Newman held off AJ Allmendinger (Dodge) and Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet, on the final restart and second green-white-checkered finish to score his 16th career win, but first at the 0.526-mile Virginia short track.

RYAN NEWMAN AND CREW CHIEF, TONY GIBSON, NO. 39 OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE CHEVROLET – WINNERS POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

KERRY THARP: Let’s roll into our post event press conference for the 63rd Annual Goody’s Fast Relief 500. Our race winner today is Ryan Newman. He drove the No. 39 Outback Steakhouse Chevrolet for Stewart Haas Racing. He is joined by his crew chief Tony Gibson.

This is your 16th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win; your first win in 2012 and your first win here at Martinsville Speedway, so congratulations on that. I know you’ve got a new sponsor on the race car, and for this race here today and that’s got to feel good for that, and also getting into the victory column so early in the 2012 season. Congratulations.

RYAN NEWMAN: Thank you. No doubt an impressive day for us; for me to take us out of the game and we ended up going a lap down because of my speeding penalty, and the guys did an awesome job in giving us the car to make the changes.

We were not a dominant race car today but we put ourselves in contention. The way the strategy and everything worked out, coming in for two tires and Clint kind of clearing out turn one for us, we were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

We have been in that position here and been in the wrong place at the wrong time and it’s nice to be able to at least balance it out and get Outback in victory lane. That was really special for us, their first race with the team and if we get in the Top 10, we get free Bloomin’ Onions if you go to Outback and mention my name. Not sure, they might be rethinking that after this week.

KERRY THARP: Tony Gibson, congratulations on the win here today. Certainly a comeback victory for the 39 car. Talk about how that thing happened out there today.

TONY GIBSON: It’s like he said, feast or famine on pit road. You try to get everything you can get because every spot that you can gain on pit road means a lot on the racetrack.

We are all in this deal together, and there’s been times when we have given him bad pits stops and stuff like that. So that stuff is going to happen. That happens to everybody. What’s good is we fight back and Ryan never gives up; our team never gives up. So we had to fight back and get a lap back, and put ourselves in contention.

We had a solid Top 5 car today. We didn’t have a winning car. We had a Top 5 car, and you know, at the end you had to take some sort of tires, whether it was two or rights, or lefts, or four.

And like Ryan said, if we are sitting there running sixth and the other guys are behind us are going to come, so we’ve got to take something. Other guys took less. He said, it’s up to you. We threw rights on, figuring it would help take off a little quicker. Like I said, the guys had a great stop. Clint cleared out the way for us and Ryan did the rest. He drove a great race all day long, never gave up, and like I told you a million times, you put him somewhere near the front with ten to go, look out, he’s going to have a shot to win it.

We are pleased for Outback and everybody at Stewart Haas Racing for everybody to get a victory early and we need a couple more of them to really lock ourselves into the Chase deal and consider ourselves a good contender and so that’s what we have got to do.

Like you said a million times, we have got to learn from what we did today and apply that for the next up and coming weeks and we have got to get a couple more wins here pretty quick.

KERRY THARP: Ryan, certainly getting that grandfather clock has to be pretty cool. That has to be one of the coolest trophies in all of sports.

RYAN NEWMAN: Yeah, it’s something I look forward to. I even told Stewart after the race, I looked in the house and I’ve got a place for it. I’ve got a big old log cabin at home and it needs a grandfather clock and I was that’s just a byproduct of this race. I wanted to win this race but that grandfather clock is awesome and I’m proud to be able to take it home.

Q. Clint maintained after the race that you would have done the exact same thing if given the opportunity; but also AJ was in here after the race and was raving about how well and clean you raced him on those last two laps. Which one would it have been?

RYAN NEWMAN: Well, if I was in Clint’s position, I would have tried not crashing the guys and won the race. I mean, I was trying to do the same thing to him as he did to the 24, and he actually whether he was trying to block me or he was just trying to get his run on the 24, he pulled down and my little bump, I think it was a pretty good shot, propelled him up next to the 24.

Whether he hit turn one faster than he wanted to or not, he still has got three pedals on the car and a steering wheel; it’s his job to control it. I don’t know if he hit the curb or if he ran out of room or the 24 pinched him down. It doesn’t matter.

The good thing is, we came out on the inside on the right side, and it was just a matter of racing AJ clean on that next restart. I felt like I wasn’t racing AJ on that restart. I felt like I was racing Junior behind me because I didn’t want the same thing to happen, because I’ve seen it happen so many times here. It was really important for me to not spin my tires and get a good start and race AJ and try to eliminate the 88 from the race for the win.

Q. There’s some people who are not too happy with Reutimann for bringing out that caution, but I was curious what you thought when you saw him stopped on the track?

RYAN NEWMAN: Unless we know from his mouth what happened why he stopped over there

Q. Inaudible.

RYAN NEWMAN: Well, he’s been around racing a long time. I don’t know why he did what he did or if he was stuck in that position. It worked out for us. We were going to be a sixth place car at best at that point. Whether no matter what happened, it’s not the first time somebody stopped on a straightaway with a few laps to go and forced us into a green-white-checker restart at the end of the race.

We’ll take what we can get. Like I said, we’ve lost them that way hands down several times here and it’s nice to be able to win one.

Q. The last few weeks since Bristol fans have been clamoring with short track racing with beating and banging; do you think what we saw at the end is what they were looking for?

RYAN NEWMAN: I thought it was a good race. A lot of green flag running, most I’ve ever seen here at Martinsville. It was a good race and the tires didn’t fall off and we didn’t lose the drive that we typically do here.

Goodyear did bring a great, durable tire but also made it hard to pass at the same time, because usually you’re working on your forward drive, working on your forward drive. And it’s not that we didn’t but it was more important to rotate the center than it was to get the forward bite, and that was our weakness. That was our weakness the whole race was rotating the center.

Q. Any time there’s anything like this, there’s a lot of people attempt to go make scapegoats of the other, whether in this case it was what I’m saying, at the end of the race, when you hit first of all, when you hit Bowyer, it was a good ways before the actual accident happened.

RYAN NEWMAN: Oh, yeah, it was the start/finish line.

Q. Later on after three cars wrecked, his view was like, oh my God, I got belted from behind and I couldn’t help it. When you hit him was it just something because he didn’t or were you trying to boost him? Were you trying to move him up and get position?

RYAN NEWMAN: I was trying to make a run to dive underneath him to do to him what he was trying to do to the 24; not take him the 24 out. We were not trying to take him out by any means in that context, but just to be able to get track position and work my way up to third; and hopefully my tires would outrun the 24 and 48 in the last couple laps. But that didn’t work.

And then as soon as he got the rundown into one, and for whatever reason, wore out, got loose, hit the curb, whatever, he definitely drove up into the 24 and ran out of room and caused a melee. But that’s short track racing. We can be the best drivers in the world racing Sprint Cup stock cars, or we can be out there running hobby stocks, and the same exact thing would have happened.

Q. Talk about for the second week in a row, Stewart Haas Racing has kind of masterfully been in the right place at the right time. Tony did it last week at Fontana, and you were able to endure it here today overcoming the one lap penalty. Talk about how the whole team kind of seems to be on a roll right now.

RYAN NEWMAN: It’s different situations and different racetracks and I guess there are two things to talk about. Tony dominated. He drove from whatever he was, 14th and whatever in qualifying up to the lead under green the whole entire way and he had a dominant race car.

