Ryan Newman
No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger
Auto Club 500 advance
NNCS Notes:
Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger, will make his ninth NASCAR Cup Series start at California Speedway on Sunday and his 190th in the NASCAR Cup Series.
In Newman’s first-ever start at the 2-mile Southern California track, he sat on the pole in April 2002. Since then, Newman has earned a 10.75 starting average with three top-10s and a top-five, which came in 2003 when Newman started fourth. Three of Newman’s four other starts at California have been from the top-15. His worst start came from the 28th position in September 2005.
May 2004 brought Newman his best finish at the Fontana, Calif., track -- a third place. Newman has earned three top-10s, including two top-five finishes. His other top five came in September 2004 when he finished fifth. Overall, Newman has an average finish of 18.
Newman has led three races at California Speedway for a total of seven laps. He has completed 1,788 laps of a possible 2,005, giving Newman a completion rate of 89.1 percent.
Crew chief Mike Nelson and the No. 12 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger team will take chassis PRS-104 to this weekend’s Auto Club 500 at California Speedway. This car was tested last year at Kentucky and was taken as the back-up car to Fontana in February, Las Vegas and Texas in April, but the car has never been on the track during a race.
The backup car for California is chassis PRS-71. This car was tested at Indianapolis and Charlotte last year, but never saw any action during race time.
Newman on California Speedway:
“We struggled a lot last year at the intermediate tracks and we spent a good part of the off-season focusing on improving that part of our program. We didn’t have a great test at Las Vegas a few weeks ago, but we’re looking forward to getting to California and seeing if all the testing we’ve been doing since Homestead will pay off. I think we’re going to have a good car this weekend and we’re all anxious to get back to the intermediate tracks to see what we’ve improved on and what we still need to work on.”
Quick Stats:
California Speedway: 8
Races Led/Laps Led: 3/7
Best Starting Position: 1 (2002)
Best Finishing Position: 3 (May 2004)
February 2006 Start: 11
February 2006 Finish: 20
