DAVID REUTIMANN
No. 00 AARON’S DREAM MACHINE TOYOTA
RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
CORNELIUS, N.C. – The bulk of Glen Shano’s job begins about the time victory lane ceremonies conclude and the race broadcasts go off the air. Shano’s job as No. 00 truck driver is to return David Reutimann’s Aaron’s Dream Machines to the Michael Waltrip Racing shop in Cornelius, N.C., pick up two new cars before delivering them to the next track on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Circuit. That job gets a lot harder during weeks like this when rain pushed the race to Tuesday and the teams must be at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway on Thursday for Saturday night’s race.
GLEN SHANO ON SCHEDULE FOLLOWING THE RAIN DELAY IN ATLANTA: “We got back last night and both truck drivers are in today. Right now we are doing our best to get everything changed out quick and then head right up to Richmond. I’m not sure if they changed the parking from Thursday night to Friday morning or not, but we’ve got to get up there as soon as we can. It’s a quick one day turnaround. So we came in today (Wednesday) to turn the truck around and then head out again this evening. It’s a pretty hectic schedule, but thankfully both races are within a reasonable distance of the shop to get the work done on time.”
WHAT MAKES A QUICK TURNAROUND CHALLENGING? “Well, there are a couple things. We didn’t get to spend very much time at home and see our families and we’ll probably end up doing our laundry once we get to the hotel in Richmond after we park.”
MOST DIFFICULT PART OF GETTING THE TRUCKS PREPARED FOR THE NEXT RACE? “Really, the hardest part is that you don’t have the time you need to get it turned around. We like to clean it all up and make it look good. On a turnaround like this we really don’t have the time to do that. We are just going to take all the parts out, put the new parts in, switch the cars out and basically go. We should be okay as far as the distance and time we’ve had to travel from Atlanta to Cornelius and then on to Richmond, but we don’t get a lot of time to spend making it look pretty.”
WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU DID WHEN YOU GOT BACK TO NORTH CAROLINA FROM ATLANTA? “Well, we got back last night (Tuesday) and unloaded the bottom of the hauler, went home and tried to get a load of laundry in and got some sleep. We were back in this morning at 7 a.m. and hopefully we’ll get everything turned around by 1 or 2 p.m. and get out of there to head up to Richmond about 2 p.m. at the latest. There is not a lot of “weekend time” or time off and that’s the hardest part. It comes with the job sometimes and we do our best to make it up to our family later. There’s not a lot of time to do the house work or spend time with family. Right now my lawn at home is getting pretty tall.”
DAVID REUTIMANN ON IMPACT OF RAIN DELAYS: “Once the race ends we all run to the airport and fly home but our truck drivers are the ones who have to drive all of our equipment back. Those guys sometimes don’t get the appreciation they deserve. They are gone a lot and its tough. MWR does a good job of getting them help and making it as easy as possible, but all these races are demanding on the truck drivers and crews.”
ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST
· Reutimann at Richmond International Raceway: In nine career NSCS starts at Richmond, Reutimann has an average starting position of 15th and finish of 21st. Reutimann finished ninth and led 104 laps in the Fall 2008 race to record his only top-ten at Richmond. In the spring race, Reutimann was involved in a multi-car wreck on lap 300 and finished five laps down.
· Meet The Driver: Reutimann will sign autographs at the MWR merchandise hauler on Saturday from 3:50-4:20 p.m.
· 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.
