Q: Talk about being here at Lowe’s Motor Speedway:
Ryan Newman: “I look forward to it. Based off of our performance here in the spring and the more experience we have had together as a team and as an organization, I think we can hopefully try to deliver. Haven’t had the greatest Chase. We have had some decent runs but between Jimmie (Johnson) and Mark (Martin) and a couple of other guys, they are kind of putting us to shame. I guess we haven’t shined like we wanted to shine to this point, but it hasn’t been for a lack of effort to try to try to luster.”
Q: Has this season been what you wanted it to be and how hungry are you to get back to victory lane?
Ryan Newman: “I really didn’t have, per se, expectations. I had a lot of desire and I know we had the potential and the abilities, both personally and professionally with the team. I didn’t expect to finish first; I didn’t expect to finish in the top-10. I didn’t expect to finish 15th. I didn’t have expectations in respect to that. I just knew that if I put my best effort forward and worked to get the best I could with the team and the organization, then where we finish would necessarily be a surprise, but it all depends on what we are deserving of. I feel I feel that we have done a very good job as a team and as an organization to get to where we are. We haven’t achieved all of our goals. We haven’t won that race. So yes, there is a huge desire to win that first race. I’m as hungry as an Ethiopian; they still aren’t getting fed are they? (Laughter all around at metaphor) The bottom line is, there is a ton of desire there and this is a great place for it. We finished second here in the spring with a little strategy. We were in position to win the All-Star Race and won the pole. As we always say, it would be a great place to get back in victory lane.”
Q: What is it you like about Martinsville?
Ryan Newman: “I don’t know? (laughs) I like the short track racing. The more a driver has input, especially with some of the race tracks we go to, you don’t have to brake a lot, the more the driver has input, the more the driver has an effect. The short track racing I definitely enjoy because of that. You go to a place like Michigan or California, it takes less driver and more car than it does at a short track in my opinion. That is one of the things that I enjoy about Martinsville. We had a good run there in the spring. We struggled for the first two-thirds of the race and finally got the car better and got up in the top-10. I look forward to going back especially obviously with the Hendrick support and how well they have done there in the past four or five years. It is a fun race track as long as you stay out of trouble and keep your brakes cool.”
Q: Your car was so fast off the corners in the all-star, was that some R & D stuff or will we see that this weekend as well?
Ryan Newman: “We had a great engine package. That was one thing. It was designed for that All-Star Race. I think a lot of guys did. I think we got our car back right, we know we had a component failure early in the race. Got it fixed, almost got two laps down. With a little bit of Jimmie’s help, got the lucky dog and got back on the lead lap all in one shot there. We were almost two laps down and got back on the lead lap and that kind of saved our day. Fought our way back up. We had a fast race car and yes, you are right, it was kind of biased coming off the corner. We had some awesome runs down the straightaways. It was a combination of car and engine. We just got in the wrong place at the wrong time or wrong place at the right time I guess you could say coming off turn four and got in the fence with the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) and the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon).
Q: What will change for you guys if it is as cool saturday night here as it is supposed to be, what will that force your team to do or changes to make?
Ryan Newman: “I don’t think a whole lot. It isn’t going to be cold enough, I think this is a track and the tire combination….the track has aged enough that the tires are getting back to being soft enough that you don’t have to worry about cold tires. At some race tracks, you do have to worry about that, per se more the flatter race tracks. Places like Loudon and Richmond. I think, not a whole lot. It is just going to be cooler in the race car. The cars are going to be faster. It is going to be closer to wide open, a lot faster lap times than we typically see here in the daytime. I think it will be great racing providing Mother Nature lets us start on time.”
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