NASCAR At Martinsville: Tommy Baldwin Defends David Reutimann’s Actions

Team owner Tommy Baldwin walked through the garage toward the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series hauler, summoned there by officials after one of his cars caused a race-altering caution near the end of Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

In his hand, Baldwin carried a broken part wrapped in a white towel, and said driver David Reutimann did nothing wrong when he stopped on the track with three laps to go in the race.

“He didn’t have a choice (to stop),” said Baldwin, who owns the No. 10 car. “The steering broke and he couldn’t get on pit road, and about 15 laps before that, he was complaining about the motor. It just happened at the same time. I mean, we just looked at it down there – it won’t start, it won’t do nothing. There’s nothing we could have done.”

Reutimann’s stalled car at the end of the frontstretch forced NASCAR to wave the yellow flag, which set up a late restart. Leaders Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson then spun out when Clint Bowyer made it three-wide into the first corner, and Ryan Newman ultimately won the race instead.

Baldwin said he knew other teams were upset with Reutimann for stopping on the track, but said it was just an “unfortunate chain of events.”

“I hate it, just like everybody else,” he said. “We’ve been in those positions, and if something else happened to us like that, there’s just nothing we can do.”