Ryan Newman endured a brutal string of luck en route to a disappointing 25th-place finish in Sunday’s Sylvania 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.
Newman’s day, however, started strong, as the driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) started on the pole and led the first 62 laps of the 300-lap event around the 1.058-mile oval. But as Newman headed to pit road under green on lap 63, his race began to slowly unravel.
During his pit stop, the hose attached to the front air gun became hung up on the right-front fender as the tire changer moved from the right side of the car to the left. The slight hiccup cost Newman just two seconds on pit road, but it dropped him from first to fifth in the running order.
From there, the handling on Newman’s car began to go away, yet he managed to stay in or near the top-10 for much of the remainder of the race. Unfortunately, more bad luck was coming.
While in the top-10 on lap 233, Newman headed to pit road under green for his final pit stop of the day, and as the rear tire changer was working on the left-rear wheel, a million-to-one bit of happenstance struck the 39 team. As the tire changer took off the third of five lugnuts, that lugnut found its way in between the air wrench and the fourth lugnut, which was still attached to the stud and was about to be hit with the wrench in order to take it off.
With the air wrench moving forward toward the fourth lugnut and the stud to which it was attached, the third lugnut jammed into the wrench, making it inoperable. The tire changer was forced to bang the air wrench into the ground several times in order to free the lugnut so the remaining ones could be taken off the tire.
The unbelievable occurrence caused a significant delay, and Newman came out of the pits a lowly 18th.
Despite all that, the Haas Automation driver moved up to 11th with five laps remaining, but was once again hit with a dose of bad luck. His right-front tire was rapidly losing air and Newman was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop on lap 296 for right-side tires only.
The untimely, yet necessary, stop caused Newman to tumble to 25th – his worst position of the day – and where he would finish when the checkered flag fell moments later.
“We just had a tough day,” Newman said. “We had a couple of slow pit stops and then we had a tire go down at the end. It was just a disappointing day for us. We just didn’t capitalize on what we could have, and today was a good day to do that and we didn’t do it. Our team – we know we can do it. We’ve done it before. Going to Dover (next week), we need to improve from where we were in the spring, and I think we can do that.”
His SHR teammate, Tony Stewart, won the Sylvania 300 to score his 41st career Sprint Cup victory, his third at New Hampshire and his second of 2011, as he also won last Monday’s rain-postponed Geico 400 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. The driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala has now won consecutive Sprint Cup races eight times in his career, with the most recent occurrence coming in July 2007 when he won back-to-back races at Chicagoland and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In 12 of his 13 seasons in Sprint Cup, Stewart has won at least two races.
Stewart is also the second driver in the eight-year history of the Chase for the Sprint Cup to win the first two races of the 10-race Chase. Greg Biffle was the first, winning at New Hampshire and Dover (Del.) International Speedway in 2008.
Brad Keselowski finished 7.225 seconds behind Stewart in the runner-up spot, while Biffle, Jeff Gordon and Brian Vickers rounded out the top-five. Matt Kenseth, David Ragan, Carl Edwards, Juan Pablo Montoya and Regan Smith comprised the remainder of the top-10.
There were three caution periods for 14 laps, with 10 drivers failing to finish.
Stewart and Newman are both in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and came into New Hampshire second and seventh, respectively, behind Chase leader Kevin Harvick. Stewart was seven points behind Harvick and Newman was 14 points back. Stewart leaves New Hampshire first in points, seven markers ahead of Harvick. Newman is now 11th in the standings, 34 points arrears Harvick.
Stewart Haas Racing PR
- Dover Weekend Schedule - April 21, 2024
- Kaulig Racing Race Recap | Ag-Pro 300 - April 20, 2024
- Odd Tony Stewart Talladega Post Race Q&A - May 7, 2012