It may not have been very pretty, but a win is a win is a win, and this 600 is David Reutimann's

  
The suds in victory lane, with David Reutimann (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   CONCORD, N.C.
   Okay, so it was a bummer of a Sunday…and a bummer of a Monday, from the artistic point of view.
   NASCAR doesn't do rain.
   And rain did in NASCAR again. First, in the Daytona 500, which was rain-shortened to 380 miles. Now, in the Coke 600, rain-postponed Sunday, then rain-shortened Monday to 340 miles.
   However, unlike at Daytona, when NASCAR called the race so swiftly at the rain that it was criticized, here Monday NASCAR officials went the extra mile, some two hours, fighting the rain, albeit to no avail.
    David Reutimann got the win. And he has been knocking at the door to victory circle several times this season, and finally got a good break, or rather made some good luck happen, when crew chief Rodney Childers gambled on not stopping with the rest of the field for a routine caution flag pit stop at sprinkles on lap 220 of the scheduled 400.
   Still, runner-up Ryan Newman, also gambling on not stopping, looked at the rain and said plaintively "I feel so bad for the fans out there.
   "It wasn't going to get any better. And it wouldn't have been any better Tuesday.
   "We sat around for an hour and a half hoping for something to happen. But Mother Nature just wouldn't let it happen."
   Well, just to cap the frustrating day, just 15 minutes after NASCAR called the race and let drivers and crews leave, the sun came out and the rain stopped. For a while at least.
   Kyle Busch, who dominated the race, what there was of it, led 173 of the 227 laps, and usually he was far, far ahead of any rivals.
   But he pitted at the yellow (what turned out to be the final yellow) on lap 222, routinely, and virtually the entire field followed him down pit road.
    That left Reutimann in the lead, and he ran the five rainy yellow laps, till NASCAR red-flagged the race to wait out the weather.
   David Ragan, pointing to the horrendous Sunday night traffic jams at Lowe's Motor Speedway (apparently because traffic control managers had been caught unawares by NASCAR's relatively quick move to call the race at 8:30 pm) said he's spent too much time in cars the past few days:
"We sat around last night in a couple hours of traffic, and got backed up…and it seems like that's what we've been doing all day.
   "We've just been chasing the track, more than anything.  It seems like once we get it close to being dialed in, another rain shower comes and we have to start over again."
   Indeed the rain – a persistent rain, in sprinkles and drizzles – was just plain aggravating.
   Well, not for winning owner Michael Waltrip.
   "It's incredible to progress from where we were in 2007 (his first year as owner-driver)," Waltrip said. "I'm real proud of that. And real proud of the job David did….and his crew chief. I think they were amazed more of the men in front of them didn't make the same call.
   "I like to think of this as payback.
    "This is only our third year as a team, and we're racing against teams that have been doing this for 25 years."
   And not for the winning driver…who is a refreshing personality.
   "I think we sat on pit road for like eight hours today," Reutimann said. "I was thinking at the end 'This thing never goes my way, so why should it now?'
   "Rodney told me to stay out (and not pit), and said 'I'm either going to cost us 10 spots…or get us a win.'
   "I'm still waiting for Mr. Helton to come down and say 'Hold on, boys. We're going to do something different.'"
   "I didn't really put much thought into that call," Childers said. "We were running 14th…and I figured either we'd have a shot to win, or just restart 24th.
   "Our guys deserved this. We've kind of given some of these away this year."