Drop of luck would’ve helped Newman
LOUDON, N.H. - Soaking wet, trying to jack up a car that barely failed them, Ryan Newman’s crew stared at a car that wouldn’t load into its trailer. No one was ducking for cover. They just wanted out of New Hampshire. Something was stuck and everyone seemed dejected.
The dejection was because, about 20 minutes earlier, Newman was about to sneak out of town with a soundly-strategized, well-oiled Lenox Industrial Tools 301 win.
If only Newman’s car was actually well-fueled, too. Holding the lead on Lap 255, Newman decided to forgo a pit stop and hope the looming clouds would produce rain. They didn’t and Newman’s No. 39 car ran out of gas on Lap 264. Three laps later, when Newman finally recovered from a sputtering fit, the race was called.
Joey Logano - who was putting off a pit stop, too - was the sound strategist, winning his first Cup race. Newman finished 29th.
“Coulda, woulda, shoulda,’’ Newman said on pit row. “The bottom line is we didn’t have the fuel mileage on that last run, ran out of fuel, and lost a couple laps on pit row. It was unfortunate.’’
Newman was one of five leaders in need of a pit stop but trying to stave off the rain for the last 37 laps. Logano, whose crew estimated he had 3-5 laps before he ran out of fuel, too, happened to be the last.
The three leaders before Newman were Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Tony Stewart, who led a combined 197 of the 273 total laps.
In other words, someone was going to be the lucky one.
“We got lucky. That’s definitely part of it.’’ said Logano. “We can’t control the weather, all we can do is play it to our hand.’’
Newman’s tires were on their last legs, too. It didn’t show - he held off Logano, who never made any definitive moves to pass until Newman retired to pit row - but Newman made it clear his tires were on their last threads, too.
“We were running on two tires,’’ said Newman. “We planned on doing that and at least get some track position back. It just didn’t work.’’
Newman hasn’t won a Cup race since his Daytona 500 win in the No. 12 car in 2008. His only other win in the past four years was here - a Sylvania 300 win in September 2005.
Newman defended his strategy of staying on the track despite running on fumes.
“We had a good strategy,’’ he said. “But for some reason, we didn’t have the mileage on that run there.’’
Some think the strategy is just a dangerous war of attrition against the elements.
“We get [adversely affected] every time the rain comes out,’’ said Greg Biffle. “These rain races - there’s six, eight guys up there that hadn’t pitted yet and we’re running 10th, 11th, 12th the whole time. But we finished 18th.’’
Newman’s car appeared to be completely out of gas when it slowed into pit row. His stop lasted only 11.2 seconds, but the car sputtered out completely and Newman’s crew had to push him back into the race.
“I told the guys on the radio, ‘When it’s not your day, it’s just not your day,’ ’’ said Newman. “It didn’t work.’’
Rain bouncing off their hats, finally loading a decidedly disagreeable car into its trailer, his crew couldn’t help but agree.
