Race 2 Win: Dickies 500 - Ryan Newman Notes

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Dickies 500 - Ryan Newman Notes

Ryan Newman/Texas Advance

NNCS Notes:

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge, will make his 150th start in the NASCAR Cup Series this Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. In 149 Cup starts, Newman has earned 12 victories, 52 top-five and 75 top-10 finishes, and 34 poles.

Sunday's Dickies 500 will mark Newman's fifth TMS start.

In Newman's four previous Texas starts, he has posted one top-10 finish, a victory in March 2003. The victory was his first of eight that season. He possesses an average TMS finish of 24.0.

Newman has earned one Bud Pole Award and two top-five starts in four qualifying attempts at Texas Motor Speedway. He possesses an average TMS start of 13.75.

Newman has led a total of 80 laps in his four appearances at TMS.

Matt Borland, crew chief of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge, is taking chassis PRS-61 to Texas. PRS-61 finished ninth at California Speedway in February. Two weeks later it won the pole and finished ninth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Newman and the Alltel team tested chassis PRS-61 at Texas Motor Speedway on Tuesday, Oct. 25.

The Alltel team's 23rd-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway moved Newman into a tie for fourth with Carl Edwards in the "Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup" point standings. Newman and Edwards both trail the series point leader, Tony Stewart, by 107 points.

Newman and the Alltel team were seventh in the point standings at this time in the 2004 season.

Newman leads all 2005 NNCS competitors with 27 top-10 starts. He has posted a series-high seven poles and 12 front-row starts.

The Dickies 500 will air live on NBC at 3 p.m., EST, on Sunday, Nov. 6, and can be heard on PRN Radio.

Stats:
Texas Motor Speedway Starts: 4
Races/Laps Led: 3/80
Best Start: 1 (April 2005)
Best Finish: 1 (March 2003)

Appearances:
Matt Borland, NASCAR Performance Live Guest Spot (MRN Radio), Mobil 1 booth at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Wednesday, Nov. 2, 7 p.m., EST.

Quotes:
Newman on Texas: "The Alltel team has had success before at Texas. We won there in 2003, but haven't really been able to gain any momentum at the track off of that win. We finally figured out qualifying there in the spring. Hopefully, this weekend we'll unload fast and win another pole. That gives us a better chance of earning the five bonus points for leading a lap. The important thing, though, is to make sure the car is fast not only for one lap, but for 334 of them.

"We had a great test session at Texas last week. I feel that the Alltel team learned a lot and can put it to good use this weekend. Hopefully, we'll gain some of the points back that we lost in Atlanta and continue to work at earning our career best points finish. If that's a championship that's even better, but we're going to have to perform a lot better than we have during our last few 1.5-mile races."

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