It happens every time. Win a Cup race, and just about everybody and their brother jumps on your bandwagon.

Just ask David Reutimann -- I'm sure he'd tell you. The good thing is, he's had a chance to experience the exultation of winning a Cup race twice: Last spring at Charlotte and last month at Chicagoland.

“

To be able to make some kind of difference, or at least to contribute to people who are making a difference, I'm like most people. I was just so caught up in my own world and trying to get by with what I was trying to do, I never even really thought of giving back, I never really had the ability to give back -- and that was my mentality, that I didn't have the ability to give back.

”

-- DAVID REUTIMANN

And there are good things that come out of that. For example, Reutimann was part of Chicagoland's dog-and-pony show this week when the track in Joliet, Ill., announced it would host the opener for the 2011 Chase.

But this story isn't about people jumping on Reutimann's bandwagon, this story is out to show winning hasn't changed one major component in Reutimann's life. That is, his commitment to giving back to the community around him and helping people through all spectrums of society -- but primarily in his home state of Florida.

In the week before he won at Chicagoland, Reutimann was at his "home" Cup track, Daytona International Speedway. There, he took a break in the schedule to make a morning-long trip to Camp Boggy Creek in Eustis, Fla., about an hour west of Daytona Beach.

It was a breakthrough moment in a lot of ways for Reutimann and his cousin, Shawn Reutimann, who's David's spotter at the race track and an integral member in planning and executing the major event involving the David Reutimann Foundation.

"I've lived in Florida the majority of my life, and up until a couple years ago, I never even knew [Boggy Creek] was there, or that a place like that even existed [in Florida]," David Reutimann said. But the wonderful thing about him -- his whole family for that matter -- is that knowing about it was all it took to flip the switch.

The Reutimanns have hosted a benefit golf tournament in November following the end of the NASCAR season for the past five years, primarily supporting Florida charities like Zephyrhills Meals on Wheels, which the Reutimann Foundation helped keep in business. It wasn't hard to put Boggy Creek on the list.

"I looked online and I thought, 'Wow! This is perfect. This is in our home state, this is in our backyard [so] let's take care of the people in our backyard,'" Shawn Reutimann said. "That's kind of how we got involved."

As the Reutimanns' golf tournament has grown, so has their support -- not only of Boggy Creek but everything they can handle.

"We're always thinking about what more we can do to help," Shawn Reutimann said. "It started out because me and my cousin, who owns the Silverado Golf and Country Club in Zephyrhills, Fla., came together with this idea to have a golf tournament. We started out raising $25,000 and in our fifth year we raised $100,000.

"David is doing a lot more as far as appearances and all of that money goes into the foundation. Everywhere we turn we are trying to find more ways to raise money. Coca-Cola has been able to put some money into it. We've been looking at maybe doing a bowling tournament in our hometown or maybe doing a race kinda like Tony Stewart does [at Eldora Speedway] out at East Bay [Raceway in Gibsonton, Fla.], which is our local track. Just little stuff like that -- anything we can do to put extra money into the David Reutimann Foundation."

Several people in Reutimann's party that day had been to the Petty family's Victory Junction Gang Camp in Randleman, N.C., which is a real testament to the corporate power and spirit of giving that's truly alive in the NASCAR community.

But none had been to Camp Boggy Creek, a more typical camp environment in a much more bucolic setting than Victory Junction -- which is pure NASCAR. The ironic thing is that Boggy Creek, which was founded by the late actor Paul Newman, was the seed in the late Adam Petty's fertile young mind that's grown into Victory Junction.

It certainly made an impression on the Reutimanns, who were graced with the camp's version of a "standing ovation" -- everyone in the dining hall standing with hands over heads in the shape of an "O" -- when Reutimann presented a check for $35,000.

"Having kids, and my kids being healthy, but seeing other people struggle it really hits home," Shawn Reutimann said. "It feels good to be able to help them out. It takes us almost all year to plan our golf tournament, but we can give all the money away in about five minutes. But to see the looks on their faces and to know you're helping somebody it's really cool."

