David Reutimann - Las Vegas Sprint Cup Series Preview

CORNELIUS, N.C. — If 1.5-mile racetracks are the key to making the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship then David Reuitmann, driver of the No. 00 TUMS Toyota, has history on his side.

DID YOU KNOW: Over the last 10 races on 1.5 mile racetracks, Reutimann ranks second in total points (1,352) trailing only Jeff Gordon. In that 10 race span, Reutimann has one win, two top-fives, four top-10s, collected two poles, led 51 laps and has an average finish of 11th with no finish worse than 20th.

QUOTES

ON SUCCESS AT 1.5-MILE RACETRACKS: “I like the 1.5-mile tracks. I think our program is pretty good at those places - I think our program is pretty good everywhere, but if I had to pick out an area that we’re strongest at it would be the 1.5 mile racetracks. I look forward to going to those. They’re fast, a lot of those racetracks are really cool and multiple grooves for racing. I enjoy places like that.”

ON LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY: “I didn’t use to like the place at all. I never ran very good there. I qualified well there in the truck series and I’ve had some good runs going in the trucks and the Nationwide cars, but it seemed like we’d always have bad stuff happen. I just felt like it was one of those places that I couldn’t quite seem to get on the other side of. Last year I got my first top-five (in NSCS) at Vegas. We went through a lot of stuff that weekend too. We had to change motors. We had an oil leak early in the race that forced us to come down pit road to make a pretty big fix and lost all of our track position. We were able to come back from that and get a good finish and have a pretty good day. Right away when you have something like that happen it changes your outlook on the racetrack. So I wasn’t a big fan of the track to being with, but now I’m really looking forward to going back. It’s strange how one race can change that."

ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST

• Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 00 Toyota Camry is featuring new partner TUMS as the primary sponsor at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the first of five primary paint schemes this season. The No. 00 TUMS Toyota also will appear at Martinsville-1, Chicago, New Hampshire-2 and Phoenix-2.

• Last season at Las Vegas Reutimann qualified and finished fourth. The result led to Reutimann earning himself the nickname “The Franchise” at Michael Waltrip Racing - a tag that remains relevant as he sits eighth in series point standings - tops among MWR drivers.

• Reutimann is serving tables at the NASCAR Café inside the Sahara Hotel and Casino on Thursday, Feb. 25 starting at 6:30 p.m. The NASCAR Café features a six-pound burrito that has been featured on the travel channel show ‘Man vs. Food’. In addition, Reutimann will participate in a fan Q&A session and deliver samples of TUMS to restaurant guests.

• Reutimann currently has the longest streak of consecutive races finished without a Did Not Finish (DNF) at 43 races of drivers to start every race during that period. He is also one of only three drivers to finish every point race in 2009 - Juan Pablo Montoya and Casey Mears are the other two. Reutimann’s last DNF was Oct. 5, 2008 at Talladega Superspeedway.

• In 2009, Reutimann recorded his first NSCS win (Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway) and established career-bests in pole positions (two, Texas-1 and Dover-1) top-five (five) and top-10 (10) finishes and final championship driver point standings (16th).

• Reutimann is one of the five featured driver this week on DirectTV’s HotPass. HotPass, channels 795-798 on DirectTV, will focus on Reutimann throughout the race. In addition to the network broadcast, the channel broadcasts video from an in-car camera and both network audio and team radio.