Race 2 Win: Dickies 500 - Ryan Newman Notes

Nextel Cup Series

Dickies 500 - Ryan Newman Notes

Ryan Newman
No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger
Dickie's 500 advance

NNCS Notes:

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger, will make his seventh NASCAR Cup Series start at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday and his 186th in the NASCAR Cup Series.

In 2005, Newman swept the Bud Pole Award at TMS, but he only has one other start inside the top 10 – a third in March 2003. Newman’s other starts include a 15th, 36th and a 14th earlier this year in April. Newman’s average start at the 1.5-mile tri-oval is 11.67.

Newman has one win at the Fort Worth track, which occurred in March 2003. That victory is Newman’s only top-15 finish at the track, however. In April, Newman finished 40th after a crash removed him from contention after 200 laps. His average finish at Texas is 26.83.

Newman has led three races at TMS for a total of 80 laps, including 77 en route to Victory Lane in March 2003. Unfortunately, Newman has also struggled with three DNFs at the track. He has finished 1,650 laps of a possible 2,004, giving Newman an 82.3 percent completion rate.

Matt Borland, crew chief of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger, and the Alltel team will take chassis PRS-048 to this weekend’s Dickies 500. This car was last driven in Kansas for the Banquet 500. Newman qualified 15th and finished 24th. This car was also driven in California for the Sony HD 500. There, Newman qualified 12th and finished 33rd. Before that, this car was driven at Michigan International Speedway in the GFS Marketplace 400. Newman started fourth, but finished 25th after dealing with a variety of problems during the race. This car was also tested at Kentucky this year, but before that, it had not been on a track since the 2003 season. In September 2003, Newman drove the car at Loudon where he started on the pole and finished ninth. In November of that year, he started on the pole at Phoenix and finished third.

The backup car for Texas is chassis PRS-076. This car was last run at Charlotte three weeks ago. After a rear-end housing cracked, Newman finished 27th. At Chicagoland in July, Newman started 12th and ended up 36th. Before that, Newman drove the car three previous times this season; most recently at Michigan. Newman used this same chassis at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in the Coca-Cola 600, where he finished 35th after starting 18th, and at Darlington in May, where he placed sixth after starting second. Newman also tested this car at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on May 3. Last year, Newman raced this car at Chicagoland Speedway. Prior to the 2005 Chicago race, the car was used in May at Darlington and at Charlotte, and in June at Michigan. The car qualified on the front row in each of the four 2005 races, winning two poles - one at Charlotte and the other at Michigan.

Newman on Texas Motor Speedway:
“Texas has been a difficult track for this team to figure out, even more so than the other mile- and-a-half tracks. I’m not sure why this track has been so hard for us, but it seems like every other race we end up getting caught in some sort of wreck.”

“We’re taking the car that we tested at Homestead a couple of weeks ago and we made some pretty good laps in the car. Hopefully, the car will be just as good in Texas and we’ll be able to stay out of trouble and get a good finish on Sunday.”

Quick Stats:
Texas Motor Speedway: 6
Races Led/Laps Led: 3/80
Best Starting Position: 1 (twice)
Best Finishing Position: 1 (March 2003)
November 2005 Start: 1
November 2005 Finish: 25