-- Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger, will make his fifth NASCAR Cup Series start at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday and his 188th in the NASCAR Cup Series.

-- Newman has never earned the Bud Pole Award at the 1.5-mile track, but he has had three consecutive top-five starts. His first start at the track in 2002 came from the 15th position. Since then, Newman has started fourth (2003), third (2004) and second in last year’s Ford 400. Newman’s average start at the track is 6.

-- Newman has had good and bad finishes at Homestead. In four races, he has two top-10 finishes and two from the 30th position or lower. His finishes of 37th and 30th came after accidents. Newman’s average finish at Homestead is 20.

-- Newman has led three of the four races he’s competed in at Homestead for a total of 133 laps. He has two DNFs at the South Florida track. One DNF came with only seven laps remaining in 2004 when an accident on lap 264 removed Newman from contention. He has completed 920 laps of a possible 1,072 for an 85.8 completion rate.

-- The Alltel team will take chassis PRS-048 to this weekend’s Ford 500. This car was last driven in Texas for the Dickies 500. Newman qualified 24th and finished 34th. This car was also driven in Kansas and California where Newman qualified 15th and 12th, respectively. Before that, this car was driven at Michigan International Speedway in the GFS Marketplace 400. Newman started fourth, but finished 25th after dealing with a variety of problems during the race. This car was also tested at Kentucky this year, but before that, it had not been on a track since the 2003 season. In September 2003, Newman drove the car at Loudon where he started on the pole and finished ninth. In November of that year, he started on the pole at Phoenix and finished third.

-- The backup car for Homestead is chassis PRS-076. This car was last run at Charlotte five weeks ago. After a rear-end housing cracked, Newman finished 27th. At Chicagoland in July, Newman started 12th and ended up 36th. Before that, Newman drove the car three previous times this season; most recently at Michigan. Newman used this same chassis at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in the Coca-Cola 600 where he finished 35th after starting 18th, and at Darlington in May where he placed sixth after starting second. Newman also tested this car at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on May 3. Last year, Newman raced this car at Chicagoland Speedway. Prior to the 2005 Chicago race, the car was used in May at Darlington and at Charlotte, and in June at Michigan. The car qualified on the front row in each of the four 2005 races, winning two poles - one at Charlotte and the other at Michigan.

Newman on Homestead-Miami Speedway: “It’s been a tough year for this team and I think we’re all ready to see it come to an end and start working on 2007. This is our final chance to earn a win and we’ll all go out there and give it everything we can.”

Quick Stats:
Homestead-Miami Speedway: 4 Races Led/Laps Led: 3/133
Best Start: 2 (November 2005) Best Finish: 6 (November 2002)
November 2005 Start: 2 November 2005 Finish: 7

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Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
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