: Not that good looking.

Q. Very few top 10s in the first few years. Why is he here?

MICHAEL WALTRIP: We couldn’t find anybody else (smiling). Works for cheap. Don’t ask a whole lot out of anybody. So it just worked out for us.

Well, I will now tell you the serious answer to that question. My brother started a truck team. We wanted David to drive the truck. He was our first choice. If we could get him, that’s who we wanted. He was successful at the truck. We moved him into the Nationwide car. He was successful there. We knew the commitment that he has to racing. He is all in when it comes to racing a car. He was born and raised in the back of a hauler chasing his dad all over the country racing dirt cars and winning races. So it’s just a part of his DNA, it’s who he is.

He was a guy that was an easy sell for me to Aaron’s because of how he handles himself and the way he races a car. His first year in Cup, of the three years in ‘07, he clearly outran the other two. He was the fastest guy we had. ‘08, that was the case again. So every race that he would run, every lap he would make, it proved to us that we made a good decision.

I love David. He’s a great person. The reason why we were smart enough to pick up on him was because Joe Nemechek gave him a car to race a few years back. I think he went to Memphis and sat on the pole or something. I knew David Reutimann, but it was a Nationwide car and he just got in it and was fast.

So what he did prior to coming to us, it just showed us he had the ability to be a guy that could be special. We were real fortunate. I think David will tell you that it’s been more of a family relationship for the Waltrips and the Reutimanns than owner/driver/employment. We believe in him. We love him. It started with Darrel. He did a good job there. Everybody at Toyota appreciated the way he did things. We were able to sell him into the sponsors as he progressed into the Nationwide car and into the Cup car.

But I will say that there was nothing the best part of the whole day today was a couple things. But one was when his dad hugged him, winning one of these races. That’s incredible, great feeling, because of their history. For me as an owner to get to hug my driver, that was something that I dearly missed today with not winning the Daytona 500. I was waiting for him to come hurt me because he would have hugged me in a way that hurt. I kind of warned David, I’m feeling pretty good about this hug I’m fixing to give you. So that hug was for David and it was also to sort of make up for something that I missed out on when I won a race one day.

Q. David, I noticed during the 2 hours, 3 minutes you stood out there on pit road not eating, not drinking, not doing anything, that you never got an umbrella. Were you afraid if you put an umbrella up, that was going to jinx something?

DAVID REUTIMANN: No. I just knew leaning on the car was working. So I figured I shouldn’t change up my system any. Mike is like, You’re not going to leave, are you? Mike, if a tornado, hurricane comes, doesn’t matter, lightning, I’m staying right where I am till the bitter end or till we go back green again. I wasn’t going to move.

I was leaning on the car, it was still raining, so I’m going to stay where I’m at and see what happens.

Then 66 year-old Buzzie Reutimann had every fan on their feet Saturday night (April 17, 2008) at East Bay Raceway Park. Starting eighth in the David Reutimann owned #00 Aarons Dream Machine the local racing legend drove to the front finishing second in the nights feature event.

Still Tickin’ Still Winnin’…that’s the Buzz!