With just two laps remaining in the race, David Reutimann's Accell Construction Chevy stalled on the frontstrech and could not be refired. This set up a green white checker restart where Clint Bowyer divebombed Jeff Gordon into turn one, spinning himself, Gordon and Jimmie Johnson and taking the three most dominate cars on the day out of contention.
Naturally, after the race drivers were quick to assign blame for the incident. But instead of placing fault on Bowyer for making such a bonehead move, everyone piled on poor, ole Beak.
"It was pretty much a disaster," said Reutimann of what transpired late in the race. "We had brake problems early, and we were just trying to soldier on and get the finish we needed. Instead, we ended up right in the middle of a huge controversy. It's noting I needed, nothing the team needed and nothing I ever intended to happen. I wasn't trying to mess up anyone's day. My day was bad enough that I didn't need to mess up anyone else's."
While the Fox broadcast team just assumed Reutimann stopped his No. 10 Chevy on track to draw the caution intentionally, he had actually stopped because he had no other choice."The engine issue started about 30 laps from the end," Reutimann said in an interview with Dave Moody on SiriusXM's Sirius Speedway. "The car would stumble off the corners and start breaking up midway down the straightaway. It was almost like a carburetor issue -- if we still had carburetors on these things -- and we were just trying to hang on and finish the race.
"We had brake issues early on and the car had little or no brakes, so we were just trying to finish and stay in the Top-35. Then with five or six laps left, I went down in the corner and the left inner tie rod failed. (TBR teammate Dave Blaney) had pulled off the track a few laps earlier, and we knew if we could finish in front of him, we could end up staying in the top-35 in points, which was our only goal for the day."
"(Once the tie rod broke), the car was having trouble maintaining minimum speed, and I got the black flag. I tried to make it to pit road, but couldn't make it the first time because of traffic. I was hung up on the outside, there were cars going by me, and only one wheel would steer. You can't just turn down across the track in front of everybody. You've got to wait for an open spot, and at Martinsville, there aren't very many open spots. The second time down the back straightaway, we realized we only needed one or two more laps so we decided to try and push the issue. Nascar will usually give you a lap or two.
"(Crew chief and owner) Tommy (Baldwin) wasn't on the radio telling me, 'To heck with everybody else,' he just said to go as fast as I could and get a couple more laps if possible.
Reutiman went on to say that "ultimately, the motor just quit. The only thing I can figure is that it was something internal; a timing belt type of deal, because the motor didn't actually blow up. The thing just would not run, and I could not get back to pit road.
"If the motor doesn't quit, I make it back to pit road, cross the start/finish line again and maybe we're okay. If the front end isn't toed out a mile because the tie rods broke, it would probably have coasted around the race track and made it. But both things happened at the same time."
Reutimann also said he was unaware of the battle Gordon and Johnson were having for the win. "I didn't know who was leading and, quite honestly, I didn't care. I was trying to stay out of everybody's way and finish the race. I was trying to get my car to run two or three more laps and whoever won the race was irrelevant to me.
"I didn't just stop on the racetrack for the fun of stopping," Reutimann insisted. "Some people seem to think I just pulled out there and said, 'Ok, I've already run 490-something laps, so I think I'm going to stop now, just for fun.' I didn't want to stop the race, I just wanted to finish it."I apologize to everyone it affected, (especially) Hendrick Motorsports and their fans. We ended up destroying what could have been great days for a couple of the Hendrick guys. It's heartbreaking and people were saying some really sweet things (after the race). I don't blame Tommy, and I don't blame the team.
"It's my responsibility. I was driving the car. The fault rests on me."
Reutimann went on to say that he will reach out to some of the drivers affected in the coming days. "I will definitely have a talk with at least two of them. I will absolutely make a phone call to let them know I wasn't trying to screw them up. It doesn't make any difference (what I say) and it doesn't fix their day. I didn' want to be that guy. I don't ever want to be that guy. It's awful. Just freakin' awful."
Reutimann also said that he would not be dialing up some drivers anytime soon. "(A few) of them have already said enough that I don't feel like I need to."
Fans of David Reutimann know their driver. They know what he's about. They know that he is a racer and that he would never want to affect the outcome of a race. Having met him at Dover a few times, I can personally say that Reutimann is a class act and one of, if not, the nicest guy in the garage area.When Fox's Dick Bergeren interviewed Reutimann after the race yesterday, fans saw a broken man. They saw a racer who was just so sick to his stomach over what happened, he could barely look at the camera. The guy was almost in tears. This truly was nothing more than a set of bad circumstances. David Reutimann is a genuine, true-blue guy who only lives to drive race cars.
All he was doing was what racers do: pushing their cars to the limit and running it till it won't run anymore. Kasey Kahne bashed Reutimann on Twitter after the race, but earlier in the day, Kahne raced a car with smoke pouring out of the back until it blew and leaked oil all over pit road. So since nobody had a problem with that, then there was absolutely, positively nothing wrong with what Reutimann was trying to do.
Hopefully, with this off week, drivers like Dale Jr and Clint Bowyer (two drivers who probably shouldn't wait by the phone to hear from Reut) will see what actually happened and maybe apologize for the ignorant remarks they made after the race. And maybe the broadcast "professionals" at Fox will do the same, instead of having Chris Meyers set up Michael Waltrip (Reutimann's former owner) to throw him under the bus again during the Texas race. There is no excuse for what the two stooges in the Hollywood Hotel were doing after the race.
Meanwhile, Reutimann will be forced to qualify on speed at Texas. But the speedway is one of, if not his best track and he will definitely be a driver to contend with. He's going to prove, once and for all, that he is going to be racing in the Sprint Cup Series for a long, long time.
