David Reutimann: From the Slim Jim All Pro Series to a Coca-Cola 600 Win

David Reutimann is an American stock car racing crew chief and former driver from Zephyrhills, Florida. He raced in the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck series, won the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year award, and scored two Cup wins, the most notable a 2009 Coca-Cola 600 win that was called by rain. Since leaving NASCAR he has built dirt-track chassis and worked as a crew chief in late model racing.

Where did Reutimann start racing?

Reutimann was born on 2 March 1970, and he is the son of Buzzie Reutimann, a racer who competed on the dirt tracks of the Northeast. The family was a third generation of racers, and David began in dirt-track modifieds and late models before moving up the ladder. While his father raced, he spent summers on a farm in the Asbury section of Franklin Township in Warren County, New Jersey.

Before he became a full-time driver he also worked for a short spell at United Parcel Service, a job that later became his primary sponsor during the 2008 season. He now lives in Mooresville, North Carolina.

A Coca-Cola 600 win that came from a rain delay and a fuel-saving call showed how quickly one race can change a career.

How did Reutimann develop in the All Pro and Busch series?

In 1997 Reutimann moved up to the Slim Jim All Pro Series, where he was named Rookie of the Year after finishing in the top ten eight times and placing fifth in points. The next season he dropped to seventh in the standings but took the Sportsmanship award at the end of the year. Those results gave him the platform to move higher.

In 2002 he won his first three races and finished second in the overall championship. The same season brought his first Busch start, at Richmond International Raceway, in the No. 87 GEICO Chevrolet Monte Carlo fielded by NEMCO Motorsports. He started 34th and came home 16th. He led twelve laps at his next race at Memphis Motorsports Park and was in the top fifteen at each of his next two starts.

In 2003 he won a contest called the Hills Bros. Coffee Break of a Lifetime, which gave him full sponsorship for five Busch Series races. He ran those five events and two extra races for NEMCO. He finished fifth at Nashville Speedway USA and at the Milwaukee Mile, and he qualified Greg Biffle's car on pole at Memphis. He also tried the New England 300 and the Brickyard 400 in the Winston Cup Series with Morgan-McClure Motorsports, but he failed to qualify for both.

What did Reutimann achieve in the Truck Series?

In 2004 Reutimann signed with Darrell Waltrip Motorsports to drive the NTN Bearings truck in the Craftsman Truck Series. He won the pole in his second race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and recorded four top-five finishes, which left him fourteenth in the standings. The result earned him the series Rookie of the Year honour.

His first Truck win came in 2005 at Nashville Superspeedway, and he finished thirteenth in points that season. Those results made him a credible candidate for a full Cup ride, which arrived through a partnership with Michael Waltrip.

When did Reutimann make his Cup debut?

His first Cup start came in 2005 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, where he ran the No. 00 car sponsored by State Fair Corn Dogs for Michael Waltrip. He came home 22nd. In 2006 he went without a win but took two poles and finished third in the championship standings. He also ran fifteen Busch starts that season, with four top-ten finishes.

In 2007 he moved up to the Nextel Cup Series full-time with Michael Waltrip Racing, and he was a Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate. Early in the year he edged Kevin Lepage for a spot in the Gatorade Duels and qualified 14th for the Daytona 500. Team penalties for illegal fuel additives across the Waltrip cars sent him to the rear of the field, and he was caught in an accident on lap 173 to finish 40th.

What happened in the 2007 Fontana crash?

The race at Fontana the following week produced the most serious accident of Reutimann's career. With eight laps left, Greg Biffle tapped his bumper, and his car went head-on into the outside wall and burst into flames. He was instantly unconscious. Paramedics put out the fire and helped him out of the car, and he was flown to a hospital by helicopter.

Reutimann suffered a minor concussion, a cracked rib and a few bruises. He was back at the track the following weekend in Mexico City for a Busch Series race. NASCAR said the crash tied with several other wrecks as the hardest in its history, a record that stood until Elliott Sadler crashed at Pocono in 2010.

How did the 2007 season end for Reutimann?

The following weeks were difficult. He failed to qualify at Las Vegas, Bristol and Texas, and in the races he did make he fell short of the top 30 until Richmond, where he finished 28th. He had engine issues at Darlington and missed the Coca-Cola 600 and the spring Dover race, then ran a disappointing event at Pocono before a fifteenth-place finish at Michigan, his first top-twenty result in Cup.

