Concord, NC (Sports Network) - David Reutimann clearly did not have the best
car in the Coca-Cola 600, but Reutimann was in the prime place at the right
time thanks to Mother Nature, as he won the rain-shortened race Monday at
Lowe's Motor Speedway.
After rain slowed the scheduled 600-mile event for the third time on lap 221,
Reutimann and crew chief Rodney Childers gambled, as Reutimann remained on
the track and inherited the lead, while the leaders came onto pit road.
NASCAR halted the race on lap 227.
"Rodney Childers made the right call and told me to stay out," Reutimann
said. "He told me, 'we need to come in and work on this thing to make it as
good as we need to anyway, and we're probably going to lose some position on
pit road, so we'll just stay out here and take a gamble'."
Track officials attempted to dry the track, but persistent rain forced NASCAR
to call the race at 6:23 p.m. (et), two hours after the red flag was
displayed. It was the shortest 600 in the event's history.
This year's Daytona 500 was also curtailed due to rain, with Matt Kenseth
picking up the victory.
Reutimann, who led the final five laps, scored his first Sprint Cup Series
victory in his 75th start. His previous career-best finish in the series was
fourth, which came earlier this year at Las Vegas.
"It certainly wasn't the prettiest win, but somebody has got to win these
things," he said.
The weather didn't seem to mind Reutimann as he waited out the entire third
delay by his No.00 Toyota. His teammate and car owner Michael Waltrip, who
finished 30th, joined him shortly before NASCAR made the call.
"I know how the rain felt when I won the Daytona 500 in 2003," Waltrip said.
Reutimann gave Michael Waltrip Racing its first win in the organization's
eighth year of Cup Series participation.
He also became the sixth driver to win his first Cup race in NASCAR's longest
event of the year, joining David Pearson (1961), Jeff Gordon (1994), Bobby
Labonte (1995), Kenseth (2000) and Casey Mears (2007).
Ryan Newman, who started on pole and finished second, was the last driver to
record his first Cup victory in a rain-shortened event. Newman's first win
came at New Hampshire in September 2002 when that race was called after 207 of
300 laps.
Robby Gordon finished third, followed by Carl Edwards and Brian Vickers.
Kyle Busch held the lead before he pitted during the final caution. Busch
dominated the race with 173 laps led. He ended up finishing sixth.
Kasey Kahne, the defending race winner, ran second to Busch as rain began
falling. Kahne wound up in seventh.
Juan Pablo Montoya, Joey Logano and Kenseth complete the top-10.
Jeff Gordon finished 14th and padded his points lead to 44 over Tony Stewart,
who came in 19th.
The race was halted two previous times for rain, the first on lap 73 for just
under an hour, and the second on lap 177 for 20 minutes.
NASCAR also stopped it at 3 p.m. (et), as the cars came to a rest along the
frontstretch as part of a national moment of silence in honor of Memorial Day.
Rain forced postponement of the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's on Sunday, the first
time it had been delayed since the inaugural event in 1960.