Today we didn’t have a dominant race car but we put ourselves in position and in contention in the last two green and white checkers.

The strength overall for Stewart Haas, it’s a two mile racetrack and a half mile racetrack, and Stewart already won on a mile and a half racetrack. So we have a good strong start to the season when it comes to looking at the racetracks and the places that we race at, and that makes a difference.

Some guys are only capable of winning at certain racetracks and we have proved that Stewart Haas is capable of a lot.

Q. You said at the Martinsville Henry County SPCA media event that this track owed you one and the first thing that comes to mind is the frantic finish here a couple years ago where you were running second on the restart and got shifted up to the third line and had to settle for fourth. Do you feel with the way this one played out, you finally got the one that you deserved here?

RYAN NEWMAN: I think there’s 42 drivers out there that say that this place owes them one. That’s the nature of this paperclip racetrack.

But from my standpoint, yeah, we had been in contention a couple of times and didn’t get to victory lane; me as a driver both with Penske and at Stewart Haas. It’s nice to be able to balance the averages out and make it happen. It was due to the misfortune of some other people, but that’s racing. That’s the driving and that’s why we love the sport.

Q. Wondering if we can get your take on that wild finish from your viewpoint what’s going through your mind, and also Ryan, being affiliated with Hendrick, looked like they were going to get the 200th win, sure you’re not going to apologize for taking it that way from them.

RYAN NEWMAN: It’s under the hood.

Q. Wonder if you had any reaction. But Tony, could you go first?

TONY GIBSON: Like I said, we were like that a couple years ago and had a shot to win it and got booted out of the way. We knew we had an opportunity to win the race and on Bowyer went. When I saw Bowyer Newman went to the inside, and when I seen Bowyer chop him off I figured one of them was going to go around.

So you know, Ryan had a good run going and Bowyer was going quite a bit slower from what I saw. It was a straight hit, but you know, I think everybody was still going pretty straight before they got to the corner. When they got down in there, I knew good and well that Bowyer wasn’t going to lift. So I was just hoping that we could get stopped or get down low enough to miss it and that’s kind of how it worked out.

But it’s nerve wracking and it’s like Newman said before the restart, he said, “I’m going for it and if I don’t bring it back, I’m sorry, you guys did a good job.”

He already had a plan in place and we were behind him whatever happened. I figured something was going to happen. Those guys up there on old tires and guys behind you with new tires, that’s a recipe for disaster on a track like this. I’m just glad we came out on top.

RYAN NEWMAN: As far as the Hendrick, I don’t focus on that. Hendrick, it will happen. Doesn’t have to be at Martinsville after a day they dominated. It’s a circle on the cycle of NASCAR.

Q. You said you were worried about Junior, but you had a Penske Dodge on your outside and with you knowing what Penske has, did that give you a little more confidence to where you felt like you could concentrate more on Junior?

RYAN NEWMAN: We were probably an equivalent car to the 22 all day long. We raced nose to tail for a long time and that’s why I chose the inside because I felt like that was the lane to have. Eight tires are always better than four, and I didn’t want to have to lean on AJ, and I didn’t, but if I needed to, then I could.

Just the way it all worked out it. Had nothing to do with my previous history at Penske. It was just about knowing that that was the ideal line for me and my race car. I was really only worried about Junior because I knew he would try to do the exact same thing Clint did because that’s what we all try to do. If eight are better than four, then 12 has got to be the best. It didn’t work out for Clint, but we always try.

Q. Seeing you in victory lane there with the champagne bottle, you didn’t get an April Fool’s bottle, did you?

RYAN NEWMAN: I couldn’t get the cork out of the thing. Had to give it to one of the guys to let them enjoy it. I’m not a champagne drinker, anyway, so wasn’t a big deal for me. I ended up wearing it instead of spraying it.

Q. My math may be wrong on this and it often is, but your 16 career victories, I think 11 have come at different racetracks; that’s pretty good diversity. Talk about what that means to have wins at everywhere from Daytona to Martinsville.

RYAN NEWMAN: I just try to spread them out. I could win a bunch of races, but for me it’s more important to just kind of spread it out and let other guys win once in a while, too. (Laughter).

What do you want me to say? That’s just the way it all works.

Q. That wasn’t what I was looking for. If you could give me a better answer about what it means to be versatile.

RYAN NEWMAN: And it goes back to, people ask me, what is your favorite racetrack. And I have got some tracks I like better than others, but there’s not a track out there that I dislike. That just goes to show you when it comes to my stats, I’m a contender at a lot of racetracks and that’s I think the best I’ve ever run in the championship is sixth, but just goes to show if we get the right situation and package together for the last ten, with the difference and versatility in the racetracks, we’ll be in good shape.

I look forward to it. We just have to keep our nose to the grindstone. This is a great step in the right direction but ultimately this is just one small steppingstone and we have to build a pretty nice sidewalk.

Q. In some sports, if you have a nice crowd, it kind of boosts a player’s confidence or a driver’s confidence. For drivers, do you feel like having a packed house, seemed like a pretty good crowd today, does that play any factor in a driver’s head and being pumped up about the race?

RYAN NEWMAN: It doesn’t change the way I approach the race. I mean, it’s cool and all. If there’s 150,000 people or 350,000 people, the victory is still just as sweet it. Doesn’t change that. It’s all about how we raced and how we competed as a team. That’s what makes me happy and gratified.

I couldn’t ask for much more today. Like I said we were not a dominant race car but we put ourselves in contention and pulled it off.

Q. Tony, 19 years ago today, we lost the driver you won the championship with; what does this mean to you to win this race on the anniversary of the day we lost Alan Kulwicki?

TONY GIBSON: Yeah, I thought about that last night actually, and it means a lot. It’s a lot of the reason I’m where I’m at is because of Alan. You know, the fight to never give up, and always believe in yourself comes from him, too.

So I think Alan, he put a lot of that and a lot of guys in this garage here, and not only me. I think, you know, it’s just pretty cool to be with Ryan with the engineering background, and he’s just like Alan. He’s just like him. He’s wicked smart and when you ever try to catch him on something, he’s got a little bit better answer for you. So I don’t try that anymore.

But it is really cool. It’s pretty neat if you look back, same type of guy; a guy that all he wants to do is race; all he believes is in racing. Just goes to show you, you can be smart and you can drive, too.

It means a lot, today does. And any time you win is important. Any time you can win is gratifying. But today is really cool to be able to win and think about Allen and where we have all come.

So I’m just happy to still be in the sport. I know I’m getting old and I can’t believe I’ve lasted this long but hopefully I can dig along for a little longer and get some more wins.

RYAN NEWMAN: I remember this day 19 years ago when I was in high school. He was inspiration for me. He was part of the reason why I chose to be an engineer and follow through with my racing career at the same time.

You know, just like Tony said, he’s inspirational to a lot of people in the garage; that never give up attitude; the underdog kind of mentality that he had. It’s no matter what, we’ll do our best and that’s all we can do, and that’s what we did today.

Q. Getting a win this early takes a little pressure off the wildcard scenario. Is it going to take a couple wins, maybe three wins, or are you mostly hoping on points and not have to worry about wins?

RYAN NEWMAN: You know, I don’t want to have to worry about wins. I think our team is definitely a Top 10 contending team. We have proved that the first six races of the season or whatever we are at now. If we have to, then we do.

