Feb. 21, 2010
Fontana, Calif. - The No. 00 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota Camry charged into 2010 with back-to-back top-15 finishes to start the season. Reutimann and crew were impressive in the early going of the Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. as he carried momentum from his 11th-place qualifying effort from Friday afternoon. Reutimann raced as high as seventh on lap 38 before coming to pit road under green flag conditions. The No. 00 team removed a rubber from the right rear that caused Reutimann to report a tight-handling condition following the stop. The team struggled to return the car to winning form following the adjustment, but managed to continue a solid effort over the remainder of the race. Reutimann battled over the last 30 laps to move from 18th into the top-15.
"It's just disappointing," said Reutimann. "We started out OK in our Aaron's Dream Machine. For the better part of the day we were just okay. We made one adjustment there and the car just really, really didn't like it. That just got us behind a little bit. It just seemed like our car wouldn't get going on a restart. It was taking eight, 10, 12 laps for us to get going. A lot of the other guys were able to get out and get away from you. Overall I'd have to call today just a bit of a disappointment. I really felt like we were going to have a better car. We still have our Aaron's Dream Machine in one piece. Not a great finish, but an okay finish and now we'll go on to the next one."
The solid effort kept Reutimann in the top-10 in points, at 8th - 58 points behind the leader Kevin Harvick.
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