Ryan Newman is back where he's spent his entire career proving he belongs: contending for a season championship.For the first time since 2006, last year's Daytona 500 winner Newman is part of NASCAR's Chase for the Championship, a 10-race playoff stretch that kicks off Sunday at New Hampshire International Raceway.
He enters the Sylvania 300 ranked 10th in the standings, only 40 points back from leader Mark Martin, and coming off three consecutive top-10 finishes in the No. 39 U.S. Army-sponsored Chevrolet.
Newman, 31, will be FanHouse's exclusive go-fast, go-to man for the Chase for the Championship partnering with FanHouse for weekly features and interviews every week throughout the next 10 races determining the 2009 Sprint Cup champion.
The South Bend, Indiana, native joined the other 11 Chase contenders Thursday in New York City on a press blitz, visiting with media outlets before heading up to Loudon, New Hampshire, for Sunday's race.
While traveling to a luncheon at the Hard Rock Cafe in Manhattan, he spoke on the telephone with me.
-- On the extra media responsibilities that come with making The Chase:
Newman: "It's not on my list of favorite things to do, but I realize it's a reward for our sponsors and all the people on our team. It's neat and my wife (Krissie) is from up here (New Jersey) so she definitely enjoys the time we can spend here. But all of us (drivers) really are looking forward to sitting in our race cars. This is just a different part of the job.''
-- On the one-mile New Hampshire International Speedway, where Newman scored has two victories including his first career Cup win in 2002 and won three pole positions, most recently in 2006:
Newman: "It's always been a good track for me personally and good for the team. Tony's (Stewart) done well there too.''
-- On his mindset entering the Chase:
Newman: "We still have to do the same things we've been doing and make sure we're consistent. Of course, everyone will take that same approach.
-- On how the non-Chase drivers might affect the standings:
Newman: "I think those guys will be aggressive, no different than they always are. There are those drivers with respect for the guys in the Chase and those drivers that don't care. It'll be pretty evident from the very beginning who they are.''
-- On the reception he and Stewart received back at the Stewart-Haas Racing shop this week following the first-year team's first championship berth:
Newman: "It was wild. We had our usual team meeting on Monday and then a separate meeting with lots of pats on the back. It was a nice chance to thank everyone, all the people back at the shop who have worked so hard on this.
"But now it's time to step it up and get our A-game going.''
And judging by his resume, Newman brings a good A-game to the Chase.
He has 44 career pole positions - including an astonishing 11 pole wins in 2003 while driving for the legendary Penske Racing operation, where he spent the first seven full time seasons of his career before joining the newly-formed Stewart-Haas operation this year.
Newman has 13 Cup wins, his last coming in the 50th anniversary edition of the Daytona 500 in February 2008.
He started defense of that title with a rough outing, going through three cars at Daytona this year and ultimately finishing 36th in the race. It took three more weeks for him to crack the top 30, which makes his championship effort to close out the regular season all the more impressive.
He answered a frustrating opening month with eight top-10s in the next 10 races including a streak of six straight late April to early June. He's led laps in 11 races with a best showing of runner-up in Charlotte's 600-miler on Memorial Day weekend.
And the Chase features a track lineup that heavily favors Newman.
He has victories at four (Dover, Texas, New Hampshire, Kansas) of the 10 Chase tracks and has started from pole position at seven (Martinsville, Charlotte, Phoenix, California, New Hampshire, Las Vegas, Dover) of them.
"(Team owner Tony Stewart) trusted a lot in me and I am glad that I have delivered up to this point,'' Newman said after clinching a spot in the 12-driver Chase last Saturday at Richmond, Va.
"We have got to pick up our performance a little bit, I mean if you look at the last few races, we've gotten better, but if you want to win this championship statistically, it take a lot better finish than what we did (10th at Richmond).
"This is a great opportunity that Sprint gives us to be able to do what we do. I'm happy to be in this situation.
"We are not taking a go-for-broke attitude but we are going to have fun in these next 10 races.''
