Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), fought through persistent pain as he maneuvered a loose-handling racecar to a 12th-place finish in Sunday’s Dickies 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

It was Newman’s 12th top-12 finish this season and his fourth top-12 result in 14 career Sprint Cup starts at Texas.

“We just struggled with the car being loose on entry at the beginning of every run throughout the race, and that is what hurt us in the end,” said Newman, who said he was still sore from last week’s horrific crash in the closing laps at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. “Tony Gibson (crew chief) and the guys tried a lot of different things to help the car not be so loose on entry and to help me get a better run at the start of each run, but we just couldn’t get the right changes. They did a great job today. I was sore all weekend, but it was good to be back in the racecar.”

Following practice on Saturday, the Haas Automation/U.S. Army team made numerous changes to the No. 39 Chevy in hopes of finding a setup that would help them improve upon their 26th-place starting position. With the drop of the green flag, Newman began patiently working his way into the top-20.

Newman reported that the No. 39 machine was loose on entry into the track’s corners, particularly at the beginning of the run. He also told Gibson that he needed to cut through the center of the turns better. Newman made his first green flag pit stop of the day at lap 55 for four tires, fuel and track bar and air pressure adjustments.

Back on the 1.5-mile oval and still running in the top-20, Newman once again complained of being loose at the start of a run. The loose-handling issue at the beginning of the run was hampering his efforts to gain spots on the track, but as the run wore on, the handling of the No. 39 Chevy would tighten up, which helped improve the car’s overall handling.

Under caution at lap 85, Newman pitted for four tires, fuel and track bar and air pressure adjustments and then restarted the race at lap 91 in 19th-place.

By lap 150, which was shortly after the team’s third pit stop of the day, Newman was running in 15th-place. As he battled for position he again told Gibson that the car’s tendency to want to spin out on entry into the corners early in the run was killing his momentum and preventing him from advancing.

“I’m way too loose getting in, and then about 10 laps into a run it snugs up,” Newman said. “I just need to be tighter at the start of the run, but I don’t want to make it tighter throughout the course of the entire run.”

Over the course of 500-mile race, Newman’s crew went to work and tried a variety of air pressure, track bar and wedge adjustment combinations in hopes of finding a cure to aid the car’s handling woes.

Newman’s final, four-tire stop of the night came at lap 266. The crew also made another series of chassis adjustments. Newman returned to the track and was in 15th-place by the time the green-flag stops had cycled through. Gibson told his driver that they would not have enough fuel to make it to the end of the 334-lap race, so they would have to pit once more.

The team pitted at lap 318 for right-side tires and fuel and finished the race in 12th-place

“It was a tough day for Ryan because he was sore and he was battling the racecar, but he hung in there and proved how tough he is,” Gibson said. “We’ve got two more races to try and get our first win as a team, which has been our goal all season, and that’s what our focus is now.”

Newman’s Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) teammate and owner, Tony Stewart, came home sixth to score his 23rd top-10 finish of 2009.

Kurt Busch stretched his fuel mileage and beat Denny Hamlin by 25.686 seconds to win the Dickies 500 and score his 20th career Sprint Cup victory, his second of the season and his first at Texas.

Matt Kenseth finished third, while Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five. Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton and A.J. Allmendinger comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were five caution periods for 26 laps, with six drivers failing to finish the 334-lap race.

Both SHR drivers are represented in this year’s Chase for the Championship. Stewart remained fifth in the standings and is now 178 points behind Chase leader Jimmie Johnson, who was involved in a lap three accident and finished 38th. Newman fell one spot to ninth and is 324 markers out of first.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Nov. 15 Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500k at Phoenix International Raceway. The season’s penultimate race starts at 3:15 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by ABC beginning with its pre-race show at 2:30 p.m.

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala SS, led the two-car Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) contingent at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth by finishing sixth in Sunday’s Dickies 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

It was Stewart’s 23rd top-10 finish of 2009 and his 10th in 16 career Sprint Cup starts at Texas.

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala SS for SHR, finished 12th to score his 16th top-12 finish of 2009.

Kurt Busch stretched his fuel mileage and beat Denny Hamlin by 25.686 seconds to win the Dickies 500 and score his 20th career Sprint Cup victory, his second of the season and his first at Texas.

Matt Kenseth finished third, while Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five. Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton and A.J. Allmendinger comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were five caution periods for 26 laps, with six drivers failing to finish the 334-lap race.

Both SHR drivers are represented in this year’s Chase for the Championship. Stewart remained fifth in the standings and is now 178 points behind Chase leader Johnson, who was involved in a lap three accident and finished 38th. Newman fell one spot to ninth and is 324 markers out of first.

With only two races remaining before a champion is crowned following the season finale Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the top-12 drivers competing for the title rank as follows:

1. Jimmie Johnson (6,297 points) +/-0
2. Mark Martin (6,224 points, -73) +/-0
3. Jeff Gordon (6,185 points, -112) +/-0
4. Kurt Busch (6,126 points, -171) +2
5. Tony Stewart (6,119 points, -178) +/-0
6. Juan Pablo Montoya (6,061 points, -236) -2
7. Greg Biffle (6,050 points, -247) +/-0
8. Denny Hamlin (5,975 points, -322) +3
9. Ryan Newman (5,973 points, -324) -1
10. Kasey Kahne (5,898 points, -399) -1
11. Carl Edwards (5,857 points, -440) -1
12. Brian Vickers (5,777 points, -520) +/-0

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Nov. 15 Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500k at Phoenix International Raceway. The season’s penultimate race starts at 3:15 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by ABC beginning with its pre-race show at 2:30 p.m.

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. HAAS AUTOMATION IMPALA SS met with media and discussed racing at Texas, the crash at Talladega and being upside down in the car, meeting with NASCAR, his relationship with the U.S. Army and more.

KERRY THARP: Ryan, talk about your outlook racing at this one-and-a-half-mile oval this weekend.

RYAN NEWMAN: Every time we come back here, it seems like the racing gets better and better as the asphalt ages. I look forward to it. After last weekend, it would be nice to get back in the racecar, use some muscles I haven’t used all week, just have a good weekend of it.

I’m very thankful for the guys, the effort they put forward to make me safe in the racecar. Definitely felt that made a big difference last weaning.

To be here this week, in the big picture, think about everybody down in Fort Hood with the U.S. Army and their families that are going through some very difficult times, big picture here, we’re racing in Texas, but our thoughts and prayers go out to other places as well.

KERRY THARP: We’ll take questions for Ryan Newman.

Q: Obviously a lot of frustration and concern for you last weekend. I believe you mentioned thinking about things from an engineering standpoint. Looking at it from an engineering standpoint, could you talk about what your frustrations were last week, what you see? I’ve had a lot of people email me and say did the wing cause the car to lift as opposed to a spoiler. Talk about everything from your helmet getting wedged in the roll cage, to the car lifting up. From an engineering standpoint, are there things you see that could be done differently that would have prevented some or all of that?

RYAN NEWMAN: Always, because every crash is different and every situation is different, whether your car gets spun around by another car or it just takes air by itself.

Ultimately, yeah, there’s things that I feel can and should be done. I sat down with John Darby and Robin Pemberton Wednesday morning. We talked about two different things, the extra indication of myself from the accident scene and secondly the reason why we’re in that position in the first place, which is to me more important.

From an aerodynamic standpoint, ultimately our biggest thing is to keep the racecars on the ground. Crashes have always been a part of racing.

There are fans that like that. Sometimes that adds to extra excitement, don’t get me wrong. When we can bounce off each other, get the car fixed, go back out and try to win a race, I understand that part of it.

Keeping the racecars on the ground is how we keep the drivers and especially the fans safe. So that’s the one thing.

From an ironic standpoint, that’s why I was probably the most frustrated after the race last weekend, was I was in the media center talking about the very same thing on the last lap of the spring race. To live out what my frustrations were from six months before was difficult, as well. From an engineering standpoint, whatever we can do speed-wise and aerodynamically to keep the cars on the ground, in particular things in the back of the car, when it sees the air first for downforce, keep the lift out of the back of the cars is what we need to focus on.

There has been testing done. I learned some of that stuff on Wednesday morning talking to Mr. Darby and Mr. Pemberton, that they have tested.

But I don’t know that they have tested everything. I don’t know that you can test everything. But obviously more testing needs to be done in order to make it safer for everybody.

Speed is a part of it. The faster you go, the more likely you are to take lift. We were talking before, an airplane takes off at 160 miles an hour. We’re 40 miles an hour above that at times. There’s plenty of potential for a car to take lift, whether it’s going forwards, backwards or sideways. We have to take everything into consideration, as drivers, as teams, as a sanctioning body, to control that situation.

Q: Specifically, do you think a spoiler on the back would not have caused the lift? Are there specific things you recommended to NASCAR?

RYAN NEWMAN: That’s kind of my point from our conversation, is ‘Do you think’ is not the answer. We have to do testing so that we know. Yeah, I think there might be potential for a spoiler to react differently than a wing for sure. I don’t know that it’s the answer. As we’ve seen before, I believe it was Matt Kenseth’s Nationwide crash, his car got airborne with a spoiler on the back of it. That’s not the answer, that’s not the fix. I’ve been parts of crashes with spoilers on the back of them and a wing on the back of them unfortunately. That’s not the fix.

Can it be a part of the fix? Yeah, potentially. Is it a better alternative in conjunction with other things you can do to the car?

Maybe.

Those are the things that NASCAR and the teams have to test collectively so that we can make it safer and better for the drivers and, like I said, more importantly, the fans.

Q: Are you satisfied with the integrity of the car, considering your helmet was wedged in there like that?

RYAN NEWMAN: That was the only thing. Like I said, part of my first answer was, every crash is different. When I had 3400 pounds come down basically on my head, I never was compressed physically in the car. I say that, have to explain it a little bit. It’s just like a head-on collision. When two cars hit head on, you got the force of both. I had the force of me going up in the car while the car was coming down on me.

I was compressed. My spine was compressed. But I never was compressed to the point that it pushed my butt down into the seat. There was an instantaneous load there that hurt. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still sore from it.

But I was never wedged. Once they got the car back upright, I was able to take my helmet off, there was room there. It wasn’t like I was physically wedged.

The second part of my answer is, I was I guess a little disappointed in the fact the cage crushed the way it did. I know it was a heck of a hit, don’t get me wrong. We’ve got to be able to learn from that. Whatever we might be able to do from a welding standpoint, from a wall thickness standpoint with the tubing, to make it stronger so that doesn’t happen again is equally as important from a safety standpoint.

Q: I know you’ve really taken to heart the Army sponsorship thing, more than just an average corporate sponsorship. It’s really become personally meaningful to you. Consequently with what happened yesterday, that must have been really tough for you especially. Do you know anyone that you’ve been associated with through the sponsorship that is directly involved with what happened?

RYAN NEWMAN: I don’t. Yeah, this has been a very special learning experience for me. I’ve said before, maybe not in here, but I kind of took for granted some of the things the armed forces have done for us and are doing for us.

This has been an eye-opening experience this year with the U.S. Army, meeting different generals and colonels and soldiers, it’s been special.

What happened, unfortunately to me it’s a part of life. It’s happened before; it will happen again. Whether it’s in the U.S. Army, in a convenience store, it’s a part of life. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families.

But personnel-wise, I know people that know people that were involved, but I don’t know anybody directly that was involved either in the giving or the taking of that situation.

Q: We’re glad you’re okay. When you had the meeting with John Darby, I know he called you Sunday, you met with he and Pemberton, how did you walk out of that meeting? Did you feel better? Did they listen? Did you feel like there was a decision to do something next? How did you feel coming out of it?

RYAN NEWMAN: I learned things and I think they learned things. That was the point of it. Therefore, I think it was a good conversation. From my standpoint, they opened my eyes a little bit as to the training that the safety crews go through, the things that they do.

I want to make a point that I wasn’t dissatisfied with the way I was taken out of the car.

I just feel there were things that could be done or potentially could be done to make it easier for the next guy. That’s my responsibility, ’cause the next guy might be me again. You never know.

From their standpoint, I think we talked about the car a little bit.

They learned my perspective on a few things. It’s one of those things where you can sit there and say I think or this is the way I would like to do it.

Collectively as a group, NASCAR has to make that decision based on the opinions of the people in the garage and their own opinions. It’s a tough situation. You’re dealing with lives and safety. It’s not as easy as making a spring roll or something like that.

Q: Will they call you in again? Will you go visit them again?

RYAN NEWMAN: We called them, went to visit with them. I want to make that point known. I thought it was a good meeting. I thought it was very constructive. It was educational for me and them. That’s all you can ask from a meeting.

Q: It’s about five, six months till the series goes back to Talladega. In that period, what can be done, what can be looked at, what needs to be done for the next time?

Obviously there was a lot of talk about the no-bumping rule in the corners, whether or not that contributed to your situation. Is that something that needs to stay or can something be done? What has to happen between now and five, six months from now when the series goes back to Talladega?

RYAN NEWMAN: I think there are for sure things that could be done and should be done based on what we saw, both Mark’s accident and my accident, the spring accident with Carl. Aerodynamically there are things that need to be done to keep the cars on the ground. I said that six months ago. Six months is plenty of time to make those changes. The important thing is to make the right changes, to do the testing, the best of our capabilities with the tools that we have, meaning wind tunnels, modeling, things like that, to make the difference, make the right difference.

The drafting part of it, I wasn’t a fan of the rule. I stated in my post infield care center interview that I thought the drivers need to have a little bit more respect from NASCAR in order for us to make our own decisions, for us to be able to go out there and say, Hey, I’ll treat you the way I know you want to be treated and vice versa. I feel it used to be that way. This sport has grown so much because of those people, those drivers that made it that way, and the more restriction that you give the drivers, the less the fans are going to be delivered excitement. That’s not good.

I don’t like the bump-drafting rule. I understand why it was implemented, but I don’t think that is the fix. I think if you put the right racecars on that racetrack as we have seen in the past, you can put a good show on for the fans, albeit not the ideal racetrack and not the ideal way a driver wants to race, but a show for the fans that will be better than what we saw last Sunday.

Q: Is there an active role you can take in working with NASCAR?

RYAN NEWMAN: It’s got to be a collective situation in respect to myself.

