Reutimann credits NASCAR for many special memories (NASCAR.com)
March 9, 2010
When hes not racing, David Reutimann is helping his dad, Buzzie, on the dirt circuit.
There is nothing David Reutimann enjoys more in life than cranking tunes and working on race cars.
Since he has others who prepare the No. 00 Toyota he drives in the Sprint Cup Series for Michael Waltrip Racing these days, that means he spends his leisure time in his own shop preparing dirt cars for his father, the legendary Buzzie Reutimann.
David talked this past weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway about his taste in music, his distate for watching NASCAR.COM’s Dave Rodman attempt to eat a 6-pound burrito, and about turning 40 years old on March 2, among other things.
Q: You just turned 40 recently. Do you feel any different?
Reutimann: No, I don’t feel any different. I’m a little disappointed that it actually got here. I’ve been telling everybody that 40 is the new 30. That’s what I’m going to try to live by.
Q: What was more painful: turning 40 or watching our own Dave Rodman try to eat a 6-pound burrito in Las Vegas?
Reutimann: Both are very painful and pretty traumatic. I’m not sure I’ll recover from either one. I think the turning the 40 is going to stick with me longer than the vivid memory of watching Rodman trying to eat that burrito. I’m hoping to be able to block that out eventually.
Q: You didn’t attempt to eat one of those burritos, did you?
Reutimann: I was lucky to even be able to attempt carrying that burrito out to the table. It was pretty heavy. But I knew better than to try to eat one. It was fun watching those other guys try to do it, though.
Q: With the off weekend coming up, do you plan to work on some of your father’s cars?
Reutimann: Yeah, he’s still going at it at age 68. He’s still running very well and having a good time with it. I’ve got a car he ran Speedweeks with that I need to freshen up a little bit. He ran it eight or 10 nights, and Speedweeks has a tendency to beat a car up a little bit. It was new when he started and it doesn’t look new anymore, so we’ll probably hang a new body on it real quick and get it ready for the start of the season, which is coming right up.
Q: So is that something you find therapeutic, working on his cars?
Reutimann: Yeah, I like going to the shop and turning the radio up and just going in there and working on dirt cars. I enjoy that side of it. That’s about my equivalent of going and playing golf or something like that. That’s how I relax. That’s what I enjoy.
Q: What kind of tunes are you cranking when you’re working in the shop?
Reutimann: Any kind of good old rock-and-roll stuff. I’m somewhat of a Classic Rock guy—although, unfortunately, as I get older I’m listening to some Classic Rock stations and they’re playing Guns N’ Roses and actually considering that Classic Rock. I’m like, ‘That’s not Classic Rock. I listened to that in high school. There’s nothing classic about it.’
I’m talking about the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith and any good ol’ southern rock stuff. That’s it. I don’t listen to any country and no rap. I’m anti-all that stuff. I just pretty much like rock ‘n’ roll. I like some of the newer stuff, too, like Green Day—just no country and no rap. That’s not allowed.
Q: Your daughter, Emilia, just turned 8. How is she with your musical selections?
Reutimann: She’s liking it, too. We listen to it on the way to school. We listen to the Beatles and stuff like that and she thinks it’s pretty cool.
At some point, I’m sure her classmates are going to contaminate her taste of music and she’ll be liking and listening to stuff that’s a little bit different. But right now we have a good time listening to my music on the way to school. It’s a lot of fun.
Q: Do you like to go to concerts as well?
Reutimann: I went to some concerts when I was younger, but I don’t do all that well in crowds, so I tend to stay away from that stuff. Too many people.
Q: Have you been able to meet some famous musicians you admire through what you do now?
Reutimann: You meet a lot of cool people through NASCAR. I got a chance to hang out [this past weekend] with some of the Olympians who won the gold medal in the bobsled. I actually got to hold a gold medal. It’s phenomenal. It was unbelievable.
Not everybody gets to win a gold medal, and certainly not everyone gets to be able to touch one. … That was pretty cool. You get to meet astronauts, you get to meet rock stars, you get to meet movie stars, you get to meet gold-medal Olympians. Man, it’s really, really cool. It’s a neat deal.
Q: Any cool classic rockers you’ve been able to meet?
Reutimann: I met the drummer [Rick Allen] from Def Leppard. I met him at Daytona one year. I met the guys from REO Speedwagon—not that they’re exactly considered a rock band. But they’ve got some good stuff. All those guys were pretty cool.
I’m pretty open to any kind of band as long as it’s rock. I can’t take the country stuff and I can’t take the rap stuff.
Q: Does your dad ever come up to your shop and tell you to turn the music down?
Reutimann: Nah. Now at his old shop, he used to pull the knob off the radio so I couldn’t turn it off of his station. It would be up there and the knob would be off of it, so you were stuck listening to whatever he was listening to—which was usually some Oldies station.
Now at my shop, the same rules apply. Don’t touch the radio. Unless you’re paying the rent, don’t touch the radio. That’s the rule.
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