Teammates Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart take different routes to top-10 finishes
MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Stewart-Haas Racing's Ryan Newman enjoyed a strong outing at Martinsville Speedway Sunday, starting from the pole position and finishing seventh in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Tums Fast Relief 500.
With the performance, Newman climbed a spot to seventh in the Chase For The Sprint Cup, though he is 312 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson. Teammate and team co-owner Tony Stewart didn't fare quite as well, though he rallied late to finish ninth in the race. That left him fourth in the Chase, 192 points behind Johnson.
Newman raced among the top-10 drivers for most of the 500-lap race on the .526-mile track.
"We lost track position there at the end twice," Newman said.
The team lost position in the pits, but Newman wasn't offering any criticism after the race.
"We kept our nose clean the entire day and ran up there with those guys who are running for the championship," he said. "The pit crew did a good job and [crew chief] Tony Gibson called a good race. No complaints - just have to go on from here.”
Stewart's team, meanwhile, was pleased with its car early in the race. However, things slipped away and the group struggled later in the event.
“It was definitely a survival day for us," crew chief Darian Grubb said. "We were a lot better taking off on a run at the start of the race. We made the car better all day. About the middle of the race, we had the car really good, had a bad pit stop and fell back in traffic. We had to make up for that and do a little strategy thing there and that ended up putting us back up in the field. We were able to run up in to the top five from there, but late cautions didn’t play out in the end. We struggled to hang on to a top-10 in the end.
“Everything didn’t fall the way we needed it to. The car wasn’t that great at the beginnings of runs. Then there at the end, we got off a little too, but in the middle of the race, the car was really good and Tony was able to make up a lot of positions. Just hoping for the best and coming out of here with a big smile on our face to head to Talladega where everything is unknown.”
Overall, the drivers aren't writing off the Chase, but they do know that Johnson is going to have to suffer some setbacks if anyone is going to gain ground on him. Right now, he has a worst finish of ninth and three wins in the 10-race, title-determining segment of the season.
As to Newman, he's not thinking about that. He and his Army-sponsored team are simply focused on gaining as much ground as they can.
"We're just going to go out there and race and not worry about points," Newman said. "We want to continue to run strong in the last four races and hopefully get our first win of the season. We're going to fight hard and carry the soldiers' motto of never quitting and battling to the finish."
