Stewart-Haas Racing News and Video » Ryan Newman » Newman Soldiers to 22nd-Place Finish in Kansas
Newman Soldiers to 22nd-Place Finish in Kansas
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – 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.
Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Point Standings (After Kansas, 10/4/09)
1. Mark Martin, 5551 points
2. Jimmie Johnson, 5533 (-18)
3. Juan Pablo Montoya, 5500 (-51)
4. Tony Stewart, 5484 (-67)
5. Kurt Busch, 5460 (-91)
6. Denny Hamlin, 5452 (-99)
7. Jeff Gordon, 5448 (-103)
8. Greg Biffle, 5437 (-114)
9. Ryan Newman, 5387 (-164)
10. Carl Edwards, 5386 (-165)
11. Kasey Kahne, 5361 (-190)
12. Brian Vickers, 5301 (-250)
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Filed under: Ryan Newman · Tags: Kansas Speedway
keep your spirit up ryan you can still win the whole thing i have faith in you
yeah Ryan you got millions of fans who believe you still got a shot to win it all!!!! You can do it. DROP THE HAMMER ROCKETMAN!!!!
Believe it or not, I am the biggest Ryan Newman fan out there so what I’m about to say is meant to be constructive and because I want to see Ryan WIN and be the champion he can be. But I’ll be honest I’m tired of the “track position was a big part of it” stance. You know what position you are on the track, adjust for it. Carl Edwards was BEHIND you and raced to a top 10 finish yesterday. He was in no different of a situation then you were. Yes he got the lucky dog. At race end you had 3 cars still in front of you for the lucky dog that passed you. I don’t believe Carl is a better driver than you. Ryan you are a better race car driver than this. Your crew chief needs to give you a car to race in the track position that you are in. Great job passing the leader for your lap back but you simply were not fast enough to be a top 10 car. Others are able to and ARE doing it.
I believe you are really starting to get a mental block when it comes to these intermediate tracks or at the very least you and your crew chief(s) have not figured out how to make you successful on these tracks. I was thrilled to see you top the charts in practice only to be shocked at a 30th place starting position. Hey, it happens though. But during the race you were NOT a top 15 car. The lap times showed that as did the result.
But as your biggest fan I feel like these excuses of track position week after week are starting to become a self-fulfilling profecy. A 2 tire stop / 10 second pit stop / staying out isn’t going to save you every race and you need to stop using that as your race strategy. Every week that’s what I hear on your radio “it’s all about track position this week Tony [Gibson]“, “I could really use the track position”. Man, race around them. Get your car adjusted to race around them.
At Loudon you said “this race track is all about track position” – the fact is it wasn’t.
At Dover you said you were glad to be a “driver’s racetrack” and not a track position track like Loudon. Then during the race you told Tony on the radio it was “all about track position”.
This week again that was the issue. Apparently drivers like Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle (started 31st right behind you, finished a “dissapointing 3rd”), Kurt Busch (started 39th, finished 11th) didn’t get the memo.
Week after week that is what I hear from you. Track position. Track position. Yeah, it is about track position when you are playing defense. Play some offense man. Focus on moving up instead of not moving back.
Get aggressive out there, in 2003 you didn’t win the championship with 8 wins because you were not consistent enough and wrecked too much. (and engine failures) Now you have swung the pendulum the other way and are the driver who has completed the most # of laps and no wins and not enough laps led. I feel that is because you are racing so conservative and clean.
You are a better driver than this. You are out of Penske and that horrible old Dodge engine. You have the equipment that can win (and Tony Stewart showed it yesterday) so focus on what you need to do in order to get that race car to pass other cars. Not how you can get a free pass up to the front and then worry about to not drop back too much.
Again the 39 team took a good car in practices and had trouble in Qualifying and racing. Maybe need to bring back Matt Borland. Keep going Ryan soon the troubles will end and your driving ability will shin through.