Each Wednesday, Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge, writes a column for Yahoo! Sports. He’s currently eighth in the Sprint Cup standings.
The off weekend was nice. I spent time at home fishing, playing with the dogs, relaxing, organizing, cleaning. It sounds domestic, but that’s a good time for me.
So this week I thought I’d play NASCAR commissioner. Here are a few things I would do if I were in charge of NASCAR:
• My first order of business would be to realign the schedule so we only had two-day shows. The overall length of the schedule is fine, but turning it into 3½ day weekends wears us out. We leave on a Thursday afternoon, have to be at the track Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We don’t get home at midnight, 10 o’clock at the earliest on Sunday. It makes for a way longer week than it needs to be.
• I’d swap the Atlanta and Phoenix dates in the spring.
• I’d take away the first and/or second California date and put it somewhere the fans will fill the stands, which would be either Darlington or a place like Nashville or Kentucky.
Don’t get me wrong, there are good race fans in California, but there aren’t enough of them. The town acts like there’s no race going on. We’ll go to Martinsville and we’ll see 200 people standing on the side of the road just to watch the cars in the transporters go by. Those are fans.
• I would award points for qualifying.
• I’d eliminate non-locked in cars qualifying last. I just don’t think that’s right. It’s a draw for everybody else. It should be a draw for them, too.
• I would give maybe a 20- or 25-point bonus to the regular-season champion heading into the Chase.
I wouldn’t change much to the Chase. I think they’ve done a good job with that. The way they’ve set up the bonus points, that’s good. That promotes winning races, which is a good thing.
• I would simplify technical inspection. It takes way too long. Our crew guys are standing in line for eight hours at minimum, sometimes 12 hours. That’s not an exaggeration.
• I would make sure there are SAFER barriers on all the inner and outer walls. I’d also have a traveling safety team. The series can financially support a traveling safety team, so why not have one so that when I get out of the car I know one of 10 people who are going to be helping me?
Now, onto some thoughts on the season so far …
In my opinion, the biggest story of the year is the fact that Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon are outside of the Chase right now. The fact that those guys haven’t been to victory lane and that Hendrick hasn’t won a points race, that’s a big difference over last year at this time.
I don’t have an idea why, but I would say every series cycles and every organization cycles. They’re still running good – they’re strong at times – but they’re not the dominant 1-2-3-4 cars they were in the past.
As for me, I’d give myself a B.
I was disappointed at Bristol because we had a car I thought was more than capable of winning, but we got caught in a wreck, then popped a tire after that. Wrong place, wrong time, I guess.
We’ve had some good cars, though. We struggled at Las Vegas, but came home 14th. At Atlanta we had a good car, but finished a lap down because we had a tire rub.
The Daytona 500 win is an A-plus all the way through the season, so that could bump us up to a B-plus.
All right, I’m out. I’ve had a rough day. I was out fishing with a buddy and my dog, Fred, and we all went to the same side of the boat at the same time. Neither of us was paying attention, and I fell in. I lost my cell phone and nearly drowned myself.
See ya next week.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Each Wednesday, Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge, writes a column for Yahoo! Sports. This past weekend, Newman finished fourth in the Samsung 500. He’s currently tenth in the Sprint Cup standings.
Well, the penalty came down and we lost 25 drivers and owners points for having our right-rear quarter panel too high at Texas. It wasn’t something we intentionally did.
It was a mistake and we fully accept the penalty. We hate to lose the points, but we’ll make up for it at Phoenix.
We sort of lucked into a fourth-place finish when Clint Bowyer spun on the final lap. That was good for us, because it essentially compensates us for the points loss. Still, I thought we had a fourth-place car even when we were getting lapped, based on how fast Carl Edwards was.
I can tell you, Carl had an amazing car. I know he’s a good driver. I don’t want to take anything away from him. But his car – and all the Roush cars are working well – in combination with his skill is working really well. They have a good combination worked out at Roush – Matt Kenseth was strong and so were Greg Biffle and David Ragan – but Carl seems to have perfected it more than the other teams.
I thought the racing was OK at Texas. I didn’t think it was better by any means than the old-style car at that track.