But if we have to, and it’s tough to say because of what Stewart went through last year if you have to; usually if you have to do that, my point is, you’re not a championship contending team.

So I would rather much rely on how strong we are each and every week than rely back on a win or multiple wins to get into the Chase.

Q. Good to have one?

RYAN NEWMAN: It’s great to have one, and the clock.

Q. Between you and Tony Stewart, you guys, Stewart Haas Racing, have won eight of the last 16 Cup races. Can you just talk about the run you guys have enjoyed so far?

TONY GIBSON: Well, I think it’s really cool. It’s great for our company and it shows the equipment that we have. It just shows that either one of these guys can win. They both have great talent and driving.

RYAN NEWMAN: Just glad I finally contributed.

TONY GIBSON: I was getting a little nervous for a while. It was nice to contribute on our side of it, and we know we can do it; we have said it time and time again, the equipment is there and everything we need to do to win. We just have to put it in place and execute. We have struggled a little bit at that. We had 27 and a half great races last year and we failed in the Chase. We didn’t run as good as we needed to run, and Stewart took off like a ball of fire.

It was disappointing for us he’s still on fire. It’s disappointing for us because we know we have the same equipment and we know we should be winning those races, too. It puts pressure on us and makes us work harder and think, why aren’t we winning, and they are winning.

So hopefully we have helped ourselves. We know we are working hard as a company to make sure both these cars are as close as we can get, other than what the two different drivers need, little things. We have everything there we need to win every week. It’s hard to win every week, but we have got the equipment and the drivers to do it. We just have to execute and make sure it happens.

KERRY THARP: Ryan and Tony, congratulations for a big win today.

Stewart, co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) with Haas Automation founder Gene Haas, rallied his No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet from a lap down with less than 50 laps remaining to finish a solid seventh. Meanwhile, Ryan Newman, his teammate in the No. 39 Outback Steakhouse Chevrolet, scored his first win of 2012 and the 16th of his Sprint Cup career.

Newman took advantage of a late-race skirmish between Clint Bowyer and the Hendrick Motorsports duo of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson that ended Hendrick Motorsports’ shot at its milestone 200th victory and opened the door for Newman to claim his first win at Martinsville.

Gordon and Johnson, who had combined to lead 440 laps (328 for Gordon, 112 for Johnson) were running 1-2 when the race restarted on lap 505 on the first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish. But as soon as the green flag dropped, Bowyer made a dive-bomb move underneath Gordon going into turn one. Bowyer made contact with Gordon, who then slapped fenders with Johnson, who was on his outside. All three drivers slid up the track sideways while Newman hugged the low line around turns one and two to take the lead.

The resulting caution set up one more restart. With A.J. Allmendinger hounding Newman during the two-lap sprint to the finish, a tenacious Newman held his line and advantage to take the 16th point-paying win for SHR since the team’s inception in 2009.

“I’m ecstatic for Ryan,” Stewart said. “I got to see it on the replay during the caution after all the havoc broke loose. Ryan made an awesome move to the bottom. He was heads-up enough to get in the gas and get through that hole before it closed up. He definitely earned this one, for sure.”

Stewart earned his finish, too. As the winner of the series’ last visit to Martinsville in October, Stewart started 15th and ran as high as fourth in his spring 2012 sojourn at the .526-mile oval. While decent, his Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy never was exactly where he needed it to be as it lapped the paperclip-shaped bullring.

Stewart and crew chief Steve Addington made constant adjustments to the chassis via wedge, track bar and tire pressure. While the changes worked, a long, green-flag run that gobbled 129 laps between laps 369-497 showed that being a little bit off eventually added up to a lot.

Stewart went a lap down on lap 469 but fought to stay as the first car one lap down, earning “lucky dog” status. When the caution flag waved on lap 498 for David Reutimann’s stalled car, Stewart was back on the lead lap. He promptly pitted for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment in a last-ditch effort to make some headway in the final laps.

With four fresh Goodyears, Stewart made a run into and through the top-10. He started 13th for the lap-505 restart during which Newman seized the lead after the dustup between Bowyer, Gordon and Johnson. And for the final restart on lap 514, Stewart rallied from ninth to take seventh when the checkered flag dropped.

“Unfortunately, we had our worse run of the day the last run of the day,” said Stewart, who has three top-10 finishes in 2012 and 15 top-10 finishes in 27 career Sprint Cup starts at Martinsville. “We got behind there and got a lap down, but clawed back to get the lucky dog and rallied back to seventh.”

Martinsville marked the third race this season in which both SHR drivers have finished in the top-10.

Newman’s victory in the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 was the third this season and second in a row for SHR. Stewart scored SHR’s first victory of 2012 on March 11 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and its second victory March 25 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Dating back to Stewart’s win last September at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., SHR has won eight of the last 16 Sprint Cup races.

Allmendinger finished .342 of a second behind Newman in the runner-up spot, while Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr., rounded out the top-five. Denny Hamlin, Stewart, Aric Almirola, Brad Keselowski and Bowyer comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were seven caution periods for 56 laps, with nine drivers failing to finish the 515-lap race, which was extended 15 laps by the green-white-checkered finish.

With round six of 36 complete, Stewart leads the SHR contingent in the championship point standings. He gained one position and is in a four-way tie for third with Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and Truex. Each driver has 214 points, 12 behind series leader Greg Biffle. But Stewart is credited with third place, as his two wins this season trump Kenseth’s lone victory, while Harvick and Truex are winless in 2012.

Newman picked up two spots to rise to eighth in the standings. He has 202 points and is 24 out of first.

The Sprint Cup Series takes a rare weekend off before returning to action Saturday, April 14 for the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT, with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 7 p.m.

Newman won despite falling one lap down early in the race after receiving a penalty for speeding on pit road. Throughout that challenge, Newman and his No. 39 Outback Steakhouse team refused to give up, fought for every spot on the racetrack and earned their first Bloomin’ win of the 2012 season. Newman took his first – and only – lead of the day on lap 504 when he dove under leaders Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer after they collided in turn one. He held off A.J. Allmendinger on the final restart in a tough duel on lap 514 and pulled away on the last lap for the victory.

“First of all, I’ve got to thank Outback and U.S. Army, Chevrolet, and Sprint for all they do for this series, and Coca-Cola,” said Newman, who enjoyed his first career win at Martinsville. “We have some great sponsors this year. Quicken Loans, WIX Filters, Bass Pro Shops, Tornados, Aspen Dental, Haas Automation and obviously the fans, who are a big part of this sport. I need to thank Hendrick, as well, for their support. Their engines are phenomenal, Tony Stewart and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. It was an awesome day for the Outback Chevrolet, and everyone can go get a Bloomin’ Onion® tomorrow on us.

“The first green-white-checkered, I told the guys on the radio: ‘Listen, good job today. I’m not sure if I can bring it back,’ and that’s when the whole deal happened in turn one. It was just circumstances with the No. 10 (David Reutimann) there doing what he did. I’m not sure what happened or if he ran out of fuel or had a problem whatever happened. But it was an awesome finish for us. We got circumstances there plus we were in the right position. The guys did a great job with the car.”

The day was not without its share of issues for Newman and the No. 39 team. While entering the pits during the first caution of the day on lap 99, Newman was dinged for a pit-road speeding penalty that forced him to restart the race from the end of the longest line in 21st place. The loss of track position hurt even more on lap 218, when Newman fell victim to the rapid race pace, losing one lap to leader Gordon.

