Ryan Newman Grabs First Top 10 Finish Of 2009 At Bristol
Submitted by Ryan Newman News and Information
Newman gets his first top 10 finish of 2009 finishing 7th.
Ryan Newman finished today’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in 7th after leading 25 laps for the day.
Today was a great points day today for Ryan Newman and his #39 U.S. Army Chevy team as they were dangerously close to being outside of the top 35. Today’s finish should elevate Newman to 27 in the points.
Ryan Newman started off the race strong as he jumped right into the lead after starting in second position. Still leading on lap 22 Newman was on the back bumper of the 43rd position car getting ready to put Sterling Marlin a lap down. Right behind Newman was Jimmie Johnson who had been closing the gap on Newman.
About lap 27 the first caution came out with Newman still leading. Newman and most of the cars came into the pits. There were about 7 cars that did not come into the pits including Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Paul Menard and Dave Blaney.
On the restart there was a spin and Newman was in 10th. He was quickly back up to 6th after getting around Carl Edwards easily on lap 48.
When the caution came out on lap 59 Newman was in 5th. Newman’s only real complaint was that his car was a little snug in the middle of the corners. On this stop he was only getting a little air pressure adjustment. Something happened on pit road with Sterling Marlin’s #43 team on this pit because Newman asked his crew to head over to the #43 stall and pop them right between the eyes. I think the #43 Jackman got in Newman’s way, but not sure.
Some teams only took 2 tires and Tony was telling Newman that sooner or later the race was going to go green for awhile and those cars that took 2 tires were going to be hurting.
Newman restarted in 12th.
By lap 80 Newman had been following Denny Hamlin through traffic and he was up to 10th.
Newman and Jaime McMurray battled for quite a few laps for the 8th position. It appeared to me on track pass like there was some beating and banging going on. He got the job done on lap 98 and took off from McMurray.
Lap 103 7th.
Lap 122 Newman has made up almost 2 seconds on the leader when the caution came out for McMurray spinning.
On that pit stop Newman actually got TV time. That alone tells you that he was running pretty good.
Newman restarted 7th behind Jeff Gordon. By lap 142 Newman was around Gordon for 6th position and thirsty to be back up in the lead. He had the “fastest last lap” at this point.
On lap 166 Newman was up to 6th and reporting that he was starting to get loose off the corners.
Newman had worked his way up to 5th and then a caution came on lap 188. Newman had a long pit stop here 18+ seconds and restarted in 9th.
At lap 273 Newman was reporting the he had a vibration in the left front. Shortly after that he dropped to 10th.
On lap 318 the caution flag came out with Newman still in 10th. Newman came out of the pits in 10th as well.
Shortly after the restart Newman got around a couple of cars including Juan Pablo Montoya to land in 8th.
On lap 442 the caution came out when Kevin Harvick got acquainted with the wall. Newman had dropped back to 8th at this point. Newman lost 1 position on the pit stop restarting 9th.
About lap 455 Newman was back up to 8th after getting around Marcos Ambrose when a caution came out for David Stremme spinning.
Lap 465 Newman gets around Jeff Burton for 7th place. Tony Stewart is currently the 1 car a lap down. 16 cars are on the lead lap at this time.
With 10 laps to go Newman was coming up on Mark Martins bumper and had been closing on him for a long time. Then with 7 to go the caution came out when Joey Logano blew up.
Newman restarted with Mark Martin in front of him and Jeff Burton behind him. This was a green white checkered finish and there just wasn’t enough time to get it done.
