Ryan Newman, from South Bend, Indiana won the 20th annual Crown Royal Presents The Samuel Deeds 400 at The Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday after starting from the pole and breaking the nine year old track record. Prior to his win, Newman, in the #39, Stewart-Haas Racing Quicken Loans Chevrolet had only scored two top 10 finishes at Indy in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. “I knew we had a good car. Starting on the pole and winning the race. Just an awesome day for us. This is a dream come true for me. I can’t wait to push my lips on those bricks”, said Newman after his win. “It will take a week or so for this to set in. Just a great run today. Happy it stayed green. We needed that. A great long-run car”, he added.
Newman’s teammate and car owner, Tony Stewart, in the #14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet, ran strong all day and finished in the 4th position. When asked about Newman’s win, Tony said “I can’t wait to give him a big hug and congratulate him. He did a great job all weekend. It was between him and the 48. I didn’t know what the strategy was going to be at the end. I just kept watching the jumbo-trons coming off (turn) four to see where he was at.”
Points leader, Jimmie Johnson started the race in 2nd and finished in the same spot, 2.657 seconds behind Newman. Johnson, in the #48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet took the lead from Newman after the first round of pit stops and would lead four times for 73 laps and extending his lead to 75 over Clint Bowyer in the points standings. Johnson’s final stop cost him the lead over Newman after a slow stop on pit road. “There’s definitely disappointment there. But that’s racing – it happens. I’ve given away a few out there this year too. Ryan was fast all day long. I can’t take anything away from him. He was plenty fast”, said Johnson when asked about the last pit stop. In regards to his car, Johnson said, “It wasn’t the easiest one to drive. I was real tight in and loose off. In traffic, it was a little tougher than I wanted. It was still an awesome race car. I just came up a little bit short today.”
Third place finisher, Kasey Kahne, in the #5 Great Clips Chevrolet started 7th and scored his fifth top-10 finish in ten starts at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “We kept falling back too far. It takes awhile to get back to the front. Congrats to Ryan. He had a big weekend. He deserved it. He needed it.” said Kahne.
Matt Kenseth, in the Joe Gibbs Racing, #20 Dollar General Toyota continued his strong season finishing in the 5th position after starting the race in 13th. “We had really, really great pit stops from my Dollar General crew and Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) mad a great call to get us some track position. That’s really what got us our top-five. We didn’t have a car that good today. We were just off all weekend. We never hit is exactly right.” said Kenseth after the race.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. started in the 15th position and finished 6th after rebounding from an early unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel. Four time winner of this race, Jeff Gordon, finished in 7th, followed by Joey Logano, in the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford in 8th, 9th place finisher, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Kyle Busch in 10th.
Remarkably, Ryan Newman is searching for a ride for the 2014 season. It was recently announced that Kevin Harvick would be moving over to the Stewart-Haas Racing team. Ryan said of his search for a new ride, “The biggest thing is confidence. We still got a championship to go after. We still got the Chase to chase.”
The win was Newman’s 17th career win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. There were 3 cautions for 14 laps and 20 lead changes among 12 drivers. The average speed of the race was 153.485 mph and all 43 cars that started the race were running at the finish.
2013 Crown Royal Presents the Samuel Deeds 400 at The Brickyard Results:
1. Ryan Newman, Chevrolet
2. Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet
3. Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet
4. Tony Stewart, Chevrolet
5. Matt Kenseth, Toyota
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet
7. Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet
8. Joey Logano, Ford
9. Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet
10. Kyle Busch, Toyota
11. Martin Truex Jr., Toyota
12. Paul Menard, Chevrolet
13. Carl Edwards, Ford
14. Kurt Busch, Chevrolet
15. Jamie McMurray
16. Marcos Ambrose
17. Aric Almirola
18. Denny Hamlin, Toyota
19. Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet
20. Clint Bowyer, Toyota
21. Brad Keselowski, Ford
22. AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet
23. Mark Martin, Toyota
24. Greg Biffle, Ford
25. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford
26. Austin Dillon, Chevrolet
27. Casey Mears, Ford
28. Trevor Bayne, Ford
29. David Reutimann, Toyota
30. Danica Patrick, Chevrolet
31. Travis Kvapil, Toyota
32. Michael McDowell, Ford
33. Landon Cassill, Chevrolet
34. David Ragan, Ford
35. David Gilliland, Ford
36. Bobby Labonte, Toyota
37. Dave Blaney, Chevrolet
38. Josh Wise, Ford
39. JJ Yeley, Chevrolet
40. David Stremme, Toyota
41. Joe Nemechek, Toyota
42. Timmy Hill, Ford
43. Jeff Burton, Chevrolet