But Newman dug in his heels and focused on remaining the first driver one lap down and in position to earn his lap back. His determination proved successful when the third caution flag of the day flew at lap 265. Newman was in the “lucky dog” position, which allowed him to earn his lap back as the first car one lap down. Newman restarted the race in 13th, back on the lead lap.

As the laps wound down, Newman quietly stalked the race leaders and moved as high as sixth.

A late-race caution at lap 498 – two laps from the scheduled finish – set off the events that led to Newman’s first win at Martinsville. Under the caution flag, Newman opted to bring his Outback Chevy to the attention of his pit crew for right-side tires. Newman restarted in fifth place at lap 504, the first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish.

On the ensuing restart, Clint Bowyer tried to make it three-wide as the field raced toward turn one. But Bowyer’s dive-bomb move caused contact between his car and those of Gordon and Johnson. Newman quickly dove to the inside of the spinning trio to take the lead as the caution was displayed on lap 505.

“No doubt an impressive day for us; for me to take us out of the game, and we ended up going a lap down because of my speeding penalty, and the guys did an awesome job in giving us the car to make the changes,” Newman said. “We were not a dominant racecar today, but we put ourselves in contention. The way the strategy and everything worked out, coming in for two tires and Clint kind of clearing out turn one for us, we were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

“We’ve been in that position here and been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it’s nice to be able to at least balance it out and get Outback in victory lane. That was really special for us, their first race with the team. And if we get in the top-10, you get free Bloomin’ Onions if you go to Outback and mention my name.”

The race victory was special for Newman’s crew chief, Tony Gibson, coming exactly 19 years after the tragic death of the first driver he worked with in NASCAR, 1992 Sprint Cup champion Alan Kulwicki.

“I thought about that last night, actually, and it means a lot,” Gibson said. “A lot of the reason I’m where I am is because of Alan. You know, the fight to never give up and always believe in yourself comes from him, too. So I think Alan, he put a lot of that into a lot of guys in this garage here, and not only me. It’s just pretty cool to be with Ryan with the engineering background, and he’s just like Alan. He’s wicked smart, and when you ever try to catch him on something, he’s got a little bit better answer for you. So I don’t try that anymore.

“It means a lot, today does. And any time you win is important. Any time you can win is gratifying. But today is really cool to be able to win and think about Alan and where we have all come. So I’m just happy to still be in the sport. I know I’m getting old, and I can’t believe I’ve lasted this long. But hopefully I can dig along for a little longer and get some more wins.”

The victory was the 16th of Newman’s Sprint Cup career, his first of the season, his first at Martinsville and his third since joining SHR in 2009.

This was the 16th point-paying Sprint Cup win for SHR since its inception in 2009, its third this season and second in a row. Tony Stewart scored SHR’s first victory of 2012 on March 11 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and its second victory March 25 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Dating back to Stewart’s win last September at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., SHR has won eight of the last 16 Sprint Cup races.

Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for SHR, finished seventh at Martinsville to score his third top-10 finish of 2012 and his 15th top-10 in 27 career Sprint Cup starts at the .526-mile oval

Martinsville marked the third race this season where both SHR drivers have finished in the top-10.

Allmendinger finished .342 of a second behind Newman in the runner-up spot, while Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top-five. Denny Hamlin, Stewart, Aric Almirola, Brad Keselowski and Bowyer comprised the remainder of the top 10.

There were seven caution periods for 56 laps, with nine drivers failing to finish the 515-lap race, which was extended 15 laps by a green-white-checkered finish.

With round six of 36 complete, Stewart leads the SHR contingent in the championship point standings. He gained one position and is in a four-way tie for third with Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and Truex. Each driver has 214 points, 12 behind series leader Greg Biffle. But Stewart is credited with third place, as his two wins this season trump Kenseth’s lone victory, while Harvick and Truex are winless in 2012.

Newman picked up two spots to rise to eighth in the standings. He has 202 points and is 24 out of first.

The Sprint Cup Series takes a rare weekend off before returning to action Saturday, April 14 for the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT, with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 7 p.m.

“I had a good first lap, but I didn’t think that it was as good as it could be. So I tried to shine everything up, and I kind of overachieved and ended up getting loose in (turns) three and four on the second lap,” said Newman, whose best Sprint Cup finish at Martinsville is second, earned in October 2007. “But we’ll take fifth. I think we have a good Outback Chevy for tomorrow’s race. Hopefully, we’ll have some luck go our way too and come out of here with a top-10 so that everyone can go to Outback on Monday for a free Bloomin’ Onion®.”

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for SHR, will start 15th after turning a lap of 19.659 seconds at 96.322 mph.

“It was an ok lap for our Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy,” said Stewart, who has three Sprint Cup wins at Martinsville (October 2000, April 2006 and October 2011). “We felt really good about how our practices went yesterday. We’ll work on it for tomorrow.”

Kasey Kahne captured his 24th career Sprint Cup pole, his second of the season and his first at Martinsville by posting a lap of 19.496 seconds at 97.128 mph.

Kevin Harvick will start on the outside of row one as he timed in at 19.512 seconds at 97.048 mph. Denny Hamlin was third (19.521 seconds at 97.003 mph), while Clint Bowyer (19.521 seconds at 97.003 mph) and Newman rounded out the top five. A tie for third on the grid between Hamlin and Bowyer was broken by the current Sprint Cup owner standings.

Forty-six drivers attempted to qualify for the Goody’s Fast Relief 500. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were Tony Raines, Mike Bliss and Scott Speed.

As far as manufacturers went, Chevrolet took the top spot via Kahne’s pole run. Toyota was next best at the hands of Hamlin. Dodge was the third-best make thanks to seventh-fastest Brad Keselowski (19.572 seconds at 96.750 mph), while 12th-quick Marcos Ambrose (19.597 seconds at 96.627 mph) carried the flag for Ford.

The Goody’s Fast Relief 500 gets underway at 1 p.m. EDT on Sunday with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with a pre-race show at 12:30 p.m.

WELL, YOU ARE COMING OFF YOUR SECOND WIN LAST WEEK AND YOU ARE SEVENTH IN PRACTICE TODAY.  TELL US ABOUT YOUR PRACTICE:
“So far so good, you know it feels pretty stable and solid and it’s just a matter of tweaking right now to get ready for qualifying tomorrow.  I think we will have a little bit better idea about where we are at in race trim in the second session.”

HOW WOULD YOU RATE THIS RUN FROM LAST SEPTEMBER UNTIL NOW COMPARED TO SOME OF THE BIGGER MOMENTUM SWINGS IN YOUR CAREER?
“This is definitely the biggest one so far.  Especially to go through an offseason and pick it back up and to have some pretty big personnel changes in the middle of all that so, it’s pretty big right now.  You know the hard part is that you just don’t want it to end, you want it to stay like this.”

IS THIS THE BEST YOU HAVE RUN IN YOUR CAREER?
“I don’t know that it is the best I have run in my career but it is pretty close. I mean when we were running the year we won the Triple Crown in ’95 I feel like that is the best that I had ever run in my career and I don’t feel like we are far off that right now.”

BEST IN NASCAR MAYBE?
“This is the best I have run in NASCAR I think as far as just a long, consistent run like this.”

