July 22, 2019 | By Lee Spencer

NASCAR: Ryan Newman finds redemption in New Hampshire

LOUDON, N.H.—Ryan Newman wasn’t giving up.

Despite starting the Foxwoods Casino 301 in a backup car, despite starting from the rear of the field, despite suffering from a faulty coil wire with 101 laps remaining in the race, the 41-year-old driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford kept fighting.

Newman’s determination paid off with his fifth top-10 finish in the last six races and 20th top 10 in 34 starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

“Honestly, it was the most fun I’ve had all year in a race car, and that’s mostly because we had a good, competitive Oscar Mayer Ford,” Newman said. “I slid through the box. We had a bad coil wire.  We had a bunch of things that set us back, being in a backup car starting last and to have the finish that we did at a track that is usually difficult to pass at, but I will say that I did pass a few guys three-wide and that doesn’t happen very often here. 

“I’m proud of the team effort and it’s something to build on, for sure.”

Newman entered the weekend 17th in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup standings—two points outside of the Playoff cut line. He wadded up the back end of the No. 6 Ford in Friday’s practice session, and the team was forced to pull out the backup car. After starting on Sunday from the back of the pack, Newman climbed into the top 25 in the first 10 laps. At the end of 75-lap Stage 1, Newman had worked his way up to 15th.

With adjustments throughout the first two stages, Newman was able to work his way up to third by the end of the second segment at Lap 150. Although he dropped to 18th after pit stops, he worked his way into the top 15. He was running 13th before Martin Truex Jr. passed him on Lap 200. That’s when Newman reported an issue with the engine.

Back-to-back cautions involving Kyle Busch on Lap 215 and Kyle Larson on Lap 219 provided the Scott Graves-led team time to diagnose the issue and then make repairs under the second yellow flag.

“I didn’t know what it was, and I was thinking of ways to fix it without fixing it,” said Newman who originally believed he had lost a cylinder. “They found that they could physically fix it, so they did an awesome job assessing the situation.”  

After his team replaced the faulty coil wire, Newman restarted 18th and soldiered back to seventh over the final 77 laps.

“We caught a couple breaks there with cautions and did all we could to stay on the lead lap and it worked,” Newman said. “It was an awesome job. If we would have had one more decent run in there, we could have been up there racing with them for the lead, but the second to the last run we were just way too loose.

“There’s something about me and the Magic Mile, I guess. I don’t know. (Sunday) was kind of like a win for us to fight back from all the things that we did. I feel very emotional about how well we did today, given the adversity we had in front of us.”

The team effort, combined with major issues for Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson, enabled Newman to vault from 17th in the Cup standings to 15th. Bowyer and Johnson were tied for 15th entering the weekend. Bowyer collided with Truex on Lap 110 and finished 20th on Sunday. Johnson developed a power steering issue at the end of Stage 2. He finished 30th, 13 laps off the pace.

With six races to determine the Playoff grid, Newman holds a four-point advantage over Bowyer. He feels confident going down the stretch.

“We’re just out there doing the best that we can, and I don’t think of it as dire,” Newman said. “I think of it as an opportunity. We keep gaining.

“We’ve got a string of top 10s going here that we need to keep going and look forward to these next few races.”