Ryan Newman News and Information

Ryan Newman had a very disappointing night at Darlington Saturday night for the Dodge Challenger 500.

“It was just a disappointing night for the Alltel Dodge,” Newman said. “We had problems throughout the race, and it ended up costing us in the points. We’re going to have to work harder and hopefully rebound at Charlotte.”

Newman started in 32, fell 1 lap down then another lap down after he had to make a drive through on pit road to serve a penalty. Being 2 laps down raced his way back up to the front and on a restart from a caution was able to get in front of the leader and stay there until the caution came out earning himself one of the laps back.

Newman was consistently as fast as the leaders and Roy McCauley kept telling him so.

Following a pit stop under the yellow flag at lap 238, Newman began to pull off pit road when he reported that it felt like something was broken in the rear of the car. Once on the track, the problem caused Newman to spin, damaging the right side and the front of the car.

On lap 239, under caution, Newman was coming back into pit. He was going pretty quick down on the apron when Brian Vickers came down on him to get to pit road as well.

Who do you blame for this incident?

I don’t necessarily blame Vickers, but I do blame his team and even Newman’s to a degree. Vickers himself had no way of seeing Newman I don’t think. But his spotter should have been able to see Newman coming and knowing that Vickers was going to pit road, he should have been able to warn Vickers.

What I don’t know is if it is realistic to blame Newman’s spotter. It looked to me like Vickers came down pretty quick. Not giving Newman or his spotter time to react.

After researching more, it appears that Vickers was not responsible for breaking Newman’s car, but still that incident should not have happened.

I think Newman had a great shot at getting his last lap back. He was turning times as fast as the leaders and when he got his first lap back, he took off in front of the leader Dale Earnhardt JR and stayed out front. Even putting distance between himself and Dale JR before the caution came out.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action next Saturday night for the NASCAR All-Star race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. The non-points race can be seen live on SPEED at 7:30 p.m. EDT and heard on the PRN radio network.

Newman started 32nd for this Saturday night race.

He finished 37th - 72 laps down and fell to 13th in the points standings, tied with Kasey Kahne. They are 426 points behind the leader points leader and tonights winner Kyle Busch. They are also only 2 points outside the top 12.

This is the lowest in points that Newman has been in this year.

David Ragan and Jeff Gordon raced their way into the top 12 in points while Kahne and Newman fell out.

QUICK RECAP
Ryan had a rough start to the evening falling one lap down pretty quick with a little bit longer pit stop. Soon he fell 2 laps down when he had to do a drive though on pit road for a pit penalty.

Newman earned one of those laps back and seemed to have a strong car this evening.

Under caution on lap 239, Brian Vickers came down on Newman who was heading to the pits. Newman was on the apron. They collided and spun. Newman ended up with a broken axle and did not come back on the track until he was 58 laps down.

FULL RECAP
Listening to NASCAR.com’s Track Pass Race View, Newman had communications problems with his team. They made the decision to change to channel 3. This seems to have resulted in Track Pass users not being able to here the communications anymore.

By lap 11 we have seen 2 cautions. Newman and a handful of others in the back of the back decide to pit. Newman fell from about 27th to 39th with that pit.

Around lap 40 communications comes pack over Track Pass. Newman has climbed up to 36, but not gaining positions very fast. Kyle Busch was leading but Greg Biffle has taken over and is closing in on Newman.

On lap 48 Greg Newman informs Ryan that once the leaders are in lap traffic they are doing horrible. Roy Newman informs McCauley that the car is so tight that it is almost hopping in corners. McCauley informs Newman that he is doing great. He then follows that up by saying, “I know it may sound stupid that your doing great, but you are”.

With Greg Biffle still closing in, Newman is now on the move. He is up 29th on lap 57. Biffle is with in seconds of Newman. Newman pitted earlier so he does not have pit soon. Leaders did not pit before so Biffle is going to need to pit soon. Roy is telling Ryan to dig and get all he can so that Biffle does not pass him before he (Biffle) has to pit.

Lap 60 Biffle and other leaders are pitting. Newman is not lapped but is now planning on coming in to the pits and receiving a 3 rounds on the track bar to loosen the car up.

