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| David Reutiman Test at Texas for Busch ride | FORT WORTH-DALLAS "Test Week" concluded Wednesday at Texas Motor Speedway as the NASCAR Winston Cup Valvoline Pontiac of Johnny Benson and the NASCAR Busch Series Hills Bros. Chevrolet of rookie David Reutimann finished their sessions. The pair ran all day with no incidents preparing for Samsung/RadioShack 500 race week March 27-30.
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Benson and Reutimann both concentrated on race setups during the morning session then shifted to qualifying formats in the afternoon. Benson reached 188 mph while Reutimann hit 186 mph in his Busch machine.
Reutimann used his two days of testing at Texas Motor Speedway preparing for the Hills Bros. team debut in the March 29 O´Reilly 300 NASCAR Busch Series race. Reutimann will be driving for NASCAR Winston Cup and Busch veteran Joe Nemechek who liked the progress of the fellow Floridian.
"Pretty impressive, isn´t he?" commented Nemechek with a smile Wednesday. "We think he is going to be very good."
Nemechek assisted Reutimann setting up the chassis during the tests and took a few laps to prepare the team cars. And following two days, the rookie brought the car back to the trailer without incident.
"We are just trying to get our line down here," said Reutimann, son of popular East Coast short track legend Buzzie. "We just want to make laps. Joe got in the car and baselined it for me. He has been standing down in the corners and coaching me. We have picked up a lot of time since we arrived here.
"This place is very fast, the line is kind of tricky," continued the Florida native. "You have to run laps. That´s what we are doing here, working on our race setup. The team is trying to get me comfortable.
"It is huge having Joe help me. I don´t know that you could put a price tag on it. His comfort zone is so high in these cars. He piles into the seat and just goes.
"He will tell me to change the line up a little bit, work the arc out a little going into the corner," commented Reutimann. "Eventually we got the car running pretty good. He makes suggestions, he is great to work with. He tells me what I am doing wrong when I am doing wrong, the rest of the time he lets me learn as I go."
The trip to Texas was the first time Reutimann saw "The Great American Speedway" in person. But he had some help.
"The extent of my experience at Texas Motor Speedway was running NASCAR 4 on my computer. That is all that I had seen of this place before the test.
"It actually helped me. It gives you an idea of how it is shaped. And if you tear up something you just hit reset and you are ready to go again."
Reutimann and Nemechek will be seeking top starting positions on O´Reilly Qualifying Day for the Busch Series Thursday, March 27. Both are hoping their venture three weeks from now in the O´Reilly 300 doesn´t involve a reset button. Most believe it won´t.
Frontstretch tickets for the O´Reilly 300 are on sale daily at the speedway, by calling the ticket hotline at (817) 215-8500, online at www.texasmotorspeedway.com or at Ticketmaster locations.
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