At Stewart Haas, we have the opportunity to use wind sheer, rolling road wind tunnel, to put a car in it backwards, a full scale car, see what we can do load cell-wise on the ground to eliminate some of that lift, try to keep cars on the ground at 220 miles an hour scaled. There’s things that can and will be done collectively that should be done that I want to be a part of, yes.

Q: You said after the crash that you weren’t going to talk to NASCAR because you didn’t think it would do any good. What changed your mind to contact them?

RYAN NEWMAN: I don’t remember saying that.

Q: The transcript said something to the effect that you weren’t interested in talking to them because you didn’t think it would do any good.

RYAN NEWMAN: I don’t remember honestly. I mean, I probably wasn’t in the mood to talk at that point, if that’s what I said. But either way, I think it’s important that we talk and communicate and try to make the situation better. Obviously I was frustrated, as I said.

It was a very ironic situation, me being in the media center in April, whatever it was, living out the things I was frustrated about firsthand six months later, whatever it was.

You know, it was disappointing. I want it to be safer because I plan on being there in the spring, racing just the same, trying to win that race.

I want to be safe and safer and I want the fans to be safer.

Q: This happened to you six years ago at Watkins Glen where you got turned upside down during a practice. I think it took like 15 minutes to get you out. Is part of your frustration from that, too, that six years later, things haven’t changed so much?

RYAN NEWMAN: No, they’ve changed. It was definitely better. Like I said, I want it to be known, those guys did a good job. I’m not mad at any of ‘em. I just want it to be known that I think from my standpoint a better job can be done. If we sit there and say they did a perfect job, then we need to find a new situation because that’s not the way it works.

Just as in racing, as in safety, we can always be better, we can always make improvements. I felt there were definite improvements from Watkins Glen with a different group of people, a different situation. I think it was 11 to 12 minutes at Talladega they had me with the roof cut out, out of the racecar. That was to me way better than the situation I had at Watkins Glen.

Q: What would it mean for you to get your breakthrough win for Stewart Haas here at Texas this weekend?

RYAN NEWMAN: It would be huge. I said back here in 2003 when I won here, everything that happens in Texas is big. That was a big win for us then. It would probably be an even bigger win for us now. I think we’ve done a lot of great things this year as a team. A win right now would be huge, not just for this year but rolling into momentum for next year.

-credit: gm racing

“Get back up, dust yourself off and just keep right on riding,” Hedeman went on to say.

For NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Newman, the time to ‘cowboy Forup’ is now as he heads to this weekend’s Dickies 500 at Texas Motor ForSpeedway in t Worth.

Last weekend at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Newman recorded his first DNF (did not finish) of the 2009 season following a harrowing crash with just five laps remaining in the AMP Energy 500. It was his first DNF since the fall Talladega race in 2008. The “Big One,” so to speak, was triggered on lap 184 when the freight train of cars running the outside line, parallel to a line of cars running along the track’s bottom, hiccupped as it raced down Talladega’s backstretch.

A car barreled into the back of Newman, which led to a chain-reaction crash that caused Newman’s No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army Chevy to shoot left and into the path of Marcos Ambrose. That contact turned Newman backward, whereupon his car’s aerodynamics became reversed and lifted off the ground.

After somersaulting onto its roof, the car first landed on the nose of Kevin Harvick’s Chevrolet before hitting the pavement and skidding across the track and into the SAFER Barrier lining the outside retaining wall in turn three. The No. 39 Chevy finally came to rest in the soggy infield grass a few yards off the track’s apron, having rolled yet again.

Safety crews quickly arrived and worked to extricate Newman from the car. The process was tedious, but Newman was able to give updates to his crew via the team radio that he was okay. With his car finally righted and the roof cut off, Newman climbed from his battered machine and walked on his own to a waiting ambulance. Following a thorough evaluation in the infield care center, Newman was released.

Although still sore and reeling from the accident that took his team out of contention five laps from the checkered flag at Talladega and resulted in his first DNF of the season, Newman is ready to get back in the saddle at Texas. His goal — the team’s first win of the 2009 season.

In 12 Sprint Cup starts at the 1.5-mile oval, Newman has two poles, three top-five finishes and three top-10s. He has also claimed victory and worn the famous cowboy hat trophy on one occasion — in 2003, when he started third and led 77 laps en route to the win.

With just three races remaining, Newman and Company still have work to do. The Talladega crash was yesterday’s news. Now, the team has its eyes focused on a win and a top-10 finish in the Sprint Cup point standings. A farm boy at heart, raising two bulls of his own named Rosco and Flash and two calves on his farm in Statesville, N.C., Newman knows what it means to pull up his boot straps and keep right on riding. And this weekend at Texas, he plans to show everyone how to “cowboy up.”

RYAN NEWMAN, Driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing

Last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, you were involved in what was a pretty scary crash that had your car flip and barrel roll onto its roof, where it finally came to a stop in the infield grass. Everyone was happy to see you walk away from that accident on your own. How are you doing now?

“I was pretty sore after the crash. I actually chipped a couple of teeth, but other than that I’m okay. I’m still sore, but I feel better every day. I’ve really kind of just taken it easy this week. I’ve done all the normal things that I would do — go to the race shop for debrief, spend time on my farm and at home doing the things I do every week when I have time off.

“Unfortunately, we were the victims of a bad wreck at Talladega. On the bright side of things, everything worked the way it was supposed to and I was able to walk away from a bad crash just being sore. There are a lot of people I have to say thanks to for that. I want to thank ButlerBuilt (seats), Simpson Race Products and all the guys at the shop and Hendrick Chassis for what they do to make the cars safer. I obviously tested everything last week. I also want to thank all the NASCAR fans and the people who work in the sport for their outpouring of concern. I’ve gotten more calls, texts, emails and notes than I could have imagined. I know people have reached out to Krissie and people at Stewart-Haas Racing, and it has just really been amazing. So, I want to say thanks to everybody for that.”

You have a win, three top-five and three top-10 finishes at Texas. You finished 15th there in the spring. What are your thoughts as you head there this weekend?

“Following the race at Texas in the spring, I said that we needed to work on our mile-and-a-half program, and I feel we have definitely improved. That’s not saying we still can’t get better. I just believe we have been better from the time we have unloaded at these tracks as the season has progressed. I think we probably had a better car than 15th place here in the spring, but handling issues seemed to get the best of us. We’ve been able to improve that, and we have had some solid finishes at Charlotte and Chicago and Atlanta. We’ve also qualified better since then, so I’m looking forward to getting to Texas and putting the No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army machine out front in qualifying.

“I always look forward to racing at Texas. I love the speed at Texas. It’s a fast racetrack, and the weather should be cool, so hopefully we can haul mail. Texas is actually one of the fastest tracks that we go to all year, so you have to be on top of your game because things can happen pretty quickly. It’s a track I’ve always liked, although it doesn’t necessarily show in the finishes. It’s a smooth, fast racetrack and there are multiple grooves, so it is fun to race. The asphalt has aged the track to the point it has gotten better and better each time we come back. It’s a race we look forward to.

“This weekend, we’re going there for the first time with double-file restarts. I think that is going to be another bundle of excitement as we’ve seen at most every racetrack this year. The double-file restarts are more advantageous at bigger racetracks, especially the wider ones. I saw for the first time at Martinsville that the double-file restarts really didn’t make much difference compared to the way it used to be. At Texas, you can get three- and sometimes four-wide in the corners. So to me, the bigger the racetrack, the wider the racetrack, the more the double-file restarts have an impact. I think it definitely adds some multiple levels of excitement. I think the double-file restarts have been a great addition for NASCAR, and I think Texas will be a great place for it. I’m looking forward to it.”

You say that Texas Motor Speedway has matured and aged. How so?

“Basically it’s gotten wider and it’s gotten a bit more character. It’s a little more bumpy, which is fine. The tunnel bump here in turns one and two was getting pretty big, so I’m glad they took some of the ‘character’ out of it. I think that, in general, the track has gotten wider and racier. It’s got less grip, which is fine. I’d rather slide around a little bit and be in charge of my racecar than be stuck to the racetrack.”

TONY GIBSON, Crew Chief of No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing

The end of the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was pretty intense, to say the least, for the No. 39 team. How is Ryan doing following the wreck? As dramatic as the wrecks are, in many ways they also prove to be beneficial for the race team. What are you learning from Ryan’s wreck last weekend that might help this team in the future?

“I talked to Ryan after the wreck on Sunday and then he came to the race shop on Monday. He was okay. He chipped a couple of teeth, and he was sore, but that was to be expected. I guess the best way to say it was he was out riding his tractor on the farm on Monday morning, and he came to the shop in the afternoon for team debrief.

“For us, it was kind of ironic — the timing of the wreck and everything that happened with Ryan after the wreck. He said he couldn’t get his helmet off because of where the roll cage ended up after he slid down the track on his roof. Well, we had already been in the process of moving his seats down in the car back at the race shop. That just gets his head further down and gets his whole body lower in the car. It’s just weird that three weeks ago we started looking at how to get his weight lower in the car. At the time, we weren’t really thinking about the head, but just getting his weight lower in the car. The wreck on Sunday makes us look at other areas, too. We can see why it’s an advantage and safer to get his body lower in the car. There are two things we are doing — his neck and shoulders are all lower from the roll cage so he has more protection from a side hit, and it obviously gets his head lower from that bar on the roll cage. So, we had already had a car rigged up with the lower seat for Ryan to try out on Monday. Timing-wise, it was ironic because we had planned all along for him to come in on Monday and sit in that car to see what he thought. It was just kind of strange. We had him get in the car and try it out, and it’s something we’re going to continue working on. We spent all day Monday looking at the car from Talladega and studying it. NASCAR came over to the shop, too. We looked at the interior, and everything really looked great. It wasn’t compromised. Nothing moved at all.”

Although the No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army team is out of contention for the championship with just three races to go in the 2009 season, the team still has goals and there are still positions to be gained in the standings. Can you talk a little bit about how you address the next three weeks and what this team would like to accomplish?

“We know we are out of contention for the championship, but we still have three races and our goals are the same. We want to keep finishing high, get top-10 and top-five finishes, and make sure that we finish in the top-10 in points. We want to try to win a race. That’s been our goal this whole season. Our goal right now is just to win. We want to finish in the top-10 in points. We feel like that’s where we have run most of the year. We have been a solid top-10 car and top-10 team. We just want to make sure we stay in the top-10 and finish there. That’s pretty important to us. More important right now is to get that first win, and we have a few more shots to do that.

“We feel like our mile-and-a-half program has really improved over the course of the year. Obviously, our Charlotte program was good. We were good at Chicago, and we ran well at Kansas but we didn’t get a good finish there. We’ve definitely improved since we started this season, and I think we’ll have a good weekend ahead of us at Texas. We’re trying things chassis-wise the next few races to work on for next year. Since there is no testing, we’re trying to use as many of these races as we can to try some things and get a jump on next year. But, more than anything, we want to get that first win.”

Ryan Newman went on a pretty wild ride today at Talladega with only a handful of laps left. Thankfully he was ok even though it took quite awhile to get him extracted out of the vehicle.

Once they knew Ryan was OK, they along with Ryan decided to flip the car over to get him out. Once the car was flipped they decided that they still had to cut the roof off to get him out.

Crazy stuff.

PRESS RELEASE

Newman Escapes Serious Injury in Harrowing Accident at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. (Nov. 1, 2009) — Ryan Newman was evaluated and released from the infield medical center following a spectacular crash in the late stages of Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway. The incident relegated Newman to a 36th-place finish in the AMP Energy 500.

Newman, who was running with the lead pack of cars and challenging for the win, was involved in a multicar wreck with five laps remaining in regulation. His No. 39 U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala SS was sent airborne after getting hit from behind while traveling in excess of 190 miles per hour on the ultra-fast 2.66-mile oval.

As Newman’s flying stock car was descending to earth, the back-half smashed into the hood of Kevin Harvick’s car and then proceeded to twirl and barrel roll a number of times before coming to a stop upside down on the infield grass. Though it took a brief time before it was known that Newman was okay, it did take a while for him to be extricated.

After the NASCAR safety crew flipped the car right-side up, Newman was unable to exit the car. The roll cage blocked his exit, which forced the safety team to cut the roof. When Newman emerged from the car he walked to the waiting ambulance, which transported him to the infield medical center.

“Pretty sore — just really disappointed,” said Newman, who conducted an informal news conference outside of the infield care center. “We had this race back here in the spring and complained about cars getting airborne and now ironically I’m the guy that gets upside down.”

Newman added, “Just a by-product of Talladega racing. Unfortunately, we got hit from behind that turned me sideways then I got up in the air and just kept flipping and flopping. Unfortunately, the (roll) cage came down on top of my head and I couldn’t get out. Tough situation with the U.S. Army Chevrolet.”

When asked why it took a while to respond to his crew after the accident Newman said, “It knocked the antennae off the car. When they rolled the car back over, the antennae wire connected. I just got to thank ButlerBuilt (professional seat systems), Simpson Race Products and all the guys at the shop and Hendrick Chassis for what they do to make the cars safer. When I hit the roll cage and landed on my head I was a little worried. I was happy to be able to walk out of that in a roundabout way.”

Newman’s teammate, Tony Stewart, was also involved in the same wreck along with Elliott Sadler, Harvick, and Marcos Ambrose. Stewart finished 35th.

In the Chase point standings, Newman dropped one position to eighth. He is 402 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson with three races remaining. Stewart is fifth, 279 points behind Johnson.

The Talladega race winner was Jamie McMurray. Rounding out the top five in order were Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano, Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton.

The next Cup race is Sunday (Nov. 8) at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

Talladega, AL (October 30, 2009) — Today, The Conservation Fund joined NASCAR driver Ryan Newman, NASCAR legend Bobby Allison, the U.S. Forest Service and representatives of Alabama’s congressional delegation to announce the completion of a Racing for Wildlife project that preserves of more than 1,100 acres in the Talladega National Forest.

Racing for Wildlife unites the sports community with passionate land and water conservationists across the country. The Conservation Fund and the Ryan Newman Foundation launched the program in 2007 to begin building an American land legacy for generations of sports enthusiasts who share Newman’s love of the outdoors.

