Ryan Newman
No. 12 Alltel Dodge Avenger
Food City 500 Advance
NNCS Notes (Food City 500):
Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge, will make his 11th Cup start at Bristol Motor Speedway. It will be Newman’s 193rd start in the Cup Series.
Newman has an average start of 7.4 at BMS. Newman has earned two Bud Pole awards at the 0.533-mile track. Newman has six other top-10 starts at the track; his two other starts were a 14th in August 2002 and a 21st in August 2006.
Newman has five top-10 finishes at the Tennessee short track, including a career-best second in August 2004. In 2006, Newman had two top-10 finishes – a ninth in the March race and an eighth last August. Newman’s average finish at Bristol is 19.7.
Newman has led three races for a total of 57 laps. He has completed 4,620 laps of a possible 5,000, giving Newman a 92.4 percent completion rate. He has finished all but one race at BMS; an accident in August 2005 left Newman 39th after only 317 laps.
Crew chief Mike Nelson and the No. 12 Alltel Dodge Avenger team will take chassis PRS-503 to this weekend’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. This Car of Tomorrow was tested at Bristol earlier this month.
The backup car for Bristol is chassis PRS-509. This car is new and has never been on a track.
Newman on Bristol Motor Speedway: “This team has always done well at short tracks and I always look forward to racing at Bristol. Things will be a little different with the new COT cars being used, but I think it will be interesting as well. We’ve tested these cars, but we’ve never seen 43 cars on the track at one time, so I think this is the ultimate test to see how the cars race and how they hold up safety wise. I think all the drivers and teams are just as anxious to see this race take place as the fans are.”
Quotes:
Newman on Bristol Motor Speedway: “I always like running in the Busch races and this year, I’m scheduled to run eight. I enjoy running at Bristol and I’ve done well there in the past. This year, I get to run both Busch races at the track.”
“This team has worked very hard and they had a great finish at Las Vegas with Kurt (Busch) and they’ve had some good races with Sam (Hornish, Jr.) behind the wheel as well. I think this weekend will be great. We had a very good run going last August, earning our first pole at the track in the Busch Series and leading so many laps. I think if we’d had a few more laps, we could’ve passed the last five cars and gotten into Victory Lane. We’re going to try to have that same kind of success this weekend and I think this team is absolutely capable of getting the win.”
Quick Stats:
Bristol Motor Speedway: 10
Races Led/Laps Led: 3/57
Best Starting Position: 1 (Twice)
Best Finishing Position: 2 (August 2004)
March 2006 Start: 6
March 2006 Finish: 9