HOW DO YOU THINK YOU WILL RUN HERE (AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY) WITHOUT DARIAN (GRUBB) THIS YEAR?
“Well, we don’t know.  We won’t know till Sunday.  But you know, this was the place where it seemed like it all turned around for us and solidified us as a contender to win that championship.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE TRADITION OF GETTING TO SHOOT THE GUNS IN VICTORY LANE AT TEXAS AND ARE YOU HOPING TO GET TO DO THAT AGAIN?
“Absolutely.  It’s a unique trophy that you get to keep, so there are some cool and unique trophies around the country and Martinsville is one with the clock.  You go to Texas and you get the guns, and that is two places that you appreciate it when you get those because you don’t get anything like that anywhere else.”

WITH MARTINSVILLE BEING A SHORT TRACK AND COMING FROM FONTANA HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR A TRACK LIKE THIS AFTER COMING FROM THERE?
“The same as we always have.  It’s not a big deal. I mean we have all been doing this long enough that you learn to unload the equipment from last week, and you put the equipment in for this week and you go out for practice and it takes you a lap to remember what you do here so you just get right back in that swing of things.”

BACK TO THE MOMENTUM THING, IS THERE ANYTHING OTHER THAN WINNING THAT YOU SPECIFICALLY FEEL?
“I don’t know.  I just feel like I have been racing a lot and I feel like that has helped so I think our group here has done a great job and I just feel like I am always in that race mode.  I mean I am always running something but it makes it good when you come on a weekend and the cars are driving good and that’s been that way since Chicago of last year all the way through now.”

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS IN THE OFF WEEKEND?
“(Laughs) I have never told you guys what I am doing on my off weekend and I am not going to do that now.”

These victories have come in many forms. Fuel mileage. Pit strategy. All-out domination. But perhaps the biggest game changer in this recent run was Stewart’s win last October at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

The driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing did what seemingly no one had been able to do in years – make a pass for the win from the outside lane. And Stewart did it dramatically, passing five-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson on a restart with three laps to go.

“I don’t think anybody has ever passed Jimmie Johnson on the outside, so I guess it was just determination,” said Stewart about his all-out, late-race pass. “To be honest, it’s really not the fact of beating Jimmie as much as it’s just hard to win in this series to begin with. You cherish these opportunities. You make sure that when you have the opportunity, you make the most of it.”

The win catapulted Stewart into championship contention with still three races remaining, and he let it be known that a third championship was in the offing, telling a live, national television audience that, “Carl Edwards had better be really worried. That’s all I’ve got to say. He’s not going to have an easy three weeks.”

Edwards, of course, was the point leader, a position he had held for much of the season. But three weeks later, there was a confetti-covered Stewart, with two more wins under his belt and a third Sprint Cup championship trophy thrust over his head following the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Stewart proved himself to be a modern-day Nostradamus, and it was his Martinsville win that was his quatrain.

The victory was Stewart’s third at the tight and fast .526-mile oval and it maintained Martinsville’s status as a playground for the elite, for Stewart is one of just five active drivers who have won at Martinsville since 2003, a span of 18 races.

Stewart scored the second of his two career Sprint Cup wins at Martinsville on April 2, 2006. It was a rare sight, for since Kurt Busch won at Martinsville in October 2002, the only other active Sprint Cup drivers to visit Martinsville’s victory lane have been Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick. (Rusty Wallace, now retired and a NASCAR analyst for ESPN, scored his last Sprint Cup win at Martinsville on April 18, 2004.)

Gordon, a four-time Sprint Cup champion, turned Martinsville into Gordonville by sweeping the track’s two Sprint Cup races in 2003 and again in 2005. That run helped burnish Gordon’s legacy at the paperclip-shaped track, for he logged three previous Martinsville wins back in the late ‘90s.

Gordon’s domination, however, gave way to that of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. Johnson, who won a record five straight championships between 2006 and 2010, gave a glimpse of his future stranglehold on Martinsville when he won on Oct. 24, 2004. Since then, Johnson has scored five more Martinsville wins, including three straight from October 2006 through October 2007, and then back-to-back triumphs in October 2008 and March 2009.

But just as Johnson usurped Gordon’s dominance at Martinsville, another young hotshot did the same, making sure Johnsonville was known only for sausage.

Virginia-native Denny Hamlin broke Johnson’s win streak when he took home one of Martinsville’s prized grandfather clocks after winning the March 2008 Sprint Cup race, which served as a precursor to his wins in October 2009, March 2010 and October 2010.

It wasn’t until last year’s spring race at Martinsville that an interloper named Harvick finally broke through to score a victory at Martinsville.

Now it’s Stewart who is back on top, and he already knows what it’s like to have the upper hand at Martinsville. In addition to his three wins, he has three poles and holds the track qualifying record of 19.306 seconds at 98.083 mph, set in October 2005. He also has seven top-threes, nine top-fives, 14 top-10s and has led a total of 1,208 laps in 26 career Sprint Cup starts at Martinsville. Stewart’s laps-led tally ranks him third among active drivers, behind only Gordon (3,094) and Johnson (1,677).

With a series-leading two wins just five races into this year’s 36-race marathon, Stewart returns to Martinsville with the same hot hand he had back in October. That Stewart’s win came on the eve of Halloween is appropriate, because it still strikes fear in his opponents. Consider that prior to this season, only six of Stewart’s 46 career wins came before June, and only four came prior to race No. 10. Yet so far in 2012, he’s two for five, all before April.

That Sunday’s race at Martinsville is the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 is also appropriate, for there could very well be 42 other drivers reaching for a Goody’s if Stewart continues to manhandle his Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy for another Sunday drive toward victory lane.

TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You were on fire during last year’s Chase for the Championship, and even with the spoils of winning the championship, the offseason, a new crew chief in Steve Addington and a new competition director in Greg Zipadelli, there’s been no letup as you’ve gone into 2012. How have you been able to sustain the momentum?

“As much as we were all celebrating the championship, it was so impressive to get back to the shop and see how hard everybody was already working for this year. It’s easy for teams, when they have success, to kind of slow down a little bit, take a breath, feel like they’re exactly where they need to be. That’s probably the one thing I was most excited about through this winter, was watching our guys, listening to their comments about how excited they were to have the success we had, but how they were looking forward to this year and trying to be able to duplicate that. It’s nice to end the year on a high note like we did, and still be able to come out of the box and carry that momentum with a new competition director and new crew chief. I think it shows the depth of our program and our group of guys back at our shop.”

You’ve had success at Martinsville and a period where you were always a threat to win. What’s that like?

“You can have it, for sure. It’s knowing that feel, it’s finding that combination that works, and the next time you come back to that track you know what that feel is like and you know what you’re looking for in practice for it to be good in the race. During the race, the track changes quite a bit, but you know when you kind of have that rhythm. You have the timing of what it was like, you just know what that feel is in the car that you’re looking for, not necessarily to be good in Happy Hour as much as to be good for the race. When you’ve had a good weekend, the next time you go back it’s just easier to try to go back and mimic that feel. That’s why when guys hit on something they’re normally good for a while until the package changes quite a bit, and then once that changes, you have to learn a different feel. Normally for a while you can have that, and different guys, if you look over the history, have kind of had runs at it. It seems like whether it’s a three- or four- or five-race period, guys get that feel of it and know what that tire likes, what the chassis combination likes at that time, and they kind of have that and they know how to adapt to it.”

