DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The emotions were difficult for Greg Newman to contain as he sat with the rest of the spotters atop the press box tower at Daytona International Speedway.
As the spotter for the No. 12 Dodge driven by his son, Ryan Newman, it was up to Greg Newman to keep watch and maintain a calm and steady manner over the radio for his son's ride in Sunday's 50th running of the Daytona 500.
But when the elder Newman, 55, watched his 30-year-old son hook up with Penske teammate Kurt Busch on the backstretch of the last lap to pass race leader Tony Stewart like a blue-streaked freight train on the outside of Turn 3, he was overcome with pride.
"When I saw the push [from Busch], I couldn't see Ryan down the backstretch because he was beside Tony's car and we were on the outside," Greg said. "When I saw Kurt coming up to get a hold of the back of Ryan's car, I told him what was going on.
"As Kurt got into him, Ryan's car started appearing more and more and more. By the time he got through the middle of [Turns] 3 and 4, he was up almost a car length. When he came down the short chute, I was like, 'You're going to win the Daytona 500!' "
The tone of Newman's voice, comforting and reassuring all race long, was raised a few octaves.
"Oh, yeah, more than just a few," he said.
His son's milestone triumph snapped an 81-race winless streak that dated to a Sept. 18, 2005, victory at New Hampshire, and it delivered car owner Roger Penske his first Daytona 500 victory.
Like his son, Greg Newman had always been pretty guarded with his emotions. That is, until he had to have heart surgery 10 years ago, leaving him with a new outlook on life and unafraid to show his feelings.
Now, it seems, Greg could turn on the waterworks at the drop of a dime. Or, as was the case Sunday, the drop of the green flag.
As his son prepared to embark on a media blitz that included appearances last night on "Late Show with David Letterman," and this morning on "Live with Regis and Kelly," Newman thrice choked up at the champion's breakfast at Daytona USA. He became particularly emotional when he recalled how he patched a cellphone call from Don Miller, the man who had championed Ryan's career at Penske Racing, into his son's radio just after he'd taken the starting command.
"I had Don start Ryan yesterday," Greg began, his voice quaking. "When they fired the engines, I got Don on the telephone . . ."
Newman's eyes welled.
"Don's favorite saying is, 'Drive it like you stole it, Rain Man,' so he got to tell Ryan that right before the race. Without Don, we would not be here. We absolutely would not be here."
Asked his wife's whereabouts yesterday, the elder Newman again became choked up. Ever since she watched Ryan survive a wild barrel roll that disintegrated his car in 2003, Diane Newman had not been back to watch her son race at Daytona.
But as she watched the prerace show, Diane called her husband to express her regrets. "It was then she realized that she should have been here," Greg said.
While she did not witness the crowning achievement of her son's racing career, Diane was there when Greg declared, "We've got ourselves a racecar driver!" when she gave birth to Ryan.
And to watch Ryan grow up to be the winner of the 50th Daytona 500? "It brings my racing deal full circle," Greg said. "I've been living a dream ever since he was 4 years old."
Asked if he tried to pursue a racing career, Greg replied, "I couldn't afford it, but, yeah, I sure did [try]. I turned into a mechanic. I couldn't say that I was a better wrench than I was a driver, because I drove pretty good.
"We had some dirt roads around us and I was pretty good on 'em, but as far as being able to do it, my dad built me a car when I was 9 years old, a three-quarter midget," Greg recalled. "We took it to a parking lot to test it. He was riding on the nerve bar and reached in front of me and I couldn't see and I hit a light pole.
"It put both of us in a hospital. I was unconscious for about a day and my mother said the racecar was going, and so what started out to be the start of my racing career ended that day."
Greg, though, made sure Ryan's career did not meet the same fate. He nurtured Ryan early, teaching him the ins and outs of a racecar.
"He knew what he was doing to take the racecar apart and put it back together at 5 1/2, which is pretty incredible," Greg said. "A lot of people might not believe that, but it's true."
When he began racing quarter midgets at age 6, Ryan recalled how his father, "stood out on the racetrack when we were practicing and he'd make me drive around his foot so I'd take the ideal line, and that was hard enough to do, because where he wanted me to enter [the turn] wasn't exactly where I wanted to enter or thought I could enter."
Father knew best, though.
"I remember going back, working in our little garage, and him telling me to hug the racecar and give it a kiss before I'd go to bed," Ryan said.
True story? "Oh yeah," Greg said. He wanted to teach Ryan a simple lesson: "If that car is going to be good to you, you've got to be good to it."
Ryan forged an unbreakable bond with his father through racing. Together, they barnstormed short tracks all over the Midwest. "When he was 8 1/2, we were driving to a speedway one night," Greg said. "And as we were going in to see another hero of ours, [short track legend] Mel Kenyon, I asked Ryan, 'Do you think you'll ever be as good as these guys? Do you want to be like these guys?'
"He said, 'Yeah, Dad, I want to do it.' He was so serious."
It was all a father needed to know about his son as they shared road trips to Daytona to watch the 500 from the time Ryan was 15. One year, Ryan fabricated credentials with construction paper. He and his father used them to fake their way into the infield.
Now, with his father's help, the Golden Boy from South Bend, Ind., was the winner of the golden anniversary of the Great American Race. And on that last lap Sunday, Greg Newman did all he could to keep from choking up, but the emotions were to tough to hold back.
"I said in Victory Lane that I heard tears dropping over the radio," Ryan said of his father. "He's emotional. He's had a couple of health issues at times and he's put himself on the edge, but to have him here and be a part of this is a dream come true for me.
"It was kind of reassurance for me. He's watched me drive a car for 26 years and he knows when I got one in the bag and when I don't. He knows when it's close. I could tell in his voice as I got into Turn 3 it was going to be a good run to the start-finish line, and he was right."
Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.
