Team: No. 6 Oscar Mayer Ford Mustang
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Twitter: @Roush6Team, @RoushFenway and @RyanJNewman
Race Format: 400 miles, 260 laps, Stages: 80-80-100
NASCAR Cup Series Race at Atlanta – Sunday, July 11 at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM Channel 90
ADVANCE NOTES
Newman at Atlanta Motor Speedway
· Newman makes his 30th Cup start at Atlanta this weekend, a 1.5-mile track where he carries an average finish of 17.6 with nine top-10s and two finishes inside the top five.
· His best finish in 29 prior starts is fifth, which came twice – once in 2004 and again in 2013. He has also finished 10th on four occasions, including most recently in 2015. He’s been consistent as of late, finishing 13th-14th-13th in the past three events at the track.
· Newman has an impressive 8.1 average starting position at AMS, by far his best on the circuit, with seven career poles as well as two-straight P2 starts. In 29 career races at Atlanta, Newman has started on the front row 12 times.
· Newman is a winner in the Truck Series at Atlanta, driving to victory lane in 2008 in one of only seven Truck starts in his career.
· He also has three Xfinity Series starts at AMS, finishing eighth in 2010 and capturing the pole back in 2001.
Scott Graves at Atlanta Motor Speedway
· Graves will be on the box for his sixth Cup race at Atlanta this weekend, a track he carries a 14.2 average finish.
· Atlanta is also Graves’ best track in terms of qualifying and starting positions, as his average starting spot is 12.6 in five events. He and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., earned the pole together in 2013, and he followed that by starting fourth with Daniel Suarez in 2018.
· Graves has led Newman to three-straight top-15 results at AMS, including 13th in 2019, 14th last season, and 13th earlier this season at the 1.5-mile track.
· Graves also called four Xfinity races at Atlanta dating back to 2014. He and Kyle Busch won together in 2017 in the No. 18, and his best finish otherwise came with Chris Buescher in 2015 (fourth). He also ran seventh with Suarez a year later.
QUOTE WORTHY
Newman on racing at Atlanta:
“Atlanta in the middle of summer will be a challenge within itself with the heat, and add that with the tire wear and multiple racing grooves and it’s a recipe for a hot, challenging day come Sunday. That said, we’ve been pretty consistent there as of late and we have a good notebook between the two cars, so we just have to put it all together and hopefully have a great run in the Oscar Mayer Ford.”
Last Time Out
Newman finished 32nd in Sunday’s race at Road America.
Where They Rank
Newman is 24th in points through 20 events.
On the Car
Oscar Mayer is back on board Newman’s Ford Mustang as the primary this weekend, and together they will sport the brand’s new-look logo, which will be featured across all of the No. 6 team’s assets this weekend and for the remainder of the 2021 season.
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