hearing the #00-David Reutimann is looking at his options for the 2008 season. Reutimann currently drives the #00 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing. UPDATE: MWR denies Reutimann had talked to any team about 2008.(6-26-2007) UPDATE 2: David Reutimann would prefer to return to Michael Waltrip Racing’s Nextel Cup program next season. But he’s still awaiting an offer. Reutimann signed a two-year contract to race Busch cars for Waltrip but is under a one-year deal for Cup. At the time, that seemed like a safety valve for Waltrip Racing, but with the team’s mighty struggles in Toyota’s first-year Cup effort and unwanted publicity surrounding Waltrip’s cheating scandal at Daytona, it could give the rookie an escape. Team officials, he said, have yet to broach an extension. “Me personally, I am not really out looking around, ” he said. But others could be looking at him, especially considering his performance for a Waltrip Busch program that has been markedly more competitive because of the quality of the engine Toyota has developed in the series.(St. Petersburg Times)(7-1-2007) UPDATE 3: Been told that Reutimann’s Busch deal is not thru 2008, but thru 2007, same as his Nextel Cup deal. Plus on ESPN2’s NASCAR Now [July 2nd], Marty Smith reported that MWR General Mgr Ty Norris said MWR is committed to Reutiman and that it will be a month or two before the #00 sponsorship status is known for 2008 and until they know the status of those sponsors, they can’t know the status for Reutimann.(7-3-2007) UPDATE 4: Michael Waltrip said he is 99% sure David Reutimann will remain his third driver next season. Waltrip said he and Dale Jarrett are committed to the same cars next season with NAPA and UPS likely to return as the primary sponsors. He said the decision on whether to keep Reutimann in the #00 car will be made by mid-July. “We’ll just have to see how sponsorship looks, whether it will be Burger King and Dominoes again or Burger King and somebody else,” he said.(ESPN.com)(7-6-2007)
