Newman Tackles the Monster Mile For Kevin Harvick Inc.

Making his third start of the season for Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI), Ryan Newman will climb behind the wheel of the No. 33 KHI Copart Chevrolet Saturday for the NASCAR Nationwide Series Dover 200 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.

In three previous Nationwide Series starts at The Monster Mile, Newman has two poles, one win, one top-five, one top-10 finish and has led 334 of 600 attempted laps. Newman also has 15 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at the one-mile track, earning four poles, three victories, six top-five and nine top-10 finishes

In the Cup Series, he has led 813 laps and completed 99.3 (5959 of 6004 laps) percent of laps attempted.

In addition to piloting the No. 33 KHI Copart Chevrolet this weekend, Newman will be behind the wheel of the No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet for Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover. This race serves as round two of the 2009 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. Newman currently sits seventh in the championship standings.

With just 3 starts in the Nationwide Series, you have 2 poles and one win. In addition, you have four poles and 3 wins in the Cup Series. Talk about the track and what makes The Monster Mile a good track for you.

“Dover has always been one of my favorite racetracks. I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of success at Dover over the years. It’s a physically demanding track, so by the end of the day you have had quite a work out. For me, Dover is a really fun track to drive, but there’s a reason it’s called ‘The Monster Mile.’ The track is really unique – you drop off into the corners and then climb up the hills onto the straight-a-ways. Because of that, the entry into the corners is the toughest part. If you don’t get a good entry, you’re not going to have a good middle or a good exit.

“It’s just an awesome track to race. It’s a give-and-take race track, so it is a lot of fun for the drivers. It’s a great track for passing. It’s a blast to drive around Dover because of the speed and most importantly because of the banking. The fact that it’s concrete doesn’t hurt anything either because it makes the track more consistent, which is good for everyone. The track doesn’t change a whole lot, so if you get the setup right then chances are you are going to perform well all day and have a chance to win the race at the end. It’s just a lot fun—I really enjoy qualifying and racing at Dover.”

Does running the Nationwide Series race on Saturday help you prepare for the Cup race on Sunday? If so, how?

“I like running the Nationwide cars on Saturday because I like getting the extra seat time prior to the Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday. It doesn’t help as much as it used to because the cars are so different, but there are some ways it helps me get prepared for Sunday. It gives me more time to work on my entry and exit, and it gives me an idea of what to expect in Sunday’s race.”

This week the No. 33 Copart team will unload chassis No. 036 for Newman at The Monster Mile. This chassis was last on track at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway with KHI co-owner Kevin Harvick where he started the race 11th, led a race high 91 laps and finished in the fourth position. Prior to Bristol, this chassis was on track at Iowa Speedway where Harvick started the race from the back of the field following a driver change after qualifying (Cale Gale qualified the No. 33 car as Harvick was at Pocono Raceway). A parts failure mid-race relegated the team to a 30th-place finish in the inaugural race at the track. In addition, this chassis has been on track with Harvick at Gateway (Ill.) International Raceway where he started the race third, led a race high 105 laps, but ran out of fuel late in the race and finished 17th. The only other two starts for this chassis were at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway. Kelly Bires first piloted this chassis in April at Nashville, scoring a fifth-place finish followed by Cale Gale in June where he earned a 31st-place finish after being caught in a mid-race accident while running in the top 12.