What do you like about racing at Martinsville?

“It’s still that old short-track feel. That’s what I like. We run a lot of 1.5-mile tracks during the year and it’s the only place that races like this. We’ve got two half-mile tracks that we race on. This one’s quite a bit different than Bristol (Tenn.), and that’s what makes it fun. You can out-brake guys and you can run the outside if you get a shot. It’s racing the way we all grew up racing.”

Your win back in October at Martinsville was impressive, mainly because of how you made that late-race pass on the outside of Jimmie Johnson. How did you do it?

“I don’t think anybody has ever passed Jimmie Johnson on the outside so, just determination. We didn’t have the best racecar that day, by any means, but we had the most determined pit crew to get it as good as they could get it. I was also the only guy who didn’t get in a wreck with somebody, so I was kind of proud of that.”

What was going through your mind on that final restart?

“To be honest, I was not excited about starting second there on the outside. I would’ve rather restarted third, but Jeff (Gordon) got to us and I hit the curb off of (turn) four before the restart. Jeff got underneath us going into (turn) one, and I ran that second lane and pulled two car lengths on him, and said, ‘Wow, this lane has a little bit more grip than I thought it had up there.’ The key was just getting into (turn) one beside him and not letting him run up the racetrack and holding him tight and letting myself have the opportunity to at least get through there.”

What was it like to get that win?

“There are two places where when you take the lead you absolutely know it. It’s Bristol and Martinsville. To pass Jimmie Johnson on the outside with two laps to go and to watch the crowd on the backstretch, then watch them on the frontstretch when we cleared him, you swear people are going to fall onto the racetrack. You feel that energy. You sense that. It’s not that you need extra motivation, but it’s cool to know you have that kind of support. It’s just that extra drive that gets you the rest of the way that last lap. It’s cool.”

During one point of that race, you were nearly lapped by Denny Hamlin and you had to fight him lap after lap while running the outside lane in order to stay on the lead lap. How much did that mid-race battle with Hamlin play into your victory ?

“I was reminded by my crew chief that morning, I was reminded by my spotter that morning, and I was reminded before the race by many crew members to not be so nice, which I know sounds odd of me. But that still meant racing guys with respect. You race these guys with respect and they’re going to race you back with respect.

“Could Jimmie (Johnson) just hauled it off in the corner, blown the corner to try to take us down? Absolutely. He could have done that to anybody. He didn’t do that to us. We have that level of respect.

“At one point in the race, I messed up and got underneath the ‘43’ car (A.J. Allmendinger), probably the big bonehead move of my race. I got underneath him in a spot where he was already coming down. I screwed up, he got sideways. I just checked up and let him have his spot back. I never saw anybody give anybody a spot back in a situation like that. It wasn’t his fault. I think later after that I got back by the ‘43’ car and instead of dumping me like the other guys were doing to each other, I think he knew I gave him that spot back because I knew I made a mistake. It just shows the respect that some guys did have for each other even though there was a lot of disrespect amongst a lot of guys out there.”

Does short-track racing, particularly around Martinsville’s tight confines, bring out the worst in drivers because there’s more opportunity?

“I used to be as guilty of it and bad as anybody about taking a cheap shot at guys early. But you realize that it’s not about the two guys driving the cars out there as much as there’s a bunch of crew guys who spend a lot of hours and put a lot of heart and soul into what we have as a product each week with these racecars and there’s a car owner who spends a lot of money. I think at times we all forget about that. You let a guy get his butt kicked once or twice, he’ll quit doing stupid stuff like that.”

Has becoming a car owner changed your outlook?

“Not necessarily. I mean, when Dale (Earnhardt) Sr., was here and Dale Jarrett, when I started, you just didn’t do that because that guy would come grab you, pull you out of the car at the end of the practice session, rip your head off talking to you about it, and intimidate you into understanding why you didn’t do that. Now there’s nothing. You can go yell at a guy. What does it accomplish? Does it make anybody understand what the other guy was thinking or saying? Two guys yell at each other, walk away, and nothing was different than before it happened. There’s nothing different to make these guys do anything other than what’s in their head.

“Even as a car owner now, I remember Joe Gibbs sitting me down and saying, ‘There’s other guys working on these things, too. You knock the nose off of it after a race because you’re mad at somebody, all of a sudden you created a lot more work for these guys.’ Maybe the crew guys need to get mad at their drivers when we do something stupid. Maybe the crew guys ought to pull the drivers back in the shop and make them fix it when they do it. I would be screwed because I can’t do it. I can barely put something that bolts together, together.”

TONY STEWART’S MARTINSVILLE PERFORMANCE PROFILE

† Qualifying canceled due to weather, starting position set via car owner points.
× Race length extended due to green-white-checker finish.

It’s a thrill Newman also enjoys on the racetrack each weekend.

Newman’s “hunt” will be in full force as he searches for his first win of the 2012 season behind the wheel of the No. 39 Outback Steakhouse Chevy as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rolls into Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500,.

After watching his boss and teammate Tony Stewart collect his second win in the past three races Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., Newman and the No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) team are ready for their turn to celebrate in victory lane. And, for the No. 39 team, there may be no better place to hunt down the competition and capture that first win than at the .526-mile paperclip-shaped Martinsville oval.

There’s no denying Martinsville has been one of the best racetracks on the circuit for the No. 39 team.

In six races at the Virginia short track since joining SHR, Newman has earned one pole, one outside pole and four top-10 finishes. And he has been a contender in each of the six races. In fact, in the other two races at Martinsville – a 20^th-place effort in the fall of 2010 and a 30^th-place effort in the spring of 2011 – Newman’s No. 39 Chevy was one of the cars to beat before experiencing part failures that essentially ruined his chances.

In 20 career starts at Martinsville, Newman has three poles, six top-five finishes and 10 top-10s. He even came close to victory in October 2007, when he finished second – his best finish at the challenging short track.

But perhaps the biggest weapon Newman, his crew chief Tony Gibson and the Outback Steakhouse team are bringing to the track this weekend is Chassis 39-645. The chassis has one win, two poles and two top-10 finishes.

It debuted last April at Martinsville, where Newman started second and, for the first 327 laps of the 500-lap Goody’s Fast Relief 500, he and the No. 39 team looked to be a sure bet for a top-10 finish, or even a contender for the win. Newman led three laps and ran solidly in the top-10 for most of the afternoon. But his good fortunes came undone on lap 328 thanks to a broken header pipe that sapped his car’s horsepower for the rest of the race, and a flat left-rear tire that sent him for a spin off turn three later in the race. Those events conspired to put Newman two laps down and relegated him to a 20^th-place finish.

Last July, Newman drove Chassis 39-645 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, where he started on the pole and led 119 of 301 laps en route to his 15^th career Sprint Cup victory. Two months later, he drove the same car at Loudon, started on the pole once again and led the first 62 laps, but finished a disappointing 25^th as a cut tire with less than five laps remaining dropped him out of the top-10.

The chassis made a return trip to Martinsville last fall, when Newman started 12^th but led 41 laps and ran inside the top-10 for much of the day. Despite a late-race spin, Newman grabbed 10 spots from his competitors in the closing 25 laps, to finish a solid 10^th.

