David Reutimann rips Kyle Busch for ‘stupidest comment I’ve ever heard’
David Reutimann and Kyle Busch battle for the lead at Bristol. // Elmer Kappell, NASCAR Illustrated
David Reutimann raced Kyle Busch as hard as he could to hang onto the lead Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Two days later, he lashed out at Busch for criticizing his driving style after the Irwin Tools Night Race.
Busch passed Reutimann for the lead on lap 429 of the 500-lap race after the two raced side by side and nose to tail for several laps. Busch bumped Reutimann at one point during the battle and the two nearly collided while racing door to door for the lead.
After the race, Busch, a four-time winner at Bristol, said he beat Reutimann because Reutimann wasn’t driving the track the way he should have.
“Reutimann was fast, and he was good, and I’m not going to say why I beat him because then he’ll fix it, but it has to do with behind the wheel,” Busch said matter-of-factly.
Busch elaborated by saying, “He wasn’t driving the place right. I’m sorry. If he fixes how to drive this place, he’d be right there with me.”
During his weekly Tuesday appearance on Sirius XM’s NASCAR channel, Reutimann clearly was still bothered by the comment and lashed out at Busch.
“That’s probably the stupidest comment I’ve ever hard anybody say at any given time,” Reutimann said.
He then said with biting sarcasm, “Everybody’s cars are identical. Nobody’s cars drive any different. So the guy who wins and does a phenomenal job and the guy who finishes 43rd is just terrible because everybody’s car is identical. They drive exactly the same.”
Reutimann emphasized that each Sprint Cup car is built and set up differently and that how Busch drives his car is different from his driving style or that of other drivers.
“I don’t know if [it was] the fact that his Superman cape was flying out the back when I was behind him and I couldn’t see or what the deal was,” Reutimann said. “We got beat fair and square. That’s what it comes down to. We just got outrun. Professor Busch, maybe he can start a driving school at Bristol and the rest of the field can join in and go and [he can] show all of us what we’re doing wrong. I need help.”
Reutimann, who won the Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway in July and has two career victories, hinted that he and Busch have had issues before.
“It all comes down to the fact that we just don’t like each other very much,” Reutimann said on the show. “It has been a while. We just don’t like each other, and we agree we don’t like each other and we’re both fine with it.”
