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David Reutimann was the big winner in NASCAR’s losing battle against Mother Nature in Monday’s rain-shortened 24 Hours of the Coca-Cola 600 Sprint Cup race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Nearly 25 hours after the 50th edition of the race was supposed to start, and with menacing storm cells dotting the radar, NASCAR called the event after 227 of a scheduled 400 laps. That made a first-time winner of Reutimann, who parlayed a strategic call by crew chief Rodney Childers into the unlikely victory.
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The win in NASCAR’s longest race, which was postponed from Sunday because of rain, was the first for Michael Waltrip Racing—now in its third season of Cup competition—and the first for a Toyota team other than Joe Gibbs Racing. Reutimann led five laps, all under the final caution. He was running 14th when rain started falling on Lap 221. NASCAR.com
“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.
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. MiamiHerald.com
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Kyle Busch had the best car of the day. His No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 173 of the 227 laps the cars ran. The final rain caution came out on Lap 222 with Busch in the lead as Kasey Kahne closed in on him.
But Busch pitted and gave up the lead.
“We knew it was coming, we knew it was here,” Busch said of the rain. “But we weren’t going to be able to ride around under caution for more than five laps. That was all we had of fuel left. We had to come down and put gas in it.” Los Angeles Times
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