Ryan Newman's Take: NASCAR needs to find a way to keep these race cars from flying

  
Tony Gibson's crew gives Ryan Newman quick service at Richmond Saturday night (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

  
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   DARLINGTON, S.C.
   Give Tony Stewart two thumbs up.
   January, February, March, April, and now May…and the two-time NASCAR champion driver is looking like a champion car owner too, in just his first season.
   Ten races into the season and Stewart is third in the standings, just 39 points off leader Jeff Gordon, and Stewart isn't doing it by stroking, nosireee.
   Stewart has been going for wins, and he came close yet again Saturday night at Richmond, running second to Kyle Busch.
    And rivals are sitting up and taking notice: One of the most remarkable teams this season, Jeff Burton says, has been Stewart's new operation: "It's been impressive to watch the change -- the mentality Tony has brought in there. Not just being there just to be there, but to be there to win. 
   "I'm not sure I remember a team changing possession, a new owner stepping in, and a turnaround like that.
   "He's making other people want to go and own their own cars.  That's probably not a good thing…but it's been real impressive to watch."
   Stewart edged Burton for second Saturday.
   However it was Ryan Newman, Stewart's teammate, who had the stronger car most of the night.
   And Newman is 10th in the Sprint Cup standings – that's downright stunning, considering all the troubles Newman has faces this season.
   Stewart insists that the Carl Edwards-Brad Keselowski crashing finish at Talladega – in a repeat of the situation Stewart, then in Edwards' role as race leader last fall at Talladega, and Regan Smith, in Keselowski's position as challenger – doesn't have him second-guesing his Talladega thinking.
   If Smith had held his line, as Keselowski did when Edwards blocked, then Stewart would would have been flying into the fence last October.
   "I'm still going to protect my spot," Stewart insists. "And I'd do that, knowing that could be the end result of it.
   "But nobody is going to give up the lead, just give it away and let somebody have it.
    "You're going to fight for it…and you just know that's a product of what can happen -- and you take that risk on as a driver."
    Newman at Talladega this time nearly got the worst of it, when Edwards' flying car smashed down on his roof.
   And Newman, clearly shaken at the time, says NASCAR has work to do to fix the issue of flying cars: "I was just not happy about it. Seeing ing two cars, being within 30 feet of two cars going upside down, two days in a row, and have lived through that before, it's not any fun.
   "I went in Monday morning and looked at my car, and the windshield bed was folded in about four inches, I would say," Newman said. "That means it moved in farther than that, and sprung back to where it is.
    "So it was pretty close to the steering wheel…though obviously still a good foot away from my head.
    "But it was a scary situation.
     "If I would have taken all his car load, it would have came in farther on me."
    Something needs to be done, Newman says.
   "Work -- I mean work on it," Newman insists. "I was talking to Don Miller, who is still a good friend of mine: they developed the roof flaps in 1992. It's 17 years later, and they have not changed much at all.
   "But we're dealing with a different race car.
   "We're dealing with a rear wing versus a rear spoiler.
   "Just put some work in to it.
    "I am not saying that they're far from being perfect, but I am also saying that it is something that needs to be looked at.
   "Looking at the big picture, we go faster at other race tracks than we do at Talladega, we just don't sustain that speed for the entire lap.
    "Granted, Carl admitted he pulled down to block Brad, and he spun himself out in doing so. You could do that at any race track, any time, anywhere.
   "Brian Vickers put himself in a position to get turned around by Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Daytona. It is part of that racing. We have seen it two times this year in two restrictor plate races. It is just a part of it."
    Perhaps NASCAR should slow the cars down at Talladega and Daytona?
    "There is two ways to slow them up -- Either drag horsepower or engine horsepower," Newman said.
    "Slowing the cars up I don't think is the ideal way. We get to the point we are running rental cars around there -- 140 mph, and it is still four-wide, four-deep. 
   "It is all in keeping the race cars on the race track in my opinion, and making it safe for the fans and drivers."
   

   

   
Ryan Newman isn't happy with what happened at Talladega, and he says NASCAR has some serious work to do (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

   

Stewart said his edge at the end Saturday at Richmond was fresher tires than his rivals, which crew chief Darian Grubb gets credit for.
    "It was tires," Stewart said. "I wish I could say that we found some magic there, but we didn't.  The magic was four bolt-on tires.
    "As odd as this is going to sound, I've been impressed with how hard Goodyear is working (this season).  They continue to not sit on their hands. 
   "They keep trying different things, and keep trying to find combinations that make it better for us.
    "It's nice to not have to sit there and just rely on track position (Saturday night). It's nice to know that you can bolt on four tires and that's going to make a difference, and takes track position out of the equation. 
   "I mean, it still worked for Kyle.  But at the same time the tires helped Jeff and me drive through the field too."
   Newman's own sudden surge these past few weeks has followed weeks of tough luck.
   "Ryan would have had the same kind of runs we had the first four races.  He just had really weird bad luck," Stewart said.
   "Pulling an end-plate off on a pit stop…a loose wheel…flat tires. Just weird things have happened that got him behind the first four weeks.
   "Since then we've been basically running the same pace.  It may just have taken a couple weeks longer for them (Newman and new crew chief Tony Gibson) to the combination that Darian and I have."
    And now both Stewart and Newman, in a stunning stretch, are both top-12, and in the running to make the championship chase…which might have seemed out of the question for a first-year team just a few months ago.
  
  

  
Tony Stewart has made believers in the NASCAR garage this season, his first as owner-driver (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)