Dodge driver Newman looks forward to UAW-Dodge 400
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Loading ...By SceneDaily Staff
Friday, February 29, 2008
LAS VEGAS – Ryan Newman sits second in points and seems to be eagerly anticipating to the UAW-Dodge 400 this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
It is just the second Sprint Cup race since the track was repaved and rebanked, and it’s the first race at the track in NASCAR’s new car.
“I look forward to the race,” Newman said before practice Friday. “I kind of like the way the track was last year, the fact that it actually separated out and had multiple grooves in the first year, which you don’t typically see.”
Last year, several drivers crashed in practice, but the race went off OK. The tire was hard and drivers didn’t have as much grip as they wished they could have had.
“It was tough last year for sure with the tire combination because we came back with a harder tire than what we had in the test. … I thought the race was good – there were lots of cars that crashed in practice,” Newman said.
This year, the drivers have the same tire they had in the test about a month ago.
“The tire, and the car and the track are better this year than they were last year, mostly because of the tire,” Newman said. “The tire we were on last year, because of the new surface, it had to be [hard] that way just to be able to make it on fuel mileage. … That’s obviously something we struggled with at Daytona.
“As long as they make a tire that lasts a fuel run and we don’t have any tire issues blowing out, things like that, then that’s all great. But when we’re border-line crashing the cars because the tire is so hard, then it’s difficult.”
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