“For me, this is about giving back and finding a way to protect the land and ensure that years from now there will be some kid who can go out fishing with his grandfather just like I did 25 years ago,” said Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevrolet and member of the Stewart-Haas Racing team. “Any time that I get to spend outdoors, whether I’m fishing, camping or working outside is time that I really enjoy, and I hope that through the work our Foundation and our partners are doing, we can ensure that other outdoorsman and NASCAR fans get that same enjoyment for years to come.”

This Racing for Wildlife project, located just a short drive from Talladega Superspeedway within the Talladega National Forest, protects the eight-mile crest of Rebecca Mountain, a major ridge in the Appalachian Mountains, and allows the U.S. Forest Service to complete a portion of the Pinhoti Trail, which connects Rebecca Mountain to the popular Appalachian National Scenic Trail in Georgia. The property will be open to visitors for hiking, camping and recreation.

“The Racing for Wildlife Project is a wonderful example of communities coming together to promote the sustainability of our natural resources,” said Miera C. Nagy, USDA Forest Service supervisor for Alabama’s national forests. “The new addition will allow the Pinhoti Trail to now stretch across the Appalachian Mountains, connecting people to some of the most spectacular landscapes for exercise, adventure and solitude.”

Alabama’s congressional delegation, led by Sen. Richard Shelby, Sen. Jeff Sessions and Rep. Mike Rogers, secured key federal funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund that the U.S. Forest Service used to purchase the property. Additional funding for the purchase came from an anonymous private donor.

“Alabama’s national forests offer beautiful views and are home to diverse species of wildlife that are enjoyed year round by visitors from Alabama and across the country,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL). “I was proud to play a role in the continued protection and preservation of our wildlife and natural resources.” Sen. Shelby serves on the Senate Committee on Appropriations, which provides funds for the U.S. Forest Service.

“Alabama offers some of the most beautiful natural sites in the country, and our national forests are a big part of that heritage,” said U.S. Rep Mike Rogers (R-AL), whose district includes Talladega. “I am proud to support efforts to help preserve and protect our natural resources for generations to come.”

The project has received the support of NASCAR legend Bobby Allison, a long-time resident of Alabama and four-time winner at Talladega Superspeedway. “I’ve supported this project from the start and I’m excited to see it now completed,” said Allison. “I applaud Ryan’s commitment to the outdoors and to protecting places for the public to use and enjoy. Talladega holds a special place in my heart and I’m thrilled that he has chosen this site as one of the Racing for Wildlife projects. I can’t wait to see where the next one will be.”

“The Pinhoti Trail is the premier hiking trail in Alabama and this fulfills a decades-long dream of mine to see it extended,” said Mike Leonard, vice chairman of The Conservation Fund’s board of directors. “The key to the success of this project has been the strong partnership between The Conservation Fund, the U.S. Forest Service, the Racing for Wildlife partners and the many local supporters. Because of these partners’ tireless efforts, current and future generations will be able to use the Pinhoti Trail to hike the very southernmost mountains in the Appalachians.”

Over time, Racing for Wildlife will pursue new conservation projects that offer recreational opportunities near urban areas, so families can easily enjoy the outdoors in protected places. In selecting conservation projects, Racing for Wildlife works with local land conservation groups and public agencies to find opportunities that both fulfill state-recognized conservation priorities and invite a new generation to experience the outdoors.

To learn more about Racing for Wildlife or to make a donation, visit www.racingforwildlife.org.

About The Conservation Fund
The Conservation Fund is dedicated to advancing America’s land and water legacy. With our partners, we conserve land, train leaders and invest in conservation at home. Since 1985, we have helped protect more than 6 million acres, sustaining wild havens, working lands and vibrant communities. We’re a top-ranked conservation organization, effective and efficient. www.conservationfund.org

About the Ryan Newman Foundation
The Ryan Newman Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which was established in January 2005 by NASCAR driver Ryan Newman and his wife, Krissie. The mission of the foundation is to educate and encourage people to spay/neuter their pets and to adopt dogs and cats from animal shelters; to educate children and adults about the importance of conservation so the beauty of the great outdoors can be appreciated by future generations; and to provide college scholarship funding through the Rich Vogler Scholarship program to students interested in auto racing careers. The Ryan Newman Foundation is proud to be supported by the NASCAR Foundation.

His hope is not only to finish two positions better when the Sprint Cup circuit returns to the Alabama track for Sunday’s running of the AMP Energy 500, but also to have a less precarious ride to the checkered flag in his U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala SS.

In the April Talladega event, Newman, Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski were the three drivers vying for the win with the finish line in sight. But in the track’s traditional white-knuckle final lap, Newman’s No. 39 Chevy limped to the finish line after Carl Edwards’ frightening airborne car clipped Newman’s hood, causing major damage to the Stewart-Haas Racing machine.

“It was a wild finish and it got a little tense at the end,” recalled Newman.”We want exciting races, but we don’t want to see cars airborne either. It’s not safe and we need to collectively work to make sure what happened in the last race at Talladega doesn’t happen again. One big step taken was to reduce the restrictor plate size to slow the cars down so we’re less likely to get airborne.”

In 15 career starts at Talladega, Newman’s record includes four top fives, seven top 10s and four races he did not finish.

“We’re going into Talladega knowing that we can win,” stated Newman, who has one win at a restrictor-plate race — the 2008 Daytona 500. “The talent of the U.S. Army/Haas Automation team plus our Hendrick horsepower give us a good feeling about this weekend. We’ll keep on fighting hard to get our Army Strong Soldiers the first win of the season.”

With four races remaining in the 2009 season, Newman is looking to improve upon his seventh-place position in the Chase point standings. He gained one spot in the standings following his seventh-place finish in Sunday’s Cup race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

“We have some tracks coming up that should be good for us,” noted Newman, who has five top-five and 15 top-10 finishes this season. “Obviously we want to make a statement in the closing races which will give us a positive head of steam going into next season.”

Newman and his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Tony Stewart, are tied for completing the most laps during the 2009 season. Out of a possible 9388 laps, Newman and Stewart have completed 9374 for a 99.9 percent ranking.

“Completing the most laps is a tribute to the crews of both the No. 39 and No. 14 teams at Stewart-Haas Racing,” said Newman. “There are a number of reasons why this first-year organization has been successful and completing the most laps is one of them.”

RYAN NEWMAN

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to today’s NASCAR Cam Video Teleconference. We’re leading up to Sunday’s Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Super Speedway, Talladega, Alabama. That will be his seventh race in the 2009 chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Our guest today, he’s at the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39, U.S. Army Chevrolet.

Brian’s seventh in the series points going into Talladega. He’s had a lot of good runs there in the past. Four top 5s, seven Top 10s in 15 starts.

Ryan, we’re going to start off today, we’ve been each week on our teleconference we’ve been gathering some questions from our fans via NASCAR’s Twitter account. And we have a fan in Fort Worth Texas, Micah, she wants to know that after all the great success of Stewart?Haas Racing this year, would Ryan Newman perhaps one day want to jump into the driver/owner ranks and give it a try?

RYAN NEWMAN: That’s a good question. But, honestly, that’s not one of my goals. I think Tony’s done a great job and Gene Haas as well as far as laying ground work and everything else in the shop. Done a great job. I don’t know that you could ever try to repeat that or duplicate that. Other people have tried even before Tony.

So I don’t think that that is something that I’m interested in. I know that there are ?? it’s kind of like when things are on a grand scale, when they’re good they’re great. But when they’re bad, they’re really bad. And I don’t have any will to have those potential bad headaches.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Ryan, I’m wondering, what can NASCAR do to fix the problem at Talladega? The drivers obviously don’t like driving in packs, but that’s due to restrictor plates. But at the same time NASCAR doesn’t want the cars flying into the stands anymore. So is there anything in your view that they can do to fix that issue?

RYAN NEWMAN: I know they’ve made one big step and that’s to reduce the restrictor plate size to slow the cars down so we’re less likely to get airborne.

I know the Speedway has made improvements with respect to catch fans and things like that. But ultimately we don’t want to get to that situation.

Realistically, the drivers, as NASCAR has evolved to restrictor plate tracks, have changed the way we drive. There will be times when we single?file out and there will be times when we’re four?wide/four?deep for the whole pack at times.

So it’s just a matter of excitement and strategy and the timing of those things in conjunction with what lap we’re on and what there is to expect before the end of the race, because I didn’t expect the last race there to be two cars, two groups of two cars pushing each other and may the best two?team win. I never thought that would be a Talladega race. Realistically, you never know what to expect. But I know the restrictor plate change is a big thing.

And as I said, as NASCAR has evolved, you never know what you’re going to get with the drivers and how their styles change.

Q. If I could jump ahead a week to Texas and ask you about the double?file restarts. Seems like it’s been a wonderful thing, and it seems like in most of the races we’ve seen restarts within about 25 to 30 laps or so. So how has that kind of ramped up the intensity for you guys on the racetrack when that happens and looking ahead to next week, does that just give things a greater potential for a more exciting finish?

RYAN NEWMAN: The double?file starts are more advantageous at bigger racetracks, especially the wider ones. I saw for the first time at Martinsville this last weekend that the double?file restarts really didn’t make much difference. You could put cars that were more of equal competition levels side by side. We ran side by side, at least what seemed to be side by side for longer.

When you have that on a one?lane racetrack, it’s hard to get three?wide. But you get to Texas and you can get three and sometimes four?wide in the corners.

So I look forward to it. I think it’s been a great addition to the excitement of racing that NASCAR’s involved with the double?file restarts. And Texas will be a great place for it.

Q. Along the same lines, I was looking ahead to actually Phoenix. It seems to be actually a favorite of a lot of drivers: Flat mile track. Just your thoughts on the second trip out to Phoenix and maybe how it’s different from the first trip.

RYAN NEWMAN: Well, again, just like Martinsville will have the first for double?file restarts at that racetrack. So it will be interesting to see how that plays out. And Phoenix is a little different from Martinsville in the fact that you have a little bit more room to get three?wide at times.

I look forward to it. It’s a driver’s racetrack. We’ve always said that because it’s unique. It’s different from one end to the other. And, therefore, the crew chief can only get one end perfect, it seems, and the other one the driver has to adapt to.

I look forward to going there. It’s one of my favorite racetracks. I know Tony does the same. Those restarts will be interesting there as well.

Q. Ryan, Mark Martin recently described preparation, compared Earnhardt, Sr. and Jimmie Johnson. He said Jimmie is technical and he writes things down. Earnhardt didn’t take notes, just piled into the thing and drove it like an animal, that’s his quote. You’re probably the most analytical of drivers, with your degree and everything, how would you describe your approach and how do you think you fit in between a studious Jimmie and jump in there, pile in their car, Dale Earnhardt, Sr.?

RYAN NEWMAN: It’s like any other sport. Every driver has their little way of doing things, whether it’s Senior’s style or Jimmie Johnson style or Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart style or Labonte style, everybody’s different. And you have to do what fits you to be the best you can be, to be the most successful in your own mind, to put it down on paper the way it’s going to be or how you are trying to project what it is you want to do. And some guys are off the cuff and some guys have to lay it out. And everybody’s different, is my point.

So to me I wouldn’t compare myself to either. I kind of do my own thing. I have an engineering degree as a background, but I wouldn’t say that distinctively drives what I do inside the race car or out of it.

Q. Ryan, I see at Charlotte you were asked about your expectations for this season. And I think you said you weren’t really sure how it was going to turn out. It’s turned out obviously pretty well. I’m curious what your expectations are for next season.

RYAN NEWMAN: Well, the one thing that I would say for sure is I feel like we should be able to expand upon this season, 2009, and take the relationships that we’ve built and start building better and faster race cars and things like that, because of the things that we’ve learned together as a team and what Tony Gibson and I have learned, what he’s learned about the way I like to drive a car and the way I learned from things from him and how he likes to adjust on the race car.

So just being able to sharpen our pencil, per se, and shine things up a little bit, put a little polish on them and just be better than we are in all respects, from the pit crew side, from the team side, mechanically and performance?wise, what we can do to be better, we should be able to capitalize on that, what we experienced in 2009 to 2010.

Q. Ryan, I have a question about the Car of Tomorrow. I’m not suggesting like a total overhaul, but are there some changes you think that could be made possibly over the offseason that would make it a better race car at some of the tracks where it hasn’t been so great?

RYAN NEWMAN: Well, I think that there’s different ways of looking at that. From a mechanical standpoint, there are things we could do to make the car ride different or be able to adjust to it differently.

I haven’t been a big fan of the bump stops, but they are a way we tune the race car and they are a way we can create advantages. So they are one thing that’s as it’s a disadvantage, it’s an advantage to be able to have over other teams in what you’re doing to make the car ride better. Ideally, we’d not like to have bump starts, we’d have four shocks, go off and make it more simple. When you make it more complex, makes the more understanding teams be more successful.

So the second part of it are the aerodynamics of the car: I don’t know if they’re ideal. I’m not a huge fan of the wing. I think that we’d get more side drafting, have a little bit better side?by?side racing if we had a spoiler on the back of it. I think you’ll see a lot of the things we’d ideally have liked to have seen in the Car of Tomorrow for the Cup Series and the Car of Tomorrow for the Nationwide Series in the future based on things that both NASCAR and the teams have learned.

Q. Ryan, if NASCAR asked you if you had any changes inside your mind for the chase, is there something on your mind that you would say: Yeah, let’s change this about the chase?

RYAN NEWMAN: I don’t know. I mean, I want it to be as realistic racing and not a fabricated point system or fabricated championship trail in other people’s eyes. There’s a lot of historical significance in the way we race and the way that we award points. And that’s been a successful pattern for the last 50 plus years.

So ideally, to answer your question, there’s nothing that stands out in my mind. I’ve always said I’d like to have points awarded for qualifying but that’s separate from the chase. And I still feel that we spend an entire day getting our starting positions. And if you have the opportunity to go 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for the top 5 qualifiers, I think that would be good. And I think that would, secondly, change the points before you ever start the race, which is a big hype as well, especially in the chase format.

Q. Also, Ryan, this Thursday at Michigan International Speedway, they have asked people to bring their dogs to the track dressed in Halloween costumes and the winner’s going to receive a book signed by you; did I hear about that correctly?

