Until the Richmond race today, it was pretty easy to dismiss David Reutiman.  He’s only run 53 races with an average finish of 26th.  Up until Fontana, he had only led a total of 6 laps in his three year career in Nextel/Sprint Cup racing.  He pretty much stays out of the way and runs his own race.  That is until Fontana, where he grabbed his first ever top-ten finish. 

I am a firm believer in the power of bounce.  We see it all the time in the sport.  Sometimes, all a team needs is a win or even a good run for a shot of confidence to spring them forward.  That’s why we see so many winning streaks or at least back to back wins.  The #44 UPS team may be just experiencing a bounce from their 9th place finish in Fontana but I don’t really think so.  For the second week in a row, they’re inside of the top-ten.

It’s relatively easy to grab a couple of lead laps.  Just stay out on a caution for a couple of laps and grab the bonus points.  When a driver is able to stay out front for 104 laps in a 400 lap race, that’s a different story.  That’s what Reutimann was able to do today at Richmond.  I was very impressed with the #44’s run today.  For a bit, I even thought he might just pull off his first Cup win.  Mark my words, this teams win is coming.  I’m not sure it will be this season but I’m betting that by this time next year, Reutimann will have a win or two under his belt.  That would be incredible for Michael Waltrip Racing.  Off the top of my head, I’m not sure if they’ve ever had a win.

I was so impressed with the #44’s run today that I even dedicated a forum to David Reutimann fans which, if he keeps running like this, should keep growing every week.  If you want to check it out, it’s our first real racingfaces.com forum.  Even better than checking it out, jump in and post.  During the off season this year, I plan on doing a lot of work with the forums to get them ready for next season.