Team: No. 6 Wyndham Rewards Ford Mustang
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Twitter: @Roush6Team, @RoushFenway and @RyanJNewman
Gander RV 400 – Sunday, May 5 at 2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90
ADVANCE NOTES
Newman at Dover International Speedway
· Newman will make his 35th Cup start at Dover on Sunday. In 34 prior starts, Newman has an average finish of 14.3 with 14 top-10 and seven top-five finishes.
· Newman has won three times at the 1-mile track, tied for the most wins of any track on the circuit (Loudon). All three came within his first three years on the Cup circuit. He swept the 2003 events after qualifying on the pole in the spring race and leading 162 laps. He followed that with another dominating performance, leading 106 laps in the fall.
· He came back to win the 2004 fall race after starting second, a race in which he led 325 of the 400 laps. He also finished top five on four other occasions – fourth in 2002 (spring), fifth in 2005 (fall), second in 2007 (spring) and fourth in 2017 (spring).
· Overall Newman has an average starting spot of 10.6 at Dover, including 19 starts inside the top-10 and four poles (2003, 2005, 2006, 2007).
· Newman also has six Xfinity Series starts at Dover with one win (2005), two poles (2001, 2005), and three top-10 finishes overall.
Scott Graves at Dover International Speedway
· Graves will call his eighth MENCS event at Dover on Sunday. In seven previous events atop the pit box, Graves has four top-10s – all with Daniel Suarez – with finishes of sixth, eighth, third, and 10th in the last four Dover races.
· He also led Ricky Stenhouse Jr., to a pair of top-13 finishes in 2012 (12th) and 2013 (13th).
· Graves also has also called six races in the Xfinity Series at Dover, winning twice, most recently three years ago with Suarez in the fall. He also won with Chris Buescher in 2015 after starting second. Overall Graves has five top-10s and three top-fives in NXS action at the 1-mile track.
QUOTE WORTHY
Newman on racing at Dover:
“Dover has always been a favorite of mine, but one that requires toughness inside the car. It’s so unique in the way you have to manage the corners and getting the setup right is key for a solid day. We’ve been able to continue our upward trend so we’re looking forward to having some more fun this weekend.”
Recapping Talladega
Newman hung around and drove his way to a third-straight top-10 finish this past Sunday at Talladega. He battled back from being caught up in an early accident on lap 10 to finish sixth in the first stage, before going on to drive his Acorns Ford to a seventh-place result.