The new cars are just difficult to drive in dirty air. They’re punching a bigger hole in the air. Re-starting 10th is like re-starting 20th, because you’re not going to be able to make up six, eight spots on a single fuel run. NASCAR has the cars so similar to each other that it’s hard to have a defined advantage. Basically, it takes 500 miles now to chatter your way up to the front.
Track position seems to be more important than the quality of the car, which is not ideal racing. The closer you get to the front, the better the track position pays off. It’s an exponential coefficient. Let me explain: If being first pays off the most, second the second most, then by the time you get to, say, 10th through 30th, the advantage is that much less per car.
Now, onto some emails I’ve gotten from readers:
One reader wanted to know how my engineering background impacts my racing.
I don’t think it changes my ability to drive. I think it changes the process in which I compute in my head what I need to adjust with the car. I would like to think I understand better what the car is doing, to be able to know what adjustments it needs. My background helps when I’m talking to Roy McCauley, my crew chief, and the guys on the team. If I can sound more educated and explain things to them more clearly, it makes it easier for them to make the right adjustments.
Another reader wanted to know if the preferred line around a track is to run from the high groove to the low groove.
That’s a tough question to answer, because it really depends on the grip. There’s a happy medium between scrubbing off speed and distance. For instance, if you take a quarter-mile track and you run 60 mph around it, and you take a half-mile track and you run around the outside of it running 120, you’re equal. It all depends on the amount of speed you can carry on a given radius without scrubbing off speed through the corner.
And finally, to the guy who wanted to know about my favorite bass lure. Like you, it’s buzzbait, because you get the reaction to strike and you get to watch them hit it, which is neat.
Alright, gotta run. I’m doing a podcast. See ya in Phoenix.
Ryan Newman drives the No. 12 Alltel Dodge. Check out his website at www.ryan12newman.com and his foundation at www.ryannewmanfoundation.org.
NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Ryan Newman drives Penske Racing's No. 12 Alltel Dodge. Send Ryan a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Travis Geisler is the race engineer for Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge. Newman is on vacation, so Geisler is filling in this week.
This season, it seems like a lot of people are wondering why we’re not seeing a lot of side-by-side racing, not too much passing and, in general, why the racing hasn’t been better. I’ve got sort of a weird take on the subject that I think explains a lot of what we’ve seen in 2008.
First, a little about myself. Though I’m only 27, I’ve been around racing all my life. My dad is a racer. I grew up racing, too. In 2004, I competed in 12 Busch Series events.
These days, I’m using my mechanical engineering degree. I’ve been with Penske Racing South for two years now. My job as race engineer is basically to assist the crew chief, which means overseeing just about everything, mainly the setup of the car.
So, I’m in a pretty good position to know what’s going on with the Car of Tomorrow and how it relates to the racing, and the issue I see has a lot to do with tires – and it’s not Goodyear’s fault.
Let me explain:
Goodyear has been put in a position – by the sport, the drivers, the media – to build a tire that is indestructible. They have to build a tire that outruns the fuel window, one that never blisters and never fails or else they face a P.R. nightmare.
What we end up with is a tire that that doesn’t wear out that allows drivers to run wide open the entire time and run 40 qualifying laps in a row. This doesn’t make for great racing because everyone’s on edge with their speed and there’s nothing left. They’re afraid to even race each other side by side because their margin of screwing up and being okay is gone.
Now, if we had tires that would wear out and get slower over a fuel run if they are abused, I think that would make for overall better racing. Then, it puts things back in the hands of the crew chiefs and the drivers. A crew chief has to decide how much camber to run (the angle of the tires) and how much pressure to put in tires, while a driver has to regulate himself throughout the run and say, ‘I want to be better in the middle and the end, so I need to take it easy here at the beginning,’ or vice versa. ‘I’m at the back of the pack, I need to get to the front before the next caution. I gotta run like heck and get there.’
He can do it, because other guys are taking care of their stuff at the front. He’s going to use up his stuff to try to get to the front to make up that track position, but he can do it.
The way things are now, it’s difficult to make up that track position – especially on an intermediate track. If you’re 10th, you’re going to run 10th until you either get a pit stop that moves you up a few spots or a couple of guys have trouble and you can maybe advance to seventh, and that’s about as far as you’re going to go on a fuel run.
