Race Spotters - One Man's Duty

The spotter has to watch pit road and restarts, too.

"He's as involved in, maybe more involved in, the race than the crew chief," Waltrip says. "He's calling the whole race, almost like an announcer."

He said that some drivers want to be encouraged with some chatter, and others don't want to hear anything but "clear," "wreck," or whatever. Waltrip says when he was behind the wheel he liked the chatter, knowing where the leader was, what his lap times were.

"The more information I had, the better job I could do," he says. "I think the biggest thing with David is you've got to keep him pumped up, keep him focused. And we're always preaching to him 'big picture.' In the beginning he was having trouble finishing races, and he almost went too far the other way. He was paranoid about things going to happen.

"This year, I think he's walked a pretty good line as far as being aggressive and finishing races."

Waltrip says that David Reutimann has had several different spotters in the past year or two. He says the team has improved now that there's consistency and the same spotter talking to him all the time.

And being cousins can be an asset. "After the race, you can go out and work out any disagreements you might have had," Waltrip says with a laugh. "You've had disagreements before, I'm sure. It's nothing new."

The spotters looked almost in uniform at Martinsville as they all carried black backpacks given them by Racing Electronics, and many of them wore headsets from the same company. Holbrook used his backpack as a pillow as he lounged a few minutes before race time.

Most of the spotters were pretty calm. Occasionally, two spotters would talk. During one caution, there was a little chatting and milling around. During another of the many cautions, three spotters huddled for a few jokes and laughs.

Once, one spotter tapped another one on his shoulder, and they each raised a hand in acknowledgement.

Shawn Reutimann said it can get hectic in the spotters' stand, but it got really crazy recently when he was waiting for a Busch North race to end at Loudon, New Hampshire. "There were two spotters fighting," Reutimann says. "The funny thing is that he picked the wrong guy."

Reutimann says he sometimes has to run over to another team's spotter, especially if his driver is about to pass that spotter's driver or if the team needs a drafting partner.

Reutimann kept a close eye as cousin David dropped to 36th on lap 60, then came back to finish in the Top 20 in the 200-lap race at Martinsville. Jack Sprague won the race, while Miller and Adcock finished 10th. The Reutimanns finished 18th, one spot ahead of Gaughan and Holbrook.

Shawn says he and David have gone racing together for 15 or more years, since David was racing Late Models or Mini-Stocks, although 2006 was Shawn's first year as David's Truck Series spotter.

"In Late Model, there were a handful of good drivers," Shawn Reutimann says. "Here, the whole field is good. They have quality drivers and quality [trucks]."

Actually, the difference between then and now may be even greater. Reutimann says his dad, Wayne, and David's dad, Buzzie, were outstanding Modified drivers-both are members of the Dirt Motorsports Hall of Fame-so David and Shawn decided to travel to New York years ago to race Modifieds. David was going to drive for a Modified car owner, and Shawn was his crew.

It just didn't turn out anywhere near the way they expected.

"We thought the owner had some money, but we found it wasn't the truth," Reutimann says. "Our motor blew the first time out, and we were out a couple of weeks. His [the car owner's] dad owned a track, and I'd flag on Friday nights, and on Saturday mornings we'd pick up trash so [that we could have money to buy food]. At the time, it wasn't funny."

Years later, Reutimann isn't laughing much harder. A friend in New York picked apples off a tree on his property, and that's what the Reutimanns and David's girlfriend [now wife] Lisa ate on the way home.

"We were counting our pennies for gas and eating apples, trying to get back to Florida," Reutimann says. "We ran out of gas when we pulled into the lot at home."

Bound by birth and background, the Reutimanns-Shawn and David-have raced many laps together since then.