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Fresh Start Has Newman Eager For Success

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Ryan Newman is switching teams and optimistic about reversing his recent fortunes, last year's Daytona 500 aside.

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By TONY FABRIZIO

afabrizio@tampatrib.com

Published: January 19, 2009

Updated: 01/19/2009 01:19 am

TAMPA - Ryan Newman couldn't name one player on the Lightning, still doesn't talk to Rusty Wallace and seemed recharged about starting anew as part of Tony Stewart's foray into ownership.

In town recently for lunch with a few media people and an appearance at a Lightning game - basically to provide some pop for the not-yet-sold out Feb. 15 Daytona 500 - the defending 500 champion said he expects to contend again.

After seven years with Penske Racing, Newman will drive for a team that never won a race as Haas CNC Racing but now is being run by two-time champion Stewart, who became 50 percent owner last summer and also will drive.

An affiliation with high-powered Hendrick Motorsports gives the team a fighting chance.

"Realistically, we should both be in the Chase," Newman said. "As drivers, we're capable of it. From an equipment standpoint, the only difference between us and Hendrick Motorsports is we hang our own bodies."

Time To Go

The call was from Don Miller, former president of Penske Racing South and fellow classic car bluff. Newman slapped his phone shut and grinned. Miller was calling to brag about being at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Arizona - car collector heaven.

Miller's friendship was part of the good times at Penske Racing, the best of which came in February when Newman and teammate Kurt Busch drove to a 1-2 finish in the 50th-anniversary 500.

Too many other times weren't good: The feud with former teammate Wallace. Not winning a race last year after Daytona. Missing the Chase for a third consecutive year.

Struggling with Dodge the last six years.

"We started with Dodge in '03 and won eight races and 11 poles," he said. "I thought, 'Man, this is easy.' ... We went from the top of the mountain right down into the creek."

After his Daytona victory last year, Newman managed only one more top-five finish the rest of the year.

In July, a frustrated Newman said he was leaving.

"We weren't hit and miss," he says now. "We just never hit."

Newman says he's on good terms with Roger Penske, the business and racing mogul who brought him to NASCAR's top level. He admits the parting had a prickly side, saying that while he didn't burn a bridge, "I maybe rotted the supports a little."

The problem was Newman complained publicly. That didn't sit well with Penske, who wants the dirty laundry kept indoors.

Wallace brought the disconnect to light during the Allstate 400 weekend at Indianapolis, saying Newman actually was fired. Newman wondered whether Wallace was "conscious" when he made the claim.

They haven't spoken since.

Says Newman of Wallace now, "You've got your friends and you've got your enemies, and then you've got people like that."

New Everything

Newman will defend his Daytona 500 title with a new team, new crew chief (Tony Gibson), new number (39) and new sponsor (U.S. Army). He's the first Daytona 500 champion to return with a different team since 1981 (Bobby Allison).

He'll be driving a Chevrolet, a brand he has never raced or had much affection for. Of the 15 classic cars in his personal collection, only one is a General Motors product - a 1949 Buick Roadmaster.

He's on the lookout for a classic Chevrolet.

More than anything, Newman is looking for the form that saw him finish in the top seven in the points each year from 2002 through 2005.

"I'm not eager to prove anything," he says. "I'm eager to succeed."

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