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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
NEWMAN: Bragging Rights
The NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race is a get-the-job-done-now race, and I love it...
Ryan Newman  |  Posted May 13, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing writes Voices of SPEED on SPEEDtv.com. (Photo: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Bragging rights.

That’s what this weekend is all about for teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

The Sprint All-Star Race is a get-the-job-done-now race, and I love it. This is how I grew up racing. In fact, it’s how a lot of us started racing – 10-lap heat races, last-chance races. In the All-Star race, you have to get it done quickly. It’s for a million dollars. It’s for pride. It’s for bragging rights.
It doesn’t get any better than that.

This year, the All-Star Race ends with a 10-lap shootout. There will be some sparks flying.

I know what it’s like to win at everyone’s home track in the All-Star Race, and I don’t know that there is any other feeling like it. I would love for my No. 39 U.S. Army/Haas Automation team and Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) to enjoy that feeling together this year in the All-Star Race.

I won the race in 2002, during my rookie year. Wouldn’t it be cool if I could take a rookie team – the No. 39 team at Stewart-Haas Racing – to victory lane in the All-Star Race this season? Maybe we’re not really a rookie team, but this is the first season for SHR and it is my first season with the No. 39 team.

I would say, with the exception of my win in the Daytona 500 last year, what we accomplished in the Sprint All-Star race in 2002 is probably one of the greatest achievements in my career in the elite division of NASCAR.

I was driving the No. 12 car for Penske Racing in 2002. It was my rookie season. And what we did that night was unbelievable. We surprised everyone.

Since I hadn’t won a race in the Sprint Cup Series just yet, I had to race my way into the main show – the All-Star Race. My victory in the 16-lap NO BULL SPRINT meant that I transferred into the All-Star race.

I was thrilled. So was the whole team. We put ourselves in the All-Star Race, and by doing so, we were in the best position of anyone to win. After all, as a rookie team, we had nothing to lose. We weren’t even supposed to be in the race.

In the end, we beat everybody on a given night in our backyard. We weren’t racing for points. We were racing for glory and money. It was a great win for us.


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