RYAN NEWMAN – Marching into Martinsville with Momentum, Consistency
KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (March 29, 2011) – “As any athlete knows, momentum is the most unstoppable force in sports. The only way to stop it is if you get in your own way, start making stupid mistakes or stop believing in yourself.” – Rocco Mediate, professional golfer
Perhaps the only team riding a bigger wave of momentum this weekend than Ryan Newman and the No. 39 Haas Automation team as it marches into Martinsville (Va.) Speedway could be the state’s own Cinderella story – the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Rams men’s basketball team, who will play in the NCAA Final Four in Houston with a shot at the national championship game for the first time in school history.
Last weekend, VCU became one of the most unlikely teams ever to advance to the Final Four in NCAA tournament history. Many sports pundits questioned whether the team should even be in the tournament when the brackets were announced. But since the team’s play-in game, VCU has won and advanced in five games against well-known teams from powerhouse conferences proving that it’s difficult to stop a team with momentum.
With VCU’s march to the Final Four, the state of Virginia has become home to one of the best feel-good sports stories of the year. This weekend, as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Martinsville for the Goody’s Fast Relief 500, Newman hopes to capitalize on his team’s consistency, keep its momentum rolling, and capture some of the “Old Dominion State’s” positive sports energy for his own use.
Newman and his team have been riding high since last year’s final stretch of races, during which the No. 39 Chevrolet posted finishes of 11th or better in nine of the final 13 outings of 2010. So far, it’s obvious the momentum from that string of strong finishes has carried over into 2011.
With five races in the books, Newman has posted four solid top-10 finishes – fifth-place efforts at Phoenix International Raceway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., along with a 10th-place effort at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. And Newman has led laps in four of the five races so far this season. In fact, Newman led the most laps (37) at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in the season-opening Daytona 500, which was a first for Newman and the No. 39 team at any race since they joined forces in 2009.
Now sitting second in points, just nine behind leader Carl Edwards, Newman is enjoying the best start to a season since his rookie campaign in 2002, when he finished sixth in the championship and earned the 2002 Rookie of the Year title.
As for Martinsville, in 18 career starts at the Virginia short track, Newman has three poles, six top-five finishes and nine top-10s.
For Newman & Company, Martinsville is the perfect place to continue its upward march in the standings. In fact, the .526-mile paperclip-shaped oval has been one of the team’s best tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit. In four starts with Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) at Martinsville, Newman has earned one pole and posted one top-five and three top-10 finishes.
There’s no doubt the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet’s consistency and momentum have served as the building blocks for the driver and the team to this point in the season. Just as the Rams of VCU have met and conquered each competitor they have faced, Newman and his SHR team will take the measure of 42 other cars and work to build on their success with a trip to victory lane at Martinsville.