By Ryan - Posted on July 14, 2010
This time, it didn’t rain. There were no drops on the windshield, and no one in the pits praying for the skies to open up and NASCAR officials to call the race. This time, it was a legitimate, full-race win for David Reutimann at Chicagoland Speedway.
Reutimann’s only other victory in the Sprint Cup series was last year’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, which was shortened by rain. This weekend, he cruised to victory, nearly eight-tenths of a second ahead of second-place finisher Carl Edwards.
It was a popular win in the garage area, and an emotional ending in victory lane. In his post-race interview, Reutimann said, “We earned it, and it's a total team effort." Everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing did a phenomenal job. I don't even know what to say. You think about these moments all your life, and you think about all the right things to say. I'm about to cry -- this is awesome."
Jeff Gordon finished third, and likely would have done even better had he not developed a handling problem late in the race. However, due to low finishes by points-leader Kevin Harvick (who finished 34th) and defending series champion Jimmie Johnson (who finished 25th), Gordon moved up to second in the points, moving to within 103 points of Harvick. Rounding out the top five were Clint Bowyer and Jamie McMurray. Kasey Kahne, Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, and Paul Menard completed the top 10.
Early on, Jimmie Johnson looked like he had the car to beat, leading the first 92 laps of the race. However, when he slowed for a green-flag stop on lap 93, he missed the entrance to pit road, which caused him to lose the lead. On a later restart, he spun on the backstretch, allegedly caused by Martin Truex. A replay was inconclusive about whether Truex actually made contact, or just took the air off Johnson’s 48 car, causing the spin. A third problem came on lap 169, when Johnson reported a flat tire on the right front.
Although Johnson seemed to be involved in every caution, this race was very clean, which was quite a contrast to the Coke Zero 400 last week at Daytona, when fewer than half the cars were running at the end. This race actually set a Chicagoland record for the fewest cautions with four.
The NASCAR Spring Cup Series is off next week, and will resume at the Brickyard on July 25th.
