David Reutimann Scores Second Career Victory at Chicagoland

JOLIET, Ill. -- Battling a car during a final run that handled the worst it had the entire race, David Reutimann finally earned the right to do a burnout after a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

"It was probably the lamest burnout I've ever seen at a race track," Reutimann said, grinning in victory lane. "We earned this one, nobody gave it to us and that feels really good."

Reutimann won Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway for his second career win in his 118th start. Carl Edwards was second, Jeff Gordon third, Clint Bowyer fourth and Jamie McMurray fifth.

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It was a win that, if nothing else, will silence doubters who have nagged him after his first career Cup victory came in last year's rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600. In that race, Reutimann stayed out during a late yellow while the leaders pitted and was in the lead when NASCAR called the race for rain.

"I heard so much stuff for winning a rain-shortened event that everybody said we didn't earn it," Reutimann said. "Tonight, I don't know what they can say about this one."



Share Reutimann, not exactly a pre-race favorite, stayed in contention early before track position and a fast car put him up front with just a single green-flag pit stop between him and the checkered flag. The final stop wasn't perfect -- his pit crew had a substitute jackman after their regular team member suffered injuries in a bike accident this week -- but it did the job and got Reutimann out in front.

His lead, though, started to shrink after Edwards passed Gordon and set sail for Reutimann's bumper. Dealing with lapped traffic, the gap between the two shortened to less than two seconds and then fluctuated as one or the other put together a good lap.

Reutimann, though, had enough of a lead and enough of a car to stay ahead of the win-hungry Edwards and got his chance to do a burnout -- however bad -- in front of the Chicagoland grandstand before getting a line of high-fives from his crew members and fellow teammate Martin Truex Jr. on pit road.

Pole-sitter McMurray chose the outside position for the green flag to start the race and it didn't work as planned. By the time the field reached the start/finish line, Jimmie Johnson -- never a winner at Chicagoland -- had grabbed the lead.

Johnson stayed out front through the first caution on lap 40 when David Stremme brushed the turn two wall. Quick pit work kept Johnson on top and the No. 48 stayed up front until lap 93, when he missed entering pit road and handed McMurray the lead.

After the pit stops, Johnson had dropped to third.

By lap 100, Sprint Cup point leader Kevin Harvick was a lap down to McMurray and would eventually have to come to the garage for major repairs.

Johnson caught McMurray at lap 120, but couldn't get around him. McMurray held the lead when the yellow flag again fell over the speedway on lap 131 for debris. A round of pit stops for leader saw McMurray, Johnson and Jeff Gordon as the top three.

Johnson encountered more bad luck on lap 138 when slight contact between him and Martin Truex Jr. while racing for third sent Johnson for a spin through the backstretch grass. Johnson didn't hit anything and remained on the lead lap, though forced to start at the back of the pack in 24th because he pitted before NASCAR had opened pit road during the caution.

McMurray held the top spot after Johnson's yellow until lap 165 when Gordon moved to the inside along the frontstretch and took the lead for the first time.

Johnson caught more trouble on lap 169 when his No. 48 suffered a flat tire under green flag conditions, dropping him two laps off the pace to 33rd.

Safety workers check on No. 7 Robby Gordon after a collision with No. 21 Bill Elliott.

Bill Elliott spun in turn four to bring out the race's fourth caution. Elliott's red No. 21 slid into the outside wall and back down the track before Robby Gordon, with his brakes locked up and sliding straight, plowed into Elliott's Ford.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Elliott said over the in-car radio. "He just knocked the s--- out of me."

During the caution, Harvick pitted early to try to correct fuel pressure issues plaguing his Chevrolet, and then the leaders hit pit road with 182 laps showing complete on the infield scoreboard. It wouldn't be enough, as Harvick was forced to the garage for extensive fuel system repairs.

Harvick wound up 34th, still with a 103-point lead in the standings over Gordon in second.

Gordon appeared to have some issues on the left side during the pit stop but still won the race off of pit road, ahead of Bowyer, Reutimann and McMurray.

The green flag flew again on lap 188 after the nine-lap caution with Gordon jumping to the lead in turn one while McMurray and Bowyer battled side-by-side. Bowyer grabbed the spot with Gordon ahead by nearly six-tenths of a second.

But Reutimann, who had hung around the top half of the top-ten after starting seventh was looming. The No. 00 closed to Gordon's bumper and the two battled side-by-side for several laps, with Gordon seeming to hold on.

"My guys kept telling me to wait for him to make a mistake," Reutimann said. "I just thought, "This is Jeff Gordon, he doesn't make mistakes.'"

Eventually, though, Reutimann got the position he needed and passed Gordon -- making his 600th career start -- to take the lead for the first time, a lead he would hold to the checkered flag.