By Lou Modestino
If a Sprint Cup driver ever needed a win it was Ryan Newman. Now out of his driving assignment with Stewart-Hass Racing at the end of this season, the Indiana native had his resume sent out to all of the teams.because Stewart-Hass Racing told him he wouldn’t be coming back in 2014.
It was Newman’s first Brickyard 400 win, and he pulled off that big coup in front of pretty much a hometown crowd. He told his crew as he was coming down to the finish line,”Thanks for a great weekend,” which also included his winning the pole a day earlier.
He went on,” I was more emotional when I won the pole. It was also the best race car I’ve every had in my life in racing!” His team made the right decision about only taking on two new tires on the last pit stop. Ryan told SPEED’s Bob Dillner,”The Indy win does wonders for me in trying to get a new ride next year.”
SPEED’s Indy Car Series commentator Robin Miller said, “Newman is a Hoosier who came from open wheel roots. He never wanted to go to the Indy Cars and set his sights on NASCAR because he saw more opportunity in that series. Some other wags felt that he should have gone to the Indy Cars because of where he came from.” Meanwhile, team owner Tony Stewart said, “I’m real happy for Ryan Newman.”
Getting leftovers in the Brickyard 400 was Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth for the top five. JR came in sixth and was followed by Jeff Gordon and Joey Logano. JJ commented, ” We made mistakes, but we’ll come back next week. We’re going to win or lose as a team.” It was all a result of errors in the pits.
In Sprint Cup points, Jimmie Johnson still tops the standings, while Clint Bowyer is next -75, then Carl Edwards with -85. In the not-so-good department, Team Penske is winless this year after Brad Keselowski took the championship and really shined in The Chase. By the way, Kyle Busch won the Nationwide race a day earlier. Austin Dillion took the inaugural Camping World Truck race on the hard dirt at Eldora.
From Tony Stewart came,” It was a little tight at the end and a lot of good drivers finished ahead of us.” Jeff Gordon quipped, ” We fought hard. I thought that were were a lot better than seventh.” On the controversy buzz about whether Indy Cars should be the only race cars to compete at the speedway, Gordon said, “My heros were AJ Foyt and Rick Mears. Up until the time that NASCAR came here, the tradition was only the Indy 500.”
SPEED Analyst James Hinchcliffe thought, ” Indy wins are very important (both Indy Car and NASCAR).” Robin Miller added, “From 1996 to 2005, the Brickyard 400 was the big deal rather than the Indy 500. But it’s a bit different now.” He added, “The Toronto fans really liked the standing start for the Indy Cars. Up until then, there were a lot of reservations about that issue.”
Elsewhere, Lewis Hamilton won the Grand Prix of Hungary and Andrew Ranger won the ARCA go at NJ Motorsports Park. Bob Dillner revealed that the sale of Phoenix Racing has a buyer. He also wants James Finch to stay with the team until the race at RIR.
Check Jayski.com to see what’s happening in worldwide motorsports next week into the weekend.