Press Release
REUTIMANN, WALTRIP WIN TOYOTA 200 AT NASHVILLE
Release date: August 13, 2005
Contact: Owen Kerns
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
David Reutimann, driving a Toyota owned by former NASCAR champion Darrell Waltrip, squeezed past Mike Skinner with two laps remaining to capture Saturday’s Toyota Tundra 200 truck race at Nashville Superspeedway.
The victory was the first for the 2004 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series rookie of the year, who’d finished among the top three in three of his most recent four finishes.
Reutimann and pole starter Skinner drove side-by-side into Turn 3 of the 1.333-mile concrete on the 149th of 150 laps. Skinner, also driving a Toyota, carried too much speed into the corner and slid up the track and out of the lead. That also opened the inside lane for Ted Musgrave and Todd Bodine, who finished second and third.
Skinner, who led 98 laps in pursuit of his first series victory since 1996, finished fourth. Rookie Todd Kluever was fifth in a Ford.
Reutimann, who won ,110, edged Musgrave by .850 second - about two truck lengths.
Racing Skinner for the lead at lap 136, Reutimann was fortunate to avoid fluid dropped by Tracy Hines’ spinning Chevrolet. Skinner wasn’t so lucky, grazing the wall between turns three and four as the race’s eighth caution flag flew.
The incident flattened the side of the leader’s truck and may have played into the final decision.
“He got in the wall,” said Reutimann, “Thank the Lord I missed it.”
Skinner said, “The loss was really unfortunate. Our race team did such a good job and I stayed focused all day and I feel I did a pretty good job. That particular truck that blew up in front of us; It wasn’t his fault but it was unfortunate. You hit a little and what can you say?”
Reutimann, who’d failed to post a top-10 finish during the season’s first seven races, continued a mid-season surge that’s moved the sophomore driver from 18th to fifth in the championship standings.
“I told my guys (crew) that we’ve turned the corner,” said the Tampa, Fla.-area driver. “We’ve definitely come full circle.”
The victory was the fourth for Nashville-area resident Waltrip, a FOX TV analyst who was the event’s grand marshal. He won three times with Rich Bickle in 1997, the last time at Martinsville, Va.
Reutimann became the season’s 11th different winner in the first 16 races. He averaged 109.246 mph for the 200-mile distance. Nine caution periods consumed 35 laps. The final caution, for Ricky Craven’s Turn 4 accident, set up the three-lap sprint to the finish that settled the race.
There were nine lead changes among five drivers. The winner, who started sixth, led twice for 41 laps.
Brendan Gaughan survived an early race scrape with the outside wall to finish sixth. Bill Lester was seventh with Johnny Benson, 2004 race winner Bobby Hamilton and Rick Crawford completing the top 10.
Twenty-one of 29 finishers went the full, 150-lap distance.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship leader Dennis Setzer finished 14th and out of the top-10 for just the second time in eight races. His standings margin slipped from 220 points to 178 over Musgrave with 2004 champion Hamilton third.
Nine races remain on the schedule, the next on Aug. 24 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
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Nashville Superspeedway is owned by Dover Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE: DVD), a leading promoter of motorsports events in the United States. DVD subsidiaries operate three tracks in three states, and present several hundred motorsports events each year. This includes 14 major, national events which include races sanctioned by NASCAR and the NHRA. Dover Motorsports, Inc. also owns and operates Dover International Speedway in Dover, Del., and Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis, Mo. For further information log on to www.DoverMotorsports.com. This release may contain forward-looking statements based on management’s beliefs and assumptions. Such statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause results to vary materially. Please refer to the SEC filings of DVD for a discussion of such factors.
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