RYAN NEWMAN: Yes. Actually, I’m involved in voting for the winner. It’s cool what Robert Curtis and everybody has done up at Michigan International Speedway. They’re very much into the outdoors and going green and things along those lines. And incorporating animals with the fans and with NASCAR racing is something that we’re a definitely big fan of, with our foundation, and obviously involved in NASCAR.

So I think that that’s pretty cool, and I’m proud to be a part of it. And the second part of that is we’ve got a new book that is coming out in February. Hopefully we can do it again next year, with a brand new book to offer to the fans.

Q. Last month in Atlanta you did pretty good with a Top 10 finish. And it was the first night race at Atlanta. I wanted your overall impression how you thought about the night racing in Atlanta?

RYAN NEWMAN: I liked it. I’ve always liked night racing, whether it was in open wheel racing or NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. I think it’s more exciting for the drivers. It’s more exciting for the fans. And it’s cooler, which makes it more tolerable for us, for sure.

But just the way the light reflects off the cars, I think all the racetracks have done a great job with the lighting to make it realistic and safe for driving and it’s a lot of fun. I think night races are typically better.

I’m not saying I want them all to be night races but there’s a reason why a lot of races have switched into night races.

Q. Following up on that, do you think that we should have more night racing in NASCAR than is currently in the schedule?

RYAN NEWMAN: I think there’s a good balance. Places like Indianapolis, I think, are always going to be day races. I don’t think that they’ll realistically put lights up around Indianapolis Motor Speedway; that’s just my opinion. But I think there’s a fine balance to have. And I’d say 60/40 night races/day races would be just about right if I had to do the math.

Q. Ryan, Goodyear recently tested a wider tire. I wanted to see if you heard anything about it good, bad, indifferent, and how do you think it will possibly change the racing?

RYAN NEWMAN: I’m not sure. I know that they have plans of that. I know a lot of other series have wider tires as well as taller tires, not just in overall circumference but in wheel diameter.

So there’s some things they’re looking into. But I don’t think that that’s something that’s necessary for the sport. I don’t think we should, per se, reinvent the wheel when we have things that we could shine up right now in respect to certain racetracks and put on great shows for the fans. Ultimately, it’s the show for the fans that we’re working on. And I don’t think a different wheel/tire combination is the ideal way to solve that situation.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Ryan.

Starting from the pole, Newman ran in the top five and top 10 for virtually the entire 500-lap race at the .526-mile oval. It appeared that he was going to come home with a top-five or better result, but an unfortunate exchange on a late green-flag pit stop plus a late caution curtailed his finish.

“We lost track position there at the end twice,” noted Newman. “On that long green flag run, we came in fifth and came out like 15th. We just lost on that exchange and the caution at the end didn’t help our cause. The guys did a great job with the US Army/Haas Automation Chevrolet to finish seventh.

“We kept our nose clean the entire day and ran up there with those guys who are running for the championship. The pit crew did a good job and Tony Gibson (crew chief) called a good race. No complaints — just have to go on from here.”

In the Chase standings Newman gained one spot and is now seventh with four races remaining. He is 312 points behind the leader Jimmie Johnson.

“We’re just going to go out there and race and not worry about points,” stated Newman. “We want to continue to run strong in the last four races and hopefully get our first win of the season. We’re going to fight hard and carry the Soldiers’ motto of never quitting and battling to the finish.”

The seventh place result in Sunday’s TUMS Fast Relief 500 was Newman’s sixth top-10 finish in the six short tracks races contested this season. He achieved a 6.66 finishing average in those six short track events – two at Bristol, two at Richmond and two at Martinsville.

“The short tracks are a strong part of our program,” said Newman. “We’re a first-year team and want to keep on building a strong baseline for the future.”

Newman’s teammate, Tony Stewart, finished ninth. He remains fourth in the Chase standings, 192 points behind Johnson.

The race winner was Denny Hamlin. Rounding out the top-five in order were: Johnson, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon.

The next race for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is Sunday (Nov. 1) at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

“It’s the place to be, no doubt and it’s the place to finish, obviously that’s what we want. Tony Gibson (crew chief) and the guys did a great job with this race car. It hasn’t actually been run since our first race here in the spring. It’s nice to get it back out and they’ve shined it up a little bit and bottom line is it was a really good lap. It kind of helped to go out a little bit later to see Mark (Martin) and Jeff (Gordon) — see what the track had in it and watch them to see where there might be some gains to be made. Just kind of ran my lap and it’s equally as important here to charge the corner as to not overcharge the corner. I just got everything I could.”

WHAT ARE YOU ABLE TO SEE OR LEARN FROM WATCHING OTHER DRIVERS?

“You can use that lap tracker and see where guys are coming off the corner compared to rolling the center and see if there’s any time to be had from rolling the center. Who got off the corner really good. If Jeff (Gordon) got off turn four better than two or things like that. The track is pretty symmetrical so if he didn’t or if he didn’t get off of two as good as he got off of four then there might be some speed in two to run that 56 instead of the 61. Just to watch it and listen to see if anybody is complaining. We had a good practice session — I ran the 71, I think is what I ran in practice when I was behind the 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) car. It was kind of a misread as to how good our car was in practice compared to what we were capable of in qualifying. It’s just being observant and paying attention to the things that might make a difference is the biggest thing.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW YOUR SEASON HAS IMPROVED SINCE THE SPRING RACE AT MARTINSVILLE AND HAVE YOU BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO COMING BACK?

“I definitely look forward to coming back to Martinsville. I’ve always said that for me and for whatever reason at short tracks the driver has a little more of an impact on the end result then some of the bigger race tracks and I like that. I like that part of it and I think that Clay (Campbell, track owner) and everybody has done a great job with this speedway to accommodate everybody and make it a nicer race track. Each time you come back it seems to be a little nicer. That was a big step for us in the spring to get that top-10 finish. We’ve had some ups and downs since then, but whether it’s your first year together as a team or your first year as a driver or just the first part of the year, it’s nice to come back to these race tracks a second time and apply the things that you’ve learned, where you made your gains and do your homework. You’re homework is based off the past problem solving that you’ve had.”

DID YOU FEEL LIKE THE SPRING RACE AT MARTINSVILLE WAS A TURNING POINT FOR STEWART-HAAS RACING?

“That was a statement that I made to Bobby Hutchens in the truck less than an hour ago, when qualifying had already started. This was the place that to me was a turning point for our organization, getting the two cars good finishing positions and showing what we were capable of to everybody. Whether it was Martinsville or Charlotte or any place else, it doesn’t really matter. It awards just as many points here as it does at any other race track. There was no real us trying to make a statement, it was just that we made a statement.”

WHO WERE NON-TEAMMATE DRIVERS THAT HELPED YOU OUT EARLY IN YOUR CAREER?

“Buddy Baker was pretty much the guy. He was on the team as a mentor but at the same time he was a guys who had been there and done that and I could go to him and not have to worry about him being biased. It wasn’t like I was racing against him the next day or that next practice session. He taught me more so sometimes the things not to do than the things to do. To me, that made a big difference and a big impact. If I could not make some of those same mistakes that he did that cost him a shot at a victory and to make an addition to his resume, those were things that were going to help my resume. He was really big in that. I never really had a Mark Martin to go to; Rusty’s (Wallace) and my situation goes without saying. I guess one of the first people that I went to was Dale Jarrett at Daytona and I think we ran the qualifier and I went to him after the race and he told me good job, and we just talked a little bit. But it wasn’t like I went to Dale Jarrett or went to his bus. That was just more because of my personality and people’s personality of me; probably a combination of the two. Honestly, at the same time, not to sound overly confident, but we didn’t really need a whole lot of advice. We came out of the box really strong as a team with the No. 02 car and then the No. 12 car.

ARE YOU MORE STANDOFFISH?

“No, racing is a funny sport in respect to that. I guess it’s probably like golf or some other sport where you don’t tell your secrets unless somebody asks and then what you want to tell them is up to you. Buddy Baker always said it’s your story; tell it how you want to. You can lead them down the right path or you can lead them down the wrong path. I’ve never done that. I’ve always been honest with somebody when they ask me a question, but I’m not the first one to go offer advice either.”

THIS IS THE FIRST QUALIFYING SESSION WHERE THERE ARE ONLY THREE CHASERS IN THE TOP 12 ON THE STARTING GRID. JIMMIE JOHNSON IS STARTING 15TH. DOES THIS GIVE YOU ANY HOPE THAT THIS RACE MIGHT SHAKE UP THE STANDINGS A LITTLE BIT?

“I think there is potential of that. Short track racing has that potential. I think without a doubt that Jimmie and Tony (Stewart) will be right back up there, which is what they always do in very little time. I think it’s a little different situation today. You look at the No. 48 (Johnson) and I know he spent a lot of time in race trim and very little time in qualifying trim. So those factors weigh into it because of the small rain delay and abbreviated practice session that we had. Tony didn’t even do a qualifying run in practice.”

HAVING NOT WON THIS SEASON, WOULD A WIN ON SUNDAY BE ANY MORE SPECIAL TO YOU THAN IF YOU’D WON TWO OR THREE WEEKS AGO?

“No, I kinda know what you’re getting at. If we win the championship and don’t win a race then it doesn’t make any difference to me. I know that winning is a big part of our sport and I want to win just as badly, if not worse, than anybody else. But here, versus any other race track? No, it doesn’t make any difference. We’ve been trying so hard each and every week; sometimes too hard. This is a great place for it. I know (crew chief) Tony Gibson is a great fan of Martinsville and short track racing and he’s got a great understanding of the race car here and that makes a big difference obviously for me; and to come off the truck as good as we did and work as well as we do together.

SOME PEOPLE WOULD CONSIDER BEING 8TH IN POINTS TO BE PHENOMENAL. OBVIOUSLY YOU WANT MORE. WHAT HAVE YOU AND TONY GIBSON LOOKED AT THAT YOU CAN IMPROVE ON FOR 2010?

“I really can’t answer the whole question because I personally haven’t thought about what we need to do for 2010. I know some things that we’re looking at and what we can do to be a better team and what we can do to pick up our speed on pit road and what we can do with our race cars to make them faster with less drag and those types of things. They’re already in the process of building Daytona cars. That’s part of it. A lot of teams are. But we’re still trying to get that first win and focusing on this year. They guys back in the shop are doing their things as well. I know one thing, we’re still with our noses to the grindstone and working as hard as we can.”

-credit: gm racing

That run followed the first practice run where Newman was 6th fastest.

Could this be the weekend for Newman and his team.

Starting next to Newman will be Jeff Gordon in 2nd. The #5 of Mark Martin qualified 4th and points leader #48 Jimmie Johnson qualified 13th.

“We’re still looking for that elusive team win,” said Newman. “We’ve done a very good job as a team and as an organization, but we haven’t won and there is a huge desire to win that first race. Hopefully we can accomplish that goal sooner rather than later.”

Judging by the team’s short track success, Newman could very well drive the No. 39 U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevy Impala SS to Victory Lane following Sunday’s TUMS Fast Relief 500 at the historic half-mile Martinsville Speedway.

Newman’s finishing average in the five short track races contested this seasonm is 6.6, including a sixth-place result at the Martinsville spring race. His other short track finishes were seventh and sixth at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and fourth and 10th at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.

“No question, the short track program has been one of our strong suits,” noted Newman, who has 13 career Cup wins. “I look forward to going back to Martinsville, especially with the Hendrick support. And as we do each week, we’re going to do everything we can to win for our Army Strong Soldiers.”

Martinsville wasn’t always a pleasant experience for Newman, who has garnered five top fives, seven top 10s and two poles in 15 career starts at the southern Virginia track. His best finish was second at the 2007 fall race.

“Once I figured out what to do with the brakes at Martinsville, I enjoyed racing there,” noted Newman. “Martinsville is a fun race track as long as you stay out of trouble and keep those brakes cool. You go to a place like Michigan or California and it takes less driver and more car than it does at a short track in my opinion. That is one of the things I enjoy about Martinsville.”

With five races remaining, Newman is eighth in the Chase driver standings. He gained two spots following his 11th-place finish in Saturday night’s Cup race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte.

“I’m not sitting at home calculating how many points we need — it’s all about performance,” said Newman. “If you have strong performances then the results and points will come. We have five races to go and a lot of things can still happen. I know it’s a cliche, but it’s one race at a time. And right now our focus is to get our U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevy dialed in for Sunday’s race at Martinsville.”

-credit: shr

It was Newman’s 20th top-15 finish this season and his eighth top-15 result in 18 career Sprint Cup starts at Charlotte.

“We had a good car,” said Newman following the 334-lap race. “The Transformers Chevrolet was doing pretty well, but we really struggled in the pits tonight. It’s just disappointing. I thought we should’ve finished better than that. We had a better car than that.”

After securing the sixth-place starting spot in qualifying on Thursday night, Newman and the team felt confident they could transform their best qualifying effort in recent weeks into a solid finish in the 500-mile race.

Early in the race, Newman told his crew that his car was loose getting into the corners and tight through the center and coming off the turns. Under caution at lap 35, the Transformers pit crew opted to change just right-side tires while adding fuel and making a track bar adjustment. The team wanted to see how the car would react to two fresh tires, which could potentially come into play later in the race. Newman returned to the track in fifth-place for the restart on lap 43.

He initially slid back a few spots with just two fresh tires, but by lap 65 he had stabilized in the 10th-spot. Newman reported that he still had the same problem and that he needed help with his entry into the corners as well as the center of the turns. The team had their next opportunity to help Newman with his car’s handling condition when they pitted under the green flag at lap 91 for four fresh tires, fuel and wedge and air pressure adjustments. However, a problem with a lugnut on the left-front tire led to an extra long stop in the pits. By the time the green flag pit stops cycled around, Newman had fallen from 10th to 19th-place.

Newman tried to gain the lost spots on the track, but his tight-handling racecar impeded his progress. When the caution flag waved at lap 119, the No. 39 team opted to pit for just right-side tires, fuel and a wedge adjustment in hopes of regaining the valuable track position that they had lost earlier in the pits. The pit call worked, as Newman restarted the race in the third spot.

During the next 100 laps, Newman who was running consistently in the top-10, complained that the car was getting tight. At each opportunity, the team worked to loosen the car up with wedge, air-pressure and track-bar adjustments.