With cars cycling through the pits, Newman is up to 8th on lap 62, 7th by 63. And the end of 63 Roy tells him to pit. Newman will probably go a lap down here. And does.

Newman comes out of the pits in 34th and 1 lap down.

Newman gets a pit pass through penalty for a tire violation. Sounds like the crew did not handle the tire back to the wall properly.

After the penalty, Newman is in 40th and 2 laps down.

The good news for Newman is that on lap 82 he was running about the 10th fastest lap times. Still a lot of race for Newman to make up some ground.

Newman is closing in on Dale Earnhardt JR who is running in 3rd. Newman is digging and digging to get a lap back. He is complaining of shaking in the car.

Roy informs him that he is running the same lap times as the leader and Newman replied that that does him no good when he is 2 laps down.

Lap 103 and Newman is definitely closing on the leader. He still has quite a ways to go, but with some luck can get up there.

Newman and McCauley discuss coming in. They are planning on taking 2 rounds out left rear and 2 rounds out on the track bar.

Newman pits on lap 123. He stayed out as long as possible. I was hoping for a caution flag because he was only a lap down.

Newman leaves the pits in 36th and 2 laps down again. Pit cycles are almost done. Newman is about the length of the backstretch away from the leader.

Lap 139 the caution comes out. McCauley just informed Newman that he was “haulin’ ass”. They plan their pit. They are going to put more tape on it. They are planning on 2 tires. Newman is understandably sounding frustrated. 2 tires and fuel is the main plan and tape if there is time. Roy wants to gain some track position since there is only 14 laps on the tires. Roy wants to make sure that Newman is at the front of the line for the 2 lap down cars.

The hopes here, I believe, is to be able to fight to the top and earn a lap back.

Newman leaves the pits 34th, 2 laps down and the first car 2 laps down. There are 7 1 lap down cars in front of him.

Newman restarts next to the first place car of Dale Earnhardt JR on lap 144. On the restart Newman gets ahead of JR. 2 laps into it, Harvick gets into the wall. NO CAUTION.

Caution come out 1 lap later. Newman is still in front of Dale Earnhardt JR so he gets a lap back. He is now only one lap down.

They decide to pit. They are going to be the last car 1 lap down anyway. Newman restarts in 31st, the last of 8 cars 1 lap down.

On lap 179 Newman is making his way up the 1 lap down cars. There are only 3 more in front of him. His team keeps reporting that he is running fast laps. Newman says the car is a little tight.

Newman requests that the car be loosened up just a little for the longer runs. McCauley says on the next stop they will just take 1 round out on the track bar.

Newman pits on lap 203.

On lap 239 under caution, Newman was coming into the pits and Brian Vickers got in his way. Vickers came down to go to the pits and Newman was already on the apron going pretty quick. They hit and spun. Newman went to the garage for repairs.

Newman’s night ends with a broken axle. He does eventually get back on the track 68 laps down. He was running 2 seconds faster than the minimum speed.

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Under the lights at Darlington tonight. I am going to end up spoiled with these Saturday night races. And next weekend we have the All-Star race from Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Keep an out here. Monday or Monday night I will have the Complete All-Star Race guide.

My coverage of the All-Star race may not be like I typically do. We are planning on being out of town for that weekend, so I don’t know what I will be able to or not do.

Well, Newman is starting 32nd for tonights race. I wouldn’t worry though. Newman’s practice times were great and if I understood correctly, he was set up for race trim in those practices and not qualifying trim.

Check our CHAT ROOM for tonights race. If we don’t make it in there, feel free to stick around and chat with others. It is FREE but does require a separate login.

Also, if you want, the MESSAGE BOARDS usually have a running thread fro race day. So check that out as well.

Ryan Newman and the #12 Alltel Dodge team qualified 32nd for Saturday nights race at Darlington.

“We just missed on our qualifying setup. We’re disappointed because we had a top-10 car in practice all day. I like our car in race trim so hopefully we can forget about today and try to move up the pack tomorrow night. We’ve got a lot of cars to pass but anything can happen here at Darlington.”

