Ryan Newman/California Advance
Notes:
Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge, will make his fifth California Speedway start and his 118th career NASCAR Cup Series start this Sunday. In his previous four starts at the speedway, Newman has posted two top-five finishes.
Newman has finished in the top-five in the past two consecutive races at California Speedway.
Newman has led three times in his four starts at California Speedway for a total of seven laps.
Newman will look to be the first two-time pole winner at the speedway on Saturday. Newman set a track record of 38.414 seconds and 187.432 miles per hour during his rookie visit to the 2-mile speedway.
Newman possesses the highest average starting position, 6.5, of all active drivers with multiple starts at California Speedway.
While Newman and the ALLTEL team have seemingly mastered the art of qualifying, the team will qualify for the first on Saturday, as NASCAR officially starts its new qualifying format this weekend.
Crew chief Matt Borland and the No. 12 ALLTEL team will take chassis PRS-61 to California Speedway this weekend. PRS-61 was raced most recently at Kansas Speedway where Newman was running in the top-five before colliding with the turn two outside retaining wall. PRS-61 has been tested at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
On Thursday, Newman and Borland, will hit the skies in a jet refueling mission from March Air Force Base near the speedway. Neither ALLTEL team member has been involved in such a mission before. Both Newman and Borland, however, flew F-16 fighter jets last year at Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix International Raceway.
After a 20th-place finish in the 2005 Daytona 500, Newman and the ALLTEL team are 19th in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series point standings. This is 11 positions higher than the team was at this point in 2004.
The Auto Club 500 at California Speedway will air live on FOX at 2 p.m., EST on Sunday, Feb. 27 and also can be heard on MRN Radio.
Quotes:
Newman on California Speedway: "The last time the ALLTEL team was at California Speedway, we had to lay it all on the line due to the point standing situation at that time. It all worked out well for us and we got our second top-five finish there. Fuel strategy worked to our benefit in the spring. So actually, both races were pretty good for us at California last year.
"We learned a lot there during testing last year, and again in testing this past January. Our new Dodge Charger performed pretty well at Daytona last weekend, but we'll get an even better handle on it this weekend. I look for really good things to come from it."
Stats:
California Speedway Starts: 4
Poles: 1 (2002)
Best Start: 1 (2002)
Best Finish: 3 (May 2004)
May 2004 Start: 7
May 2004 Finish: 3
September 2004 Start: 14
September 2004 Finish: 5
