Reutimann cruises to win at Chicagoland

Take down the asterisk.

For more than a year, David Reutimann felt people didn't believe he earned his sole NASCAR Sprint Cup victory because it came in a rain-shortened race.

That feeling emotionally faded after Reutimann won Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400 at Joliet's Chicagoland Speedway.

"No rain tonight," he said. "We earned this one."

Reutimann took the lead on Lap 213, surged through a green-flag pit stop and then stayed in front for the final 32 laps as the race finished under green. One of the more popular NASCAR drivers among his peers, he accepted plenty of congratulations from other drivers who were sincerely happy for him.

The nice guy finished first.

"I want to say a special congratulations to David," said Carl Edwards, who finished in second place, 1.82 seconds behind Reutimann. "He is a class act, a really great guy. It's cool to see how happy he is."

Reutimann, in his fourth full season of Sprint Cup racing, scored his only other win in May 2009 in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. It was a race delayed by a day because of rain and then shortened to 227 laps because of bad weather.

"We took a lot of heat for how we won the first race," the Michael Waltrip Racing driver said. "Tonight we just had the car to beat."

Reutimann engaged in a fierce battle with race leader Jeff Gordon with about 70 laps to go. Several times Reutimann looked like he might overtake Gordon for the lead, but it took nearly 15 laps for Reutimann to finally pull away.

At that point Reutimann never faltered. After a clean green-flag pit stop he extended his lead to nearly four seconds on Edwards, who grabbed second place from Gordon. Making his 600th career start, Gordon finished third to pull within 103 points of Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick, who was 34th.

"We've had the consistency," Gordon said. "We just haven't had the car to win, or all the pieces as a team to get ourselves into Victory Lane."

Clint Bowyer finished fourth and pole-sitter Jamie McMurray was fifth. Bowyer's strong finish allowed him to move into the critical 12th position in the points standings and knock Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was 23rd, on the outside of the Chase in 13th place.

Jimmie Johnson maintained third place in the standings despite finishing a lap down in 25th place. Johnson, who started the race alongside McMurray on the front row, led the first 92 laps before suffering through several issues.

Johnson's troubles began when he missed the entry of pit road under green. He later spun on the track after getting loose in front of Martin Truex Jr. Johnson, then fell two laps behind when he brushed the wall.

While Chase contenders Johnson and Harvick struggled mightily, Reutimann emerged from under the radar and hit his groove as the sun set and the track conditions began to change.

"It was a good night, a good effort by everybody," Reutimann said. "It feels really good to get a second (win) under our belt and get it over with."