Out of Chase, Reutimann still seeking exposure

DOVER, Del. -- David Reutimann knows the burden that teams not currently in the Chase can carry at this point in the season, namely racing for wins and exposure, and the driver of the No. 00 Toyota did his part to shoulder the load Saturday by leading the entire first Cup Series practice of the day at Dover.

"Surprisingly, we generally are a lot better than that in qualifying trim, than we were [Friday]," Reutimann said between practices. "We started off in race trim, then went to qualifying trim and we just weren't very good -- and we weren't very good in our qualifying run. I don't know, we just kind of missed it a little bit."

AAA 400

Final Practice speeds

Pos.	Driver	Speed
1.	J. Logano	151.248
2.	C. Bowyer	150.981
3.	J. Burton	150.937
4.	M. Kenseth	150.697
5.	M. Truex Jr.	150.533

• Final Practice | Lineup

During Friday's opening practice, Reutimann ended up in 20th after a 23.362-second lap. He improved to 17th in qualifying when his No. 00 ran 23.321-seconds compared to pole winner Jimmie Johnson's 23.116.

On Saturday, the first 52-minute session was run in conditions slightly cooler than Friday, but still hot and slick. Reutimann jumped to the top of the sheet immediately and ended practice with a best lap of 23.536 seconds (152.957 mph) on his first of 29 laps. It was the fastest practice lap of the day.

"[Saturday], it feels pretty good," Reutimann said. "The track's rubbering-up and changing, getting tighter, so we've still got a lot of work to do -- but it's a good starting point."

The Busch brothers, Kyle (23.574 seconds, 152.711 mph) and Kurt (23.587, 152.626) were second and third in the first practice, with the top five rounded out by Juan Montoya and Jimmie Johnson.

"I feel like the changes we made were smart," Reutimann said. "There were a couple things that really helped some areas of the track that I really needed help on -- corner entry and things like that. But as the track goes on and it rubbers-up, it starts getting slicker in the center [of the corner] and the car starts getting a little tighter from center [of the corner] off. So we need to work on getting it to rotate better and getting off a little better."

Reutimann opened the Happy Hour session in 10th and briefly moved inside the top 10 before sliding back to 20th. Joey Logano, who last year was involved in a spectacular crash in Turns 3 and 4, paced Happy Hour with a lap in 23.802 seconds (151.248 mph). Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr. rounded-out the top five.

Reutimann did have the seventh-best average lap time of 24.32 seconds in Happy Hour. Kevin Harvick, who was 15th on the time sheet, had the best average over 39 laps (24.24 seconds), followed by Carl Edwards (24.29) and Truex Jr.

"We just tried some stuff at the start of second practice -- went in a different direction just trying to see if we could improve on it," Reutimann said. "It wasn't happy there for a while and we really never gained on it any so at the end of practice we went back to where we were [in first practice] and it's OK. The track took on a lot of rubber and changed some more so we ended up having to go back and we feel like we're at a pretty good starting point."

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Reutimann just laughed as he summed-up his team's start to the seventh annual Chase. Reutimann finished seventh at the New Hampshire Chase opener, which put him in a tie for 15th in the standings, with Montoya.

"We had a good run last week but it was ugly right up until right at the end, when we finally got some track position back," Reutimann said. "But I guess only where you finish matters.

"We'll just try to get the Aaron's Dream Machine up there as well as we can -- up where it belongs. It belongs in the top 10 anyway, and we've managed to do some things this year that have taken us out of contention to do that. So we're just going to try to finish as strong as we can -- try to finish 13th in points and start up [preparing] for next year."

All Reutimann has to do is check back to the mid-summer, after July's Chicagoland round when he was 15th in the standings with a realistic shot at making a run into the Chase -- which would have been a career-first for him. But he finished 28th, 17th, 23rd and 16th before he was runner-up to Kyle Busch at Bristol.

"I think we need to work on being more consistent," Reutimann said. "I know that we won Chicago and after that, we didn't do anything right for a couple weeks there.

"So we're going to work on being consistent and making our cars a little more forgiving -- sometimes they're a little bit edgy and sometimes it doesn't take much to get off a long way on them. So we need to work on getting the cars more forgiving and for me to try giving even better feedback than I've been giving."

That might result in a solution to the burden shouldered by the 30 men in any race who aren't Chase contenders -- getting media exposure, particularly on television.

"There's such a spotlight put on those guys [in the Chase] that everybody else suffers -- and that's fine, because if you want to get exposure for your team and your sponsors, you need to be in that [Chase] position," Reutimann said. "But if you're not, the thing about it is that Aaron's is still spending the same amount of money to have their car out there and you feel sometimes cars that are running good are overlooked for cars that are in the Chase.

"I wish we could work on that and make it a little more even, across the board. But what it comes down to, if you want to get exposure for your team, you better be in the Chase and that's just the way it is. It's up to you to get your car in the Chase so you can get the exposure for your sponsor."

"Even running really good -- sometimes you can be in the top five and they'll kind of skip over you," Reutimann said. "So basically you've got to get in the Chase and that's your job -- and if you don't do it, it's your own fault."