Ryan Newman is not your ordinary NASCAR driver. A graduate of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., Newman not only has immense talent behind the wheel, but he also has an in-depth understanding of what a car is designed and built to do on the racetrack. It is that combination that has made Newman one of the most successful and respected figures in modern motorsports.
After graduating from Purdue in 2001 with a degree in vehicle structure engineering, Newman could have easily taken his knowledge and parlayed it into a successful career in any variety of industries.
But instead, the native of South Bend, Ind., followed his heart and his talent to the racetrack and NASCAR’s premiere division – the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It’s a choice that has paid dividends for the driver who is now entering his ninth full season in the Sprint Cup Series.
Newman has never taken his success for granted. Instead, his focus has been on how to improve his stats with each racing season and achieve his ultimate goal – a Sprint Cup Championship. In 2009, the always-analytical Newman joined Stewart-Haas Racing, co-owned by two time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart and Haas Automation, the largest CNC machine tool builder in the western world, believing that the move would inch him closer to realizing all his goals. The driver of the No. 39 Chevrolet didn’t place any expectations on himself or his new team for the first season except for one thing – racing would be fun.
Not only did Newman have fun driving the No. 39 Chevrolet in 2009, but his career also enjoyed a rejuvenation as Newman returned to being a consistent top runner, contending for top-fives and wins in virtually every race. Newman scored two pole positions, five top-five finishes and 15 top-10 finishes – double the numbers he posted the previous year. Newman and his teammate/co-owner Stewart also led the series in laps completed by running 99.8 percent of the laps available in 2009 (10,468 of 10,492). And although he didn’t reach victory lane, Newman enjoyed a six-week stretch where he didn’t finish lower than eighth. It was during that stretch that Newman scored a runner-up finish – his best finish of the season – in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
But Newman’s biggest achievement of 2009 was reemerging as a weekly contender at the racetrack, a threat for the victory each and every week. Thanks to the team’s solid performances, Newman returned to the 12-driver Chase for the Championship for the first time since 2005. He finished the season in ninth-place.
Building on those achievements, improving on those finishes and getting the No. 39 Chevrolet, which has backing from the U.S. Army, Tornados and Haas Automation, into victory lane is Newman’s main focus for 2010.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect our first year. I really just went into it with the mindset of I’m going to do my job, we will focus and work together and just see what happens. I know we surprised a lot of people, and I don’t think anybody expected us to accomplish what we did in our first season,” Newman said.
“Now, I feel like we should be able to expand upon this past season, build on the relationships that we have and start building better and faster racecars and things like that. We’ve created a lot of good team chemistry. We’ve learned together as a team. Tony Gibson (crew chief) and I have learned about each other. He’s learned about the way I like to drive a car and I’ve learned how he likes to adjust on the car. I think we should be able to sharpen our pencil, per se, and shine things up a little bit, put a little polish on them and just be better than we were last season in all respects – from the pit crew side, team side, mechanically and performance-wise. We should be able to capitalize on having a year’s experience under our belts to have an even better 2010.”
Since 2000, when he made his Sprint Cup debut at Phoenix International Raceway, Newman has been known for his ability to go to the head of the class. In just his third career Sprint Cup start in May 2001 at Charlotte, Newman shot to the top of the speed chart during qualifying and earned the No. 1 starting spot for the Coca-Cola 600, tying the record for the earliest career Sprint Cup pole. His stunning pole run sent a warning through the Sprint Cup garage that Newman would be a force to deal with during each and every qualifying session.
In 296 Sprint Cup starts, Newman has earned 45 pole positions and he has led the series in pole wins four times (2002-6; 2003-11; 2004-9: 2005-8), earning him the nickname “Rocketman.” He has earned at least one pole position each year since the 2001 season, when he was running a partial schedule, and is tied for 11th on NASCAR’s all-time pole list, while ranking third in poles among the series’ full-time, active drivers.
Newman has proven time and again that starting in the No. 1 spot is a distinct advantage, as he has scored top-10 finishes in half of the races where he has started from the pole. Along with his immense qualifying ability, Newman has proven to be an equally adept racer, having collected 13 Sprint Cup wins, including the biggest of them all – the 2008 Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
“After the race, I said I could hear my dad’s teardrops over the radio while he spotted for me as I came to the start-finish line to win, and I think that shows the importance of this race to me and my entire family,” Newman said. “I always said that just competing at Daytona was an honor. When I was a kid, my dad would bring me to Daytona for the 500 and we would make fake passes with construction paper and glitter so that I could sneak into the garage and meet the drivers. Years later, being part of that was truly amazing.
