Ryan Newman – Texas II Advance
Team: No. 6 Roush Performance Ford Mustang
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Twitter: @Roush6Team, @RoushFenway and @RyanJNewman
AAA Texas 500 – Sunday, Nov. 3 at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM Channel 90
ADVANCE NOTES
Newman at Texas Motor Speedway
· Newman will make his 33rd start at Texas on Sunday. In 31 prior events Newman has one win with three top-five and six top-10 finishes and an average finish of 18.7.
· Newman went to victory lane in just his second Cup race ever at the 1.5-mile track back in 2003, leading 77 laps after starting third.
· He also crossed the line fifth in the 2007 fall race and fourth in the following event (spring 2008). His most recent top-10 came in the 2016 fall event where he finished 10th.
· Newman has two career Cup poles at Texas, both of which came in 2005 when he swept the pole spot that season. Overall he has an average starting spot of 16.4 with his most recent top-10 start coming in 2017 (ninth).
· Newman also has three starts in the Xfinity Series at TMS, where he led the field to green in 2005 and recorded a top finish of 14th in 2001.
Scott Graves at Texas Motor Speedway
· Graves will be atop the box for his seventh MENCS race at Texas on Sunday. In six prior starts with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Daniel Suarez and Ryan Newman, Graves has an average finish of 21.5.
· He led Suarez to a 14th-place result in 2017 and also finished 16th with Stenhouse in 2013. He also has two top-10 starts at the 1.5-mile track, including ninth in 2013 and sixth in 2017.
· Graves also has two top-10s and one top-five in the Xfinity Series at Texas, finishing fifth with Suarez in 2016 and ninth with Buescher in 2015.
Last Time at Texas
Newman ran inside the top-10 for a large portion of the spring race at TMS, before going on to record an 11th-place finish in his Wyndham Rewards Ford.
QUOTE WORTHY
Newman on racing at Texas:
“Our spring race at Texas was sort of the start of our stretch of consistent runs for the year. We ran inside the top-10 for a good portion of that race so we’re pretty confident in our setup and approach going into this weekend. We’ve got three left, so we’re looking for another solid run in our Roush Performance Ford.”
Recapping Martinsville
Newman and the No. 6 team battled back from early adversity to earn their way back onto the lead lap, and ultimately drive inside the top-10 for the majority of the end of Sunday’s race at Martinsville to finish 10th.