Starting fifth in Sunday’s 16th Running of the Brickyard 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event, David Reutimann was able to inch closer to grabbing a spot in the top-12.

With the passing of each race weekend bringing the drivers closer to the Chase cutoff date, points position is becoming more valuable. Moving up one spot to 13th due to his eighth place finish on Sunday, Reutimann now sits 68 points behind Matt Kenseth in 12th place.

Battling handling issues for much of the race, Reutimann found the No. 00 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota either too tight, or too loose. Able to run as good as the leading cars, Reutimann’s crew chief Rodney Childers was able to ease the frustration of his driver.

With a best finish of 30th prior to Sunday’s event, Reutimann showed his team, the competitors, and the Hardcore Race Fans how much he has improved since his rookie season in 2007.

“We just kind of hovered around the top 10 most of the day,” Reutimann commented. “The guys did a great job and had good pit stops. That’s about the car we had at the end of the race. We made it a little bit better, but track position is so important. The longer the run, the better we got. Those guys would get too far away from us on the short run and I just couldn’t get back to them. All in all it was a good day and a pretty productive day.”

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