David Reutimann won his first Sprint Cup Series race Monday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, courtesy of a rain-delayed, rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600. Reutimann stayed on track on lap 222 under a caution flag for rain, inheriting the lead and waiting out a lengthy red-flag period to collect the win, which was also the first for Michael Waltrip Racing.

“What are you going to say?” Reutimann said. “It certainly wasn’t the prettiest win, but somebody has to win these things. Rodney (Childers, crew chief) made a great call and told me to stay out. We needed to come in and work on this thing to make it as good as we need to anyway, and we’re probably going to lose some positions on pit road, so we just stayed out and took a gamble.

“When you envision yourself winning your first Sprint Cup race you envision it a little bit different. It’s so hard to win these deals [and] we’ll just take them any way we can get them.”

Reutimann’s No. 00 Toyota led just five laps after inheriting the race lead, all under caution. Rain began to fall on lap 221, forcing the yellow flag. Pit stops fell on lap 222. On lap 227, NASCAR called the cars to pit road where they were parked under red flag conditions. Though jet dryers made valiant attempts at drying the racing surface for two hours, the rain continued to fall, forcing NASCAR to call the race just 27 laps past the halfway mark, making it an official event.

Kyle Busch led at the time of the yellow, as he did most of the day, but his team, led by crew chief Steve Addington, looked at the radar and believed the rain would pass, so they opted to pit the following lap. Childers, on the other hand, chose to keep his driver on track. Pole-sitter Ryan Newman and Robby Gordon shadowed his pit strategy and finished second and third.

Reutimann was 14th at the time of the yellow and ran as high as second early in the race. Just prior to the 100-lap mark Reutimann got high and into the wall while chasing down leader Busch. He initially drifted back to fourth after the contact but continued to battle his car as the laps waned between the rain delays.

Carl Edwards and Brian Vickers used varied pit strategy, taking on only two tires under the round of pit stops on lap 222. They closed out the top 5 by securing the fourth and fifth spots, respectively. After his pit stop for four tires, Busch wound up sixth.

Busch dominated the race, leading 173 of the 227 laps. He also dominated the Nationwide Series race on Saturday night at LMS, but lost that win in a similar manner. Mike Bliss stayed on track while other cars pitted just before the rains came. The weather shortened that race as well, handing Bliss the win.

“Weather — you can’t do anything about it really,” Busch said. “We knew it was coming, we knew it was here, but we weren’t going to ride around under caution for more than five laps. That was all we had of fuel left. We had to come down and put gas in it.

“Fortunately a lot of guys like us took four tires so we didn’t lose that much ground. The 99 (Edwards) and the 83 (Vickers) took two so they got out in front of us. It only hurt us two spots to finish sixth.”

Defending race winner Kasey Kahne finished seventh. Prior to the yellow flag for rain, Kahne was chasing down Busch, pressuring him for the lead. Juan Pablo Montoya, Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth, who won the Daytona 500 after rain shortened the race, closed out the top 10.

Logano celebrated his 19th birthday on Sunday and followed it up Monday by being the highest finishing rookie. It was the Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s second consecutive top-10 finish and third in the last four races.

The 50th running of the 600-miler was originally set for Sunday afternoon but was delayed until Monday due to rain. Once started, it was halted multiple times for rain throughout the day and finally ended just after 6:00 pm EST.

Though the day was a long one waiting out the weather, the race, which is NASCAR’s longest event, actually became the shortest in history with only 227 laps on the board.

It was the first time the historic race ran on Memorial Day. With that in mind, NASCAR threw a red flag on lap 166 in order to recognize Memorial Day’s National Moment of Silence. The roar of the engines were silenced at 3:00 pm as the cars were parked across the frontstretch. Crewmembers on pit road lined up shoulder-to-shoulder and the crowd embraced 30 seconds of silence in honor of the meaningful holiday, remembering the nation’s Armed Forces.

There were six caution flags throughout the day, with three yellows waving for rain. Two yellows, including the moment of silence, were competition cautions. The only incident of the day involved Kevin Harvick on lap18 after his No. 29 Chevrolet hit the wall in Turn 1.

Michael Waltrip Racing’s first Cup win — which came in Year Three of its Cup existence — was also Toyota’s first win in Cup competition not earned by Joe Gibbs Racing.