Ryan Newman has had a strong first season with Stewart-Haas Racing, surprising many by remaining solidly in the top 10 in points with what essentially is a new team. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Ryan Newman has had a strong first season with Stewart-Haas Racing, surprising many by remaining solidly in the top 10 in points with what essentially is a new team.
But the Indiana native knows he can’t let up now — not with his season very much on the line.
With four races to go until the Chase for the Sprint Cup begins, Newman is in ninth place, exactly 100 points ahead of 13th-place Kyle Busch. In all probability, Newman will make it into the Chase. For him to miss NASCAR’s playoff round would probably require at least two DNFs in the next four races, an unlikely scenario given that he’s been running at the finish of all 23 races so far this year.
Still, Newman is taking nothing for granted.
“I know the guys who are breathing down our neck for the top-12 are really good guys, competitiveness-wise. I’m not comfortable,” said Newman. “Our team’s not comfortable. I don’t think you can ever really get comfortable. It’s racing. You never know what the situation is going to be each week. You can have the best-prepared, fastest racecar and something can happen. There are pitfalls in this sport, and you just never know.”
One reason for Newman’s discomfort is that he’s had hot and cold streaks this season in the No. 39 Chevrolet Impala SS. In the first four races of the year, his best finish was a 22nd-place run in Atlanta, after which he was 32nd in points.
A seventh-place run at Bristol the following week began a 10-race hot streak that saw Newman post five top-five and eight top-10 finishes, which elevated him all the way up to fourth in points.
The last eight races, though, have been relatively disappointing, with just one top 10, a sixth at Chicagoland Speedway, and an average finish of 18.00 — not what Newman or crew chief Tony Gibson were looking for.
“What we do know is what we need to do to put ourselves into the Chase, and that’s to perform these final four races,” said Newman. “We just need to do what we’ve done, only we need to try to do it better. We’ve got ourselves in a position to be in the top-12, but we need to do it better because we’re sitting ninth right now, and that’s a dangerous place to be sitting with four races to go.