Michael Waltrip Racing replaced him for the road course events at Sonoma and Watkins Glen with the ringer P. J. Jones, in an effort to lift the No. 00 car into the top 35 in owner points. Reutimann finished the season 39th in points. Late in the year he won the Sam's Town 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park, his first Busch Series win, and he finished second overall in the last season of the Busch Series before it became the Nationwide Series.

What did Reutimann do in 2008?

Reutimann ran the first five races of 2008 in the No. 00 Aaron's Dream Machine car, then took over the No. 44 UPS car from the retiring Dale Jarrett and handed the No. 00 to Michael McDowell. He started the Daytona 500 in 18th place, and the next two races brought a 23rd at Fontana and a 37th at Las Vegas. The mechanical problems in the No. 44 car at Martinsville and Texas were costly.

The season produced his first career top-ten finish, a tenth at Lowe's Motor Speedway during the Coca-Cola 600. He also recorded top-tens at Auto Club Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Richmond International Raceway. At Richmond in September he led a race-high 104 laps but fell to ninth. In the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway he took his first career pole.

How did the 2009 Coca-Cola 600 win come about?

In 2009 Reutimann returned to the No. 00 car, and he had a strong start with twelfth at the Daytona 500, which was his best finish in that race to date. Two weeks later he finished fifth at Las Vegas, his first top five in the series, and he later qualified on pole at Texas. Five more top-ten finishes followed at Indianapolis, Michigan, Atlanta, Kansas and Phoenix, and he ended the season sixteenth in points, a personal best.

The win came at Lowe's Motor Speedway, where rain interrupted the Coca-Cola 600. Reutimann was in the lead when a rain shower red-flagged the race on lap 227, and the race was called after officials decided the weather would last the night. Crew chief Rodney Childers had made a fuel-saving call that put him in front, and Reutimann spent the delay planning backup strategies with his team and owner Michael Waltrip. That gave him his first Cup win, and it was also the 50th Coca-Cola 600 at the track.

The result was a record of its own. Reutimann became the 20th driver to win in all three of NASCAR's top series. The win also set two firsts: a Cup victory without leading a lap under green, and the first Cup win for the No. 00 car.

What were Reutimann's last seasons in Cup racing?

In 2010 Reutimann returned to the No. 00 car. He started the season with a personal best fifth in the Daytona 500 and won his second Cup race at the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, passing Jeff Gordon with under seventy laps to go and holding off a late charge from Carl Edwards.

2011 was a disappointing year for Reutimann and Michael Waltrip Racing, with only one top-five and two top-ten finishes. At Watkins Glen, Boris Said turned David Ragan on the final lap, and Ragan's car came back across the track and hit Reutimann's, which rolled over. Reutimann was mostly unscathed. With three races left, he could not agree a deal with Aaron's for 2012, and the team reluctantly released him and the No. 00 car. He then signed to share the Tommy Baldwin Racing No. 10 entry with rookie Danica Patrick.

In 2012 he shared the Stewart-Haas-aligned No. 10 with Patrick, and he also drove a truck for RBR Enterprises. At Martinsville his No. 10 Chevrolet stalled on lap 497 and brought out a caution. He was accused of causing it on purpose, but he said he had been trying to keep the car in the top 35 in owner points, a position the team left one point outside a guaranteed start.

The 2013 season started with a sixteenth-place Daytona 500 for BK Racing and the No. 83 Toyota, but the team did not record another top-twenty finish that year. Reutimann finished 33rd in points and parted ways with the team afterwards. In 2014 he had no ride at the start of the year, then drove the No. 35 Ford for Front Row Motorsports at Bristol. He failed to qualify there, but he made the field in three of the six Cup races he attempted, and that was the last time he raced in a NASCAR-sanctioned event.

What has Reutimann done since NASCAR?

Once his NASCAR career ended, Reutimann moved into dirt-track racing as both a driver and a chassis builder, setting up Beak Built Chassis to develop UMP modified cars. By 2019 he was working in a crew chief role at Lee Faulk Racing, looking after late model driver Ryan Rackley.

What does Reutimann's career table show?