By lap 225, Newman reported his car’s tightness had subsided, but now the No. 39 Chevy was on the other end of the handling spectrum — it was now too loose off the corners. Newman couldn’t push his car the way he wanted, thus keeping him from making up ground on those in front of him. Still in the top-10, Newman pitted under green at lap 245 for a track bar adjustment, four tires and fuel.

Unfortunately, a second slow pit stop put Newman in 17th-place when the pit stops cycled through.

Again, Newman worked to regain the lost ground on the racetrack, but the car was still too loose for his liking. Although the team pitted twice more, Newman continued to hustle a loose-handling racecar until the checkered flag fell. In the end, he was to gain a few spots and finish 11th.

Newman’s Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) teammate and owner, Tony Stewart, came home 13th to score his 24th top-15 finish of 2009.

Jimmie Johnson beat Matt Kenseth by 2.303 seconds to win the NASCAR Banking 500 and score his 46th career Sprint Cup victory, his series-leading sixth of the season and his sixth at Charlotte. The three-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion is now tied with two-time Sprint Cup titlist Buck Baker for 13th on the all-time win list for NASCAR’s top division.

Kasey Kahne finished third, while Jeff Gordon and rookie Joey Logano rounded out the top-five. Clint Bowyer, Casey Mears, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., and Kurt Busch comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 10 caution periods for 42 laps with four drivers failing to finish the race.

Both SHR drivers are represented in this year’s Chase for the Championship. Stewart remained fourth in the standings, but is now 155 points behind Chase leader Johnson. Newman climbed two spots to eighth and is 288 markers out of first.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Oct. 25 Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

Ryan Newman drives through turn four during practice at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Friday, Oct. 16, 2009, for Saturday's NASCAR Banking 500 auto race.

At Lowe’s Motor Speedway he also has 6 top 10 finishes and an average starting position of 6.53 (not counting this weekend).

Wonder if there is a 6th place (or better) finish in store for him this weekend? He has never finished 6th at Lowe’s in any series.

You can see Newman’s practice times at his drivers page below.

Ryan Newman’s Drivers Page

Ryan Newman’s Driver Page At Lowe’s

TALK ABOUT BEING HERE AT LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY: “I look forward to it. Based off of our performance here in the spring and the more experience we have had together as a team and as an organization, I think we can hopefully try to deliver. Haven’t had the greatest Chase. We have had some decent runs but between Jimmie (Johnson) and Mark (Martin) and a couple of other guys, they are kind of putting us to shame. I guess we haven’t shined like we wanted to shine to this point, but it hasn’t been for a lack of effort to try to try to luster.”

HAS THIS SEASON BEEN WHAT YOU WANTED IT TO BE AND HOW HUNGRY ARE YOU TO GET BACK TO VICTORY LANE? “I really didn’t have, per se, expectations. I had a lot of desire and I know we had the potential and the abilities, both personally and professionally with the team. I didn’t expect to finish first; I didn’t expect to finish in the top-10. I didn’t expect to finish 15th. I didn’t have expectations in respect to that. I just knew that if I put my best effort forward and worked to get the best I could with the team and the organization, then where we finish would necessarily be a surprise, but it all depends on what we are deserving of. I feel I feel that we have done a very good job as a team and as an organization to get to where we are. We haven’t achieved all of our goals. We haven’t won that race. So yes, there is a huge desire to win that first race. I’m as hungry as an Ethiopian; they still aren’t getting fed are they? (LAUGHTER ALL AROUND AT METAPHOR) The bottom line is, there is a ton of desire there and this is a great place for it. We finished second here in the spring with a little strategy. We were in position to win the All-Star Race and won the pole. As we always say, it would be a great place to get back in victory lane.”

WHAT IS IT YOU LIKE ABOUT MARTINSVILLE? “I don’t know? (LAUGHS) I like the short track racing. The more a driver has input, especially with some of the race tracks we go to, you don’t have to brake a lot, the more the driver has input, the more the driver has an effect. The short track racing I definitely enjoy because of that. You go to a place like Michigan or California, it takes less driver and more car than it does at a short track in my opinion. That is one of the things that I enjoy about Martinsville. We had a good run there in the spring. We struggled for the first two-thirds of the race and finally got the car better and got up in the top-10. I look forward to going back especially obviously with the Hendrick support and how well they have done there in the past four or five years. It is a fun race track as long as you stay out of trouble and keep your brakes cool.”

YOUR CAR WAS SO FAST OFF THE CORNERS IN THE ALL-STAR, WAS THAT SOME R & D STUFF OR WILL WE SEE THAT THIS WEEKEND AS WELL? “We had a great engine package. That was one thing. It was designed for that All-Star Race. I think a lot of guys did. I think we got our car back right, we know we had a component failure early in the race. Got it fixed, almost got two laps down. With a little bit of Jimmie’s help, got the lucky dog and got back on the lead lap all in one shot there. We were almost two laps down and got back on the lead lap and that kind of saved our day. Fought our way back up. We had a fast race car and yes, you are right, it was kind of biased coming off the corner. We had some awesome runs down the straightaways. It was a combination of car and engine. We just got in the wrong place at the wrong time or wrong place at the right time I guess you could say coming off turn four and got in the fence with the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) and the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon).

WHAT WILL CHANGE FOR YOU GUYS IF IT IS AS COOL SATURDAY NIGHT HERE AS IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE, WHAT WILL THAT FORCE YOUR TEAM TO DO OR CHANGES TO MAKE? “I don’t think a whole lot. It isn’t going to be cold enough, I think this is a track and the tire combination….the track has aged enough that the tires are getting back to being soft enough that you don’t have to worry about cold tires. At some race tracks, you do have to worry about that, per se more the flatter race tracks. Places like Loudon and Richmond. I think, not a whole lot. It is just going to be cooler in the race car. The cars are going to be faster. It is going to be closer to wide open, a lot faster lap times than we typically see here in the daytime. I think it will be great racing providing Mother Nature lets us start on time.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE HALL OF FAME SELECTIONS? “I thought it was pretty good. I didn’t see the whole list of nominees but I thought everybody that was elected was deserving of being elected. I think it is great what NASCAR is doing with the Hall of Fame to preserve and give honor to the people who have helped define the sport. It is a pretty cool deal.”

ON HALLOWEEN AT TALLADEGA, ARE YOU GOING TO BE IN COSTUME AND TRICK OR TREAT IN THE COACH LOT? “I think anyone who Trick or Treats is going to Trick or Treat in the infield, not the coach lot. (LAUGHS) I guess I will have to go as myself. I don’t do that stuff. Seriously. Look at me I eat enough candy.”

HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT LAST YEAR TO STAY FOCUSED ON THE JOB YOU ARE FINISHING UP AND NOT THINK FORWARD? “We were still trying to win races, but we weren’t in the Chase. It was a little difficult in respect to that. I didn’t change any of my desire but I think within the Penske organization, they changed some of their desire. I didn’t get some of the new engine stuff. I didn’t get the new chassis stuff. I was the Black Sheep from Michigan on, which was understandable. I not holding any grudges against it. I was looking forward to getting the year over obviously because we didn’t achieve the goals we wanted to achieve. The only thing left to win was poles and races and we were struggling at doing that obviously. It was good season to end. Probably the happiest I’ve been at the end of the season and rightfully so. The most excited I have been to start a season this year in quite a while.

“I still did my team meetings. I was still welcome at the shop. It was a little different for me than it is now for him (Pat Tryson). I don’t know if that was more his decision or the team’s decision. I’m not in that loop and I don’t want to be. I felt like I was treated with a lot of respect last year, it was a different situation.”

WHAT IS YOUR ANALYSIS OF WHAT WE SHOULD BE DOING WITH THE CARS AT TALLADEGA AND DAYTONA AS A DRIVER AND AN ENGINEER? DID YOU GET IN ANY TROUBLE FOR BEING OUTSPOKEN? “I didn’t get in any trouble. I would tell you if I did because I don’t mind being in trouble once and a while as long as it is for the right reason and that is talking about safety. The one thing that they, meaning NASCAR has done, has reduce the size of the restrictor plate which is important because the speed, not necessarily closing or drafting or anything like that, but just pure speed, the fast we go, the more likely we are to get airborne. You take horsepower away, you are taking speed away and therefore, I think it is going to be safer from that respect. I know the track has done things on their part with the fencing and the cables and the addition cables and additional fencing which is important for the fans. My ultimate answer still is whatever we can do to help keep the race cars on the ground aerodynamically. I don’t know what has been done, I have my own ideas. My question is has the car been in the wind tunnel backwards to see how much lift it creates? Have we, as in teams or NASCAR, collectively done those things? When Carl’s (Edwards) car was airborne, it airborne all by itself. He got turned around, but he was backing up the race track and it got airborne. I know that because when I hit him, he hit me right in the windshield with his left rear tire. His left rear tire was 36 inches off the ground. That started the big mess. But the small mess that started the big mess was his car getting off the ground. Whatever we can do as teams, collectively with NASCAR, to try and keep the cars on the ground is the ultimate, in my opinion, safety situation in respect to the type of accident we saw there. I mean obviously there are huge impacts. There are grass issues and there are other things that we have to worry about when we have crashes but cars getting airborne are some of the worst we’ve ever seen.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS MISSING FROM THE NO. 39 TEAM RUNNING AS GOOD AS THE NO. 14 TEAM? “I think part of us is just us communication wise and team wise being perfect because that is what it takes. We’re competing against Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus and Jeff Gordon and Steve Letarte who have been together for so long. And obviously Darian (Grubb) and Tony (Stewart) are new together but I think their group gelled a little quicker than our group and that happens in racing. I think that we’ve struggled a little big making the car better from the start of the race to the end of the race. Our practice sessions typically go very well. Our average speeds are pretty much in the top-10 every week. If we start the race as a fifth place car, we’ll end the race as a seventh to 10th place car. I think that we need to be better collectively at that. I don’t know what the ultimate answer is in respect to that. Just looking at the trends and where we have been strong and where we have been weak, we’re stronger at the start and weaker at the end. That’s a big part of it in my opinion.”

-credit: gm racing

Ryan Newman plans to be the one still standing at the end of Saturday night’s clash under the lights in the NASCAR Banking 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C.

Taking the top spot this weekend at Charlotte would not only be a huge boost for Newman and his No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing team after two difficult weekends left them on shaky ground in the Chase for the Championship, it would also be a triumph for the good guys.

At Charlotte, Newman’s No. 39 Chevrolet will feature a special paint scheme to celebrate the upcoming debut Oct. 20 of TRANSFORMERS: Revenge of the Fallen on DVD and Blu-ray. And he won’t be the only Transformer on the racetrack. While Newman’s No. 39 will feature images of OPTIMUS PRIME, the heroic leader of the peace-loving AUTOBOTS, Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 car will sport graphics of MEGATRON, the malevolent leader of the DECEPTICONS.

For race fans and movie fans alike, the two racecars will duke it out in a classic battle of good vs. evil, as Newman and his team of amiable AUTOBOTS try to take the victory and save the world from Gordon and the wicked DECEPTICONS. But for Newman and the No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing team, the battle on the racetrack will be more than just about good vs. evil. This weekend at Charlotte will be about survival and staying alive in the Chase.

With just six races remaining before the champion is crowned following the season finale Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Newman has slipped to 10th in the point standings, 223 markers behind leader Jimmie Johnson. To regain some of that lost ground, Newman and his No. 39 team need to be flawless over the next six races, starting with this weekend’s race at Charlotte.

And based on Newman’s run at Charlotte in the spring, there’s no other place where he and his team would rather begin reclaiming those lost points. Newman scored both his best qualifying effort (the pole position) and his best finish (a second-place finish in the rain-shortened race) of the 2009 season during the Coca-Cola 600 weekend.

In 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Charlotte, Newman has eight poles, four top-five and six top-10 finishes. Although Newman doesn’t have a win at Charlotte in point-paying races (he won the 2002 All-Star Race), he has come close. In 2007, Newman was well on his way to victory, besting the field by well over a second. However, with just a handful of laps remaining, Newman cut a tire, slammed the wall and ended his day, handing the victory to Gordon.

For Newman, it was one race that got away. Newman knows he has his work cut out for him, but he still believes his No. 39 team has a shot at securing its ultimate goal. Like his car’s persona this weekend at Charlotte — OPTIMUS PRIME — Newman believes his team is “more than meets the eye.”

RYAN NEWMAN, Driver of the No. 39 TRANSFORMERS: Revenge of the Fallen Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing

Is it a relief for the teams to go to Charlotte right in the middle of the Chase?

“Really, it’s just nice to be home for that weekend. I really enjoy it. I like Charlotte. It’s one of my favorite racetracks. So having it in the backyard is really nice. I wouldn’t say it’s a time where we regroup. I think there is more regrouping in the week between Kansas and California because the cars are already on their way out to Fontana, so there are a lot fewer things you can do on those cars and you focus on the next race. So regrouping, not necessarily; but just to be home and enjoying some more time with the family is probably a good thing for everybody.”

You have eight pole positions at Charlotte in 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at the track, including the pole that you won there in May, which was also Stewart-Haas Racing’s first pole position. What is it about Lowe’s Motor Speedway that makes qualifying so good for you?

“I really enjoy the racetrack — the speed, obviously, and the banking. I’ve always said I really enjoy banked racetracks and this is one of the best and fastest banked racetracks out there. I’ve had fast racecars with Penske Racing and now with Stewart-Haas Racing and just have been blessed with fast racecars. I couldn’t do it without fast racecars. I’ve always told my crew chief, whoever it is at the time, ‘If you give me a straight arrow, I’ll shoot it straight. But don’t expect me to shoot a crooked arrow to the pole.’ And they’ve done a very good job for me.

“Winning the first pole for Stewart-Haas at Charlotte was something that was very special for me. Tony had gotten the team’s first win the weekend before in the All-Star race, so we were looking pretty dominant at Charlotte after those two feats, I guess you could say. I think we’ve had a shot at several other poles this year and we just haven’t been able to do it, whether it be driver error or track changes or changes we made to the car. So, I’m looking forward to getting back to Charlotte and going for another pole. Tony Gibson and the guys are working hard, bringing good racecars to the racetracks. We’ve really struggled with qualifying the last couple of weeks, so I’m looking forward to getting back to Charlotte and me just being able to hit my marks and get us a good starting spot.”

