You might want to clip and save the current NASCAR standings from your favorite Web site or publication for posterity.
For history—or maybe for “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.”
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Consider this: After the first three races of the season, three-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson sits 19th in the standings coming into Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
And then there’s Dale Earnhardt Jr., sitting a distant 29th in the points, nearly 200 points behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate and Cup series points leader Jeff Gordon.
Meanwhile, two surprising interlopers have unexpectedly cracked the top 12. They’re typically relegated to somewhere around 30th place or worse in the standings—certainly not fifth and 12th place, respectively.
But that’s exactly where David Reutimann and his boss, Michael Waltrip, sit heading into this weekend’s race at the track that is considered NASCAR’s fastest.
Pinch us, we’re all dreaming, right? Reutimann, and especially Waltrip, ranked higher than Johnson and Junior?
Yep, and they’re also ranked higher than many others, too, including Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Brian Vickers, Jeff Burton, David Ragan, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman and Mark Martin.
As much as I want to bust out laughing, it’s no joke. Rather, it’s a dose of in-your-face reality that Michael Waltrip Racing has gone from also-ran to a potential contending team.
Need more convincing? Reutimann comes into Atlanta as the highest-ranked Toyota driver—even higher than Kyle Busch, winner last week at Las Vegas and winner of the spring Cup race at AMS last season.
And, by adding Waltrip to the mix, MWR collectively is ranked higher than the entire Joe Gibbs Racing driver lineup, the de facto sword carrier for Toyota up to now.
Suddenly, the guy who plays the foolish ad pitchman on TV when he’s not driving a race car is looking a lot more serious and businesslike, given how well he and his teammate have performed in the first three races.
“We’re doing some good things,” Waltrip said. “Our cars are definitely faster. One thing that I went around the shop this week and told the guys, I said, ‘I appreciate you guys and what you’re building.’”
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The question is whether Waltrip and Reutimann will be able to sustain what they’ve started and ride it through the whole season. With 33 races still left, that’s a lot to ask for, but right now they appreciate what they’ve earned thus far.
“(Success) just makes your life easier,” Waltrip said. “You have confidence that if you can make the right adjustments and tune on your car properly, you can go up and run in the top five. I’m very realistic. (In the past) we thought if we could get out of here with a top-20, it would be a successful day. Now we’re looking at top-10s, and that’s because our cars have gotten that much better.”
Reutimann is without question the biggest surprise of the young season thus far. He’s enjoying his time in the spotlight.
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