/noticias.info/ After collecting his sixth career Bud Pole Award at Dover International Speedway, David Reutimann finished fifth in his No. 17 Team Tundra Racing Toyota during the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at the one-mile concrete oval on Friday.
“We were glad we finished in the top-five again,” said Reutimann. “We weren’t thrilled with a fifth-place finish because we felt like we should’ve finished better, but we’ll take it. A couple guys got by us at the end of the race. We just fought being too loose center-off the whole race. We should be okay with a fifth-place finish, but we want to win so badly. We’re close and we’re going to get us one here soon.”
Reutimann led Laps 1-14 until Bobby Hamilton Jr. passed him with two trucks in tow. Reutimann settled into fourth-place behind Hamilton Jr., Kyle Busch and Mike Bliss as he fought a loose handling truck. Approaching Lap 50, the third generation driver slipped two more positions.
“We were really loose on exit,” said Reutimann. “We pitted around Lap 65 and made adjustments to try to tighten up the truck.”
On the restart at Lap 69, Reutimann was shown in fifth-place. Twelve laps later Todd Bodine passed Reutimann and then the Florida native retook fifth-place at Lap 87.
“We were able to maintain a top-five run there for a while,” said Reutimann. “We pitted around Lap 100 under caution to try to make the truck better. The guys put on four tires and made an air pressure adjustment. For some reason it made the truck go the other way. During the race we were good for 10 or 12 laps and then we fell off.”
Falling outside the top-five a couple laps after halfway, Reutimann continued to try to get a handle on his No. 17 Team Tundra Toyota. As the fourth and final caution of the 200-lap event occurred, Reutimann pitted at Lap 160 and won the race off pit road as his crew chief opted for the Darrell Waltrip Motorsports team to put on only two right-side tires.
“Jason Overstreet made the call and it was the right decision,” said Reutimann. “I can’t say enough about him and my guys. They’ve done a great job all year.”
After restarting first at Lap 164, Mark Martin passed Reutimann for the lead. Reutimann held onto second-place until five laps to go when Carl Edwards went by his No. 17 Team Tundra Racing Toyota. Rooted out of third-place on the last lap, Reutimann went on to finish fifth and score his fourth top-five and his seventh top-10 finish in eight events this season. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular is still third in the driver’s points standings, 111 points out of first-place.
“We didn’t gain on Todd, but we did gain on Ted Musgrave who’s second in the points,” said Reutimann, who is 35 points from second-place. “We’re going to keep doing what we are doing and try to gain on these guys. Like I’ve said before, we’ve got some tracks that I really like coming up on the schedule. We’re going to give these guys a run for their money.”
Next up, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series travels to Texas Motor Speedway. Live coverage of the Sam’s Town 400 on Friday, June 9th begins at 9:15 p.m. Eastern on SPEED Channel and MRN Radio.
