Tuesday, October 28, 2003
He has five straight top-five finishes going into the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500.
HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) -- Ryan Newman refuses to dwell on all the things that could have gone differently this season.
"You can think back and learn from the past and apply it to the future," the Winston Cup star said. "But what might have been doesn't make us any faster right now."
Newman, crew chief Matt Borland and the rest of his Penske Racing South team displayed patience through the first 15 races. The second-year Winston Cup driver won twice during that period but he also went through three crashes -- two of them wild, tumbling wrecks -- and a frightening engine fire. He failed to finish five races.
That left Newman 17th in the points and wondering what went wrong. But Newman, who will start from the pole today in the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 -- his series-leading ninth pole of the year -- has left those problems far behind.
Has the momentum
He goes into the 500-mile event at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a series-leading eight victories, fourth in the standings. He is riding a string of five straight top-five finishes.
"We all make mistakes now and again," Newman said. "And it's how you overcome those mistakes that makes the best team."
The evidence suggests the No. 12 Dodge team is the best right now.
Since the fiery engine failure at Michigan in June, Newman has six victories, 11 top-five finishes and 14 top-10s in 17 starts. He also has been running at the end of every race. In the last seven races, Newman has three wins, six top-five endings and no finish worse than ninth.
Still, Newman remains 300 points behind series leader Matt Kenseth with four races left. He is just 60 points behind second-place Kevin Harvick and only 17 behind third-place Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Has shot at second
"It would take some really unusual circumstances for us to have a chance at the championship this year, but we do have a legitimate shot at second," Newman said. "That would be a very good situation for the team if we could pull that off."
Kenseth, the points leader since the fourth race of the year, needs to finish only 12th or better in each race the rest of the way to wrap up the title, no matter what Harvick, Earnhardt and Newman do.
Earnhardt will start third in today's 43-car field, with Harvick 10th and Kenseth 37th.
Gave pursuers hope
That sparked some hope in Kenseth's pursuers. But Kenseth's racing results have been considerably better than his qualifying through most of the season.
"We can't control anything that Matt does," Harvick said. "We just have to keep a hold on our own race team and make sure we keep doing the things we've been doing and we'll be fine."
Newman has finished 10th in each of his three previous Winston Cup starts on Atlanta's 1.54-mile quad-oval.
"Our job is to keep doing exactly what we've been doing," Newman said. "At the end of the season, we'll look at the points and see where we are. That's all we can do."