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After three races, the top 10 in the Sprint Cup point standings is an eclectic mix of favorites and dark horses. Jeff Gordon sits at the top with Clint Bowyer, Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle in the next three slots. That will certainly not catch anyone by surprise, but two members of the top 10 are a reminder to NASCAR fans that anything can happen in this sport.
On the strength of their top-five finishes in the Shelby 427, David Reutimann climbed to fifth in the point standings and Bobby Labonte and his all but forgotten No. 96 is in 10th.
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Labonte snapped a 79-race streak of finishes outside the top five when he crossed the line fifth Sunday after making a last-lap pass on Gordon. Reutimann finished fourth, which was the first top-five of his career.
Both Reutimann and Labonte had consistent runs in the first two races, but little prepared them for Sunday. Labonte finished a respectable 22nd at Daytona and was 20th at Fontana, Calif. Reutimann was 12th and 14th, respectively, in those two races.
“It’s really huge,” Labonte said after the Las Vegas race. “… We just had a great race car all day—and all weekend, for that matter.”
Both Labonte and the Hall of Fame Racing team entered the offseason with uncertain futures. Labonte was without a ride after Gillett-Evernham Motorsports and Petty Enterprises merged, and HoF had run out of drivers after swapping five different men in and out of its car in 2008.
Reutimann’s future was a little more predictable. At the end of last season, this Michael Waltrip Racing team was among the most improved on the circuit. In fact, Reutimann earned a top-10 at Texas with three races remaining in 2008.
For all his promise, however, the best Reutimann could manage before Sunday was four top-10s. His first top-five came in his 66th start.
“You are just kind of relieved, if anything.” Reutimann said. “You run around here for a couple of years and (are) trying to get close to winning one of these things, and so we’re a little closer than what we were. It feels good to be where we are.”
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Officially, Reutimann qualified fourth, but he was forced to give up his grid position when the No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine was one of five Toyotas forced to change an engine before the race began.
“I’m absolutely thrilled, with the way our day started out and having to go to the back after having a great qualifying run there.” Reutimann said. “(Crew chief) Rodney Childers said to just keep calm and we’ll keep working on this thing.”
As if that weren’t enough excitement, Reutimann’s engine experienced more problems during the race. “We developed an oil leak at the midpoint of the race, and the guys came in and got that fixed,” he said. “We went back out there and it put us back to 25th or 30th, and we kind of ran back up through there just one at a time.”
