Ryan Newman proud of his team’s efforts in grabbing pole position – NASCAR news
Ryan Newman said he was proud of the effort put in by the team after securing the pole position for the Sylvania 300 that will take place in New Hampshire on Sunday, September 24.
With a week full of people commenting on team-mate Tony Stewart’s chances for the Sprint Cup, Newman has sprung forward to present his title credentials and a strong finish at New Hampshire will put him right up there in the Cup Championship. Newman currently trails Kevin Harvick by 14 points.
Speaking after the race, Newman said that he was just as distracted as everyone else by the rain break in the qualifying session. He said that he had not experienced such a situation in all his years as a NASCAR driver and the thought was playing in his mind as he sat in the car.
Talking about his qualifying lap, Newman said that he was worried about the track but after looking at the times posted by the other four drivers, he felt confident that the track would hold up well and he was confident that he could do better than Kasey Kahne had done.
Newman said that he did face grip problems with his tyres initially but as the lap wore on, it got better and he ran as he had in the practice sessions and managed to grab the pole position.
Newman did not feel that the last five drivers had to face any disadvantages because of the track conditions.
“I think because of the conditions -- it was cloudy all day -- the track dryers probably put a little bit of heat back into the race track that the rain kind of washed out, so I think it all kind of averaged out,” Newman said.
Newman said that he was proud of the way the team had performed all weekend and hoped that it would have a huge impact on their Chase challenge.
A disturbing statistic for Newman is that the pole winner has finished 20th or worse in 6 of the last 8 races in the Chase this season. In fact, the last time a pole winner actually managed to win a race was Newman himself at the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 in Loudon in July.
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