But if tires would wear out and change speeds over a run, you could affect your track position a little more.
I know this is going to raise criticism – probably even from Ryan because he wants to run flat out the entire run – but I think if you put drivers in a situation where tires wear out – not blowing, but wear out and loose speed – I think that creates different types of racing, which maybe we need a little more of.
Right now, track position is the name of the game, and if you get back to 15th or 20th, you are not going to get to the front within two or three runs, no matter how good you are, and that just takes too long and it’s too slow for fans to stay interested, I think. They want to see people moving through the field. That creates something exciting to watch.
I don’t know for sure if tires would do it, but I’d like to see if they could.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Krissie Newman is the wife of Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge. Newman is currently 11th in the Sprint Cup standings.
Ryan is testing in Nashville, so I’m filling in for him this week.
We had a good weekend off. We ended up going to the Bahamas for a few days with some friends. Ryan actually sat in the sun for a little bit. There was a nice breeze and he fell asleep on the beach, which was, I think, the first time I’ve ever seen him fall asleep in a bathing suit on the beach. So I guess he was relaxed.
We stayed at the Cove in Atlantis. We went down some water slides, the lazy river, gambled a little bit. We both played Wheel of Fortune on the slots. My favorite game is craps, but I wasn’t brave enough to play without someone who knows how to play. I ended up loosing $100. It’s one of those things where you keep putting money in and you think it’s going to hit, but it never does.
We’re really trying to recuperate from the wonderful time we had in Phoenix. (Note the sarcasm.) He started on the pole, but his car had mechanical trouble and he wound up 43rd. It was a quiet plane ride home. I could tell he was upset, and rightfully so. He was upset, but come Sunday morning he was back to normal.
We had a fish fry on Sunday. Don Miller, who used to be president of Penske Racing South, came over with his wife. We had about 20 people at the house. It was nice to be home and not have to travel over the weekend.
Right now we’re taking care of some dogs we took in from the Humane Society. We’ve got a mother and her two puppies who are need of a home. It’s hard to do because you get so attached to the dogs.
This weekend we’re in Talladega, which is hit or miss for me. It really depends on the weather. I guess you could say I’m a fair-weather fan.
Ryan has some friends who have a hunting lodge in the area, so we go there in the afternoon after we finish up at the track. There’s a pond where the boys go fishing. I usually sit on the porch and read. Then we have a cookout. It’s really relaxing for us.
We try to find a little spot at each track we go to so we can get away from the racetrack for a little bit.
But Talladega makes me nervous – same thing with Daytona – with everybody racing so close, how the cars handle and how fast they go. I always have a little nervous energy that weekend. It’s scary sometimes. You don’t think about the danger that they put themselves in until something actually happens.
We talk about the danger a little bit, but Ryan’s always been a big advocate of safety. I don’t know enough about the cars to give my opinion, but I trust that he’s not going to get in a car that he doesn’t feel is safe, and that’s all I can ask him to do.
But hopefully Talladega will turn out like Daytona.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Each Wednesday, Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge, writes a column for Yahoo! Sports. This past weekend, Newman finished eighth in the Aaron’s 499. He’s currently 11th in the Sprint Cup standings.
We had a good run at Talladega. We didn’t have a really good car, but to get eighth with it I thought was better than where we ran for a lot of the race.
I had a move drafting-wise that I thought could get me to the front. I didn’t know if I could have pulled it off, but I had a plan. I just didn’t get a chance to use it. I know you’d probably like to know what it was, but I can’t divulge that info because I may have to use it some other time.
Obviously the big news of the weekend was Tony Stewart announcing he might leave Joe Gibbs Racing. It’s pretty wild how much the Silly Season has changed; how early things are coming about.
My contract with Penske Racing South is up after this season, but I’m not looking ahead. I’m focused on 2008. We’ve talked a little bit about a new contract, but we haven’t come to any conclusions. We haven’t really discussed in depth how we need to follow through.
