NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Newman’s Baby Blues/Notebook
Ryan Newman and wife Krissie are about to become parents...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted November 13, 2010   Avondale, AZ
Ryan Newman (Left), driver of the #39 US Army Chevrolet, and his wife Krissie (Right) are expecting any day now. (Photo: Getty Images)
BABY MAKES THREE — There is no creature as clueless as an adult male who is about to become a first-time father. Unless you’ve had a baby, there’s just no possible way of explaining about what happens in the first few days of parenthood. So Ryan Newman can be forgiven for his answers about wife Krissie, who is due to deliver the couple’s first child any day now.

“I think she is good,” Newman said Friday at Phoenix International Raceway. “I just texted her and she is doing filing back at the house, which is a big event for her. I guess — I don’t really know how women work — when they are pregnant, they are hormonal and they do different things. Her midwife called it ‘surging.’ She said she is going to have some surges and I asked what that was. She said that is when the hormones are going to race at different times. I said, ‘Well, that explains everything for the last nine months.’ She is doing filing right now, she is good.”

But Newman was just getting started.

“She is craving ice, which I guess is typical but there are certain smells that are driving her nuts. I had a house full of deer jerky this week and that is not on the list of good things.”

Newman has NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular Ron Hornaday Jr. on standby, in case he’s called home, but Newman was fuzzy about the particulars.

“I don’t think the bell is going to get rung that hard when God makes the call,” Newman said. “I don’t know exactly what is going to happen in respect to Ron, but he is on standby, yes.”

Asked if he would leave if Krissie goes into labor, Newman actually laughed.

“I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know,” he said. “It all depends on the timing of things. Obviously, if I am in the car, another few laps may not hurt. I’m just sayin’. I have a couple people in line to delay the message as it gets to me, just in case. Obviously, that is really important in my line. Our first baby. I don’t know if you can say first baby or last baby or whatever, but, it is important to be there. To be there for her. She has her mom by her side so that is really good too. I told her when she was filing, not to get any paper cuts, just be careful.”

BUSCH’S BEEN THERE — Kurt Busch knows all about close races in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He prevailed in the first, and so far most exciting Chase, back in 2004, outdueling Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon to win the championship. Busch sees some similarities between his epic title battle and this year’s shootout among Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick.

“I hope that the switch has been turned on for the last few weeks because it’s been a great Chase,” Busch said Friday at Phoenix International Raceway. “The more guys that are in it, that’s what creates this excitement and the element of the unknown. Keeping up with one guy or two guys, three guys, it’s just exciting and we should be talking about it now. It shouldn’t be saved for next week. ... This has the makings of ’04 and ’04 had the makings of what it was in 1992. It’s what everybody likes to see, a great points battle all the way to the end and it’s just not the final race, it’s the weeks leading up and how they’ve handled the pressure for the weeks leading up.”
Jeff Burton heads to Daytona in 2011 with a 77-race winless streak. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

BURTON GOOD FOR BIZ? — Jeff Burton, known as “The Mayor” in the Sprint Cup garage for his intelligence and political savvy, said he’s still trying to weigh whether his much publicized crash and subsequent on-track confrontation with Jeff Gordon last week at Texas was good for the sport because it made headlines, or bad for it because it cast the drivers in a less-than-favorable light.

“The whole debate about what's good for NASCAR, what's not good for NASCAR, I don't know,” said Burton. “I know that fans on the back straightaway thought it was cool. I could hear that. I'm torn between what is good for NASCAR and what is not good for NASCAR. I try to conduct myself in a way that will make me and my kids and my sponsors and everybody proud of me even when things aren't good. You can certainly cross a line. I come to the race to race. I don't come to the race to be part of the show. When I hear people describe these events as ‘shows,’ that perturbs me a little bit; I'm here to race. I understand that this is entertainment for people. I get it. I'm a sports fan. Sports are entertaining for me. But, I'm not here to create a show. I'm not here to be involved in that stuff. I'm here to race. I want the race to be the show.”


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