Passing Lane
A NASCAR BLOG BY Mike Hembree
Newman a new man in 2009
Flyin’ Ryan Newman is flying again.
He hasn’t won a race this year, but you can smell it coming. After three seasons of racing mostly in the shadows at Penske Racing, Newman has new life at the new Stewart-Haas Racing team. He has two top-fives and four top-10s in 10 races and is a solid 10th in seasonal points.
And he’s done all this despite the fact that his teammate, Tony Stewart, is the more prominent partner in the new team and despite the fact that a 3,400-pound race car almost landed in his lap recently.
Newman’s season has had a remarkable and unusual trajectory. For the first six races of the year, he posted a higher finish with each succeeding week – 36th at Daytona, 28th at Fontana, 25th at Las Vegas, 22nd at Atlanta, seventh at Bristol and sixth at Martinsville.
That spin ended with a 15th-place run at Texas, but Newman has had a third and a fourth in the past two races and has climbed from deep in the points to a position to make the Chase For The Sprint Cup.
Newman missed the Chase in the past three seasons, including last year, when he won the Daytona 500 to open with a splash but soon disappeared underwater. Soon, it was easy to forget that this was the same guy who won eight races in 2003.
At Stewart-Haas, Newman appears to have rekindled the promise he showed a few years ago.
Mike Hembree
Mike Hembree has been covering NASCAR since 1975 and has been an associate editor at NASCAR Scene for three and one-half years.
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Comments
7 responses to "Newman a new man in 2009". Post a Comment.
Forrest Miller said:
May 5, 2009 at 3:19 PMThere is no lack of talant with Ryan Newman.
Report as AbuseHe should have left Penske Racing years ago.
Keep it up Ryan.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportchris Stephens said:
May 5, 2009 at 7:38 PMI can't wait to see who wins first, Newman or Smoke.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportJIM BRUNO said:
May 5, 2009 at 8:07 PMThose two together should be very successful as a team. Newman was awesome when he was driving the Fords. Then he went to Penske Dodges and his career went into a slump. Could have been the team, I really dont know. I wish Ryan and Tony the best of luck, and hope they both make the chase.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportkristy fristed said:
May 5, 2009 at 8:20 PMThink these two are going to be at the top! It was a great move for both! I can't wait to see who's going to win first either.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportGregg Dark said:
May 7, 2009 at 2:56 PMTony Stewart and Ryan Newman will be at the top at the end of the year, but the ultimate team, I think, would be for Stewart to acquire Dale Jr. and Brad Keselowski. Then, all split Nationwide time in one car. That would be a great team.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportAndrew Sanchez said:
May 7, 2009 at 6:25 PMRyan has always been awesome, it is too bad Penske couldn't give him quality rides though.
Report as AbuseAnd Gregg, I'm not sure acquiring Jr. and Brad is necessarily a good idea. They should acquire Kasey Khane and Martin Truex Jr. since both are good drivers suffering from crappy performance at their respective organizations.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportDale said:
May 8, 2009 at 12:40 PMGregg,
Report as AbuseIf you want SHR to be successful, why would you want Tony to hire Jr? Let's get real. Jr. is washed up at this point. He spends more time being a TV Shill than driving.
I expect a win for Tony or Ryan (hopefully both) very soon. There are many other better drivers available out there that Tony can choose from if he decided to go to 3 teams next year.
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