To be honest, no one’s called me, yet. Most teams and owners have a lot of respect for the other owners and won’t talk to another driver until the time is right. Some guys have it in their contracts where they can’t talk about being a free agent. My contract isn’t worded that way. I can talk about it if I wanted, but out of respect for my team, I don’t.
Now we’re off to Richmond for Saturday night’s race. I like night racing because I think it’s more exciting. It’s what we all grew up doing – racing in those types of situations, throwing sparks, short-track racing. To me, it just has more energy about it.
We could use another good finish. We’re right on the bubble of the top 12. We’re currently 11th in the standings. I’d say this new car has leveled the competition to a point where it’s more difficult than it ever has been.
That’s it for me this week. It’s starting to get warm down here, so I’m looking forward to that, doing a little fishing and enjoying the spring weather.
See ya next week.
Ryan Newman drives the No. 12 Alltel Dodge. Check out his website at www.ryan12newman.com and his foundation at www.ryannewmanfoundation.org.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Each Wednesday, Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge, writes a column for Yahoo! Sports. This past weekend, Newman finished sixth in the Crown Royal presents the Dan Lowry 400. He’s currently 11th in the Sprint Cup standings.
It was a tough weekend at Richmond, us included. I was happy that we were able to capitalize on the last run to get back up to sixth. But I was not happy with the race car.
We struggled all weekend. We weren’t quite quick enough. We didn’t have it all together. We were a 10th-, 15th-place car and we brought it home sixth, so I was happy only because of that.
But in Cup racing, that’s what you’ve gotta do. You’re not always going to be a front runner. You’re competing against 42 other cars, so you have to learn to be a good loser, and by being a good loser you salvage good finishes.
Sure, we always want to lead more laps. We’re getting there. We’re struggling with our engine program a little bit right now, and that makes it a little bit difficult. But you know, we’ll continue to move forward.
I guess you probably want my take on the incident between Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What I think is Kyle Busch ran out of talent. Junior left him room and Kyle turned him around. Kyle said it was good, hard racing, but good, hard racing doesn’t require you to spin somebody out.
He apologized afterwards, and that’s pretty much it. But it’s funny, when that happens to Kyle, he sure is Mr. Tough Guy.
When something like that happens, my reaction depends on who it is and what’s going on in the race. You can play it different ways. Sometimes you cut people more slack; sometimes you don’t. It’s a give and take.
Now it’s on to Darlington, my favorite track.
I think it’s going to be pretty fast, and the faster these cars go, the harder it is for us to pass. The racing never was perfect at Darlington, because the track’s pretty narrow. It’s more a strategy, track-position race, and that’s going to be very important this weekend.
I like Darlington because of the challenge. The banking is a challenge. So are the differences in each end of the race track. As a driver, you have to make adjustments throughout the run, and I like that.
One thing I realize I haven’t shared yet, is my typical week. Well, I really don’t have a typical week. They’re all different. But mostly I like to work around the house during the week. We’re still working on our new house, and now that it’s spring time I’m outside a lot, working in the yard, paving the driveway, working in our garden at our farm, fishing, working on my old cars, more fishing.
I do spend some time at the shop, having meetings, fulfilling sponsor obligations and signing autographs. I don’t go to the shop as much as I used to, but I’d say I still go more often than most drivers. We usually have a team meeting on Tuesdays to talk about what happened the last week and going over what’s next.
And what’s next now is Darlington … Hope you all enjoy the race.
Ryan Newman drives the No. 12 Alltel Dodge. Check out his website at www.ryan12newman.com and his foundation at www.ryannewmanfoundation.org.
NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Ryan Newman drives Penske Racing's No. 12 Alltel Dodge. Send Ryan a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Printable View
Return to Original PrintMore From Ryan NewmanHello, Newman: Loving Darlington May 7, 2008 Hello, Newman: Free agency May 1, 2008
Each Wednesday, Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge, writes a column for Yahoo! Sports. This past weekend, Newman finished 37th in the Dodge Challenger 500. He’s currently 13th in the Sprint Cup standings.
I’m really looking forward to two weeks at home. I’ve got some appearances to do in the area. I’m involved in NASCAR day on Friday. I’ll go down there, take a few phone calls, help out where I can. But mostly I’m looking forward to staying home and doing work around the house.
