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Reutimann Hopes To Stay With Michael Waltrip Racing In 2008

Published: Jul 13, 2007

Fresh off a couple of days of rest and relaxation in Sanibel Island, Zephyrhills' David Reutimann is in Joliet, Ill., for this weekend's Nextel Cup and Busch Series combination event at Chicagoland Speedway. In this week's edition of his rookie diary, he addresses his future with Michael Waltrip Racing and recaps last Sunday's turnout of more than 1,000 fans for his hometown autograph session.

OK, so here's the deal about my status for next year: My contracts with Michael Waltrip Racing for the Nextel Cup and Busch rides were for one year. Nobody from the organization has talked to me about next year yet. They're trying to make sure all the sponsorship stuff is line before they talk to me.

My team owner, Michael Waltrip, was quoted last week saying he's 99 percent sure he'll be able to bring me back in the No. 00 Cup car. I'd feel better if he was 100 percent sure, but I'll take 99 percent. Everybody knows the kind of money it takes to run one of these teams, and you aren't going to do it without a sponsor.

At this point, I don't have a plan B if this situation doesn't work out.

The way the contracts are written, you're not allowed to talk to anybody else until a certain time. Some time later in the season, if the team you're with doesn't have a place for you the following year, you can talk to other people.

Hopefully, things will work out. I feel like I have a ton of unfinished business in the Cup series and in Busch as well. I want to win some races, run better, and do all the things I came here to do.

It would be a huge letdown if I didn't get the opportunity.

I want to thank everybody who came out to the family shop on Sunday for our autograph session. People waited in line for an hour to buy merchandise, and then they waited another hour to get me to sign stuff. I never heard one person complain.

People would come, and I'd sign whatever they had - T-shirts, hats, cards, sheet metal. I mean, a lot of people had four or five things.

A lot of places say one item per person, but heck, if these people wanted to come out in the sun and hang out for a couple of hours, I was going to sign whatever they had.

Everybody was thanking me for coming out, but I left there having gained a lot more from the people that came out than I could have given them. It was pretty dramatic.

I thought I was going to cry a couple of times when I looked out and saw the crowd. It was emotional because you don't think people are paying attention to what you're doing, and then you see that.

Tony Fabrizio

NEXTEL CUP ROOKIE STANDINGS: 1. Juan Pablo Montoya 192; 2. David Ragan 180; 3. Paul Menard 123; 4. David Reutimann 110; 5. A.J. Allmendinger 75.