David Reutimann: from OCFS to NASCAR

 

He grew up on the backstretch at Orange County Fair Speedway, watching his father race from the back of the family's blue Chevy station wagon.

He loved going to nearby Frankie's Sausage Bar for something greasy to eat. Riding the ferris wheel well past midnight.

Man, those summer nights in Middletown were something. Something David Reutimann will never forget.

Even though his father, Buzzie, still a legend at OCFS, hasn't raced there since 1979.

Even though David is now a NASCAR Nextel Cup rookie — a long way from the old dirt track.

"Shoot, I always wanted to be a driver," says Reutimann, who competes for two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip's team. "The fans were really into it. It was a phenomenal stop, one of my favorite places on the planet."

And after all these years, the Reutimanns still have plenty of fans back at OCFS. Fans who still write and call Buzzie for t-shirts and will be pulling hard for David during Nextel Cup races this year.

David will need all the good karma he can get this week. Pole qualifying for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18 is today, and the fastest two cars will lock in front-row spots. The rest of the 43-car field will be set Thursday after two qualifying races.

The hitch is that 35 spots in the Daytona 500, NASCAR's biggest event, are guaranteed to cars that finished in the top 35 in owner points last season, leaving just seven spots for newcomers.

Reutimann is one of them. So is Waltrip, who started his team to race Toyota Camrys in the Japanese automaker's first season on NASCAR's top circuit. There are four spots up for grabs in two qualifying races Thursday and three more will be given to the cars with the fastest qualifying speeds of the remaining non-qualifers.

"It's a pretty tall order," Reutimann admits. "But my goal is to make races. Bottom line, you have to perform in this business or you won't be around long."

But Reutimann, 36, was bred on racing. Maybe that will count for something.

Emil "Buzzie" Reutimann made his OCFS debut in the summer of 1965. He followed his pal and future rival, Will Cagle, from Zephyrhills, Fla. — outside Tampa — to make some extra money.

Reutimann's trip up north was almost short-lived.

He wrecked his car early that summer in Nazareth, Pa., and, flat broke, thought about returning home. The next day, Cagle and other OCFS drivers showed up with spare parts and helped him fix his car. Reutimann claimed $400 that weekend by winning a race in New Jersey and eventually became a favorite at OCFS.

Reutimann won 33 features at OCFS and claimed the track title in 1972 and '74. His younger brother, Wayne, won modified titles at OCFS in 1975 and '77. But Buzzie was always the people's champ.

A gentleman. A humble champion, respectful and easy-going. A clean racer who wouldn't run another car off the track for a checkered flag. Reutimann even had a sticker in the windshield of his car that read "Go First Class."

Reutimann always talked to fans in the pits after races, signing autographs and taking pictures, whether he blew his engine on lap two or coasted to victory. They loved him because Reutimann started off as an underdog to Cagle, but would battle him for track supremacy. And then there were Buzzie's sparkling cars.

They were always the sharpest at the track, with his blue roof, white doors and signature #00 in red.

"Buzzie was one of us," says Doug Dulgarian, 48, the co-competition director at OCFS. "Just a good human being. That's why you rooted for him."

David made his first trip to OCFS shortly after he was born. Buzzie competed at a lot of tracks in the Northeast until 1979, when he says the cost of gas became too much of a burden on his travels.

He took David to places like Lebanon Valley, Islip, Syracuse and Reading, Pa. All those tracks are faded memories.

Not OCFS. How could he forget the loyal fans? The smell of hot dogs and burgers wafting through the warm summer air on the midway. Watching his dad tear it from a seat up in the jam-packed grandstand.

"I go anywhere, Vegas, California, Kentucky, and I run into fans, crew chiefs, people who work in the pits, who saw my dad race at OCFS," says David, who competed at the Eastern States at OCFS in 1993 and '94. "It's pretty cool he touched so many lives."

Reutimanns have been racing for almost 70 years.

David's grandfather, Emil Sr. started the Reutimann tradition of driving car No. 00, which David will carry on to NASCAR, when Buzzie was a teenager working on a modified car he planned to race.

"That car looks like nothin' all right," Buzzie remembers his father saying. "It looks like a double nothin'."

Buzzie finished 10th in the only Grand National event — now known as NASCAR — he entered at Tampa's Golden Gate Speedway in November of 1962. Richard Petty won the race and Reutimann returned to dirt tracks, where he has more than 1,200 career wins. Reutimann, 65, still races at East Bay Speedway in Tampa and finished fourth in the points standings last season.

"I actually made more money racing DIRT tracks than Grand National," Buzzie says. "It wasn't like it is now. I don't have too many regrets, but David is always joking around saying 'what if.' He thinks if I made it, he would have been on the Nextel Cup a long time ago."

Maybe, but David made it on his own merit. He began racing in go-karts as a teenager and moved on to dirt-track modifieds. When he wasn't racing, he worked on cars in the family shop, wrenching past midnight.

David's big break came in 2002, when his old pal, Brian Pattie, then Joe Nemechek's crew chief, got him a gig testing cars for Nemechek.

Reutimann always put Nemechek and his teammates in good position. Nemechek is still called "Front Row Joe" for his knack for qualifying well, which doesn't happen without good wheels.

David has a feel for cars. Some test drivers come off the track telling the crew chief the car doesn't feel right, but can't provide specifics. Reutimann always did: Too much brake. The engine is off. Something's up in the wheel well.

"He's good, there's no doubt about that," Buzzie says proudly. "It's because he started at the bottom and had to work his way up. His dad didn't just hand him a car."

David began running Busch races in 2003 and, two years later, joined Darrell Waltrip's team in the Craftsman Truck Series. The Waltrips accompanied Reutimann back home to Zephyrhills in September to announce to friends and family he was racing Nextel Cup and Busch series for Michael's new team.

David expected about 20 guests to greet him at Buzzie's home. More than 200 showed up.

"Heck, it was real hard to keep it together," David says. "It was pretty amazing, very emotional. It's nice to know you have so many people rooting for you."

But it's not surprising. Loyalty runs deep in racing, which is why OCFS fans will pull for David this week.

They'll do it out of respect for Buzzie.

They'll do it for their favorite son.