We had a tough weekend at Darlington. We had about eight things happen to us that should have happened to a rookie team in their third race. We had a pit stop that cost us a lap under green. That never should happen. We had some other things – batteries not being charged and spring rubbers not being ready – stupid stuff that after doing this stuff seven years you’d think we’d have situated.
The incident with Brian Vickers when I ran into him near pit road was my fault. I was getting ready to pit because I had broken an axle on the left rear. We were under caution, so I raced around to try and get the advantage so we could change the axle out, but at the last second my crew chief called me off, telling me to stay out because we didn’t have an axle ready yet. So I turned back to the right, and when I did that I saw Brian Vickers at the last second and I drilled him right in the side.
It was my fault. It had a lot to do with a lack of communication, and I felt like a rookie.
To be honest, I’m frustrated. These are things that we can correct, but we shouldn’t be in a position to have to correct them. Not with our experience.
But like I said, it’s nice to be home for a few weeks
The All-Star race is a nice break, and I really like the race. It’s everything on one night, which is how our races should be every weekend.
It is a different race because we’re not racing for points. The whole race is like the last 30 laps of a normal race. There’s definitely an increased level of aggressiveness out there.
It’s the way racing is supposed to be, which goes along with what I’ve always said, that races need to be shorter.
That’s it for this week. Enjoy the All-Star race. I know I will.
Ryan Newman drives the No. 12 Alltel Dodge. Check out his website at www.ryan12newman.com and his foundation at www.ryannewmanfoundation.org.
NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Ryan Newman drives Penske Racing's No. 12 Alltel Dodge. Send Ryan a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
It’s nice to be home. We had a pretty relaxing weekend. We spent some time on Sunday fishing and watching some T.V.
We watched a couple of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. I hadn’t seen them before. They were okay, but I wouldn’t set my sights on watching it again.
I mostly like comedies and westerns, like “Tombstone.”
My favorite racing movies are “Six Pack” and “Stroker Ace,” though if I had to choose I’d probably go with “Six Pack.” But they’re both pretty good.
I thought “Talladega Nights” was okay. It’s not a bad movie. I like Will Ferrell. I think he did a good job.
As for the All-Star race, we didn’t have the results that we wanted to. Still, it was nice to be at home.
Like most of you, I thought the racing was very poor. I think 90 percent of it is due to this new car we’re driving that they try to call a race car.
The racing has been subject to criticism just about everywhere we’ve gone. That’s what happens when you make a car that’s so much similar to the competition that you have no room for adding advantages. It’s a track position game is all it is.
The tracks that are the worst are the tracks that are the fastest, other than Daytona and Talladega, because they have a different package. The 2-mile tracks are worse than the 1.50-mile tracks; the 1.5-mile tracks are worse than 1-mile tracks. You get down to places that are flat like Martinsville and it’s racing like it used to be because the aerodynamics mean less.
So I didn’t think the All-Star race was good racing. On top that, in a real race you don’t get in on a fan vote. No disrespect to Kasey Kahne, but if we’re here to race, let’s race, let’s not vote people in because we think they’re cool.
I’m looking forward to this next stretch in the season. I like going up to the northeast. I enjoy Dover and Loudon. I don’t really look forward to Infineon, only because the track doesn’t lend to real racing. There are only two places to pass in 11 corners. So you end up following the guy ahead of you through nine of the 11 corners.
Now I’m heading over to Victory Junction Gang Camp to help Kurt Busch with unveiling of the “Superdome.” That should be pretty cool.
NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Ryan Newman drives Penske Racing's No. 12 Alltel Dodge. Send Ryan a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
I’m up in Pocono testing. It’s about 70 degrees today, but it’s supposed to rain this afternoon. But it doesn’t matter, I’ll still go fishing.
I’ve got a couple of friends up here who I go with, but I can’t tell you where we’re going. It’s a secret spot in a little preserve.
For me, the amount of testing we’re doing is ridiculous. We learn something, but it’s no different than if we practiced right before the race. We are figuring out how to make the car go faster, but everybody’s doing the same thing. The strong teams are still going to be the strong teams. It’s just NASCAR’s way of satisfying the teams that aren’t performing really well.
