#99 Overheated, Finished 43rd by Kellyanne Lynch
26 May 2007
Michael Waltrip Racing's David Reutimann turned just four laps in the Carquest Auto Parts 300, tonight's Busch Series race at Lowes Motor Speedway. His #99 Aaron's Dream Machine suffered an overheating issue and finished last. Dropping two positions in the Busch Series standings, David now ranks 5th.
Matt Kenseth led the field to the green flag at 8:18pm ET. David rolled off 24th but picked up four spots during the first lap. His car began smoking a great deal by lap 3, and he pit. The #99 had been damaged at the beginning of final practice, when a window from JJ Yeley's #1 flew off the car and struck the front of the Aaron's Dream Machine while David was rolling off pit road. He never turned a single lap in happy hour. The team had fixed the radiator but apparently had worse problems.
"There was something wrong with it from the get-go," David said over the radio. "It jumped from 220 to 240 in a lap."
The #99 Camry went behind the wall, and the crew worked on the Aaron's Dream Machine in the garage. Crew chief Jerry Baxter stated that the problem was with the head gasket and that he felt it was not related to having no practice Thursday afternoon.
"I really don't know what happened," David told the media. "On one-to-go on the pace lap, it started to run hot and started pushing a bunch of water out of it - and would never cool down. I don't know exactly what it was, something internal. It's a huge disappointment for everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing. We never really had the chance to see how good the car was going to be. It felt like car was going to be good and we had a good test here -- and we don't even get a shot. With all the stuff we went through - running over the vent window and destroying the nose and getting it fixed back -- and then we don't even get a shot."
On lap 35, ESPN2 reported that David was out of the race. He was the first driver to drop out of the competition tonight.
Michael Waltrip Racing will compete in tomorrow's Nextel Cup race with Dale Jarrett behind the wheel of the #44 UPS Camry. Tune in to Coca-Cola 600 at 5:00pm ET on FOX.