Ryan Newman/Richmond Advance
BUSCH SERIES
Ryan Newman, driving the No. 39 Mobil 1 Dodge, will make his third Richmond International Raceway start and the 27th of his NASCAR Busch Series career Friday.
Newman's other two Busch Series starts at Richmond occurred in 2001 when he ran his precedent setting ABC schedule. That year he qualified fourth and finished 14th in the spring race, then started on the outside of the front row in the fall and placed seventh.
Newman's other two Busch Series races this year were the Stater Bros. 300 at California Speedway and the Nicorette 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Newman finished second and 39th, respectively.
In 26 NBS races, Newman has posted seven victories, 10 poles, 11 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes.
Newman's crew chief for the NBS race is Matt Gimbel, who oversaw Kurt Busch's NBS victory at Texas and a fourth-place finish at Phoenix, both last month. Gimbel made his debut as the crew chief of the Busch Series team with Newman at Atlanta.
Gimbel is taking chassis PBC-007 to Richmond. In this car's only other race, Newman drove it to a second-place finish at California Speedway. He also tested it at Richmond earlier this year.
Quotes:
Newman on Richmond: "I'm looking forward to running the Busch Series race at Richmond. We've always done well at that track and I think this will be beneficial to our performance there. Due to the new testing rules this year, it also will help us prepare for the second Richmond race, which has always played a critical role in our championship efforts."
Quick Stats:
Richmond International Raceway: 2
Races Led/Laps Led: 0/0
Best Starting Position: 2 (2001)
Best Finishing Position: 7 (2001)
May 2005 Start: N/A
May 2005 Finish: N/A
