DAVID REUTIMANN
No. 00 AARON’S DREAM MACHINE TOYOTA
INFINEON RACEWAY
CORNELIUS, N.C. — No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota driver David Reutimann has improved in each of the three years he’s raced at Infineon Raceway. While the oval track ace isn’t contending for victories yet, he’s worked his way from the back of the field to mid-pack through a lot of hard work and time spent with driving coach and fellow competitor Michael McDowell. The pair tested late models at Infineon on June 14 and 15 and spent time in May at Virginia International Raceway working on road course racing skills.
REUTIMANN QUOTES
DO YOU ENJOY ROAD COURSE RACING AFTER SO MANY OVALS TO START THE SEASON? “Not at all. Not one bit. Nothing against Infineon, it’s a beautiful racetrack and an amazing part of the country. The people are great. I just struggle on the road courses, so I really don’t like going to them. If we went to an oval every week that would be just fine by me. I know that people like to watch the road course races, and it’s good for the fans, but for me personally I could do without any road courses on the schedule.”
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO WIN ON A ROAD COURSE: “That would be the biggest win of my career—no question about it. That would be the ultimate. That is something that I’m always going to try to do, but I’m pretty sure I have my work cut out for me.”
MICHAEL McDOWELL ON REUTIMANN AS A ROAD COURSE RACER: “David (Reutimann) has definitely improved light years from where he started. Now he can get into the groove a lot quicker now. It’s more habit for him now – he can get in and go. He’s doing a really good job. His technique is great. This is the first time that we’ve really been able to work on his fine tuning. Before we were taking big chunks at it. Now we are in that stage where it gets difficult. It gets hard because now you have to find small little things to pick up speed, but he is doing really well. The VIR test wasn’t the best test we’ve had. He had a couple issues there and so the biggest thing for him is just confidence going into the road courses because he doesn’t feel like he has enough experience, but now going back and forth every year has really helped him with that as well.”
HOW WAS REUTIMANN WHEN YOU STARTED WORKING WITH HIM? “A dart without feathers. Completely lost. Didn’t know what he wanted to do. He didn’t know if he wanted to left foot brake, right foot brake, use the clutch, not use the clutch. I mean, he literally had so many people feeding him information on what’s the best way to do it that he literally had no idea what to do. So we just started with the absolute basics over and over and over again. We just did all the fundamental stuff and now that we have that out of the way he can concentrate on what he’s good at – which is racing and driving. A lot of times people over-complicate the road racing, but it’s not over complicated. You do the same thing we do every weekend, but you just have to shift. Once you get the shifting where it happens naturally and you don’t have to think about it. Then you’re just driving like you normally do. That’s what we are trying to work towards with David.”
ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST
· Reutimann at Infineon:In three career NSCS starts at Infineon Raceway, Reutimann has one top-20 and never started better than 33rd. His average starting position is 39th and finish is 30.3. Reutimann has improved by an average of 10 positions per start at Infineon.
· Social Winning: Fans can win an autographed Reutimann hat from Aaron’s when the No. 00 logs a top-10 finish. To win you must follow @aaronssports on Twitter or become a fan of Aaron’s on Facebook
