David Reutimann not upset with Denny Hamlin after contact at New Hamsphire
David Reutimann moved to 19th in the standings after a 15th place finish at New Hampshire.
// LaDon George, NASCAR Illustrated
David Reutimann has gotten over being angry with Denny Hamlin following contact with Hamlin in the final laps of the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Reutimann chased down Hamlin after the race and gave his car a tap on the cool-down lap.
And, considering what the Michael Waltrip Racing driver did in the race at New Hampshire last September, he doesn’t have too much reason to be angry
“We just got together toward the end of the race,” Reutimann said in a statement. “We went down into the corner and I was on the outside and he was on the inside, and when that happens a lot of times the car on the inside will get loose.
“The exact same thing happened between me and the No. 88 [of Dale Earnhardt Jr.] last year.”
Last year, Reutimann slid into Earnhardt Jr., knocking the Hendrick Motorsports driver out of the race. At least Hamlin didn’t ruin the day for Reutimann, who finished 15th at New Hampshire.
“It’s frustrating, but more often than not you’ll see something like that happen at New Hampshire,” Reutimann said. “It’s a fast race track, but it’s flat and if the guy on the inside gets into the corner a little hot or something like that, he’ll end up getting loose. He had no choice but to try and run me up the race track and if you’re out there you’re going to get hit, and that’s exactly what happened.”
The finish continued a streak of four finishes outside the top 10 after Reutimann posted back-to-back top-fives at Dover and Charlotte,
Reutimann, who did improve from 21st to 19th in the standings after New Hampshire and is 150 points out of 12th, now heads to Daytona, where he finished fifth in the Daytona 500. In the other restrictor-plate race this year, Reutimann finished 14th.
“We have our work cut out for us and we’re going to have to step up our game a lot to get to where we need to be [in the Chase],” Reutimann said. “Sure we’ve gained a lot, but there’s also been situations where we should have gained a lot more and we just haven’t been able to do that.
“We have to step it up and run like we’re supposed to run and finish where we’re supposed to finish. It’s been a situation where we’ve finished in the top 10 and haven’t gained any points or this past weekend where we finished 15th but gained quite a bit.
“It’s important to go out there and race and finish in the top 10 every week, but it also matters where the guys in front of you finish. That’s one thing that you can’t control, so you just have to go out there and do your job and see where things end up.”