You have eight poles at Charlotte, but you haven’t been able to turn those poles into wins. Back in May, you won the pole and finished second in the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600. What would a win at Charlotte mean to you?

“I’ve heard that a lot from the media. In fact, I think, back in May, that was one of the questions people asked me: ‘Why do you qualify well here, but not have success in the race?’ And I don’t know that there’s an answer to that. I won the All-Star race in 2002, and I’ve been fairly close to winning at Charlotte in a points race before. I’ve had some fast racecars at Charlotte, and at the end of the race, I have just fallen short. For me, my All-Star race win at Charlotte during my rookie season in 2002 was really special because that was the race we weren’t expected to win. I was a rookie. We weren’t even in the race to begin with, but we raced our way in that night. And we beat everybody at the home field on a given night and we did it because of the pride and the money, not because of the points, and there’s a lot to be said about that. So to me, a win at Charlotte would mean the world. It’s been over a year without a win, and for me to give Tony his first win as a Sprint Cup owner would be special. It really would be cool.

“We ran really well at Charlotte in May. We were in position to win the All-Star race. We won the pole for the 600, and we led some laps in the 600. I think we have a really good car. Our program for there, I don’t think it’s any different the second race than it was the first race, so I think our Chevy will be solid there.”

You are currently 10th in points, and although you are not out of the Championship Chase, you and the No. 39 team have a hurdle to overcome being 223 points behind the leader right now. What do you need to do to get back in the hunt for the Chase for the Sprint Cup?

“We’re still six races out and, in my opinion, that’s a lot of time. You throw in the wild cards like Talladega and Martinsville, and there’s still a lot that can happen. Honestly, at these tracks and in these races, you just never know what is going to happen. We had a rough Kansas City where we finished 22nd, and I really think we were better than 15th most of the race last weekend at California, but we ended up getting shuffled back on that last restart. We just have to go back and do our things we were successful at when we were running in the top-five every week, which was back in the spring when we got our second-place finish at Charlotte.

“I feel like we haven’t capitalized on different situations when we could have, and that’s one of the biggest things for us right now. With six races to go, we have to capitalize on every opportunity we have. This is obviously a very tight Chase and every position on the track will make the difference between first and second place in the points.”

You and Jeff Gordon both have special paint schemes this weekend helping to promote the DVD release of TRANSFORMERS: Revenge of the Fallen. One of the cars represents good and one of the cars represents evil. Can you talk a little bit about your special paint scheme and what it means to you?

“We’re the good guys, and to me, that’s a bonus because the good guy is always supposed to win. Actually, I’m Optimus Prime with the No. 39 Chevrolet, and he’s the leader of the peace-loving Autobots in the Transformers. We’ll have to avoid the bad guys at some point during the night and, hopefully, we can not only avoid the bad guys, but beat them and be the last one standing at the end of the day. For me, I’m glad to be a part of the promotion which Paramount is doing around the DVD release on Oct. 20. It’s cool for me, personally, because I think the drivers who are my age used to have the Transformers toys as a kid and I remember watching the cartoon, so this is part of my childhood coming to life. And I think it’s really cool to connect to kids out there who are NASCAR fans and who like the Transformers, too.”

TONY GIBSON, Crew Chief of No. 39 TRANSFORMERS: Revenge of the Fallen Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing

Charlotte was really the best overall race weekend for the No. 39 team during the spring. You won the pole and finished second there. How does knowing that you are going back with a car that ran so well there in the spring help this team?

“We were really good at Charlotte in the spring. We’re taking back the same car we ran in the All-Star Race, and that was a really good car. Had we not gotten tangled up with Kyle (Busch) and Jeff (Gordon) there at the end of the race, which led to us cutting a tire and really ended our night, I would have liked to have seen what would have happened.

“For us, we weren’t looking forward to California last weekend. We really thought that track would be our Achilles heel, and we ended up running better than expected. We didn’t finish great, but we were in a position to finish in the top-10 at the end of the race had we not gotten shuffled back on that last restart. Our setup there last weekend was better than it had been. We were more competitive, and Ryan was happy with the overall balance of the car and its drivability. The guys had a good day in the pits all day long, too. So to leave there with a top-15 was better than we had anticipated in the beginning.

“Now, to be going back to Charlotte knowing that we ran well there in the spring gives us some additional confidence heading into the weekend. Just because we ran well there in the spring doesn’t mean it’s going to be easier when we head back there this weekend, but it definitely boosts our confidence. I like the racetrack a lot, and it’s a track where we know that Ryan has had success. For us right now, the key is to go there and shine. We need to qualify well and run well this weekend, and I think that will help us build some momentum. We’re heading into a part of the schedule that I really like and Ryan really likes, and a part of the schedule where we expect to perform well, so if we can run well and get some momentum, I’m really confident in what we can accomplish.”

The No. 39 team is 223 points back with six races remaining in the Chase. A lot of people look at that point differential and say this team is out of the hunt for the Championship, but you have a different outlook on that. Can you talk about that?

“We were further back than that after the second Dover, when Alan (Kulwicki) came back and won the championship. I know the competition has changed a lot since then, and I know it is tighter, but it also taught me that you can overcome any point deficit. I’m a believer and a fighter, and I experienced it first-hand in 1992 when I was with Alan. Nobody gave us a snowball’s chance in hell that year, and we did it.

“We’re not going to give up. Is it going to be harder because of the point deficit we have? Absolutely, but that doesn’t change the fact that I believe and this team believes we are still in it. I think the other teams in the Chase are going to have to have their problems, too. We have a stretch of races where we were good earlier this year, and we’re going back there with the goal of finishing as good or better than that this time around. And that’s all we can do. We can’t fret about our past. We can just work to make our future better.

“Making this Chase was a huge accomplishment for this team and for the entire Stewart-Haas organization. We want to win the championship, and I believe we still can. Our goal is to finish as high in points as we can and continue to build on that for the years to come.”

-credit: shr

Lack of Grip Plagues Newman in Fourth Chase Race

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), battled back from a cut right-front tire early in the running of Sunday’s Pepsi 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., to finish 15th. It was Newman’s 18th top-15 effort of the 2009 season and his seventh top-15 result in 14 career Sprint Cup starts at the 2-mile oval.

Although Newman’s Chevy started the race a bit on the loose side, it wasn’t the car’s balance that hampered his progress during the event. Newman, like many other drivers at Fontana, complained that his car was lacking overall grip.

Under caution at lap 59, crew chief Tony Gibson told Newman that his car was running fast enough lap times to run in the top-10, maybe even the top-five. But to do that, they needed to get him out of the hole they were in at the back of the pack, as they started a distant 36th. Since Newman had only 18 laps on his tires, the No. 39 team opted to pit for right-side tires only. The quick put work allowed Newman to restart the race in seventh.

Although Newman and Gibson knew their racecar would likely be a handful on just two fresh tires, the gamble was worth taking during the early stages of the 250-lap race. Once the race restarted, Newman expectedly lost a few spots to the cars that had four fresh tires, but he managed to stay within the top-15 as his car’s handling stabilized.

But the track position the team worked so hard to gain vanished on lap 80 when Newman ran over debris laying on the frontstretch that cut his right-front tire. As the No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army Chevrolet slowed, NASCAR waved the yellow caution flag. Newman was able to nurse his machine back to pit road without sustaining any damage.

“Right as I passed the start/finish line, the tire went down,” Newman told his crew over the radio. “I don’t know what we hit, but we had to have run over something.”

As Newman pulled to a stop in his pit box, the right-front tire exploded. The pit crew managed to change all four tires, add fuel and make a track bar adjustment to aid with the loose-handling condition of the racecar. Following the stop, Newman came in a second time so the pit crew could further inspect the car for damage and to add tape to the grill openings beneath the front bumper.

“Great job taking care of that thing to get it in the pits without tearing anything on the car,” Gibson radioed to Newman. “The tire stayed up until you got in the pit box, and that’s when it just blew. So, the splitter, fender — everything looks perfect.”

Despite the tire issue and the multiple pit stops, Newman was able to restart in 27th and on the lead lap. He continued to tell his crew that the balance of the No. 39 Chevy was not an issue, but his struggles with lack of grip and lack of track position persisted throughout the race. With each pit stop, the crew worked to help Newman’s problem with a variety of air pressure adjustments. The team also made track bar and wedge adjustments to assist with the slight handling issues Newman encountered as the race wore on.

Newman and the No. 39 team made their last pit stop of the day for four tires, fuel and wedge and air pressure adjustments under green flag conditions at lap 227. Newman was in 20th-place on the racetrack when the caution flag waved at lap 234, and because track position had been an issue all day, Newman opted to stay on the track, which moved him up to 10th. When the race restarted, Newman was able to gain five spots in one lap to crack the top-five. However, the caution flag waved once again to halt Newman’s forward progress.

Another caution flag and a starting spot on the inside line proved to be too much for Newman to overcome, and he slid back to 15th by the time the checkered flag dropped.

“We got from 10th to fifth on that next to last restart there, and I think we showed how strong our Haas Automation Chevy was,” Newman said. “We had the inside line on that last restart and that was kind of the doom of death for us.”

Newman’s SHR teammate and car owner, Tony Stewart, led twice for six laps before scoring his series-leading 15th top-five finish of the season and his fourth top-five in 17 career Sprint Cup starts at Fontana.

Both SHR drivers are represented in this year’s Chase for the Championship. Stewart remained fourth in the standings, but is now 84 points behind new Chase leader Johnson. Newman dropped one spot to 10th, 223 markers out of first.

ON RACING AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY

“Well, I think we’ll see some better racing. This track, in general, the more it’s aged, the better it’s gotten as with most race tracks. And each time I come back here obviously it’s older. So, I think Goodyear’s got a pretty good tire. It’s very similar, if not the same, as what we had in Kansas. I think we saw some pretty decent racing there; probably some of the best racing we’ve seen at Kansas. I look forward to it. It’s not my favorite race track, I’ll tell you that first-hand. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good showing here. So we’ll see what happens with the Haas-Automation Chevrolet.”

IN THIS YEAR’S CHASE, WE’VE GOT DRIVERS WHO HAVE WON RACES AND DRIVERS WHO HAVE NOT. JUST HOW CLOSE ARE THE 12 TEAMS IN THE CHASE? IS THERE A HUGE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOMEBODY WHO HAS WON A LOT AND SOMEBODY WHO HAS ONE WIN OR NO WINS?

“In what respect?”

FROM A COMPETITIVE STANDPOINT

“We’ve not won and there have been races, in my eyes, we’ve given away; and given away to guys that have won multiple races. So, it’s close. Yeah, the competition is close. There are some guys that have dominated and guys that have slid in with some of their victories. Obviously every one of them is earned, but I feel that the competition is closer than it’s ever been in this sport and I’m just glad to be a part of it. It’s very rewarding for us, as we stated after Richmond, to be in this position after nobody thought we could even make it.”

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR TEAMMATE, TONY STEWART?

“Some of its racing luck. Some of it is them doing a better job. At Kansas City we struggled all day. Our first pit stop put us two laps down from being nothing down. So, it’s a team effort and there is no one thing that stands out between the No. 14 and the No. 39 that makes them more victorious than us, but it takes everybody’s effort. And we’ve struggled at times and obviously are a new group, just like they are, but it’s still been a lot of fun.”

TWO OF THE FIRST THREE CHASE RACES HAVE BEEN DECIDED BY PIT CALLS. IS THERE A NEED FOR YOUR CREW CHIEF TO BE MORE DARING IN THE CHASE? OR, WHAT DOES A DRIVER IN THE CHASE NEED IN A CREW CHIEF?

“That’s kind of tough to qualify that answer in the essence that two tires versus four tires doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re at risk or putting your team at risk. It’s not like a fuel situation in my opinion. Fuel is way more risky of a gamble than two tires or no tires versus four tires. And I think that track position as we’ve said and as the competition has gotten closer as we eluded to earlier that track position is that much more important than it ever was and therefore that risky call on two tires or no tires is less riskier than it used to be because of how close the cars are.”

COMPARE LAST YEAR AT THIS TIME TO THIS YEAR

“Last year at this point I was counting down races and cleaning out the locker. It’s different, for sure. At this point here, we’re still very much in the Chase and there are seven races left. There are a lot of points to be gained and lost; not by us, but by other teams as well. It’s still very much diehard, go-for-it; we’re focused on doing whatever we can to win a race. If we could get that one victory for our team, and for our side of the organization, it would really give us a lot of momentum. That really helped Tony (Stewart), I feel, from the All-Star race on. If we had that right now, it would be huge.”

IS THERE A CHANGE IN THE WAY THE CHASERS AND NON-CHASERS ARE RACING NOW DURING THE CHASE?

“It’s my opinion that even before the Chase started, that the racing has gotten more aggressive with the double-file restarts. In conjunction with the Chase and the way we’re going for a championship, the stakes are even higher and the competition or the challenge we’ve given each other, it a little more aggressive. No matter what race track, it’s definitely been less give and take and more want to take. That’s okay. It’s tough when you give first and you don’t get back and I’ve seen that a little bit this year, or after these last three races.”

LOOKING BACK TO THE TALLADEGA RACE IN THE SPRING WHEN THE NO. 99 GOT OFF THE GROUND, IS IT STILL AMAZING HOW HIGH CARL EDWARDS WENT? THE TRACK SAID THIS WEEK THEY’VE RAISED THE CATCH-FENCE IN THAT AREA

“I’m glad somebody did something. Ultimately that’s not the answer. Ultimately we need to keep the race cars on the ground. I don’t think anything has been done with respect to that. I don’t think the parts and pieces that flew through the fence and hurt the people, no matter how high the fence is, you’re still going to have that. I don’t think the solution is fixed, but I’m glad somebody made an effort. But we saw (Matt) Kenseth in the Nationwide Race get upside down on the back straightaway. Luckily, he didn’t hit anything or hit anybody. But on Carl’s deal, we don’t need to see cars get airborne, period, for any reason.

