David Reutimann shouldn't have won the rain-delayed Coca-Cola 600 on Monday. He shouldn't even be in a Sprint Cup car. Not in this day and age, at least.

Beating the odds

The wait was excruciating, but after two hours, David Reutimann found himself a Sprint Cup winner.

• Complete story
• Final Laps: Charlotte
• Victory Lane: Reutimann
• Press Pass: Reutimann
• Race Rewind: Charlotte

No, he seems a little more cut out for an era of maybe 20 or 30 years ago, before big corporate sponsors turned drivers into dreamy spokesmodels and kids racked up trophies in NASCAR's national divisions before they were old enough to legally drink. Reutimann, a first-time winner on the Cup tour at the crusty old age of 39, did it the old fashioned way, proving himself on anonymous developmental tours and in less-than-stellar equipment until a long-overdue breakthrough came. In that regard, he has a lot more in common with men like Rusty Wallace and Dale Jarrett than many of his brethren currently competing on the sport's premier circuit.

As difficult as it may seem to believe now, there was once a time when car owners didn't trust young drivers with good cars. Inexperience was viewed as an expense they couldn't afford. No, they wanted men with a little seasoning, drivers who maybe spent most of their 20s piloting junk, trying to prove they were good enough for a championship-caliber ride in the big show. By the time they made it, they were well-prepared in knowing how to interact with fans, represent sponsors, and take care of equipment. Then along came Jeff Gordon, and a championship at 24, and suddenly car owners were crawling over one another to find the next young superstar.

And in the process, drivers barely out of their teens were sliding behind the wheels of cars good enough to win races and championships, and an entire new generation was born. Now, if a driver hasn't broken through before 30, he's in serious jeopardy of being left behind. Just take a look at the ages of the previous 10 first-time winners on NASCAR's premier series prior to Monday, a span than stretches from Carl Edwards' 2005 win at Atlanta to Brad Keselowski's stunner at Talladega earlier this season. The average age of those drivers -- Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch among them -- was 25.8. Only one, Juan Montoya, was older than 30 when he reached NASCAR's Victory Lane for the first time, and then only by a year.

So along comes old man Reutimann, completely bucking the trend. He's older than his car owner, Michael Waltrip, was when he at last snapped that epic 463-race winless skid in 2001. He's older than Ricky Craven, Joe Nemechek, Ward Burton, and Sterling Marlin were when they each won for the first time. He's older than any other first-time winner since Johnny Benson, who was also 39 when he won at Rockingham in 2002 to record the lone premier-series victory of his career. Yes, the Coca-Cola 600 was shortened -- considerably so -- due to rain. Argue about that among yourselves. Reutimann still goes down as the winner, and in today's NASCAR, a winner like that is an exceedingly rare event.

"I tell you what, people, it's been a long road," Reutimann's father Buzzie, a short-track legend in his own right, said after Monday's results were made official. "It's taken us a long time to get here. I'm afraid I'm going to wake up in the morning and find out I'm dreaming all of this. Wow, words can't describe how great a father would feel to see his son to win a race. Seeing that No. 00 up on top of the board, one of the greatest feelings in the world."

Still, it all begs the question -- what is Reutimann even doing in a Sprint Cup car at all? We're talking about a guy who didn't even make his debut in the then-Busch Series until he was 32, who didn't get his first shot in a Cup car until he was 35, who didn't land a full-time ride until he was 37, a full 12 years older than Busch is now. He bounced around developmental circuits like NASCAR's old All-Pro Series, and doesn't exactly have the smooth pitchman persona that for drivers these days seems as important as an ability to go fast. "Not that good looking," Waltrip joked.

But he had patience, and connections. A relationship with Nemechek turned into a handful of starts in a NEMCO car on the now-Nationwide circuit, and three finishes in the top 16. That caught the eye of three-time champion and current television analyst Darrell Waltrip, who was starting a Toyota-backed Truck Series team for the 2004 season. The guys at Nemechek's shop always teased Reutimann, getting on the loudspeaker and announcing that Roger Penske or Richard Childress was holding for him on line two. So when someone claiming to be DW called Reutimann one evening at home, his first thought was that it was one of his buddies joking with him again. Then he looked at the caller ID.

"The name 'Waltrip' was attached to the end of it," Reutimann remembered. "Wow, this is for real. It was Darrell Waltrip calling me at home just before dinner. That was phenomenal."

Helped by the Toyota connection, his relationship with Darrell turned into a relationship with Michael, and a ride at Michael Waltrip Racing. Now he's something of a throwback, hitting his stride on the Cup tour at an age when many drivers begin fading out of it. At a time when NASCAR is struggling to draw race fans on television and in person, maybe it's just what the series needs -- a race winner made humble by life experiences, who rather than coming off as aloof or disinterested carries with him an average-guy earnestness that radiates through the TV. In a sport that's mass-produced one baby-faced, steely-eyed, millionaire hot-shoe after another, there's nothing wrong with someone who might remind race fans of drivers of bygone eras, or maybe even a little bit of themselves.

"It's one of those deals where I figured if I acted the right way and did the right things on the race track, did those things, at some point somebody would want me somewhere. I was hoping, anyway," Reutimann said.

"Things like this don't happen to guys like me. It doesn't. You guys [in the media] know that. How often does it happen? Can anybody here tell me? It doesn't happen. I'm thrilled. I know I'm blessed to be in the situation I am with the team I am, the car owner, the people that surround me. So I never take any of that stuff for granted, never, ever. Not a day goes by that I'm not thankful for what I have, good days or bad, because opportunities like this are few and far between."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.