CONCORD, N.C. — Halted four times by rain and finally abandoned more than 24 hours after it was scheduled to start, NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 — already the longest race of the year — turned into a two-day calamity.
This time, the victory didn’t go to the swift at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. It went to the cagey instead, as unheralded David Reutimann notched his first career win in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup ranks without leading a single lap under green-flag conditions.
Reutimann inherited the lead by not pulling into the pits for fuel and tires behind the front-runners when yet another caution flew because of rain, 222 laps into the 400-lap race.
This time, the rain came to stay, just as Reutimann’s crew chief had hoped.
His driver made five circuits around the oval under caution before the cars were ordered to a halt on pit road as the showers turned into a downpour.
Still, Reutimann wasn’t anointed the victor until NASCAR and track officials finally gave up on their sporadic efforts to dry the 1.5-mile superspeedway more than two hours later, declaring the race over after 227 laps and reducing the Coca-Cola 600 to the Coca-Cola 340.5.
“It certainly wasn’t the prettiest win,” said Reutimann, 39. “When you envision winning your first Sprint Cup race, you envision it a little different. But we’ll just take ’em as we can get ’em.”
Ryan Newman was second.
