After weeks of beans and taters, even a change to taters and beans is good. 

 On How 12 Plus 81 = 13
By Deane Mercier

   February 21, Norwalk, CT--- Ryan Newman had gone 81 Sprint Cup races between visits to victory lane. The last time he was there was in September of 2005 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when he took the checkers in the Sylvania 300.

   Newman ended the winless streak when he drove his Alltel sponsored Dodge past Tony Stewart, thanks to a huge push from his teammate Kurt Busch, on the last lap to win this year’s 50^th running of the Daytona 500 and post his 13^th Sprint Cup victory. The win made his team owner, Roger Penske, who has been a team owner for 30 years, the first owner to win both the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500. Penske has won the Indianapolis 500 14 times. 

    After his Daytona win Newman and his wife Krissie spent Sunday evening enjoying a quiet dinner in their motorhome in the Daytona infield. Some friends would pop in occasionally to offer their congratulations, including Richard Petty. Monday morning Newman, Penske and the rest of the Alltel team were honored at the traditional winners breakfast with the media. 

   Then it was up to New York City for a Tuesday media luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria where the discussion began with Newman talking about that last lap at Daytona. “Kyle Busch pushed me for almost a lap all the way around the racetrack and I had my hands full just because he was taking the air off my spoiler, it was pushing my car faster than it wanted to go. I knew, not just because he led the most laps, but I knew he had the best car. It took two cars to beat Tony’s one. For Tony Stewart, who I admire as a racecar driver, to treat me the way he did to the point that, going back to Kyle Busch, Kyle Busch I thought would have blocked me or potentially cause an accident but Tony I think drove like a racer.”  

   “Its extremely satisfying to do it that way,” he continued, “it wasn’t under caution; there wasn’t a big crash, and with no disrespect to history of the race, but it wasn’t like we were one of two that finished on the lead lap.”

   As we sat around the table Newman was asked was if the winless streak had begun to play on his mind?   “It never affected me,” he said, “and it never played on me.  I wouldn’t say it changed me or the way I drove or anything. I knew after last year that we were capable of getting to victory lane. It made it disappointing, don’t get me wrong, whether it was Martinsville or Charlotte or Pocono when we had a chance to win and it didn’t happen that was tough to swallow but after being so successful in 2003 and part of ’04 even getting to victory lane in ’05 it was a dismal year for us. Knowing I was capable as a driver but as a team knowing we weren’t getting it done and then in ’07 to have those opportunities again it was like ‘man we can do it, lets just be patient.’ I said to myself and I said it to a lot of people ‘I just hope when we do it we do it big and we do it right.’ Fortunately we were able to pull it off.”

   And the Penske teams did do it big, taking home a total of $3.6 million dollars for the combined 1-2 finish that also included a $1 million dollar bonus paid out by Chrysler, thanks to Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli who had promised the bonus to any Dodge team that won the 500. “ It’s kind of like a lottery,” said Newman about the bonus, “I don’t gamble so you just kind of take it for what it’s worth. There’s a chance for a million dollars out there, obviously it doesn’t all go in my pocket. You can’t try any harder but knowing that we were one of 43 that had a shot at the million dollars I’ll take those odds any day.”

   Newman began his racing career running midgets and sprint cars in Indiana. “My mindset was always on stock car racing. The only time I ever considered racing Indy cars was from a career standpoint,” replied the 30-year-old son of South Bend in response to a question about ever wanting to drive Indy type cars. “I drove an Indy car at Texas Motor Speedway. It was fun, don’t get me wrong, but I was ¾ throttle all the way around the racetrack and I averaged 213 mph.”

   His dad, Greg, who is also his spotter, took him to Daytona for the first time when he was still in junior high school. Newman related how they “always had tickets for the big race” and how he once made up his own “credentials” out of construction paper that were so good that they fooled security and allowed him entry into the pits. A big grin spread across his face when he was asked if he still had those “credentials”. “No. I threw them away after that year because the next year I hade to change construction paper colors.”  

   For the father/son team winning was the fulfillment of a life long dream. At the Monday morning breakfast Newman, who graduated from Purdue University with an engineering degree, related how they slept in the parking lot of a restaurant and ate donuts for breakfast and dinner.

    The two have an enviable father/son bond and Newman the younger holds his father’s advice close two his heart. On Tuesday when I asked him about the best advice his father had given him he smiled with a sons pride and answered “I would say off track to be myself and on track ...on track I would say probably ...he likes to say ‘get your elbows up’ and that’s his way of telling me it’s time to go.  Whether he’s telling me what to do or giving me his advice it doesn’t matter because I appreciate it both ways. Sometimes I tell him I don’t appreciate it (laughing) but either way it’s so tough sometimes to have that relationship with you father in a business world and I appreciate all the times I can spend with him both on and off the racetrack.” 

   And what was the father’s demeanor on the radio during that final lap? “He was just ecstatic. When you define the words excitement and overjoyed there is a picture of him right to them because he’s ...I could tell he was emotional. I don’t know if I told you this but he had quadruple bypass surgery when he was 45 years old so he has a new appreciation for life. To be a part of my winning the 500 I feel as if it was as much his as it was mine. He has done so much for my career. Just the pure enjoyment that he had, the change in octaves going down the back straightaway, each 100 yards, that was special to me. Everybody has told me that the coolest part was seeing my dad in victory lane, if not that it was listening to him on the radio.”  

   We all watched as the father hugged the son in victory lane, congratulating each other on a job well done… congratulating each other on winning the Daytona 500.

Deane Mercier worked in radio for 35 years as a DJ and talk show host. He is currently the Host Broadcaster for Stafford Motor Speedway, a Motorsports correspondent for the Hour Newspaper (CT), as well as Editor In Chief for Long Island Motorsports News.  Deane may be contacted at DeaneMercier@aol.com.

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