On Sunday night Michael Waltrip Racing’s second year Cup driver David Reutimann assembled a career best finish at Auto Club Speedway.

Starting the race in the 12th position Reutimann was able to gain some ground throughout the course of the race and upgrade to collect a ninth place finish.

At Michigan Reutimann laid down a solid seventh place effort, followed by a second place start at Bristol and then ventured to California to amass a 12th place starting position.

“Again Ryan Pemberton (No. 44 Crew Chief) and the team made the right changes to the car to get this car ready for qualifying,” Reutimann said following his run. “I don’t know if it will be a disadvantage that we went out early because the track is cooling down a little bit as the session continues, with the cloud cover and all, but that should be a pretty decent starting spot for our UPS Store/Toys for Tots Toyota. I’m really proud of our qualifying efforts of the past couple of weeks and the gains our team has made.”

With the No. 44 team laying down strong qualifying efforts in the past three races, Reutimann notes that it can only have positive effects.

“When you start up front, you tend to race around guys that you need to be racing around with,” Reutimann said. “You watch their cars and see what they’re doing. You learn, and you get better information.

“Qualifying up front is key to helping us a little bit.”

Despite posting a career high finish, Reutimann left California slightly disappointed that he did not finish higher.

“It’s saying something when you leave here and you’re disappointed with a top-10,” Reutimann said. “I felt like we were a top-five car. We didn’t luck into anything. We just fought hard all night and ended up with a pretty good finish. I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. Nights like tonight, it doesn’t seem all that hard when the car drives like they do.”