Waltrip says Reutimann will make a “bold statement” this year
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Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR
By Kyle Ocker
Sprint Cup Series beat reporter
Team owner Michael Waltrip stepped out of his full-time Sprint Cup Series ride after last season, now he predicts that driver David Reutimann will step up this season and make a bold statement with two wins and a chase berth in the upcoming Sprint Cup Series campaign. Waltrip, who recently appeared on a national news program to make some bold statements of his own, isn’t afraid to go out on a limb—especially after the performance Reutimann and the No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota team put together last year.
“I believe that David will win races and contend for the Chase,” car owned Waltrip said. “That’s really all you can ask for. It’s really hard to predict that Kyle Busch or Mark Martin could do any better than that. To win a couple races and be a contender for the Chase, unless you’re the Hendrick dynasty, is a bold statement. And I’m comfortable making a bold statement.”
Reutimann, who is set to make his 100th career Sprint Cup Series start at the Daytona 500 to start of the 2010 season, says that he expects his team to continue to improve this season. According to the driver that is not yet a year removed from his first Cup Series win at the Coca-Cola 600 in May, a 12th place finish should be a poor run for his team.
“I think it’s a blessing and a curse,” Reutimann said. “Early on, it was like ‘Wow, the 00 car finished in the top-10.’ That was a big deal. I noticed toward the end of 2009 if we were running in the top-10, it was like ‘Good job.’ They expected that. That’s how it should be, they should expect that. A bad race for you needs to be a 12th-place finish; that needs to be a bad day and anything else than that needs to be a miserable day. That’s how you have to do it, because that’s how the guys in the Chase are doing.”
The first step to accomplish that will be for Reutimann to maintain or improve the number of laps completed—which was an astonishing 99.2-percent of the 10,492 laps run in the Sprint Cup Series last year. Reutimann also completed every point race last season, one of only three drivers to do so. These stats created what was a monumental year for Reutimann. This season, Waltrip expects the team to get even better as Michael Waltrip Racing strives to provide better cars and parts to their teams.
“I remember in the closing laps at Texas (Motor Speedway) just a couple months ago when David was racing for the win late in the going,” Waltrip said. “That showed the progress the Aaron’s team made throughout the 2009 season. The progress that David has made the last couple years is amazing. He knows his Aaron’s Dream Machine. He understands his car. He’s a great race car driver and now we’re continuing to provide them with better Toyotas and pieces and parts to race with, so I expect a lot out of him.”
