Sunday
Ryan Newman Wins at Phoenix Leading an All-Chevrolet Top-Five Finish in Overtime
Press Release
When the final caution of the scheduled 375-lap race flew on lap 373, Newman came off pit road second after a two-tire stop. When the green waved for the first attempt at an overtime finish, Newman dove into turn one with the lead and never looked back. He led an all Chevrolet top-five string to the checkered flag.
Newman jumped six places in the standings to 16th position after seven races, and scored the first victory of the season for team owner Tony Stewart and the Stewart-Haas Racing organization.
Gordon finished second after leading once for three laps and now sits fifth in the standings.
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, finished third after leading four times for a total of 113 laps. Johnson maintains the points lead by 36 points.
Mark Martin, No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, brought home the fourth finishing position. Martin jumped four positions in points to 13th place.
Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevrolet, finished fifth to give Team Chevy a clean sweep of the top-five finishers in tonight’s race. Montoya led four times during the race for a total of 104 laps. He gained four positions in points to now sit 21st in the standings.
Clint Bowyer, No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet, finished ninth. He now sits sixth in points, up three places.
With a 12th place finish, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet remains 10th in the point standings.
Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet, maintains fourth in the standings with his 13th place finish.
After leading once for 15 laps, Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet, struggled with handling issues late in the race to finish 23rd and claim ninth place in the standings.
Jeff Burton, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, battled to recover from a pit road infraction to finish 25th. He holds the seventh position in points.
The Series moves to Texas Motor Speedway on April 18, 2010 for the Samsung Mobile 500.
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 TORNADOS CHEVROLET – RACE WINNER
TONY GIBSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 39 TORNADOS CHEVROLET – RACE WINNER
THE MODERATOR: We’re now joined in the Infield Media Center by today’s winner of the Subway Fresh Fit 600, driver of the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet, Ryan Newman. Interesting fact is that in all of NASCAR’s history the 39 car has been driven in 286 races, including tonight’s race. Tonight is the first time the 39 has ever made it to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series history.
So, Ryan, tell us about your run.
RYAN NEWMAN: I don’t know if I have enough words. But the last restart, didn’t really know what to expect. The inside, from what I had seen, hadn’t been the ideal lane all day. I’m not sure if Jeff didn’t get a great restart. I didn’t feel I did, but it was just the right place at the right time.
Two tires paid off, clean air, and track picked up so much grip as we went there, and it was just right time, right place. And gotta thank Tornados and Chevrolet and the U.S. Army and Haas Automation and Coca Cola and Kraft and Gillette and all the people that have stood by us.
It was a long time coming for me personally, 77 races, but to see Tony Stewart win so many races last year and be so close but not get that victory, this is really awesome for us and our team.
Q. I will verify that Jeff Gordon said on Pit Road he spun the tires on the restart and he was kicking himself afterwards. Maybe that explains what happened at the end. But could you talk about that and the restart?
RYAN NEWMAN: I did the best I could. I knew from what my car had done every restart is a push down on 1 and 2. I got a good start and hooked the apron just right. Got a good run to the green, which is so difficult here.
I was talking to, of all people, Kyle Busch about it before the race. I mean, this is one of the longest straightaways we have before the green flag from Turn 4. Most tracks are D shaped and you can kind of see, but here it’s really hard to gauge, at least when you’re mid pack, what to expect on a restart.
So I had one opportunity earlier in the race when I was on two tires and it didn’t pan out at all. And to go back later in the race and be on two tires with more laps then left still be able to pull it off was amazing.
Q. Can you talk about the decision to go for four; for two and how much you and Tony discussed it and who made the final call?
RYAN NEWMAN: Gibson wanted to put four on it. I said, Put two on me. I didn’t want to get jumped by a bunch of guys that did two. As it turned out, I don’t know where the first guy was that finished on four tires. I don’t know if he was even in the top five. He made the ultimate call.
I was the one that suggested two tires but he made the ultimate call on of two tires on Pit Road. And it was ultimately the right call. I think like the top five, we’re two tire car, so it was all good from my standpoint.
Q. I think you said it was an emotional one because it’s been so long. What’s it been like for you? For a while you were winning races and you were one of the people that fans were mad at because you were winning every week. How does that when you’re a driver, how is that going through that experience, trading that experience?
RYAN NEWMAN: It was tough. It was tough last year, I’m not going to kid you, when I come to a new organization and it’s the same organization for Tony Stewart and he won all those races. Looking back at it, we were close, but we gave some of our races away and we know that. We knew what we needed to do to make our team better.
