David Reutimann No. 00 TUMS Toyota finished second and is 24th in points
Martin Truex Jr., NAPA “Good to Go” Toyota finished 18th and is 23rd in points
DAVID REUTIMANN SUMMARY: No. 00 TUMS Toyota driver David Reutimann led seven laps and finished second in Saturday’s inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway. If the 400-mile race had gone a few more laps, Reutimann would likely have passed winner Kyle Busch. The No. 00 was one of the fastest cars on the track throughout the night rarely racing outside the top six. A caution after a pit stop saw him drop to 13th and a lap down with 58 laps remaining but a charge to the front and a “Lucky Dog” award saw him nearly pull out the victory. Reutimann returns to action Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
REUTIMANN NOTES:
. Reutimann started 17th and finished second.
. Broke into the top five by lap 85
. Raced in the top six throughout the race.
. Dropped to 11th and fell a lap down with 58 laps remaining after an untimely caution.
. Charged to the lead for seven laps after using a “Lucky Dog” award.
. Named Mobil 1 Driver of the Race.
REUTIMANN DESCRIBING THE FINAL LAP: “We had that restart and you knew Kyle (Busch) wasn’t going to roll over for anything and Jimmie’s (Johnson) pretty intense too, so we just ended up coming in and Kyle threw a block to kill Jimmie’s momentum down the front. I had a little bit of run down the back and Jimmie was either going to go to the top or the bottom getting in. I was not going to go where he was. He went to the bottom and our car actually did pretty good on the outside. I got a run on top and got it back to (Turn) four pointed in the right direction and Jimmie gave me enough room up there. He could of crowded me and he didn’t and we ended up getting a decent finish.”
STRENGTH ON 1.5-MILE TRACKS: “I love these types of race tracks. In the end, I think our program is a little stronger at these places. Toyota brought great horsepower this weekend. A new car configuration helps us a lot too. Hopefully we’ll keep moving forward.”
KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY: “It was a great race man. It was a phenomenal race. The track has character. You can’t drive it on the bottom. You have to search around and it’s a little bit rough in some places, but in the end it’s a great race track and I think it was a good finish.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR. SUMMARY: No. 56 NAPA “Good to Go” Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. finished 18th in Saturday’s inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway. Truex battled handling issues early in the race, but a blistering pace set by leader Kyle Busch saw half the field including Truex a lap down by the halfway mark. Truex returned to the lead lap 20 laps later and then used a late-race caution to climb as high as 11th. Truex battled handling issues in the final laps to finish 18th. Truex returns action Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
TRUEX JR. NOTES:
. Started 16th and finished 18th
. Battled handling in early going
. Fell down to leaders during lap 125 pit stop sequence.
. Less than 20 cars on lead lap at halfway mark.
. Took wave around on lap 140 caution.
. Used a timely caution to move up to 11th for lap 207 restart.
TRUEX: “It was a battle tonight. The track was slick and the feel of our car just wouldn’t allow us to go. Me and a lot of drivers right now are scratching our heads to figure out what we missed. Yesterday, our handling didn’t feel good, but we were fast. Today, that wasn’t the case. We have some more work to do but we are making progress. I’m real happy for David and the TUMS team for getting the runner-up finish.”
RACE NOTES
. Kyle Busch held off Reutimann by 0.179 seconds after a two-lap shootout to win the inaugural race at Kentucky Speedway.
. Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards rounded out the top five.
. The race took two hours and 55 minutes in front of a capacity crowd of 107,000.
. Six cautions slowed the race for 32 laps.
. Rain cancelled qualifying Friday after 21of the 48 cars made a qualifying attempt. At that point, No. 15 Aaron’s Toyota driver Michael Waltrip was about fifth quickest of the qualifiers. NASCAR decided not to resume qualifying for scheduling reasons and set the field according to the rulebook. Under those rules the No. 15 did not have enough 2011 attempts to earn a starting spot in Saturday’s race.
RESULTS
1 Kyle Busch
2 David Reutimann
3 Jimmie Johnson
4 Ryan Newman
5 Carl Edwards
6 Matt Kenseth
7 Brad Keselowski
8 David Ragan
9 Kurt Busch
10 Denny Hamlin
11 Jeff Gordon
12 Tony Stewart
13 Kasey Kahne
14 Joey Logano
15 Juan Montoya
16 Kevin Harvick
17 Regan Smith
18 Martin Truex Jr.
19 Jeff Burton
20 Marcos Ambrose
21 Greg Biffle
22 Mark Martin
23 Landon Cassill
24 Paul Menard
25 Casey Mears
26 Bobby Labonte
27 Brian Vickers
28 A.J. Allmendinger
29 Travis Kvapil
30 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
31 David Gilliland
32 Andy Lally *
33 Dave Blaney
34 Mike Bliss
35 Clint Bowyer
36 Jamie McMurray
37 Scott Wimmer
38 Tony Raines
39 Joe Nemechek
40 J.J. Yeley
41 Michael McDowell
42 Scott Riggs
43 Mike Skinner
Point Standings
RANK DRIVER POINTS BEHIND
1 Kyle Busch 624 Leader
2 Carl Edwards 620 -4
3 Kevin Harvick 614 -10
4 Kurt Busch 606 -18
5 Jimmie Johnson 605 -19
6 Matt Kenseth 602 -22
7 Jeff Gordon 552 -72
8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 548 -76
9 Ryan Newman 538 -86
10 Denny Hamlin 530 -94
11 Tony Stewart 527 -97
12 Clint Bowyer 514 -110
13 Juan Montoya 497 -127
14 Greg Biffle 496 -128
15 David Ragan 494 -130
16 Paul Menard 486 -138
17 Kasey Kahne 484 -140
18 A.J. Allmendinger 483 -141
19 Mark Martin 477 -147
20 Joey Logano 469 -155
21 Brad Keselowski 466 -158
22 Marcos Ambrose 459 -165
23 Martin Truex Jr. 449 -175
24 David Reutimann 423 -201
25 Jeff Burton 417 -207
26 Brian Vickers 405 -219
27 Regan Smith 399 -225
28 Jamie McMurray 386 -238
29 Bobby Labonte 363 -261
30 David Gilliland 328 -296
31 Casey Mears 261 -363
32 Dave Blaney 260 -364
33 Andy Lally* 198 -426
34 Robby Gordon 193 -431
35 Tony Raines 123 -501
