Reutimann scores first Busch win

Reutimann was the class of the field, leading 194 out of the 250 laps, and was able to stay out of trouble in a race that saw an unbelievable 25 caution periods, which meant that nearly half the race, 117 laps to be precise, were run under the yellow flags.

The race had a green-white-chequer finish in which the Michael Waltrip Racing driver was able to hold off Mike Bliss behind him, taking his maiden victory in the series after 63 starts, and also grabbing the first win for his team under the Toyota banner.

"I'm glad it is over with," said Reutimann, who on Friday failed to qualify for the Nextel Cup race at Atlanta, but had a nice consolation prize in only his second NASCAR win in a national series. His first had come in a Craftsman Truck Series event nearly two years ago at Nashville.

"Mike (Bliss) ran me clean there on the last restart. I know there were a lot of yellows today, but everybody that I raced with raced me clean. They could have gone in there and jacked me up, but they didn't and I appreciate that. We were solid and I'm glad we got this win. We've been really close and I'm proud that we finally got it"

Behind Bliss, rookie David Ragan finished third, scoring his best result in the series to date. He was one of four Nextel Cup drivers who went to the back of the field after missing qualifying, but steadily made progress and made his strategy work for him in the end.

Australian Marcos Ambrose also had his best day in the Busch Series to date, taking his maiden pole position and following that with a solid fourth place. He lost the lead to Reutimann on the first lap but then regained it later by running a different strategy. He was credited as the driver who overtook the most cars during the race.

"We got that top 10 that we were after and the pole was a bonus," said Ambrose.

"We had a really strong car all day. We didn't have the strategy that these guys did. But for our car, I think things worked out for the best. I fought all day and kept cool all day with all those cautions. We had a pretty straight day there."

Carl Edwards could not clinch the title once again after getting involved in an incident on lap 129 which caused some damage to his car. The crash also involved Sterling Marlin, Ron Young and Brian Kaselowski and required the race to be red-flagged for 11 minutes.

Before that Edwards had already made his way up from the back of the field into the top ten and was close to it again before having to avoid crashing into Landon Cassill on the final lap. That cost him a handful of places, which meant he crossed the finish line down in 25th place.

With Reutimann winning and running second in the championship, Edwards needed to finish at least eighth. However, a 36th place finish will now be enough for him to finally clinch the title at Texas Motor Speedway next weekend.

Dario Franchitti had a tough Busch Series debut, despite running well after qualifying in a very good third place. He ran as high as second but was penalised with a lap in the pits following an incident caused by his brakes fading. He eventually finished 32nd, three laps down on the race winner.

Pos  Driver                Car        Laps
 1.  David Reutimann       Toyota     253
 2.  Mike Bliss            Dodge      253
 3.  David Ragan           Ford       253
 4.  Marcos Ambrose        Ford       253
 5.  Jason Leffler         Toyota     253
 6.  Scott Wimmer          Chevrolet  253
 7.  Jamie McMurray        Ford       253
 8.  Jason Keller          Chevrolet  253
 9.  Brad Keselowski       Chevrolet  253
10.  Brian Keselowski      Dodge      253
11.  JJ Yeley              Chevrolet  253
12.  Stephen Leicht        Ford       253
13.  Mike Wallace          Chevrolet  253
14.  Kelly Bires           Ford       253
15.  Danny O'Quinn Jr      Chevrolet  253
16.  Tim McCreadie         Chevrolet  253
17.  Ron Young             Chevrolet  253
18.  Bryan Clauson         Dodge      253
19.  Stanton Barrett       Chevrolet  253
20.  Landon Cassill        Chevrolet  253
21.  Brent Sherman         Toyota     253
22.  Brett Rowe            Chevrolet  253
23.  Richard Johns         Ford       253
24.  Chase Miller          Dodge      253
25.  Carl Edwards          Ford       253
26.  Sterling Marlin       Chevrolet  253
27.  John Graham           Ford       253
28.  Eric McClure          Chevrolet  253
29.  Cale Gale             Chevrolet  252
30.  Colin Braun           Ford       252
31.  Robert Richardson II  Chevrolet  251
32.  Dario Franchitti      Dodge      250
33.  Brad Coleman          Chevrolet  240
34.  Brad Baker            Ford       239
35.  Steve Wallace         Dodge      234
36.  Bobby East            Ford       224
37.  Brandon Miller        Chevrolet  191
38.  Bobby Hamilton Jr     Ford       190
39.  Matt Carter           Ford       130
40.  Jeremy Clements       Chevrolet  100
41.  Chase Austin          Dodge       86
42.  Kyle Krisiloff        Ford        47
43.  DJ Kennington         Dodge       44