And I feel that we’ve done that. We proved that tonight. So it was a long time coming for me. The emotional part when I first started in the series, it just came easy. I was with a great team. Had great crew chief, great pit stops, all those things just kind of came easy to me, and then as it I got towards 2005, got to struggling a little bit. I got a win here or there, but it was not dominant like we were back in 2002 and 2003. And to come to this new organization and achieve the things that we did was great last year.
But, as I said all year long, I wanted to get that first victory for our team and for No. 39 and these guys at Stewart Haas Racing who had never been to any victory in any series, and we did that today.
Q. Ryan, obviously some people are going to say you stole this one. Kyle was way in front when that last caution came out. However, you were running near the front almost all race. And can just the fact that you did win it, can that just change everything around for you guys just the momentum of that? Just going to victory lane again and regardless of how you do it, just the fact that you got there, can that be a difference that can propel you guys the rest of the year?
RYAN NEWMAN: I thought Kyle stole one last night, so he’s just even now. It’s racing, man. It’s racing all the way up until the checkered flag falls. You never know what happens.
That’s why fans love the sport and the strategy and the drama and what’s going to happen and how teams play it out. Four tires, two tires, no tires. I’m surprised that there wasn’t a guy that went out there with no tires just to see. There was 24 cars in the lead lap, it’s like why wouldn’t you? Some guys just don’t take that risk, and I was glad that they didn’t tonight.
Q. Can you talk about Tony a little bit? Car chief for several guys, Cup champions and everybody and gets his first win as a crew chief?
RYAN NEWMAN: We were just talking about you. It’s not your first win as a crew chief, is it?
TONY GIBSON: Cup series.
RYAN NEWMAN: Congratulations. Honestly, I didn’t know that. But it’s such a great team effort. And we’ve had our struggles. We’ve had some poor pit stops. We’ve made the wrong calls. We’ve done lots of things wrong. And we’ve done lots of things right. But we just didn’t put it all together on a given night. And tonight it happened. Martinsville we were close. We just didn’t get the restart we wanted.
It was a great team effort for Tony and his calling the two tires and the guys did a great job on the pits tonight. It took everybody. It took a good race car, and all the people behind us at Stewart Haas.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll also introduce tonight’s winning crew chief, Tony Gibson.
Tony, give us your thoughts of how tonight’s race unfolded and your view from on top of the box.
TONY GIBSON: We had a decent car. We knew yesterday that the car was pretty good. We didn’t think it was a winning car, but it was a decent top 10 car.
So we tried to work on it and not tried to keep up with the racetrack. And that was my biggest concern was not being able to keep up with the racetrack. But me and Ryan did a good job communicating. His feedback was awesome. And that’s half the battle. When you get the right information and we work together like we’ve been working the last couple of weeks, things just kind of flow good.
So for me it was just talking to Ryan and figuring out when we need to do with the car, make sure we made the right adjustments because you don’t get many times to pit here. You get a lot of green flag runs. So we tonight we worked together real good like we did last week. We made the right adjustments and here we are.
Q. Tony, everyone talks about for crew chiefs the thousand things that you have to think about to make the right decision. It seems like in the last few weeks or this season with double file restarts, multiple green white checkered flags, how people are deciding to take two tires with two laps left in the race. The number of things you have to contemplate has grown considerably. Could you talk about that? Is that too much running around in somebody’s head at any one time?
TONY GIBSON: It is. You gotta think it could be three green white checkereds. What worried me tonight was taking on two and having a quick caution and letting the guys that took on four gain on us.
So that plays in your head the whole time you’re trying to make a decision whether two or four. Because if we would have got another green white checkered, those guys on four would have closed up on us and I don’t know what would have happened then.
But we were fortunate to get a good restart and get out there and win the race. But there’s a lot of things to think about. If you’re lined in the wrong line, like Martinsville, we had a shot to win the race there but we were just in the wrong line. If that line doesn’t go and our guy slides up into the side of you, your day’s over.
So it’s really hard. It’s difficult to make a decision and you just hope and pray it comes out the one you make.
Q. Do you focus; would you say you focus on best scenario or worst case scenario?
TONY GIBSON: We work on worst case scenario because with our luck and the way things go, we have to think that way. So that’s just the way we have to think. So we think worst case scenario what could happen and that’s what we base our decisions.
RYAN NEWMAN: Usually when we have no luck, it’s a better day. Any kind of luck is usually bad luck for us.
TONY GIBSON: We said that don’t give us any luck and we’ll see how it comes out because most of the time it is bad.
