Ryan Newman ended his winless drought at Phoenix International Raceway. Newman stayed out while most of the front runners pitted for two tires after Joey Logano blew a right front tire that brought out the final caution flag of the day with six laps remaining. Newman held off Kyle Larson on the two-lap overtime restart to win his first race since 2013 on Sunday in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Camping World 500.
You had better luck finding Nemo than Ryan Newman in Victory Lane in recent years. He was there for the first time since July 28, 2013 in Indianapolis. That was surprising enough.
Since joining RCR in 2014, Newman has made the playoffs a couple of times (2014, '15), with his '14 effort culminating in a narrow championship miss, finishing second to Kevin Harvick in the standings.
Drivers Ryan Newman, Kyle Larson, and Rickey Stenhouse Jr. stayed out on old tires during the final caution flag at Phoenix International Raceway. Newman's crew chief Luke Lambert rolled the dice giving Newman the lead when the field went back green with two laps to go.
Ryan Newman's winless drought that stretched over 100 races came to an end at Phoenix International Raceway, thanks to an overtime restart involving Kyle Larson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Wins mean everything, but doing well in the stages and coming home close to the front seems pretty important also this season. Last week, Matt Kenseth finished ninth, yet lost ground by 30 points to race winner Martin Truex Jr. in Las Vegas alone.
One thing that pops out at you are some of the unfamiliar names among our Hot 20 after a couple of races. Even more so, all the familiar names not there.
Brad Keselowski won. 22 victories. This time, if he has any self respect, he needs to send out a few lines of thanks to a pair of drivers. Kyle Larson would be one of them. Larson ran low, did well, but for some reason he thought Keselowski would pass him on high, so he stayed high. Brad passed him down low, and drove away. Larson has one win, and seven runner-up finishes. I am starting to see why.
It is expected. The standings look weird. With bonus points from the Duels and the demo derby that was the Daytona 500, some wound up with more points than anticipated, and some got far less.
