David Reutimann overcomes illness for impressive runnerup finish at Bristol
Gutting one out: David Reutimann scored an impressive runnerup finish Saturday at Bristol after battling illness throughout the race weekend.
// Elmer Kappell, NASCAR Illustrated
BRISTOL, Tenn. – David Reutimann scored an impressive runnerup finish at Bristol Motor Speedway Saturday night – his best finish since winning at Chicagoland Speedway in July.
But Reutimann felt so bad after the race that he was barely able to enjoy it.
“You know, it's just a … I feel really, really good about the finish, but I'm not feeling so hot right now, so I'm ready to go to sleep at some point. Maybe now,” Reutimann said during his postrace press conference.
Reutimann battled a stomach bug all weekend and was so sick on Friday that Aric Almirola had to drive his car during part of the first practice session.
Reutimann, who qualified fifth, was feeling better when the race started. He ran in the top five throughout the Irwin Tools Night Race and led 25 laps after a round of green-flag pit stops late in the race.
He held the lead on a restart on lap 415, but could not hold off the hard-charging Kyle Busch, who powered his way past him on lap 429 and led the final 72 laps for the win.
Reutimann held off Jamie McMurray over the final 72 laps, however, to finish second.
“I'm okay now,” Reutimann said. “We had a good car, and it's just a total team effort. Aric practiced the car the first part of practice and I was able to get in it, and we just adjusted on it some.
“So my team gets all the credit. I mean, we had a good race car, and you know, we battled being loose at times through the center and loose on exit, and then we made the exit better but hurt the center, and that's kind of what ultimately got us at the end.
“It was a good race. I enjoyed racing the guys up front, Jamie and Kyle and those guys.”
Reutimann had a furious battle with Busch for the lead after the final restart. When Busch ducked to his inside, Reutimann repeatedly held the high line to hold him off.
Busch bumped him on lap 422, but Reutimann continued to hold him off until Busch powered to his outside on lap 429. They bumped again as Busch completed the pass.
“We got together, but we were just racing. It's no big deal. That's part of the deal,” he said. “And if you race Kyle, you know you're going to get run into at some point. That's just kind of the way it is. So it's no big deal, we're just racing.
“But when he got by me, I just got loose. I made a mistake, and he was getting faster and we were getting tighter, so I think we were just prolonging the inevitable. You're out there leading a race, you've got to do all you can.
“I just made a mistake, got a little loose up off the corner, got to the gas too quick, got too aggressive and he was there to pounce on it, and the rest is history.”
Reutimann snapped a streak of dismal finishes since his win at Chicago, falling to 18th in the standings and ruining his chances of making the Chase.
He gained one spot in points, but remains 155 points behind 12th-place Clint Bowyer.
“Unfortunately, since we won Chicago, we haven't done a whole lot right, and we've struggled and had some finishes that were just certainly not Chase worthy,” he said. “We have to run like we ran tonight all the time almost in order to have a chance to get in.
“We're back a pretty good bit in the points, and I don't know if it's realistic shot or not, but we're just going to keep trying to run as good as we can. We don't have anything to lose, just go out there and try to win races and gamble on pit strategy and things like that to try to make things happen, because you're either in or you're not.”
Still, with a win at Chicago – the second of his career – and an impressive run at Bristol, Reutimann has had a good season.
“I'm proud of my guys, and as far as what we do the rest of the year … we'll just go out there and race as hard as we can and get all we can while we can.”