I know I’ve said it before, but I thought the racing this past week was pretty poor. The performance of the car was horrible, and it’s basically become a track position game, which isn’t what racing is supposed to be.
I think this weekend at Dover will be a little bit better, just because the smaller the racetrack, the less track position matters. But, you go to places like Pocono and Indy and that’s what it’s going to be about – track position.
Maybe the Coca-Cola 600 was better for the fans than the All-Star Race was, but still, if only 50 percent of the races are good races, we’re not going to have 100 percent of the fans enjoying the races.
I really think they need to redesign this new car. The principles of the car aren’t for racing.
As for the race, our car was pretty good. Unfortunately, I screwed up a couple of times on pit lane and then we got caught up in an accident and that ended our day.
I’ve got high expectations going into Dover this weekend. We ran second there in the spring last year and we were running in the top five in the fall when we got caught up in a crash. It’s a track I’ve always enjoyed and hopefully we’ll run well.
It’s a concrete track, which means the track conditions don’t change as much. It’s more predictable.
It would be a neat place to run under the lights, but then again, I think every race is cooler under the lights.
Someone asked me about the commercials I’m in. I don’t mind doing them. Of course I’d rather be home doing other things. When it comes to the scripts, I’m kind of at the mercy of the writers. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re not.
I like doing the shoots with other drivers. It’s more fun when we can socialize with people we know. Sometimes we can knock ‘em out in two hours. Sometimes it takes all day.
Well, that’s it for me this week. See ya at Dover.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Chasing the Chase
By Ryan Newman, Yahoo! Sports
AP - Aug 3, 3:41 pm EDT
I thought Pocono was a decent race. Obviously there was a lot of strategizing going on at the end of the race with fuel and the rain, which made the racing a little bit more exciting for a track that’s usually less exciting than others. We came out with a decent finish – we wound up 14th – though it wasn’t the finish I thought we were capable of.
I know the racing at Pocono isn’t always the most exciting. If I could, I’d shorten the race and make smaller fuel cells, which would make a more exciting race instead of having all these long green-flag runs, especially with a race car that is extremely difficult to pass with. Smaller fuel cells would put more strategy into it.
We’re in a position where we’re using a much different race car than the one we had 40 years ago. There’s no reason why we need to stick to a 500-mile race, and not just at Pocono. It’s nice to have a 600-mile race here and there, and nice to have some 500-mile races. But not every race that was a 500-mile race still needs to be a 500-mile race.
Now, it’s on to Watkins Glen, a race I’m looking forward to for sure. We had a decent run at Infineon, the other road course. We wound up seventh there. We’ll be trying to make a better effort and a better run to be able to get in the Chase.
I definitely think we still have a shot at the Chase, without a doubt. We’re not out of it by far – we’re 173 points behind Clint Bowyer in 12th – but we’re not in it by far, either. We’ll have to have a mixture of top fives and top 10s from here on out, because there’s going to be other guys who are trying to make the Chase who are going to be in the top 10.
The whole team is trying to get fired up. Obviously with my contract situation, we have some different circumstances than we’ve had in the past. But still, our ultimate goal is to make the Chase and win the championship.
The contract has been a distraction. But at the end of the day, it’s something I had to do.
Right now, there’s no new news. It’s going to happen fairly soon. I’m just trying to get all my I’s dotted and T’s crossed before I send out a press release.
Next Thursday, we’re having a charity skeet shoot in Michigan which will benefit Racing for Wildlife. Funds will go toward Mill Lake Youth Camp, which is the camp we’re helping to renovate. People can come out, have some fun and shoot some skeet.
Right now, I’m just enjoying the hot summer moths, having fun being outside. I’m working on a food plot for some deer. I’ll put it out on the woods on my property and fill it up with a food mixture for the deer to eat. It’s kind of like a preserve. We have some deer on the land, but we’re trying to have more.
Hello, Newman: Playing Commish
Hello, Newman: Making for better racing
Hello, Newman: Free agency
Hello, Newman: Frustrating Inc.
Hello, Newman: Buzzkill racing
Hello, Newman: Redesign the CoT
Linear Mode