There’s no doubt Newman has a good car and a solid history at Martinsville. And after earning his second top-10 finish of the season last weekend at Fontana, Newman also has momentum on his side. Now sitting 10^th in points, 40 behind leader Greg Biffle, Newman is in the hunt for that first win, as well as a coveted berth in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup Series Championship. He is primed to continue his move up in the Sprint Cup standings this weekend.

While his sponsor Outback Steakhouse has been celebrating Newman’s top-10 finishes this season with a free Bloomin’ Onion® for its customers on Mondays, Newman wants to give his fans and his new sponsor something else to cheer about in Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500 – his first “Bloomin’” win of the 2012 season.

RYAN NEWMAN, Driver of the No. 39 Outback Steakhouse Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You seemed to have struggled at Martinsville early on in your career but, more recently, you have been a contender each race. To what do you attribute that change?
“In all seriousness, we struggled with the brake package for a little while and I struggled learning how to drive this racetrack. Once we got those two things figured out, both at Penske (Racing) and now at Stewart-Haas, we’ve been in pretty good shape. We’ve been really strong here in qualifying and our Sundays have gotten better. We failed a rear gear here in a race we probably should have won, and we had an exhaust pipe fail in the spring race last year, which was another race we felt we should have won. We feel like, if it means anything, the track owes us a couple. But that doesn’t really mean anything when everyone shows up here on Sunday. Look at the stats for me and our (No.) 39 team, and we’re really good on short tracks and really good on flat tracks. I look forward to it.”

From a driver’s point of view, what does this track take to be successful? What do you go through in the car and what is your thought process?
“Martinsville is very much a finesse racetrack – from a braking standpoint, but also the acceleration part of it, too. You can really chew your tires up on the concrete before you get to the asphalt getting back to the gas, and you have to get back to the gas, but how you do it can make a really big difference in how good your car is for a whole fuel run. A fuel run here is roughly 110 to 120 laps, and you only get three or four times to do that. Tires are important but, if the race goes green for a long time, you can go a lap down by not managing your racecar. For me, I’m thinking about who’s around me, what to expect at the start of the race, how good the car is, what we need to work on, those kind of things. Sometimes your competition is more you than anybody else.”

So what do you like about Martinsville, now?
“We’ve got a good setup at Stewart-Haas. I enjoy the simplicity of the track. I enjoy the fact that you have to brake. Tracks you go to where you don’t have to brake just means more people can be closer to driving it because it requires less skill. The tracks where you have to operate that third pedal, it makes a big difference when it comes to driver ability. I think that’s why some people don’t enjoy Martinsville, at first. I didn’t enjoy Martinsville, at first. It was a big challenge. As simple as it is to hit the brake pedal, it’s pretty complex when it comes to doing it right.”

The No. 39 team has a history of doing well at short tracks. What is it about short tracks that you like?
“I like using the middle (brake) pedal. In all seriousness, I think it adds another parameter of a driver’s input when you have to modulate that third pedal. We have to go to places like Las Vegas and you’re using very little brake. When you are using a little bit, it’s hard to screw it up. I think our team has done a really good job with the brake package we have. I like the short tracks. I like having the character added to the program of modulating the brake. In my opinion, the driver has a little more of an impact on the end result at short tracks than some of the bigger racetracks, and I like that. The more the drivers are involved, the more I think you get to race and, from that standpoint, I think it’s more fun. Tony Gibson (crew chief) has some great setups with our short-track program. I enjoy them, he enjoys them, and we just go out there and have some fun. We’ve had a good car each time we’ve been to Martinsville. Gibson is a great fan of Martinsville and short-track racing, and he’s got a great understanding of the racecar there and what I like, and that makes a big difference, obviously, for me. We’ve had some good runs Martinsville, and we’re looking forward to continuing that streak this weekend.”

Talk about bringing Chassis No. 39-645 back to Martinsville this weekend?
“It’s a car we’ve had a lot of success with in just four races, and obviously a car I like. It’s got two poles and started on the outside of the first row, so it’s been a good car to qualify with, for sure. We got that win at New Hampshire and, while the other three results may not show it, it’s run well and we led laps at both Martinsville races and the fall New Hampshire race last year, too. I really think we felt like we had a couple of good finishes get away from us in this car so, hopefully, we can have a good run with it again this weekend at Martinsville.”

How special would it be for you to win at Martinsville and take home the grandfather clock?
“Very special, because we built a big log cabin and that’s one of the places we left open. This was back in 2007 and I still haven’t filled that void on the wall or on the floor, I guess, depending on how you look at it. So, I’m ready. I told someone the other day when I was up at Martinsville for a media deal that I hadn’t ever eaten one of the hot dogs there and maybe I should. Maybe that will get me into victory lane.”

Your sponsor Outback has given fans a free Bloomin’ Onion on Mondays when you finish in the top-10 in the race on Sundays. Have you taken advantage of the free Bloomin’ Onion?
“Absolutely. They know me by name at the Outback in Statesville (N.C.). I think we’ve had the opportunity to have had a top-10 every Sunday this year, but we’ve had some back luck and have gotten caught up in some wrecks not of our making at the end of the race that dropped us out of the top-10. So, I’m sorry we’ve only had two Mondays of free Bloomin’ Onions for fans, so far. But we’ll make up for it. This is a good track for our team and we have a really good car underneath us so, hopefully, after Martinsville, Outback will be giving out a lot of free Bloomin’ Onions.”

RYAN NEWMAN’S MARTINSVILLE SPRINT CUP SERIES PERFORMANCE PROFILE

× Race length extended due to green-white-checkered finish.
† Qualifying canceled due to weather, starting position set via car owner points.

Newman was in town visiting the Martinsville-Henry County SPCA as part of a media promotion for the upcoming Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. He was greeted in the parking lot on arrival by the 20-month old, 165-pound Bodhi, who seldom left his side for the next 90 minutes and even visited with Newman at the track later in the day.

The visit to the SPCA was second nature to Newman. He and his wife Krissie share a love of animals and formed the Ryan Newman Foundation several years ago to help educate and encourage people to spay and neuter their pets and to adopt dogs and cats from animal shelters. The Martinsville-Henry County SPCA has helped the Ryan Newman Foundation in the rescue of animals.

“They have a great facility, run by great people,” Newman said of the Martinsville-Henry County SPCA. “I got to see a great skit, their Paw and Pet Show. It was really fun, educational, cool and amazing for them to put together something like that.”

While much of the day was spent with animals, and talking about animals, Newman did manage to talk some racing, especially racing at Martinsville Speedway and the upcoming Goody’s Fast Relief 500 on April 1.

Newman has come oh-so-close to winning at Martinsville, but has never visited victory lane at the historic half-mile oval. In last spring’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500 he looked to be on the verge of breaking through, running fourth on lap 327 when a header pipe broke and cost him two laps in the pits for repairs. He wound up 20th after starting second.

“You have to survive here, that’s the hardest part,” said Newman, whose Chevrolet will be sponsored by Outback Steakhouse in the Goody’s Fast Relief 500. “You can show up and be ready to go to war, but if you are the first person to get bombed, it’s over for you.”

Martinsville Speedway will be kicking off its 65th season of racing with the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 weekend on March 30-April 1.

On the eve of Halloween, Tony Stewart proved to be a very scary figure for those still competing for this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

The driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) won Sunday’s TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway to score his third win in the last seven races, which bumped him up to second in points, only eight markers behind series leader Carl Edwards with just three races remaining.

