Ryan Newman
No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger
UAW DaimlerChrysler 400 advance
NOTES:
Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge, will make his seventh Cup start at the newly-repaved and renovated Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It will be Newman’s 191st start in the Cup Series.
Newman has an average start of 9.5 at LVMS, which includes one Bud Pole Award in March 2005. Three more of Newman’s starts at the intermediate track were from top-five starting positions. His worst finish came in March 2001 during Newman’s first race at the track when he qualified 35th.
Three of Newman’s six starts at Las Vegas have ended in top-10 finishes, including a career-best fourth in March 2002. The other three starts have seen Newman finish 27th or lower, including a 43rd in last year’s race after being involved in an accident that removed the Alltel Dodge from competition after only 88 laps.
Newman has led three races for a total of 97 laps. He has completed 1,421 laps of a possible 1,605, giving Newman an 88.5 percent completion rate.
Crew chief Mike Nelson and the No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger team will take chassis PRS-71 to this weekend’s UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This car was tested at Indianapolis and Charlotte in 2006, but it never saw any race action.
The backup car for Las Vegas will be chassis PRS-104. This was the car Newman drove two weeks ago in the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway. He qualified the car 19th and finished 12th. This car was also tested last year at Kentucky and was taken as the backup car to Fontana in February, Las Vegas and Texas in April.
QUOTES:
Newman on Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “Our team didn’t have a great test out here in January, but we had a great run at California Speedway two weeks ago, which is set up a lot like Vegas. This team has come a long way from how we ran on intermediate tracks last year. We’ve got a lot of races coming up on these types of tracks and I think we’re all anxious to get back on track and see if we’ll keep our momentum going from California or if there’s still some work we need to do. We had some problems with turn one during the pre-season test, so we’ll have to make some adjustments to the car to make sure we don’t have those same problems during the race.”
Quick Stats:
Las Vegas Motor Speedway: 6
Races Led/Laps Led: 3/97
Best Starting Position: 1 (March 2005)
Best Finishing Position: 4 (March 2002)
March 2006 Start: 11
March 2006 Finish: 43