“Going back to one of the first questions, that’s one of the races I felt like we gave away. If I had just gone low instead of high, we would have won the race because (Brad) Keselowski lost so much momentum. I had (Dale Earnhardt) Junior on my back bumper. If I had just gone low and kept that push from the No. 88, we would have won that race. But in the grand scheme of things, we didn’t. We got in the crash. Some fans got injured and that’s not cool.

“But I wish some more was done to the race cars to keep them on the ground, whether it’s different style roof flaps; there are things that we could be testing and working on in respect to that. And maybe NASCAR is for next year, but we’re still going to Talladega in a few weeks here.”

GOING INTO RACE WEEKENDS, DO YOU LOOK AT PAST STATS TO SEE WHO HAS RUN WELL IN THE PAST?

“No, I saw a stat earlier that Montoya’s best finish here is 11th and I don’t know his best starting position or anything else, but he’s got the quick time in practice by over two-tenths, so I don’t know that all those stats necessarily matter. I don’t spend time looking at it. It’s a track that Jimmie Johnson has done really at. Jeff Gordon runs pretty well here. All those things aside, it doesn’t really matter if you have a bad pit stop.”

IN FIVE TO SIX MONTHS SINCE TALLADEGA SPRING RACE, ARE YOU SURPRISED OR CONCERNED THAT NOT MUCH HAS COME OUT OF THAT INCIDENT? IS THAT NOT ENOUGH TIME?

“Oh, you can develop a lot of things in five to six months. I just don’t know; and I’m not trying to bash NASCAR, but I just don’t know if anything has been done. I’m glad that the track, which to me is separate from NASCAR, has done their part to try to make it safer by raising the catchfence. They’ve added some more cables which is extremely important too, just due to the mass of the cars. But five to six months is plenty of time, based on what we do as teams, to get cars in wind tunnels and things like that to be able to do some research. Even if you didn’t implement a part of a piece or whatever it is, it could have been tested and some knowledge gained in that time.”

-credit: gm racing

Before taking the green flag for Sunday’s Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., Newman will be hitting the books — literally — as he enjoys a little story time with a group of Southern California school children.

Considering Newman and the No. 39 team are working feverishly toward a happy ending in their own story known as the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship, the veteran driver might easily be tempted to venture off the pages of his assigned reading on Sunday and tell the kids a tale that goes something like this:

As the sun is setting on another NASCAR Sprint Cup race

It’s the No. 39 Chevy setting the pace

The field whizzes by the flagstand once more

And the crowd goes wild as they race door to door

One lap to go and the action is wild and daring

The announcers are pumped, the crowd is roaring

High in the air, the checkered flag is flyin’

For the leader of the pack and the winner is Ryan!

Needless to say, Newman and his No. 39 team are hungry for that happy ending, for simply making the Chase four races ago at Richmond (Va.) International Speedway didn’t’ signal “The End” of their story for 2009. Securing a Chase spot was just the beginning.

Newman started the Chase with a seventh-place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon and a 10th-place finish at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. Two top-10 finishes in those first two Chase races had Newman and his team on the right track toward their ultimate payoff and their “happily ever after” — a celebration fit for a champion and his team in December at the NASCAR Sprint Cup awards banquet in Las Vegas.

However, Newman and his SHR crew were bitten by gremlins and stumbled last weekend at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, posting a 22nd-place finish. The finish dropped the No. 39 team two spots in the standings to ninth place, 164 points behind leader Mark Martin.

With their position in points and their ultimate championship goal now tenuous, Newman and his team are more determined than ever to rebound and get one happy ending they’ve been waiting for — their first victory as a team. And there is no better place for that to happen than Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., the home track for sponsor and team co-owner Haas Automation. The company is headquartered in Oxnard, Calif., which is located 100 miles west of Auto Club Speedway.

Newman, who has one pole and four top-10 finishes in 13 Sprint Cup races at Auto Club Speedway, admits the 2-mile racetrack hasn’t been one of his best in the past. However, with just seven races remaining before a champion is crowned, Newman and his team know that if they want the final page to say “happily ever after” before they close the book on the season, now is the time to make their move.

RYAN NEWMAN, Driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing

Kansas was a rough outing for you and the No. 39 team with respect to your position in the Chase. You finished 22nd and dropped two spots to ninth in the point standings. Can you assess what this means for you and the Chase?

“Yes, it was a rough day for us, but we are by no means out of the Chase. We really battled all day because we didn’t have the track position we needed, and then we had some problems on pit road. So it was just a rough day all around, but that doesn’t mean we’re counting ourselves out. We just have to regroup, get our focus back, and head to California and get back on track. Prior to Kansas, I think we had a string of top-10 finishes. And that’s what we need. Not only do we need top-10 finishes, but we need top-five finishes because, to be where we want to be, which is leading the points, we’ve got to improve our game. I guess that’s the best way to say it. All year, this team has proved it doesn’t give up, that it has a lot of fight, and I think we’re going to have to keep proving that each week of the Chase. There are seven races to go. Yes, we have some ground to make up, but we can do it. I have faith in (crew chief) Tony Gibson, my team and in Stewart-Haas Racing. We just need to be better.”

Talk about racing at Auto Club Speedway.

“Unfortunately, it’s not one of my favorite places to go. I have not had the best record at Auto Club Speedway. The racetrack can be a lot of fun because it’s a very smooth track and super fast, but I just haven’t done all that well there throughout my career. Even in our first race there this spring, we had issue after issue. It’s a track where a lot of times your team’s strategy determines the finish because a lot of times it becomes a fuel mileage race. So we’ll just have to see how the race plays out. “

This is a big weekend for Stewart-Haas Racing because Auto Club Speedway is a “home track” of sorts for team co-owner Haas Automation, which is based in nearby Oxnard, Calif. Talk about the importance of this race for you and the team.

“Everybody wants to be top dog on their home turf. So, obviously, our team knows how important this race is to our co-owner and our sponsor, Haas Automation. We want to make everyone involved with the company proud, and I don’t think there is a better way to do that than to have a strong run on Sunday. Haas Automation has been involved in NASCAR for several years, but I think we have an opportunity to give them something they have not had before as a team sponsor and that’s a win in the Sprint Cup Series.”

On race day, you’re going to take some time out and go read to school kids from Southern California. These are kids who successfully completed reading requirements set by their teachers, and then these students were rewarded with an opportunity to attend events at Auto Club Speedway. Talk about why you are doing this and why education is so important to you.

“I think a lot of people who are around me will tell you that I’m just a big kid, so going out and reading to the group of kids at Auto Club Speedway is going to be a really cool experience for me. But truthfully, kids are the future of everything we have, whether it’s racing or families or the U.S. Army. I think it’s important to have a good, positive influence for kids to look up to. I think that, being an educated racecar driver, I can be the positive influence on any kid. I’ve never read the book that I am going to read to the kids on Sunday, but I think it’s a pretty cool deal and I’m excited to do it. My parents pushed me when I was a kid — in a good way — and they were very insistent from the time I started racing at 4½ that my school work always came before driving the car. Reading, math, whatever it was — homework always came first. One day I can remember when I didn’t want to go to school. I told my mom I didn’t feel like going to school that day. My dad told me, ‘If you don’t want to go to school, there’s not going to be any racing.’

“Just about every week, I’m part of an education program the Army does for high school kids, and I talk to them about the importance of getting their education and setting goals. To me, it is never too early to tell kids the importance of getting their college education. Although I knew I wanted to be a racecar driver, my parents insisted that I get an education to fall back on and, in the end, that is truly one of my greatest accomplishments — getting that college degree.

“For me, my degree has just taken me to another level to understand the racecar, the physics part of it, the gravities and the way all the things work with the racecar mechanically. For me, my actual title is vehicle structure engineering. It’s a mechanical backbone, but it gave me the opportunity to be flexible in school, and then I obviously have that diploma and that education to fall back on for the rest of my career.

“What you major in isn’t what’s going to make you the ultimately smart guy. It’s the well-roundedness that you get out of any kind of further education that makes you a better person and will make you a smarter person in order to make more money and be happier in the future. I’m not saying it makes me smarter than everybody else, but it’s made me a smarter person to the point that I tell anybody if you have the opportunity to go to college or to a university to get a further education, do it. So for me, going to talk to these kids for the U.S. Army each weekend, or going to read to the younger kids at the track this weekend, is really just kind of an honor. It’s cool and I’m looking forward to it.”

Since you are reading to kids, what was your favorite children’s book growing up?

“The first thing that comes to mind is Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham. I don’t know why, other than I’ve always liked ham. But Dr. Seuss books were always fun to read. I just hope the kids enjoy the book that I read to them — I don’t do voices or anything when I’m reading, but maybe I need to. I don’t want them to fall asleep or anything. They tell me I’m going to read Michael Recycle Meets Litter Bug Doug by Ellie Bethel. Sounds like a fun book, so we’ll see how the kids think I do.”

TONY GIBSON, Crew Chief of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing

The No. 39 team did not have the finish it was looking for last week in Kansas. The 22nd-place finish dropped the team to ninth in points with seven races to go. Can you assess what the No. 39 team’s position is in the Chase for the Championship right now, especially since the competition has been so close?

“I don’t think we’re anywhere near being out of it. Kansas was a bad race for us. We were way better than that, but circumstances put us out of contention, and that’s what happened to us there. So a bad race for us was 22nd. Not everybody is going to have a bad race, and I realize that, but there will be others who will have worse finishes than 22nd as their bad finish.

“The simple thing to say is that we have to run better. Where we have been finishing in the top-10, we need to get finishes in the top-five. We just have to be better, and we know we are capable of that. We have to get top-five finishes and be consistent. In my opinion, we can’t afford another Mulligan with as tight as this Chase is — Kansas was our Mulligan. But I don’t think we are out of it by any means. We still have Martinsville and Talladega coming up, and both of those are races where we could pick up 100 points easily. We just need to be better.”

How do you and the No. 39 team rebound from a finish that was not what you had hoped for and get back on track for this weekend’s race?

“We come back together as a team and we refocus and we let everybody know that we are not out of this Chase by any means. There are still seven races for us to get it done. In my opinion, it’s just like our whole season has been for this team. Just when you start counting us out, that’s when we really shine. It’s happened that way all season from the very beginning. And we have proven time and again that we will fight like hell to the bitter end, and that’s what we are going to do. This team has a lot of fight in it, more than a lot of teams out there and a lot of teams I have worked with in the past. They are determined and passionate, and they’re not going to let one race get them down. We have a group of guys who are not going to give up, and that’s something we have shown all season long. We know we have our work cut out for us a little bit more, but I don’t think there’s anyone on this team who will tell you we are out of it. We’re fighters.”

The first outing at Auto Club Speedway was not the greatest for the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet. In fact, it was kind of like an uphill battle. Discuss what happened that first race, and what it takes to have a good run at Fontana.

“We had a decent car when we were in California in February, but we were really set back from the start. We started further back than we wanted to because we got loose in qualifying. Then, at the very start of the race, we had the transponder issue where we had to come back down pit road to replace the transponder. And while all that was happening, we ended up with a loose wing mount plate. It was almost like we were out of it before we even started. We just never got the chance to show what we could do, which really was a shame.

“We’re going back to California with a new car. We’ve never raced it before, but we tested it at Windshear a couple of weeks ago, and we are looking forward to getting out on the track with it. To run well at Fontana, it takes a lot of horsepower, and Stewart-Haas Racing isn’t lacking in that, thanks to the engines we get from Hendrick Motorsports. I think Ryan will have the speed he needs to be successful at California. Auto Club Speedway is also a handling racetrack, and it takes a good aero package to get around the track. It’s a really smooth track, and your aero package is really important. The group at Stewart-Haas Racing takes a lot of pride in working on the aerodynamics of the race car, so we feel very confident that we will have a solid setup when we unload our No. 39 Haas Automation / U.S. Army Chevy on Friday.”

-credit: shr

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (Oct. 4, 2009) — Ryan Newman fought adversity throughout Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway, which ended with a 22nd-place finish for the U.S. Army/Haas Automation driver.

A poor starting position, a slow pit stop early in the race, balancing issues with the car plus a pit road speeding penalty all contributed to the sub-par finish,snapping a five-race top-10 streak for Newman. It was also his worst result in the last 12 Cup races.

“It was an ongoing battle today with the U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevy Impala SS,” said crew chief Tony Gibson. “But give Ryan credit, he drove hard and picked up four positions in the closing laps. He exemplified Army Strong — he never quit and fought to the end.”

The finish dropped Newman two positions in the 12-driver Chase point standings. He is ranked ninth, 164 points behind leader Mark Martin with seven races remaining. (see Chase standings below)

Newman’s teammate, Tony Stewart, had an outstanding day, winning the 400-mile race. He is fourth in the standings, 67 points behind Martin.

“First, congratulations to Tony and the No. 14 team — they did an awesome job today,” said Newman, who will join Stewart at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway tonight (Sunday) to compete in the Late Model Nationals. “We just had too much to overcome to post any kind of solid finish.”

Newman started 30th and basically ran in the low to high 20s during the 267-lap race at the 1.5-mile oval.

“Track position was a big part of it,” noted Newman. “Our qualifying effort didn’t help,but we had a really bad green-flag pit stop and went two laps down. We did pass the leader to get one lap back.

“We also had a balance issue — we went from really tight to extremely loose and lost a bunch of track position. Just unfortunate. We finally got the car better towards the end, but we were a lap down and nothing to show for it. It was just a struggling day with the U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevrolet. We’re not out of the Chase, but today was a rough day.”

Following Stewart to the checkered flag were: Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle,Juan Pablo Montoya and Denny Hamlin.

The next stop on the Sprint Cup circuit will be Sunday (Oct. 11) at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.

-credit: shr

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – September 28, 2009 – Country music hit maker Bridgette Tatum performs a free concert prior to the 6th Annual Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals Finals on Saturday, October 3, at the Knoxville Raceway beginning at 4 pm. In addition, Tatum will sing the National Anthem preceding the race and her image, along with the Aggressive Hydraulics logo, will be featured on driver Ryan Newman’s car.

The concert is open to the public, including non-race ticket holders. The anthem and race will be televised live on the Speed Channel, October 17 beginning at 9:00 pm ET. Check your local listings for details.

