Notes: Reutimann snags top-10 at Texas after DNFs

FORT WORTH, Texas -- After back-to-back engine failures this season and last, David Reutimann finally finished a race at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday night.

And to top it off, the No. 44 driver finished well.

After running in and out of the top five for most of the afternoon and even leading twice for a total of five laps, Reutimann ended the Dickies 500 in the 10th place.

"It goes to show you we have cars that are capable of running strong and leading races," said crew chief Ryan Pemberton. "It seems like we lost a little bit of the handling going into the later part of the race. We lost a little track position and then I got on my heels a little bit.

"I probably could have tried to stretch it on fuel, but this team really needs a top-10 finish and I knew the way we pitted that was a pretty conservative route to save a top-10 finish regardless if you run out."

Regardless of the decision, the team actually finished the race. Reutimann had engine failures in both previous career starts at Texas Motor Speedway. The top-10 finish can only help a team with only a partial sponsorship headed into the 2009 season at Michael Waltrip Racing.

Attendance down at Texas
The economy is still making an obvious impact on NASCAR fans as attendance was down at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday, one of the sport's largest venues.

Track president Eddie Gossage was expecting ticket sales to be down by an estimated 8 percent, a trend other tracks on the circuit are experiencing as well.

"It may not be the largest crowd we have ever had here, but I could not be prouder of it," Gossage said. "Considering the state of the economy, we had a tremendous crowd and all the credit goes to the loyalty and support of our NASCAR fans. Our attendance was down from last year's Dickies 500, but it still remains [one of] the largest single-day sporting event in Texas, second only to our Samsung 500 Cup race in April."

Respectable debut
In his Sprint Cup Series debut, Brad Keselowski finished 19th after starting the race in the 35th spot.

"It was a good start. I am very happy with that," Keselowski said. "I am real happy with everyone on the GoDaddy.com Chevrolet. Lance [McGrew, crew chief] did a great job with pit calls. A good day, I learned a lot. I drove over my head a couple times and got myself in some trouble. It probably cost us a couple spots there at the end. All in all, I was still pretty happy with that. The car has nicks and scratches but nothing we can't fix up."

Manufacturers' race tightening
Ford closed the gap in the manufacturer standings with a win from Carl Edwards Sunday.

Chevrolet has 204 points, only two points ahead of Ford's 202. Toyota is holding on to third place with 201 points. Dodge has 141 points.

Ford, Chevy and Toyota have all won 10 races this season, while Dodge has four wins.