RYAN NEWMAN – Hoping To ‘Filter’ Out Team’s Bad Racing Luck at Daytona
KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (Feb. 8, 2011) – To say that restrictor-plate racing has been the Achilles’ heel for Ryan Newman and his No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) team is without a doubt an understatement.
For Newman, it’s been an ongoing series of “wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time” incidents at both superspeedways on the circuit since joining SHR in 2009. In fact, over the past two seasons, the South Bend, Ind., native and his No. 39 Chevrolet have become the poster child for rotten luck and hard crashes at the high-speed racetracks at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
It’s just bad racing luck, Newman says. Good thing for Newman and his No. 39 team that luck can change.
As Newman & Co., prepares for its third go-round at Daytona Speedweeks, there is confidence that this year’s February outing to the famed “World Center of Racing” will be the charm.
So it seems somewhat appropriate that the team kicks off Speedweeks with WIX Filters on board the No. 39 Chevrolet Impala as the primary sponsor for Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout. The team will definitely appreciate the help from WIX as it works to “filter” out all the bad luck it has endured at Daytona and turn its racing luck around.
Of course, Daytona hasn’t been all bad for Newman during his first nine years in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. In fact, Newman has tasted victory at Daytona and celebrated in the sport’s most famous victory lane on three different occasions.
Before joining the full-time ranks of the Cup Series, Newman earned his first win at Daytona in the ARCA Series in 2001. In his first-ever outing at the high-banked superspeedway, Newman started 11th and led the final 12 laps of the 80-lap event to win by more than two-tenths of a second.
Three years later, in 2004, Newman scored his only IROC Series victory at Daytona.
And then three years ago, in 2008, Newman celebrated the greatest moment of his racing career at the historic 2.5-mile oval. On that February evening, Newman achieved a lifelong dream when he stole the lead on the backstretch on the final lap of the season-opening race. He never looked back, winning the 50th Running of the Daytona 500.
It is that victory that earned Newman his berth in Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout.
There’s no doubt Newman knows what it takes to win at Daytona. But, as Newman says, the driver and the team only control a very small part of what the outcome will be at the 2.5-mile layout. A lot of what it takes to win at Daytona is pure racing luck, and Newman and his No. 39 WIX Filters team just need a little help to “filter” out all that bad luck to make room for the good.