“Carl Edwards had better be really worried,” said Stewart from a champagne-soaked victory lane. “That’s all I’ve got to say. He’s not going to have an easy three weeks.”

Stewart’s words were backed up by his actions, as he led three times for 14 laps and took the lead from five-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson on a restart with three laps to go.

“I don’t think anybody has ever passed Jimmie Johnson on the outside, so I guess it was just determination,” said Stewart about his all-out, late-race pass. “To be honest, it’s really not the fact of beating Jimmie as much as it’s just hard to win in this series to begin with. You cherish these opportunities. You make sure that when you have the opportunity, you make the most of it.”

In order to get this opportunity, which turned out to be his third win and 14^th top-10 in 26 career Sprint Cup starts at Martinsville and his 42^nd win in 461 career Sprint Cup races, Stewart had to overcome a lot of adversity, most notably, an unscheduled trip to pit road on lap 415 to replace what he thought was a flat tire.

“I swore I had a left-rear flat,” Stewart said. “We had changed so much stuff during the race that I didn’t think it was flat, but I thought it was going down. We had contact with (Kevin) Harvick and I felt a ‘clunk’ and I didn’t know if it broke something or if we had a flat, but at that part of the race you couldn’t take a chance. But (crew chief) Darian Grubb saved us and got us the great pit strategy there at the end that got us the track position back.”

The unscheduled pit stop dropped Stewart all the way to 20^th, yet he still rallied his way to the win in the final 80 laps around the tight, .526-mile bullring.

“I don’t think we had the best racecar today by any means, but we had the most determined pit crew to get it as good as they could get it,” said Stewart. “The first 200 laps, Darian was making changes. We just couldn’t get the car to respond to anything. He made some good changes the whole last half of the race that got us in the ballpark. He had two awesome pit calls with pit strategy that got us track position.

“The first time I screwed up and gave it away thinking I had a flat tire. Then at the end of the day, he got us that track position back with another great call for two tires. That is what truly gave us the shot to have that opportunity at the end of the day.

“For a guy that grew up 22 miles from here, he had an All-Star day today,” said Stewart, referencing Grubb’s Virginia connection, as he grew up in the tiny town of Floyd. “He made the right calls that gave us that opportunity, and kept making changes.

“Today was a fight, for sure. I was pretty mad all day, but I was the only guy who didn’t get in a wreck with somebody, so I was kind of proud of that.”

Stewart, the last driver not named Jimmie Johnson to win a Sprint Cup championship, is in contention to add a third title to the ones he earned in 2002 and 2005.

“This is a tough series,” said Stewart, now a 13-year Sprint Cup veteran and a seven-time Chase for the Sprint Cup participant. “It’s been a tough Chase. This is the best Chase field we’ve ever had. You work hard all year to try to be in this position. There were guys that may have had their chances taken away today. So to be in the position that we’re in right now, sitting here knowing that we’re right in the middle of this thing with three weeks to go, it’s obviously a great feeling and great position to be in. We’ve just got to go out and keep doing what we’re doing here.”

All three of Stewart’s victories this season have come during the Chase for the Sprint Cup, which the two-time Sprint Cup champion began seven races ago with back-to-back wins Sept. 19 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., and Sept. 25 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

This was the fourth Sprint Cup victory for SHR in 2011, as Stewart’s teammate, Ryan Newman, won in July at New Hampshire. SHR now has 11 Sprint Cup victories since its inception in 2009.

Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala for SHR, battled back for a solid 10^th-place finish in the TUMS Fast Relief 500 after getting spun into the SAFER Barrier in turn two late in the race. Newman led twice for 41 laps en route to his 16^th top-10 result of the season and his 10^th top-10 in 20 career Sprint Cup starts at Martinsville.

Stewart finished .170 of a second ahead of runner-up Johnson, while Jeff Gordon, Harvick and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five. Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Edwards and Newman comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 18 caution periods for 108 laps, with 11 drivers failing to finish the 500-lap race.

Stewart and Newman are both in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and came into Martinsville fourth and 12^th, respectively, in the Chase standings. Stewart was 19 points behind Chase leader Edwards while Newman was 88 points out of the top spot. Stewart leaves Martinsville second in points, eight markers behind series leader Edwards. Newman remained 12^th in the standings and is now 89 points out of first.

With only three races remaining before a champion is crowned following the season finale Nov. 20 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the top-12 drivers competing for the title rank as follows:

1.             Carl Edwards (2,273 points)
2.             Tony Stewart (2,265 points, -8)
3.             Kevin Harvick (2,252 points, -21)
4.             Brad Keselowski (2,246 points, -27)
5.             Matt Kenseth (2,237 points, -36)
6.             Jimmie Johnson (2,230 points, -43)
7.             Kyle Busch (2,216 points, -57)
8.             Kurt Busch (2,215 points, -58)
9.             Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2,200 points, -73)
10.         Jeff Gordon (2,197 points, -76)
11.         Denny Hamlin (2,193 points, -80)
12.         Ryan Newman (2,184 points, -89)

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the third to last race of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup – is the Nov. 6 AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. The race begins at 3 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 2 p.m.

Stewart led three times for 14 laps and took the lead from five-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson on a restart three laps from the finish. It was Stewart’s third win and 16th top-10 result of 2011, his third win and 14th top-10 in 26 career Sprint Cup starts at the .526-mile Martinsville oval, and his 42ndwin in 461 career Sprint Cup races.

All three of Stewart’s victories this season have come during the Chase for the Sprint Cup, which the two-time Sprint Cup champion began seven races ago with back-to-back wins Sept. 19 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., and Sept. 25 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

This was the fourth Sprint Cup victory for SHR in 2011, as Stewart’s teammate, Ryan Newman, won in July at New Hampshire. SHR now has 11 Sprint Cup victories since its inception in 2009.

Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala for SHR, battled back for a solid 10th-place finish after getting spun into the SAFER Barrier in turn two late in the race. Newman led twice for 41 laps en route to his 16th top-10 result of the season and his 10th top-10 in 20 career Sprint Cup starts at Martinsville.

Stewart finished .170 of a second ahead of runner-up Johnson, while Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five. Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards and Newman comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 18 caution periods for 108 laps, with 11 drivers failing to finish the 500-lap race.

Stewart and Newman are both in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and came into Martinsville fourth and 12th, respectively, in the Chase standings. Stewart was 19 points behind Chase leader Edwards while Newman was 88 points out of the top spot. Stewart leaves Martinsville second in points, eight markers behind series leader Edwards. Newman remained 12th in the standings and is now 89 points out of first.

With only three races remaining before a champion is crowned following the season finale Nov. 20 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the top-12 drivers competing for the title rank as follows:

1.                  Carl Edwards (2,273 points)
2.                  Tony Stewart (2,265 points, -8)
3.                  Kevin Harvick (2,252 points, -21)
4.                  Brad Keselowski (2,246 points, -27)
5.                  Matt Kenseth (2,237 points, -36)
6.                  Jimmie Johnson (2,230 points, -43)
7.                  Kyle Busch (2,216 points, -57)
8.                  Kurt Busch (2,215 points, -58)
9.                  Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2,200 points, -73)
10.              Jeff Gordon (2,197 points, -76)
11.              Denny Hamlin (2,193 points, -80)
12.              Ryan Newman (2,184 points, -89)

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the third to last race of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup – is the Nov. 6 AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. The race begins at 3 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 2 p.m.