Q. I was wondering, as the laps were going down, what were you thinking before that caution became a fact?
RYAN NEWMAN: I didn’t know, I thought a top five for us was going to be a good day, two top fives in a row wasn’t something we had since May or June of last year.
So I would say I was satisfied. But I wouldn’t be satisfied with that. I was happy that we were competitive, more competitive than we had been here last year and we made improvements as a team and as an organization, and that gives us an opportunity to win a race. Fortunately the yellow came out and we proved that.
Q. Tony, Ryan has talked about his emotions. You kind of broke down the race from a strategic standpoint, what were your emotions when it became pretty clear what he was doing and that you were going to take the checkers?
TONY GIBSON: Well, for me, I didn’t really get excited, because like I said before, we’ve been in this position and something’s happened. So I didn’t get excited until I saw the car come off the corner and headed to the flag. That’s when I got excited. I knew we had it.
So I didn’t get excited and didn’t get nervous at all, because like I said, I know how quick things can turn around. You can have an issue and not finish the deal. But I got excited when I saw the front of the car come off Turn 4, then I knew we had it.
Q. Is this as excited as you get?
TONY GIBSON: Well, no (laughter). No, don’t get me wrong. I’m excited. But it’s one thing Alan Kulwicki told us. We won the race I think it was in Rockingham. We beat Bill Elliott there a long time ago, we were all cheering and happy. He looked at us and said: That’s what you all get to do; you get paid to win.
So it’s exciting for me. I know tomorrow I’ll be pumped up and screaming and hollering, but just trying to soak it all in right now.
TONY STEWART: We’ve been making good money for a long time not winning, so we’re really happy.
RYAN NEWMAN: Yeah.
Q. Who said, Thank you, God, that’s friggin’ awesome, I appreciate the hell out of that?
RYAN NEWMAN: I did. Thank you, guys.
Q. It just sounded so subdued. It didn’t sound like you. And as far as you, Gibson, the guys that have stuck by you were with you with DEI and then you brought the whole crew over here. What was it like for them to finally get to victory lane?
TONY GIBSON: It was pretty big. A lot of those guys were in tears, because most of us have been together for nine years. And we won with Dale, Jr. and it had been a long stretch since we’d won a race. So we’d come close. But didn’t make it happen. So it was pretty exciting for those guys.
And I’m more happy and more proud for those guys than for myself. Because I feel like those guys have followed me wherever I’ve gone. So I feel like I owe it to them to see those guys and hopping up and jumping up and down it just brings back memories.
Q. Tony, you kind of answered it. But can you tell us about getting your first win as a crew chief. I assume you thought it would have come earlier?
TONY GIBSON: Yeah, I thought like two years ago we were going to make it happen here this same race. But it didn’t. Then we had four good shots last year with Ryan to win it and I thought it was going to happen and didn’t make it happen. So we kind of let him down. So I was beginning to wonder if it was ever going to happen.
But I knew if we just kept the faith and we worked hard together that our friendship is really strong, and we worked really good together and our communication is getting better. If we’re having a problem, me and Ryan, if we’re not communicating right or we feel like there’s something we need to work on, we’ll call each other up, we’ll go sit down and talk about it.
I think that’s one of the biggest things that’s helped us over the last couple of months is building our relationship as friends outside of racing. And I think me and him can sit down and yell at one another and tell each other what we think and get over it and go on. So I think that’s a big part of our success.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations and thank you for your time.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET – FINISHED 2ND
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – FINISHED 3RD
THE MODERATOR: We’re joined in the Infield Media Center by tonight’s 2nd place finisher, driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, Jeff Gordon.
Jeff, tell us about your run.
JEFF GORDON: Oh, man, it was a hard fought race for us, for sure. I guess I’m glad that it was a longer race. That definitely paid off for us. What I was real happy with for our team was that we made gains as the race went on and got our car better, got ourselves in position, and those are the things that you look at as a race team and what you’re going to need to battle for more wins in this championship.
And I’m real proud of that. And Steve’s made two great calls in the pits, and I couldn’t get it done for them the last two. So if he keeps doing that, we’re going to get ourselves enough experience to get some of these wins.
But I just spun the tires on that last restart. And Ryan got a really good one. We both, I thought, kind of spun the tires and so I wasn’t too worried, but, man, all of a sudden he shot forward. I was like, oh, man, I’m in trouble here.
And I thought I might be able to get to his quarter panel off of 2, but it was just too late over there and he was making a run up towards the wall, and so I got in behind him and tried to make a run at him. But came up short.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. What did you say to Ryan on Victory Lane?
