Maybe because he’s more relaxed and feels more secure about his job status this year, Zephyrhills’ David Reutimann is starting to let his dry sense of humor come through.

A good example came after Thursday’s qualifying races when he was asked about getting penalized for jumping the start from next to pole-sitter Michael Waltrip.

“Michael told me before the race he was going to be a little soft on the original start,” Reutimann said. “I didn’t expect him to be in a coma when they dropped the green.

“My spotter says, ‘green, green, green.’ I took off. Michael was still sitting there.”

Reutimann had make a trip down down pit road for a stop-and-go penalty. He wound up 12th, which was also third among the eight drivers competing for two “transfer” spots into the Daytona 500. Because he was fourth fastest in Sunday’s time trials, though, Reutimann secured the 42nd starting spot in Sunday’s race.

Reutimann said that locking up a spot on Sunday made the week much less stressful than it was last year, when his status wasn’t determined until after the qualifying races.

“Yeah, I’ve actually managed to be down here for however long we’ve been here and haven’t thrown up once, so it’s been good,” he said.