“Winning the Daytona 500 was a dream come true. I still can’t put into words how amazing it was to win the 50th Daytona 500 considering all the history and fanfare that was a part of that day.
“Winning that race was a tribute to my dad and everything he had done for me to support and encourage my career. It was for all the people who had given me a shot – people who had given me monetary support, people who had helped pay for my uniforms, people who let me race their cars – that win was for everyone who had played a role in getting me to where I am today.”
Newman knew he was going to be a racer, and he began dreaming about collecting trophies in NASCAR and winning the Series’ biggest race – the famed Daytona 500 – from the first time he climbed behind the wheel of a racecar. For Newman, those dreams started at four-and-a-half years old when he drove his first Quarter Midget.
Beginning in 1982 with his first Quarter Midget race in New Carlisle, Ind., Newman wasted no time making his presence known on the racetrack. He was tallying race wins at just five years of age. By 1986, a nine-year-old Newman had amassed more than 20 wins, won the Kokomo (Ind.) Track Championship and captured the title of Eastern Grand National Quarter Midget Champion (Junior Stock Division).
Throughout the next few years, Newman scored more than 100 feature wins, earned six regional Quarter Midget championships and won another Grand National Quarter Midget Championship (Heavy Mod Division in 1988). Newman’s impressive Quarter Midget stats led to his induction into the Quarter Midget Hall of Fame in 1993.
In May 1993, Newman made his move to a full-size Midget car in the All-American Midget Series. He scored one feature win and became the first driver to win both rookie of the year honors and the series championship in the same season. Newman, who was named the Michigan State Midget Champion, also captured wins in the United Midget Auto Racing Association, the ARCA Midget Series and the Northern Michigan Midget Auto Racing Series.
Newman moved up to the United States Auto Club (USAC) National Midget division in 1995 and scored nine top-10 finishes in 18 starts en route to rookie of the year honors. He followed that with a rookie of the year title in the USAC Silver Crown division in 1996, where Newman scored four top-10s in 10 starts.
His first major USAC win came in May 1997 when he drove the No. 39 midget car to victory in the 52nd “Night Before the 500” race at O’Reilly Raceway Park near Indianapolis on the Saturday night prior to the famous Indianapolis 500. It was the biggest win of Newman’s young career, and one that he credits with putting him on the map. The prestigious win helped vault Newman into victory lane two more times that year in USAC Midgets.
For Newman, the wins continued to accumulate in the USAC ranks, as he won two more Midget races and one Sprint Car race in 1998. The following season, Newman tackled all three of the USAC’s national series – Midget, Silver Crown and Sprint Car. In his Midget car, Newman captured seven wins, nine top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in just 14 starts en route to a second-place points finish. He scored one other win in the Silver Crown car and two runner-up finishes to claim the 1999 Silver Crown championship. Newman also earned one win and seven top-10 finishes in 15 races in the Sprint Car division where he was named rookie of the year. With that honor, Newman became the only driver to have ever won all three USAC National rookie of the year honors.
Newman’s success in the USAC ranks caught the eye of multi-time championship car owner Roger Penske, and Newman joined Penske Racing in 2000. While taking classes at Purdue University, Newman competed in all three USAC Series, tested for Penske Racing and began his stock car career with a limited schedule in the ARCA and NASCAR Nationwide Series. That year, he scored wins in the USAC National Midget Series and the USAC Sprint Car Series and in July, in just his second ARCA Series start, he won his first stock car race at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. Newman followed that up with two more ARCA wins at Charlotte and Kentucky Speedway in Sparta before he made his Sprint Cup debut in November at Phoenix.
 The following season, Newman competed in two ARCA races, 15 Nationwide Series race and seven Sprint Cup races.
He won the season-opening ARCA race at Daytona and captured the pole at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City in his only other ARCA start. Newman won his first Nationwide Series race in August at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn and also won six Nationwide Series poles. In the Sprint Cup Series, Newman scored his first career pole at Charlotte in May while also scoring two top-fives finishes, including a second-place effort at Kansas.
By 2002, NASCAR observers were expecting big things from Newman and he did not disappoint. He set rookie records for the most top-10 finishes (22) and the most poles (six) in one season. He also became only the second rookie to win the series’ non-points Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte.