JEFF GORDON: Just congratulated him. It’s been a long time since he’s won. And I know that meant a lot to him and that team. We have a relationship with Stewart Haas Racing. So it’s good to see those guys win. And he told me it was a great restart. And he said, yeah, I finally got a good one.
Q. What did the extra length of the race, including the daytime, when the track was a little hotter, do to set up for you guys? What did you have to change setup wise with that?
JEFF GORDON: Well, I mean, we really you know, all you can do is tune your car based on practice and past history and your notes. This was a whole different package of a car that we brought here.
We were trying some different things, and so it was kind of experimental for us. We tested this car or similar car to this over at Charlotte and thought we might like it here. And so we brought it here. And even through practice on Friday we struggled with it. And it’s just a different animal.
And it took me a little while to understand how it drives. It just seems to be more finicky, but yet we gained on it all weekend. So we tuned the car for the daytime, because that’s all we have to really go on, and knowing that we’re going to make adjustments as the track cools down. And you usually expect the track to get tighter.
And it did in a way. But, really, it didn’t change a whole lot in my opinion. I was real loose getting into the corners early in the day or early in the race. And that seemed to go away. But my loose off, it never went away. And we fought a little bit, tight in the middle also throughout the whole race, so we only adjusted based on what the car was doing.
Q. Jeff, four tires, two tires thing, you’ve seen it yourself a couple times this year whether it was right, whether it was wrong. Kyle takes four there, drops all the way back to 8th. Were you surprised that they elected to take four tires?
JEFF GORDON: I really like the kind of calls that Steve Letarte makes. He’s gutsy. He’s not afraid to take chances. And they’ve paid off for us, I’d say, more times than not.
And at Martinsville it was the right call, and I still feel like we should have won that race. I felt like it was the right call tonight. I just didn’t get a good restart.
And, you know, it was a tough in my opinion, sitting in the car, going down the back straightaway, before we were coming to Pit Road or whether we were going to come to Pit Road, I would not have wanted to make that call. Because I knew my tires were really worn out. And if anybody came in and got tires were going to get stomped. With the double file restart, it changes things.
When he called two tires, I thought that was I thought that sounded good to me. When we came out first I thought it sounded even better when I looked in my mirror and saw a lot of other guys on two tires. So and my car drove real good. So I felt like it was a great call.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll also welcome in tonight’s 3rd place finisher, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, Jimmie Johnson.
Jimmie, talk about your run.
JIMMIE JOHNSON: We had a decent night all night long. Worked our way up through the pack. Got to the lead, held on to the lead for a long time. As the sun went down and stayed down the temperature kept dropping. We got a little behind on our adjustments. Definitely not bad, but the 18 came to life and was the strongest car this last maybe two runs, I guess it was.
So we were just chasing him and trying to work on our stuff and make it better. I was excited to see the caution come out because it was an opportunity to win. I decided I made the call for four tires. It’s the first time that I can remember in a long time that I actually said what I wanted for a pit stop, with the way Martinsville played out and Bristol and last night’s race. I knew with the green white checkered there weren’t a lot of laps, but I felt we might get a caution with everybody racing so hard.
So I made the call for four and made the most of it. We got from 7th to 3rd and just did what we could. So not a bad night at all. Excited to see us stretch out the points a little bit and get another top 5 finish here.
Q. Jeff, as you mentioned, you’re so close to Victory Lane, but you just haven’t been quite able to close the deal. Would you describe your emotions as more frustrated or optimistic with that situation?
JEFF GORDON: Tonight I’m frustrated because I spun the tires on the restart. I felt like we really had ourselves in the right position to win the race and so I’m frustrated right now with that. But I’m really excited the fact that our team I feel like has really improved this year and I like how we get stronger as the race goes on. That’s something that we haven’t had for a while.
And we’re up in the points and we’re knocking on the door for wins. I mean, you can’t ask for a whole lot more than that. And if you do that enough times, you’re going to get yourself to Victory Lane. So that’s what I’m excited about right now. And I think we have a lot to look forward to as the season goes on.
Q. You seemed pretty feisty on the radio, especially with the exchange with the 17 car. And that’s really a good thing. At Las Vegas, you just didn’t seem mad enough at losing that race. And this, it seems to be building for you and building for you. Going to a track like Texas next week, where you’re the defending champ, I mean, can you be more optimistic going into a race?
JEFF GORDON: I was mad at Vegas, but two tires versus four tires and Jimmie Johnson driving four tires, I had plenty of time to think about it while that race was winding down, going, We just messed up here.
