David Reutimann - New Hampshire Motor Speedway Sprint Cup Series Preview

CORNELIUS, N.C. — No. 00 TUMS Toyota driver David Reutimann has already tied his single season career best in wins (one) and top-fives (five) and has the final 10 races of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule to improve on his totals. The Michael Waltrip Racing driver also is closing in on several more personal bests:

Category: Best (Year) - 2010
Wins: 1 (2009) - 1
Top-5: 5 (2009) - 5
Points Finish: 16th (2009) - 17th
Avg. Start: 15.9 (2009) - 16.3
Avg. Finish: 16.4 (2009) - 17.2
Laps Led: 118 (2008) - 89

REUTIMANN QUOTES

ONE OF FOUR DRIVERS NOT IN THE CHASE WHO HAVE WON A RACE: “I don’t think that getting a win should automatically put you in the Chase, but it’d be nice if there was a little more emphasis on gaining some points in that area. That being said, it’s just odd how it worked out for us, but now we’re on the outside looking in unfortunately and we’re just going to have to do a better job next year. The No. 00 team has made amazing strides this year in how fast we are and how the cars handle, but we’ve had some bad breaks and need to be a little more consistent for next year to be one of the teams competing for the Chase.”

FIVE TOP-10 FINISHES THIS YEAR – ALL OF WHICH WERE TOP-FIVE: “Those statistics are a little misleading - our Toyotas have been better than that. We’ve had really good cars all year and we should have quite a few more top-10s, but I feel like there are a lot of situations where we finished somewhere from 11th-15th or 16th and we left some points on the table at the very end of the race. A perfect example is the last couple weekends we had really good cars and we didn’t finish like we needed to finish. At Atlanta we had a radio issue and fell multiple laps down and didn’t have much of an opportunity to get our laps back until the very end. Last week in Richmond we cut a tire early and lost a ton of track position that caused us to fall a couple laps down, but we were still running top-10 lap times all night. We had one of the stronger cars, but just had some tough luck at the start and couldn’t get back on the lead lap to gain any more positions. There’s been situations like that all year where we’ve had fast race cars and just haven’t finished like I know we are capable of.”

ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST

• New Hampshire marks the fourth of five primary schemes for TUMS in 2010. The No. 00 TUMS Toyota last raced at Chicagoland, where Reutimann recorded his only win of 2010 and the second of his career. The No. 00 TUMS Toyota will appear for the final time in 2010 at Phoenix.

• TUMS, Levy and NHMS have partnered on the TUMS “Chowdah” Cook-Off. After submitting entries online at NHMS.com, five contestants have been selected to compete in the at-track cooking competition. Cooking will begin Sunday, Sept. 19 at 8 a.m. ET at the TUMS Fast Relief Zone located in the fan midway at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. NASCAR personalities Jimmy Spencer and Michael Waltrip will join the judging panel which takes place at 10 a.m.

• The David Reutimann Foundation is hosting its sixth annual Charity Cook Out and Golf Outing Dec. 3-4, 2010 at Eldorado Golf and Country Club located in Reutimann’s hometown of Zephyrhills, Fla. In 2009, The David Reutimann Foundation raised over $100,000 which he distributed to Florida-based charities, including: All Children’s Hospital, Kids Go to Camp, Zephyrhills Women’s Pregnancy Center and Camp Boggy Creek.