In September of that year, Newman started from the pole and led 143 of 207 laps en route to his first career Sprint Cup victory in a rain-shortened race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. The win, along with his other impressive rookie stats, led Newman to a sixth-place point finish and resulted in him being named the 2002 rookie of the year over Jimmie Johnson in one of the most hotly contested rookie races in history.
Newman’s sophomore campaign was just as impressive as his first season. He once again led the series in poles (11) and he also led the series in victories (eight). Newman again finished sixth in the points standings. His remarkable accomplishments led to Newman being named the 2003 SPEED Driver of the Year; the National Motorsports Press Association Richard Petty Driver of the Year; the Benny Kahn/Daytona Beach News-Journal Driver of the Year; and The Sporting News’ Dale Earnhardt Toughest Driver of the Year.
In 2004, Newman made the inaugural Chase for the Championship and ended up finishing seventh in the point standings. He had two wins and once again led the series in poles (nine). The following season in 2005, Newman earned his second Chase berth and led the series in poles (eight) for the fourth consecutive time, and scored one win. He also made his return to the Nationwide Series in 2005 for Penske Racing, winning six of the nine races he entered. In addition to his six wins, Newman earned four pole positions.
Newman scored seven more poles during the 2006 and 2007 seasons and tallied runner-up finishes in four races, but he and his team failed to win a race or make the Chase.
In 2008, Newman returned to the winner’s circle after an 81-race absence with his win in the 50th Daytona 500. Newman took the lead on the backstretch of the 2.5-mile superspeedway and was pushed to victory by then teammate Kurt Busch with his father, Greg, spotting. It was without a doubt the biggest moment of Newman’s racing career and it provided a huge sense of accomplishment for Newman, as everything that he and his family and friends had worked for throughout the years culminated in a large celebration in the sport’s most famous victory lane.
In October of that year at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Newman won his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in his first ever Truck Series start. The victory made Newman one of only 19 drivers to have recorded at least one win in each of NASCAR’s top three Series – Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck.
But the fierce competitor wanted more. Contending for race wins every week and challenging for the Sprint Cup championship was what Newman desired, so in August 2008 he announced his move to Stewart-Haas Racing where he joined two-time Sprint Cup champ Stewart.
“I told Tony when I joined his team that the bottom line was that I wanted to have fun racing, and I know that Tony wants the same thing,” Newman said. “He is a hard-nose racer and a good friend. We have a lot in common with our love of the outdoors and our desire to win races.
“Our main goal is that we both achieve our goals at Stewart-Haas Racing – and that’s for both of us to make the Chase and for our team to win championships. We can do that.”
Newman’s 2009 season proves that he and his No. 39 team are certainly headed in the right direction. Newman scored two poles, five top-five and 15 top-10 finishes en route to a ninth-place points finish. However, the No. 39 team gained much more than the statistics show. This is a team that fought, battled and overcame adversity every step of the way in 2009. The outfit had to dig deep and rebound after a bumpy start to their first season together, as they went through three racecars in the lead-up to the Daytona 500 and five races into the season found themselves mired at 27th-place in the championship standings. But with Newman and his new team, there was a never-say-never attitude, with the exception being that they never gave up.
The team rallied together and proved how strong they could be. In one 10-race stretch, Newman finished outside of the top-10 just twice. Later in the season during another five-race stretch, three of which led into the Chase for the Championship, Newman posted five consecutive top-10 finishes.
It’s this strength of character and chemistry that Newman and his team will use to improve on in 2010.
“We had a really good year, and we had a lot of success,” Newman said. “We’ve got a good group of guys. We’ve created a lot of good chemistry. We’re just focused on what we can to be better. I absolutely think we can come out of the box really strong and stay strong all year.”
When not racing, Newman enjoys fishing and restoring his classic cars. The avid outdoorsman, along with his wife Krissie, play an active role in the Ryan Newman Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization they founded in 2005. The mission of the Ryan Newman Foundation is three-fold: to educate and encourage people to spay/neuter their pets and to adopt dogs and cats from animal shelters; to educate children and adults about the importance of conservation so the beauty of the great outdoors can be appreciated by future generations; and to provide college scholarship funding through the Rich Vogler Scholarship program, of which Newman himself was a recipient, to students interested in auto racing careers.
The Newmans reside in Statesville, N.C., with their six rescue dogs: Digger, Mopar, Harley, Socks, Fred and Dunkin. |
