David Reutimann - Watkins Glen International Sprint Cup Series Preview

CORNELIUS, N.C. — No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota driver David Reutimann makes no secret that road course racing isn’t his specialty. But that hasn’t stopped the 40 year-old former dirt track racer from working hard to get better. Every time Reutimann has raced on a road course he’s set a career-best road course finish. Reutimann spent two days last week at Watkins Glen International in street cars in preparation for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series visit to the 2.45-mile road course circuit in upstate New York.

Reutimann’s Improvement
2008 Infineon 40th
2008 Watkins Glen 33rd
2009 Infineon 31st
2009 Watkins Glen 25th
2010 Infineon 20th

QUOTES

ON TESTING AT WATKINS GLEN: “We were up there in a completely different car then we are going to race last week, so it’s hard to take away a great deal from it. I think the biggest thing is that it gets you freshened back up on the racing line and trying different things and doing different things throughout the course of the day. I think any time you get out on a track it’s a big help, but it’s a situation where you make the best of the test that you can, but we can’t be in the exact race car that we’re going to race.”

ON RACING IN THE NORTHEAST: “My family has raced up in Syracuse and areas like that, which is obviously not Watkins Glen, but in the same area of the country – just within a couple hours drive from Watkins Glen. The Mile at Syracuse, Brewerton, Canandaigua and Rolling Wheels in Weedsport and different places like that. We even race a little bit up at Black Rock on weekends when we race the Cup cars at The Glen, so I’ve raced at a lot of the racetracks around those areas, but I haven’t had much time to go hang out and see what Watkins Glen has to offer or really any of the areas in that part of the country other than just racetracks. I never had a great deal of success up in that part of the country to be quite honest. It was always a struggle. I met a lot of really, really good people that I still know and keep in contact with today, but for the most part the time I spent up there wasn’t the greatest time in my career certainly. I’ve kind of forgot a lot of what happened up there in my early racing life, because there wasn’t a whole lot of good to remember unfortunately. The racing was awesome, the people were awesome, and a lot of great racetracks, but our results weren’t exactly what you’d call awesome. I just wasn’t in a position to excel at that point.”

ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST

• The No. 00 and No. 56 Sprint Cup Series pit crews plan to make a special trip to the Victory Junction Gang Camp in Level Cross, N.C. on Tuesday night to take part in NASCARnival night at the camp. Both teams will perform pit stops and spend time with the campers.

• At Indianapolis, Reutimann snapped the longest streak of consecutive lead laps finishes at 11 races. He has finished on the lead lap in 16 of 18 races that he was running at the finish and 16 out of 21 total 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).

• Reutimann has won at least one race in all three of NASCAR’s National Touring Series - Sprint Cup Series (Charlotte-1 2009, Chicago 2010), Nationwide (Memphis 2007) and Camping World Truck Series (Nashville 2005).Reutimann has finished 20th or better in 15 of the 18 races that he has been running at the finish in 2010—and 15th or better in 12 of the 18. Reutimann has collected 25 bonus points for leading laps in five races in 2010.