Team: No. 6 Guaranteed Rate Ford Mustang
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Twitter: @Roush6Team, @RoushFenway and @RyanJNewman
Race Format: Saturday: 311 miles, 311 laps, Stage Lengths: 70-115-126
Sunday: 311 miles, 311 laps, Stage Lengths: 70-115-126
Drydene 311 – Saturday, August 22 at 4 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90
Drydene 311 – Sunday, August 23 at 4 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90
ADVANCE NOTES
Double in Dover This Weekend
· For the second time in three weeks, the NASCAR Cup Series will take part in a doubleheader, this time at ‘The Monster Mile’ for a pair of afternoon races on Saturday and Sunday.
· Including this weekend’s action, three races remain in the 2020 regular season with the NASCAR Playoffs set to begin at Darlington Raceway on Labor Day weekend.
· As announced a week ago, starting lineups for the Cup Series will be determined by a competition-based performance metric. NASCAR will reward both season-long and single-race performance to determine the lineup and pit selection, using owner points position, the finish and fastest lap from the most recently completed race.
· Dover is usually held on the calendar twice, once in May and again in the fall, but complications from COVID-19 pushed the race from May to this weekend’s doubleheader. Four weeks of NASCAR action were initially completed prior to the COVID-19 hiatus with races at Atlanta, Homestead, Texas, Bristol, Richmond, Talladega, Dover and Martinsville postponed before the schedule later picked back up in mid-May.
Newman Historically at Dover
· Newman will make his 37th and 38th Cup starts at ‘The Monster Mile’ this weekend, a track he has an average finish of 14.6 with three wins all-time.
· Newman’s three wins – tied for his most on any track on the circuit with Loudon – came back in 2003 and 2004. He swept the 2003 events – one from the pole – and led a combined 593 laps in the three races in a dominating effort.
· During the stretch from 2002 (his first Cup event at Dover) to 2007, Newman started on the pole four times, started inside the top-5 in 10 of 11 events, and finished top-5 in seven of those.
· Most recently, Newman finished 18th last spring, and 22nd in the fall.
· 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 Historically at Dover
· Graves will be atop the box for his 10th and 11th Cup events at Dover this weekend, where he carries an average finish of 12.1 and four top-10 finishes.
· In a span of four-straight races in 2017-18, Graves led Daniel Suarez to four-consecutive top-10s (sixth, eighth, third, tenth), his best performance at the 1-mile track to date.
· Graves also called six Xfinity events, winning twice, most recently with Suarez in 2016. He also went to Victory Lane with Chris Buescher in 2015. Overall Graves has five top-10s in six events with an average finish of 5.7.
QUOTE WORTHY
Newman on racing at Dover:
“Dover is a fun 1-mile track, but challenging in driving the corners and finding the right setup. Back in the early days of my career we were really successful, and won three times in two seasons, so the familiarity is there, we just have to put together the right balance to get the job done in our Guaranteed Rate Ford back-to-back this weekend.”
Last Time Out
Newman finished 19th on the Daytona Road Course last weekend.
Where They Rank
Newman is 25th in driver points after 20 points races in his 2020 campaign. In owners’ points, the No. 6 is 25th.
On the Car
Guaranteed Rate returns to Newman’s Ford this weekend for both races, as part of the overall 12-race schedule for the brand to close out the 2020 slate.
About Guaranteed Rate
Guaranteed Rate is one of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the Company has more than 5,000 employees in nearly 350 offices across the U.S., and is licensed in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Since its founding in 2000, Guaranteed Rate has helped hundreds of thousands of homeowners with home purchase loans and refinances and funded more than $30 billion in loans in 2019 alone. The Company has cemented itself as Positively Different by introducing innovative technology, such as the world’s first Digital Mortgage, by offering low rates and by delivering unparalleled customer service. Honors and awards include: Top Lender for Online Service for 2018 by U.S. News & World Report; No. 3 ranking in Scotsman Guide’s Top Retail Mortgage Lenders 2019; Top Lender 2016, 2017 and 2018 by Chicago Agent magazine; Chicago Tribune’s Top Workplaces list for seven consecutive years; and Best Online Mortgage Lender, Best Mortgage Lender for VA loans and Best Conventional Mortgage Lender by NerdWallet in 2019. Visit rate.com for more information.
