Team: No. 6 Guaranteed Rate Ford Mustang
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Twitter: @Roush6Team, @RoushFenway and @RyanJNewman
Race Format: 300 miles, 400 laps, Stage Lengths: 80-155-165
Federated Auto Parts 400 – Saturday, Sept. 12 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90
ADVANCE NOTES
Lone Richmond Event Next Stop for Cup Series
· The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Richmond Raceway on Saturday night for its first and only race of the 2020 season at the ¾-mile track, and the second event of the 2020 NASCAR Playoffs.
· Saturday’s race will be the third of five-straight under the lights, and first of two consecutive Saturday night events with Bristol coming up next weekend.
· The starting lineup will once again be set by three competition-based performance metrics, rewarding both season-long and single-race performance. The lineup will be announced later this week prior to Saturday night’s event.
· Four weeks of NASCAR action were 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 Richmond
· Newman will make his 37th Cup start at Richmond on Saturday, his best track on the circuit statistically with a 12.3 average finish. He has 20 top-10s in 36 starts, eight of which were inside the top five.
· He won once at Richmond back in 2003, when he started fourth and led the final 124 laps in the fall race. He went on to capture eight wins that season. Most recently, Newman finished ninth and fifth in last season’s races, and has now finished ninth or better in four of the past six events.
· Newman has six finishes in the top-three, including runner-up results in 2002 (twice), the win in 2003, and third in 2005, 2013 and 2017. He also has one pole at Richmond, and holds an average starting position of 13.6.
· He also has five starts in the Xfinity Series at Richmond, recording two top-fives with a best finish of third in 2007.
Scott Graves Historically at Richmond
· Graves will call his ninth Cup event at Richmond on Saturday, where he has five top-10s, the most for him at any track on the circuit. He carries an average finish of 10.8 atop the box, and led Newman to the pair of top-10s a season ago.
· Prior to 2019, Graves had three top-10s – one with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., and two with Daniel Suarez – with the fifth-place run last fall as his best at the ¾-mile track.
· Graves also called seven Xfinity events at Richmond, earning five top-10s and one top five. He led Suarez to fourth and eighth in 2016, and finished seventh once and 10th twice with Chris Buescher in 2014 and 2015.
QUOTE WORTHY
Newman on racing at Richmond:
“Richmond is one of my favorite race tracks, I’d say No. 2 or No. 3 on my list of the tracks we go to for great, quality racing. It’s probably the best short track we go to, we had a great run there last fall, and look forward to carrying that momentum going forward.”
Last Time Out
Newman and the No. 6 team battled and picked off multiple positions in the closing laps to a 15th-place finish at Darlington.
Where They Rank
Newman is 25th in driver points after 24 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 in Richmond, 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.
