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Neither Ryan Newman nor Kurt Busch will likely qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup this season. (Jim Isaac, Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images Photo) ยป More Photos
When teammates Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch crossed the finish line 1-2 at the Daytona 500 in February, it appeared that the sky was the limit for Roger Penske’s NASCAR effort in 2008, a sign his stock-car team might finally reach the lofty heights his open-wheel teams have occupied for years.
For while team owner and business titan Penske has amassed 14 Indy 500 victories and 18 national racing championships, his NASCAR teams have not been as successful. From 1972 until the end of 2007, Penske’s NASCAR drivers won 60 races, but until Newman’s victory, no Penske driver had ever won a restrictor-plate race. Nor has the team won a NASCAR Sprint Cup title or a race victory in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, the place Penske has owned with his IndyCar squadron.
The Newman-Busch Daytona 1-2, though, seemed like it had broken the Penske NASCAR curse the same way the 2005 Boston Red Sox victory had broken the Curse of the Babe. Once Newman’s Dodge took the checkered at Daytona, anything seemed possible for Penske Racing in NASCAR.
Now, less than six months later, the magic at Daytona seems like little more than a faded memory
And lest one questions how the Indiana native feels about Penske Racing, Newman dropped this bon mot this week about his soon-to-be-former race team. Quoting one of team boss Penske’s favorite quotes, Newman said, “Effort equals results. If you’re not getting the results then, you know, you question the effort.”
In the politically correct world of NASCAR, drivers rarely throw their teams under the bus as definitively as Newman did. To say your own team isn’t making the necessary effort, well, those are pretty much fighting words.
Yet Newman has a valid point. With two drivers of the caliber of Newman and Busch languishing outside the top 12 in points — this will be the third straight year Newman has missed the Chase and the second time in the last three Busch has come up short — one has to wonder just what ails what should be one of the most powerful teams in the sport.
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