I don’t think Ryan Newman fans have anything to worry about for Saturday nights race. Of course he does have to fight his way from the back, but he has all night to do it.

Newman’ s practice times were just fine. As he indicated in the above quote, they seem to be set just fine for race trim. In practice 1 he was 12th, practice 2 12th and in practice 3 he ran 10th.

Newman’s Teammates and Kurt Busch Sam Hornish Jr qualified 5th and 23rd. Congrats to both of them.

Ryan Newman Darlington Friday Interview - Transcript from above videos. BUT I REALLY RECOMMEND WATCHING THE VIDEO.

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger)

YOU WERE INVOLVED IN THE GOODYEAR TIRE TEST HERE AND HAD TWO PRACTICE SESSIONS YESTERDAY–HOW IS THE RACE TRACK? “I think the racetrack and the tire combinations are in good condition, respectively. I felt the speeds were very close to what we had anticipated from the tire tests and the fact we purposely were slower at the test and were going to pick up the speed here at the track competition wise. I thought everything was good. The track, I feel, they did a great job. Keeping the old traditional Darlington shape and the character with the exception of the bumps that was the reason for the repave.”

YOU ARE THE DAYTONA 500 CHAMPION, WHAT WOULD A WIN AT DARLINGTON MEAN? “I’ve always said it was my favorite racetrack. Obviously it has changed a little bit with the repave, but man it’s a special place. We ran second to Jeff (Gordon) at the Southern 500 (2002). We’ve run well here (six top-six finishes in eight races). I’ve always liked it. We’ve always been fast. We’ve some failures and things like that. Typically, I’m a conservative driver in the essence that I keep it off the wall and probably limit myself a little bit speed wise, but I have a good car there at the end and that will be the goal on Saturday night.”

WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THE RACING AT RICHMOND LAST WEEK THAT YOU SAID WASN’T UP TO PAR? “In general, I don’t know what my exact comment was that you are referring to, but I would say the racing at Richmond wasn’t as exciting as it typically is. I don’t know what the stats are, but I don’t think there were as many passes. From my standpoint in the car, it was kind of boring racing and didn’t seem to have the excitement that Richmond usually offers. I don’t know if it was just that race or a combination of this car and the fact we can’t turn each other around with the bumpers or what. It just didn’t stand out as the typical exciting Richmond.”

DOING A STORY ON THE CLOSENESS OF COMPETITION OF NASCAR RACES. THESE DAYS, THE MARGIN OF VICTORY IS BY TIME. I’M CURIOUS WHAT YOUR GUESS WOULD BE FOR LAST YEAR’S 36 RACES, THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME FOR THE MARGIN OF VICTORY? “A little math quiz here. Number one, you want to see if I can really add. And second, to see if I’m smart enough to figure out the question. Do you have the answer? OK, I’m going to go with 52 (seconds).” The answer: 60.9 seconds.

DOES THAT SURPRISE YOU? “No. Not at all really. The level of competition has increasingly grown tighter and tighter. Here’s a question for you. What was the last race that was won by at least a lap?”

Answer: Jeffrey Bodine at North Wilkesboro in 1994.

DID THE TEST AT LOWE’S EARLIER IN THE WEEK HELP YOU FOR THE SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE AND THE COCA-COLA 600? “As long as you have a decent test, absolutely it helps you preparing for those things. I wish personally that we didn’t have the time to test there because I think the better prepared teams will shine with less testing and less practice whereas you can only catch up so much. You can only make a car so good. I would rather it be where we just show up and race. I don’t think we need to show up and test. Somebody told me yesterday that we have a test there again in the fall. I mean, it’s ridiculous. We don’t need to waste our time, the team’s time.

It’s not like the fans are getting anything out of it. It’s not good for the sport in my opinion. It shouldn’t be a science project where we have to come to the track and figure out if the tire is going to live; the car is going to be competitive and things like that. We should have a better idea than having to go and test to see if we can make better racing. The sport has done well over the last 50 years having good racing without having to spend two days testing at the race track.”