Q. Will they call you in again? Will you go visit them again?
RYAN NEWMAN: We called them, went to visit with them. I want to make that point known. I thought it was a good meeting. I thought it was very constructive. It was educational for me and them. That’s all you can ask from a meeting.
Q. It’s about five, six months till the series goes back to Talladega. In that period, what can be done, what can be looked at, what needs to be done for the next time?
Obviously there was a lot of talk about the no-bumping rule in the corners, whether or not that contributed to your situation. Is that something that needs to stay or can something be done? What has to happen between now and five, six months from now when the series goes back to Talladega?
RYAN NEWMAN: I think there are for sure things that could be done and should be done based on what we saw, both Mark’s accident and my accident, the spring accident with Carl. Aerodynamically there are things that need to be done to keep the cars on the ground. I said that six months ago. Six months is plenty of time to make those changes. The important thing is to make the right changes, to do the testing, the best of our capabilities with the tools that we have, meaning wind tunnels, modeling, things like that, to make the difference, make the right difference.
The drafting part of it, I wasn’t a fan of the rule. I stated in my post infield care center interview that I thought the drivers need to have a little bit more respect from NASCAR in order for us to make our own decisions, for us to be able to go out there and say, Hey, I’ll treat you the way I know you want to be treated and vice versa. I feel it used to be that way. This sport has grown so much because of those people, those drivers that made it that way, and the more restriction that you give the drivers, the less the fans are going to be delivered excitement. That’s not good.
I don’t like the bump-drafting rule. I understand why it was implemented, but I don’t think that is the fix. I think if you put the right racecars on that racetrack as we have seen in the past, you can put a good show on for the fans, albeit not the ideal racetrack and not the ideal way a driver wants to race, but a show for the fans that will be better than what we saw last Sunday.
Q. Is there an active role you can take in working with NASCAR?
RYAN NEWMAN: It’s got to be a collective situation in respect to myself. At Stewart Haas, we have the opportunity to use wind sheer, rolling road wind tunnel, to put a car in it backwards, a full scale car, see what we can do load cell-wise on the ground to eliminate some of that lift, try to keep cars on the ground at 220 miles an hour scaled. There’s things that can and will be done collectively that should be done that I want to be a part of, yes.
Q. You said after the crash that you weren’t going to talk to NASCAR because you didn’t think it would do any good. What changed your mind to contact them?
RYAN NEWMAN: I don’t remember saying that.
Q. The transcript said something to the effect that you weren’t interested in talking to them because you didn’t think it would do any good.
RYAN NEWMAN: I don’t remember honestly. I mean, I probably wasn’t in the mood to talk at that point, if that’s what I said. But either way, I think it’s important that we talk and communicate and try to make the situation better. Obviously I was frustrated, as I said.
It was a very ironic situation, me being in the media center in April, whatever it was, living out the things I was frustrated about firsthand six months later, whatever it was.
You know, it was disappointing. I want it to be safer because I plan on being there in the spring, racing just the same, trying to win that race. I want to be safe and safer and I want the fans to be safer.
Q. This happened to you six years ago at Watkins Glen where you got turned upside down during a practice. I think it took like 15 minutes to get you out. Is part of your frustration from that, too, that six years later, things haven’t changed so much?
RYAN NEWMAN: No, they’ve changed. It was definitely better. Like I said, I want it to be known, those guys did a good job. I’m not mad at any of ‘em. I just want it to be known that I think from my standpoint a better job can be done. If we sit there and say they did a perfect job, then we need to find a new situation because that’s not the way it works.
Just as in racing, as in safety, we can always be better, we can always make improvements. I felt there were definite improvements from Watkins Glen with a different group of people, a different situation. I think it was 11 to 12 minutes at Talladega they had me with the roof cut out, out of the racecar. That was to me way better than the situation I had at Watkins Glen.
Q. What would it mean for you to get your breakthrough win for Stewart Haas here at Texas this weekend?
RYAN NEWMAN: It would be huge. I said back here in 2003 when I won here, everything that happens in Texas is big. That was a big win for us then. It would probably be an even bigger win for us now. I think we’ve done a lot of great things this year as a team. A win right now would be huge, not just for this year but rolling into momentum for next year.
| 
|