FEUD OF THE WEEK: Kyle Busch vs. David Reutimann
Kyle Busch (18) challenges David Reutimann for the lead at Bristol. Busch won the race while Reutimann finished second.
// Jeff Robinson, NASCAR Illustrated
David Reutimann and Kyle Busch haven’t exactly followed the same paths in their NASCAR careers.
In 1997, a 27-year-old Reutimann was rookie of the year in what was then NASCAR’s southeastern regional series and not sure where his racing career was going. At that time, Kyle Busch was 12.
Busch still made it to the Sprint Cup Series before Reutimann, landing a full-time ride with Hendrick Motorsports in 2005. Reutimann wouldn’t join the fray until two years later.
Busch isn’t even 27 yet and the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has 19 Cup wins and 79 total victories in the NASCAR’s national divisions. That’s 75 more than Reutimann, who has two Cup wins and one each in the Nationwide and Truck series.
It’s not like these two drivers have a lot in common. Busch is from Las Vegas while Reutimann is from the small town of Zephyrhills, Fla. Reutimann is from a typical short track family – race as much as possible and make enough money to get to the next race. Busch raced on short tracks for a short time, but it was all with an eye toward getting to Cup as fast as possible.
So it’s not all that surprising that Reutimann didn’t like what Busch said about him after the Sprint Cup race at Bristol Aug. 21. Busch, who beat Reutimann for the win, said that Reutimann didn’t know how to drive on the tough short track at Bristol.
To be fair, Busch didn’t seem like he was trying to be critical of Reutimann and get under his skin. He just answered a question about when he realized during the race that he was better than the rest of the field.
“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.
He later added: “He wasn’t driving the place right, … If he fixes how to drive this place, he’d be right there with me.”
Reutimann took great offense to the comments, calling them “the stupidest” he had ever heard because not all cars handle the same.
“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 last week on Sirius XM Radio. “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.”
Busch and Reutimann will take their tiff this weekend to Atlanta Motor Speedway, where they both could be contenders again.
If Reutimann and Busch have one thing in common, it’s that they both drive every lap as if it’s their last.
That, at times, has led to mistakes that have taken them out or raised the ire of other drivers. Reutimann, though, because of his self-deprecating and humble demeanor, often gets the benefit of the doubt while the younger, more brash Busch does not.
“It all comes down to the fact that we just don’t like each other very much,” Reutimann said on Sirius. “It has been [that way for] 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.”
