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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Ryan Newman Embraces Right Turns, Too
Ryan Newman has turned out to be a fine road racer...
Rick Minter  | http://www.RacinToday.com  |  Posted June 18, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Ryan Newman enjoys road racing and has scored some great finishes at Infineon Raceway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

When you think about the great road racers in NASCAR, a few names come to mind immediately – Jeff Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Stewart for starters. Then there are the ringers like Scott Pruett and Boris Said, and other road-course experts like Robby Gordon and Marcos Ambrose.

But looking at NASCAR’s loop data, those numbers gathered from the sanctioning body’s scoring mechanisms, a surprising name pops up – Ryan Newman.

www.RacinToday.com

Statistically speaking, he’s among the top five road racers at Infineon Raceway, where the Cup circuit will run the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on Sunday.

Newman leads all drivers in laps run in the top 15 over the past four races with 379, and his percentage of laps among the top 15 is a league-leading 85.7. But he’s not just good at being in the top 15. In quality passes, those of a driver running in the top 15, he’s tied with Jeff Gordon for second place at 94. Newman’s teammate Tony Stewart leads them all with 127.

And Newman’s results in the old-fashioned statistical categories are good too. His best Infineon finish was second in 2006. In seven career starts, he has two top-five and five top-10 finishes, and he’s never been worse than 20th.

He also has a second-place finish at Watkins Glen, the other road course on the Cup circuit, and it came in his first start there, in 2002. He also won a Nationwide Series race at the Glen in 2005.

Newman said this week that he enjoys turning both left and right and driving uphill and down.

“In all reality, it is another Cup race, but it’s different,” he said of the Sonoma, Calif., event. “It’s the first time we get to run a road course, and typically there’s a different type of cream that rises to the top there.

“I enjoy it. I enjoy hustling the race car around the track, and Infineon’s a good road course. Personally, I enjoy Watkins Glen a bit more, but I enjoy them both and I look forward to racing out there.”
Of course, with it being a road course, there’s a great chance that a third-straight Cup race will be decided by fuel mileage, but Newman is good at that too.


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Rick Minter

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