Birth Date: December 8, 1977 Hometown:
Team:
At 42 years old, Ryan Newman is the old man on the block in most of
his racing circles now.
His career achievements now stem decades. He won the 2002
Winston, the 2008 Daytona 500, the 2002 Winston Cup and 2003
Driver of the Year.
Heading into 2020, Newman is on a bit of a winless streak, his last
coming at the 2017 Camping World 500 at Phoenix. However, this
winter, Newman returned to some of his roots.
He raced in his dirt midget for the rst time in 19 years at the Gateway
Dirt Nationals in December.
“I was still getting accustomed to the car and how it drives,” Newman
told Racing News. “It’s denitely a lot of fun. I enjoyed it.”
Newman is now the veteran presence with Roush Fenway Racing,
but the pairing has yet to produce a trip to Victory Lane. Driving the
No. 6 Ford Mustang GT, Newman ran well enough to make it into the
2019 Playoffs, but his time there quickly came to an end after a 32nd
nish at Charlotte Roval in the Round of 16.
Fifteenth in the nal points standings is not terrible but not what the
savvy veteran wants for the backside of his racing career. Still, his
nish with Ryan Blaney at Talladega was legendary. The photo-nish
of .007 was the 6th closest in NASCAR history. Blaney took the
checkered ag.
It may be difcult to teach an old dog new tricks, as the saying goes,
but Newman says every season provides a learning experience for
anyone willing to pay attention. Even those who have been around
the block a few times, as “The Rocket Man” certainly has.
“You try to learn from what you’ve done in the past, right or wrong,”
Newman said shortly after his 40th birthday, “and try to apply that and
whatever else you think you need to do, to step up your game. And
that changes every year every day, actually.”
Newman’s resume is impressive. He has top-10 numbers in wins
among active drivers and he is one of only eight competitors who
can boast victories in both the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400.
He’s part of the group that owns victories in all three NASCAR
national tours.
96 THE OFFICIAL NASCAR 2020 PREVIEW & PRESS GUIDE
FOLLOW ONLINE
Overall, he enters the 2020 season with 261 top-10 nishes to
his credit. He has 51 career poles, a mark that is tops among
active drivers even though he hasn’t started in the No. 1 spot
since 2013.
“It was successful for us to be able to get into Victory Lane,” he
said. “It was successful, not to my standards of what I wanted,
but it had some bright lights. Sometimes you have to have those
small gains in order to have big gains in the future.”.
“We’ll be starting Daytona with a great opportunity to win the
Daytona 500 again and get a start toward the Cup Series Playoffs
that’s what we’re thinking.”
Some teams fade after taking their lumps, but Newman’s
team never does. Heading into Talladega in 2019 after an
unspectacular run at Dover, Newman restarted in seventh place
late with Blaney in the lead. In the nal lap, Newman went from
fourth to rst, but he could not hold off a nal charge as Blaney
had just enough left in the tank to push past the No. 6 car.
Ultimately, 2019 will be judged as a year that produced zero wins
despite 36 starts. Still, Newman was consistent enough with 14
top-10s to make the Playoffs, and he mustered three top-ves
to boot.
2019 FEATURED DRIVERS
RYAN NEWMAN
@RyanJNewman
/RyanJNewman77