“As a little girl in my grandparent’s house you’d hear two things on Sunday after church, the clankin’ of Nana’s pots while she was cooking, and my Papa’s NASCAR race competing with it all,” recalls Tatum. “He always had his pick and I would watch that one car go round and round. How could I know years later my image would be on a car on TV for my Papa to see? Ryan Newman has become a favorite of his and I know he will be in front of the TV pulling for him and in a small way, he’ll be pullin’ for me too. However, I don’t think my Nana will be clankin’ pots this time. I’m sure my Nana will be sitting on edge, glued to the TV to see the car, and to hear me do one of the most important songs in our history, the National Anthem. I am honored, and I am proud.”

Tatum will perform songs from her debut album, Sex, Church & Chicken, which will hit stores in early 2010. She is currently touring the country visiting with radio stations to promote her break-out single, “(I Like My) Cowboys Dirty.”

About Bridgette Tatum:

The firecracker brunette from South Carolina was raised on the tent revival brand of soul-shaking gospel, swirling with the Holy Spirit and saturated with raw passion. Music coursed through her veins, seeping deep into her bones, and manifesting as the powerful sultry wailing and soulful crooning that brand Bridgette’s sound uniquely as her own. Her new single, “I Like My Cowboys Dirty” has been winning both critical and fan approval. From Roughstock.com, “With this one song Bridgette Tatum, who co-wrote Jason Aldean’s ‘She’s Country,’ has set herself up as an artist truly worth paying attention to. Hell, with that husky vibrato-filled voice of hers, she may even become country music’s own Pat Benatar or Joan Jett or Nancy Wilson. ‘Cowboys Dirty’ should be but the first of quite a few hits for Bridgette.”

“Consistency is good, but it looks like it’s going to take consistency with a stronger finishing average than we’ve had in the first two Chase races,” said Newman, who is seventh in the standings, 110 points behind leader Mark Martin. “As I said after the Dover race, this is a brutally tough competition and you’re going to need top fives and wins to claim the championship. We have to continue to be mentally and emotionally tough — just like our Army Strong Soldiers.”

With five straight top 10s and finishes the past two weeks of seventh in New Hampshire and 10th in Dover, Newman is looking to improve on those numbers in Sunday’s third Chase race — the Price Chopper 400 — at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway.

In eight career starts at Kansas Speedway, Newman has one win and three top fives. He finished second twice in Kansas, including a runner-up in 2001 — in only his sixth career Cup start.

“It would be nice to start our top-five or better roll in Kansas,” said Newman. “I believe Jimmie (Johnson) had a 5.7 finishing average in the 10 Chase races last year and if that’s what it’s going to take to win the championship this year, then we have some work ahead of us. The way the 5 (Martin) and the 48 (Johnson) are currently running we all have to step it up or it’s going to be a two-driver battle for the championship.”

Newman feels the next three races on intermediate tracks will be pivotal for the U.S. Army/Haas Automation team. After Kansas, the following two races are at the two-mile Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif (Oct. 11) and at at the 1.5-mile Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte (Oct. 17).

“We have five Chase races, including the next three, on either a 1.5 or two-mile track,” explained Newman. “So, it’s very important to get a handle on our U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevy Impala SS for these types of tracks. We’ve had some decent runs on the mile-in-a-half and two-mile tracks, but haven’t been as consistent as we’re going to need to be if we want to remain in title contention.”

In nine races this season at the intermediate tracks, Newman has had a 16.1 finishing average, compared to an overall average of 13.6.

“That average (16.1) won’t cut it,” Newman said candidly. “But I am confident that we’re going to have a strong package for our Army/Haas Automation Chevy at the upcoming races. I am really proud of this team for what we’ve accomplished thus far. Making the Chase was huge and being in the championship hunt after the first two races gives us all a sense of accomplishment.”.

No. 39 Over-the-Wall Crew (city is hometown)
Front-tire changer: Scott Brzozowski, Sterling Heights, Mich.
Front-tire carrier: Josh Mick, Houston, Texas
Rear-tire changer: Daniel Rankin, Chattanooga, Tenn.
Rear-tire carrier: Jason Fowler, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Gasman: Michael Moore, Springfield, Mass.
Jackman: Andrew Turner, Coloma, Mich.
Catch Can: Andy Rueger, Seymour, Ind.
Windshield: Jay Guarneri, Naples, Fla.

Crew Chief: Tony Gibson, Daytona Beach, Fla.
Car Chief: Kevin Pennell, Kannapolis, N.C.
Spotter: Greg Newman, South Bend, Ind.
Engine Specialist: Jay Nolan, Jacksonville, Fla.
Engineer: Johnny Klausmeier, Perry Hall, Md.
Engine: Hendrick Motorsports
Shock Specialist: Brian Holshouser, Charlotte
Tire Specialist: Ray Osian, Salisbury, N.C.
Mechanic: Joe Cline, Maiden, N.C.
Mechanic: Shawn Warren, Concord, N.C.
Pit Support: Chris Miller, Kannapolis, N.C.
Truck Drivers: Rick Hodges, Raleigh, N.C.
Todd Cable, Shelby, N.C.

Newman led 29 laps today and probably finished right about where he should have with the car he had. There was some speculation between Newman and his crew that a rear shock had possibly gone bad due to the handling of Newman’s car. And at one point, I think it was the last pit stop, this was possibly confirmed by the tire wear that they found when changing tires.

But Newman did have a good day. 2 straight top 10 finishes in the 2009 Chase. The part that is frustrating for Newman fans is that he keeps falling farther behind in the points. While he maintained 7th in the points standings, he is now back -110 points from Mark Martin. That is 31 more points in the standings that he has fallen.

That just shows how good all the Chase drivers are doing. One would think that with top 10 finishes that he would be gaining on the leader and not falling.

But with 8 races left to go there is plenty of room to make up 110 points. 110 is not bad and that amount of points can mathematically be made up in just 1 race.

Newman did some great racing today and a little uncharacteristically of Newman he refused to give up an inch at several points during the race today. At one point he and Jeff Gordon tangled a little bit. No one’s fault I don’t think…just good hard racing and not giving into another driver.

Tony Stewart finished 9th today and sits 106 points back from Martin in 5th. That tells you how tight the points are right there with Newman in 7th and 110 back.

YOUR THOUGHTS ON WEEK TWO. “I always look forward to coming to Dover. It’s kind of weird doing media after you’ve practiced the car because we didn’t unload very well. The guys did a really good job of making it better and making it faster so I could drive it and I think now we’re sitting second in qualifying. I think it will be a top-five run so that’s a good position on the track. That’s getting harder to pass because the cars are so similar. I think Goodyear has a better tire for sure. I’m one of the few guys I guess that can say that after practice. It’s rubbering the track up. It feels good and it drives pretty good and nobody has had any problems yet. Last race here we would have had problems by now so its looking better.”

IF YOU GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON WHAT WAS YOUR EXPECTATIONS THAT YOU WOULD BE IN THE CHASE? “There were some unknowns. I chose to be where I was. I chose my crew chief. I chose a lot of things so those weren’t necessarily unknowns, the unknowns were the results and they’ve done a really good job. The guys have done a really good job. I think we were 13 laps short of all the laps run in the entire season after the 26th race. That’s awesome. That helped get us locking into the Chase no doubt. Unknowns I couldn’t tell you how long the list was. I couldn’t tell you my expectations outside of what I wanted to do. My goal was to make it in the Chase and have a shot at the championship and we’re sitting here talking about that right now.”

NOW THAT YOUR IN THE CHASE DOVER IS USUALLY A GOOD TRACK FOR YOU, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE A GOOD FINISH HERE GOING INTO KANSAS NEXT WEEK? “I think Jimmie Johnson’s average finish last year was 5.7 so you have to have a good finish every race. There’s no bad race you can really have. This track is no different than any other tracks. It just so happens its one of my best tracks performance wise in the past so I look forward to trying to up that average.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH TONY GIBSON AND HOW ITS EVOLVED OVER THE COARSE OF THE SEASON? “It’s obviously gotten better and grown as we’ve gone. The performances and successes have strengthened that for sure. I guess we probably spend as much time talking about things outside of racing as we do racing which is good because our racing is going pretty good too. He sent me a picture text this week of him sitting up in a deer stand trying to make me jealous. Just things like that make it that much more fun when things are going right. I think a lot of him as a person. I think a lot of him as a friend. He’s done a really good job with our crew and making the U.S. Army Chevy strong.”

TALK ABOUT WHAT MAKES DOVER TOUGH IN YOUR MIND. “Well its physically tough. We talk about what it takes to be Army strong and its mental, emotional and physical. It’s one of the most physical race tracks that we go to.
“Mentally because its so physically tough you have to stay in shape and stay on top of things. When you hit, you hit hard here so emotionally you have to be ready for a lot of things. I’ve always enjoyed it. I’ve always enjoyed the speed, banking and everything else here.”

YOU HAD A PRETTY GOOD QUALIFYING RUN, GOING EARLY MIGHT HAVE HELPED. “I don’t think it matters here. The concrete makes it so much more fun and more fair it doesn’t make as big of difference here, that qualifying draw. With the weather staying pretty much the same I don’t think it really matters a whole lot. Juan will tell you it was not an advantage if he wins the pole.”

WE’VE HAD A LOT OF INCIDENTS ON PIT ROAD LATELY, SHOULD NASCAR START PENALIZING DRIVERS FOR HITTING GUYS OR SHOULD NASCAR START PENALIZING CREW GUYS FOR JUMPING OUT IN FRONT OF CARS TO SLOW THEM DOWN? “That’s just racing. I would say in general we typically one out of the two races in Loudon we see problems up there. Just the length of pit road and the boxes. There’s room width wise like there didn’t used to be here so I commend Dover like I did last time for making the changes they have made. Some of its human error. Some of its coincidence. Some of its bad timing. Kurt (Busch) last week should have looked in his mirror and saw the No. 6 car coming. You don’t pull out. I mean he crashed his car at the same time. That’s a racing accident on pit road. That’s just part of racing.

“People getting hurt is just a by-product of it and we don’t want to see that but like I said it happens more so at some race tracks than others and its always been a part of racing. You go back 40 years you’ve got guys swinging jacks, literally swinging 50 pound jacks around the race car taking out guys shins and knees and everything else. So it’s a lot safer than it was we just have to keep track of it.”

HAS IT BEEN A PRETTY QUIET YEAR THIS YEAR IN THE GARAGES AND OUT OF THE CAR? “Who do you want me to punch? Seriously. Are you a violent person?”

WHATEVER IT TAKES. “(laughing) Well I take that mentality too but I don’t go out and punch somebody’s eyeballs through the back of their head. You know I mean everything goes in cycles and that’s part of it. I wouldn’t say there is anything that stands out as to why its not happening. In general there is a lot of respect out there right now and that’s good. That’s good for this sport. It’s good for the drivers at least. I think the sport likes to see rivals and likes to see punches thrown every once in a while but that’s not the best thing for the kids that are out there.”

MAYBE ONE FACTOR IS BECAUSE OF THE CHASE AND THE PREMIUM NOW ON EVERY POINT IS PRECIOUS MAYBE THE GUYS THINK TWICE BECAUSE YOU DON’T WANT TO BE DOCKED 25 POINTS. “You mean people are still cussing? There’s nothing that really stands out in my mind. You go back three or four years ago at Richmond you saw some really beating and banging racing in the second race when we were trying to make the Chase and now it seems like there are more drivers that are worried about being penalized or losing track position because of a penalty and the racing is that much cleaner than it used to be. I think that NASCAR has done a good job at regulating that and I don’t want them to regulate it any more but I think they’ve done a good job to get it to where they are at this point.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON AND JUAN PABLO MONTOYA WERE THE TWO CHASE DRIVERS THAT DID THE TIRE TESTING AT DOVER IN AUGUST AND THEY ARE 1-2 IN QUALIFYING. IS THAT AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE? IS THERE AN UNWRITTEN RULE THAT YOU DON’T TEST DURING THE CHASE OR TEST AT CHASE TRACKS?
“No, there are two different ways of looking at that. You can consider it unfair but it’s not because other drivers have the opportunity to test at different race tracks. Now granted, it was probably more unfair in some way because we’re not going back to Phoenix a second time to test Goodyear tires. There are guys who are going to Daytona and have tested already for next year. So how do you look at that? Goodyear and NASCAR does a good job of spreading it out and making sure that everybody gets an opportunity whether that take that opportunity, or not, to test and yeah, those guys should be on top. We’ll get the advantage some day and whether it’s at Dover or Charlotte of Phoenix or Martinsville and hopefully show that we can do the same things. It doesn’t mean they’re going to win the race.”

GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY, WOULD YOU LIKE TO TIRE TEST ALL 10 OF THE LAST 10 TRACKS?
“No. I cringed a little bit when I heard they changed the testing policy. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I think the testing policy is great the way it is. I don’t think we need to go out there and waste any more time and money doing something that doesn’t change the effects of the racing for the fans.

Newman’s No. 39 U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala SS toured Dover’s Monster Mile in 23.019 seconds at 156.393 miles per hour. The two drivers in front of him — pole winner Jimmie Johnson and Juan Pablo Montoya — recorded times of 22.878 and 22.974 respectively.

It was the best qualifying performance for Newman since he put the No. 39 car on the pole at the Charlotte race in May.

“This was a great effort by the Army/Haas Automation team,” said Newman. “We didn’t unload that strong today but the guys kept on making the car better in practice. It’s important to qualify up front because it’s hard to pass due to the cars being similar. We didn’t have that good of starting positions at the last three races but still managed top-10 finishes. Hopefully we can take advantage of where we are starting here and pull off a top-five or better finish.”

Newman’s teammate, Tony Stewart, qualified 22nd.

One of the 12 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers, Newman enters Sunday’s race in seventh place in the point standings.

The AAA 400 will be televised on ABC, starting with a prerace show at 1 p.m. ET.

Note: Newman will also compete in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race, driving the No. 33 Chevy for Kevin Harvick, Inc.

Top-10 Qualifiers
1. Jimmie Johnson
2. Juan Pablo Montoya
3. Ryan Newman
4. Greg Biffle
5. David Reutimann
6. Kasey Kahne
7. Jeff Gordon
8. Clint Bowyer
9. Sam Hornish Jr.
10. Paul Menard