And so, you know, with the last couple I felt like they were ours to lose, and we lost it. So those are frustrating. But, you know, I mean, I think we have a lot of positives that are happening right now. And I certainly feel like the fight is there in the whole team. And I feel like we’re fired up about this season and the way things are going and the way our cars are running.
And I feel like we’re only going to get better. With the 17, that’s I don’t know if that’s the way the whole year is going to go or if that’s just just take this for Martinsville, but I really never made too many comments. I kind of figured that was going to happen. He ran in the back of me earlier in the race. And I was like, okay. And then he made sure that it took me about 30 laps to pass him. And I tried to race him clean.
So I don’t have to go call him after the race again, which that worked out. But it definitely it definitely took a lot of time off the clock for us as we were trying to progress forward at that time.
Q. Jimmie, seems in other sports, golf, whatever, the idea of domination by a player or team seems to be celebrated maybe a little more than it does in NASCAR. Do you think that’s the case? Do you think people want to see more different winners?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, I think our fans are extremely passionate. And their driver, their team, their manufacturer, if it’s a product on the car, they want their team or position or whoever it is to win and the hell with everyone else and they’re pretty vocal about that.
So I think golf, there’s a much different environment and the way they interact. It’s just different. So I guess it all falls into that. And I watched this guy be hated for a long time, and I just wish I could be that guy and I’ve been very fortunate to end up there.
JEFF GORDON: Congratulations (laughter).
Q. Jeff, it seems that crew chief decisions on Pit Road, particularly crew chiefs, the decisions they’re having to make are becoming increasingly more important. Would you agree with that assessment that maybe crew chiefs’ importance has maybe increased or maybe never been greater? I don’t know.
JEFF GORDON: Oh, absolutely. And I think that it’s a product of track position, being so much more critical. These cars, I mean, they have a whole grid that sits on these cars. You really can’t do a whole lot to make one car, you know, dramatically faster. You’ll see guys hit their setup and be a lot faster or a guy on two tires versus four tires.
But when you put everybody out there on the same tires, track position I mean, tonight I had a good car. I couldn’t pass anybody. It took me I mean that was the thing that impressed me about Jimmie as he came up through there. He could get by guys. I had a good car I just could not pass guys, and I was just real loose getting in and getting off. And to me that makes the role of the crew chief and those calls that much more important.
And we’ve seen that in all kinds of motorsports. As aerodynamics start to play a bigger role and we understand aerodynamics more and more all the time or get confused by it more and more all the time.
It seems like that track position seems to be so crucial. That means what the crew chief does to maintain the track position is crucial.
Q. Both Jeff and Jimmie, could you talk a little bit about this is the second race with the spoiler. Martinsville was such a short track. How did it make the car drive, and is it going to change your impressions going into Texas?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: From my standpoint, I feel that the cars drove very similar to the way that I have in the past. I didn’t even think about wing or spoiler on the back of the car throughout the race. It seemed the same.
The final test will be in Texas. And even to Talladega. There’s some things with this spoiler that should help the car stay on the ground and change the draft a bit at Talladega. So we have a nice progression in tracks to really evaluate what’s going on. But so far I think it’s going well and it’s driving a lot like it did before.
JEFF GORDON: Yeah, I would say the same thing. I didn’t really notice a big difference, which I think is a good thing. I think that if we had this big drastic change, you know, I think that that would really throw everybody into a tailspin.
I think the fact that it’s pretty much the same, drives the same but looks better I think it looks better and the fans seem to want it and like it, I think it’s still a win win for everybody.
But, like Jimmie said, the real test is going to be when we get on the mile and a halves and see what it’s like when you’re in traffic behind other cars. I don’t think the cars will drive a lot different by themselves just in traffic there might be some differences there.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Thank you for your time.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
Chevrolet is one of America’s best-known and best-selling automotive brands, and one of the fastest growing brands in the world. With fuel solutions that range from “gas-friendly to gas-free,” Chevrolet has nine models that offer an EPA-estimated 30 miles per gallon or more on the highway, and offers two hybrid models. More than 2.5 million Chevrolets that run on E85 biofuel have been sold. Chevrolet delivers expressive design, spirited performance and strives to provide the best value in every segment in which it competes. More information can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
- Team Chevy, Press Release
Article Tags: Dupont Motorsports, Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet Impala SS, No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet Impala SS, No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet Impala SS, NSCS, Phoenix Internationa Raceway, PIR, Ryan Newman, SHR, Stewart-Haas Racing, SUBWAY Fresh Fit 600, Team Chevy, Team Lowe's Racing, Tony Gibson
