Newman leads in wins, rumors

Some believe he is cheating to get better gas mileage, while others simply believe he has a good strategy.
By STEVE BRISENDINE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Ryan Newman leads the Winston Cup series in victories -- and rumors, too.
Is the eight-time winner cheating to get better gas mileage, or are the accusations just trash talk from other drivers with wounded egos?
"I'm not tired of it, but it's hard when you're criticized for doing good," Newman said after winning Sunday's Banquet 400 and moving up to fourth in the points standings. "It's hard to have a smart answer to a dumb question."
Four-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon said Saturday that Newman's success in winning races that come down to gas mileage "definitely raises an eyebrow."
The next day, Newman and several other drivers pitted with 78 laps to go -- and didn't pit again. Newman held off a furious challenge from Bill Elliott, who had dominated for most of the race, after a late restart.
Burnout in front-stretch
Newman even had enough fuel left to do a burnout in the front-stretch before driving to Victory Lane in his No. 12 Dodge.
Elliott was so upset that he didn't even attend the postrace news conference. Third-place finisher Jeremy Mayfield -- who pitted at the same time as Newman -- wondered aloud how Newman could combine power and mileage so well.
"If [NASCAR] made it a 10-gallon tank and everyone had those, I don't think it'd make any difference," Mayfield said. "If you run 30 laps on 10 gallons, he'd probably run 45 or 50. I don't think the solution is going to a smaller cell -- it's probably just figuring out how they're doing it."
Mayfield also said he couldn't figure out Newman's secret because, "I'm not an engineer" -- a dig at Newman, who holds a degree in engineering from Purdue.
Defending Winston Cup champion Tony Stewart was even more blunt.
"I want to buy my gas at his house," said Stewart, who finished fourth in Sunday's race.
The issue divides drivers and fans alike -- and it's not going away.
In a poll on NASCAR's Web site, 62 percent of respondents -- out of more than 107,000 votes cast by noon Wednesday -- said there was something "suspicious" about Newman's string of six victories in the last 13 races.
Newman, who issued a flat denial after the race -- "I can tell you for a sure thing, we're not cheating and we don't cheat" -- has his defenders within the sport.
"Each time you win, somebody accuses you of cheating. That's just a sore loser," rookie Jamie McMurray said Tuesday. "We want to be Ryan Newman. We want to go out and win eight races next year. We hope everybody accuses us of cheating."
Donnie Wingo, McMurray's veteran crew chief, agreed.
"I wouldn't take anything away from those guys. They've worked real hard," Wingo said. "I don't think it's anything they're doing wrong that they shouldn't be doing."
Race strategies
Younger drivers and crew chiefs -- such as Newman and Matt Borland -- are more used to building race strategies around science and track position, veteran driver Bobby Labonte said.
"It's not like what we're used to," Labonte said. "If you look at Matt and Ryan, they came into the sport a handful of years ago or less. They're not used to really racing with the tires coming off the car after 50 laps. They're more used to tire wear not being a factor, and track position being a factor."
Advances in technology have also changed the competitive climate, Labonte said.
"Nowadays, the cars have gotten so much more sophisticated aerodynamics-wise and chassis-wise," Labonte said. "There are a lot of smart people working on race teams lately. You have people that are looking at all different ways to win races."
That's all his team has done, Newman said -- find a way to win.
"We go out and we do the best job we can with what we've got to work with," he said. "When there's an opportunity to try and stretch it to the end, we're going to try to stretch it to the end."
Labonte and Wingo, on the other hand, would like to see tire wear become more important to race strategy again.
"I think that would be more exciting racing for the fans, both on TV and at the track, because it gets pretty monotonous," Labonte said. "I passed six cars in the first race at Loudon in the last 110 laps with no tires, just fuel, and I passed more than anybody. That's not what I think it needs to be."