"You go into the situation and you don't even know what to expect," David Reutimann said. "I've been to hospitals -- I've been to children's hospitals and things like that -- but never a place that was obviously structured to do just one thing: Let 'em be kids for a week.

The kids went crazy when David Reutimann handed off a check for $35,000.

"So I was completely blown away by how things were laid out to enable them to do anything, how things were structured to take care of their conditions and how the counselors and volunteers -- the professionalism and dedication that everybody shows. They are there and there's nothing else in the world that matters except for those kids and that place -- and I think that's pretty special."

To have Reutimann, a professional athlete, in the house for a morning was a special event to a group of primarily inner-city kids with a variety of blood disorders, who reveled in the ability to interact with Reutimann and his sponsor's mascot, "Lucky Dog."

It gave Reutimann pause to reflect on his current ability, which just a little while ago, didn't exist.

"To be able to make some kind of difference, or at least to contribute to people who are making a difference, I'm like most people," David Reutimann said. "I was just so caught up in my own world and trying to get by with what I was trying to do, I never even really thought of giving back, I never really had the ability to give back -- and that was my mentality, that I didn't have the ability to give back."

But now he does, and he does work hard to give back and that makes you realize that David Reutimann is among that special, narrow slice of humanity that really gets it, when it comes to having a commitment to others. And it enables him to carry the lesson out to more people.

"It's important to know you don't have to give money," Reutimann said. "You can give time -- anything you can give, if you can donate to places like [Boggy Creek or Victory Junction] it's always important because they need stuff like [volunteers].

"To be able to go in there and give them a check -- the reality of it is, the money we gave them will be used-up really quickly, as expensive as it is to take care of all these kids. But if we can just keep plugging away at it and keep making our contributions bigger every year I think -- the impressions you get of the way the place is run and just being around those kids is enough to energize you and motivate you to do more."

And winning certainly doesn't hurt -- though Reutimann said at Watkins Glen last week: "I don't feel any different and I'm not doing anything any differently. I guess we'll wait and see to when we really start getting into planning this year's events, how much more support we might get -- but since we can make good use of it, I hope it does keep improving."

Reutimann fidgeted a little when asked how proud he was to be part of a sport that, across the board on a corporate and personal level, seems to be comprised of so many giving and caring individuals. That's the way it is when giving just comes naturally -- with being noticed for it inconsequential to the actual acts.

"I think you have to look at what Kyle Petty's done with his deal -- in making people aware of what they can do, what they're capable of doing and what they should do," Reutimann said. "So there's a lot of money in our sport, there are sponsors -- a good example of that is our sponsor, Aaron's was [at Camp Boggy Creek] with Lucky Dog -- and trying to get the sponsors involved in helping.

"I think you're obligated to do that. I think it's the right thing to do and in the end, it makes a difference. I don't think there are too many times in anybody's lifetime that you actually have an opportunity to go make a difference in so many people's lives, in one shot.

"So it's a rare gift and it's just too good to pass up. And as a whole, I think NASCAR people and the [NASCAR] community is giving people -- they're good people and they want to give back and to help people."

Life, and business and giving are all about contacts, timing and opportunity, and that's why Reutimann's visit to Camp Boggy Creek, along with his sponsor's mascot and some other representatives, might pay off bigger for the camp outside Orlando, Fla. A deal, as a result of Reutimann's visit, is in the works to facilitate some beds and bedding for the camp, which is a big need.

And finally, it earned him big praise from a guy he frequently builds-up.

"David's done a great job with the David Reutimann Foundation Golf Outing to raise money and support to a cause like Camp Boggy Creek and all the other causes that he donates to," Reutimann's father, legendary racer Buzzie Reutimann said. "That means more to me than winning a race. I'm so proud of him. David has a good heart, which is a good thing. To give to worthy causes and raise money to help -- it all just makes me so proud that he's able to do that and he works hard to do that. It really makes a dad proud."

And so it should for all the rest of us, as well.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.