For Ryan Newman, this weekend could be a very big weekend for this team.
It would continue his recent momentum and help continue to build toward 2011 where he looks to make the Chase again.
The numbers don’t lie for Newman, the season did not start off very well in fact he hovered in outside the top 25 in points for the first four races.
His best finish early in the season was 16th at Bristol Motor Speedway. Leaving BMS he was 26th in the points. The team needed a jumpstart as they were struggling every week on the track.
Following BMS, he went on a stretch where his worse finish was 35th at Talladega and his best was a win at Phoenix.
The theme for Newman in 2010 has been consistently inconsistent; until now.
Some weeks they look like race winning contenders and others they look mediocre at best. That’s why in 2010 they never made their way into the top 12. The highest they have been in the standings in 2010 is 13th which is where they are ranked now.
In recent weeks though they have shown signs of what is to come. Since the fall race at BMS their worse finish was 11th at Richmond.
Clint Bowyer might have earned the final spot in the Chase but Newman has outrun him since New Hampshire, where Bowyer won.
Newman has to be wondering what if?
What if they had started the season off better? What if he had survived the restrictor plate races?
This weekend Newman will be looking for his second win of the season and his first at Auto Club Speedway.
ACS is not one of Newman’s better tracks; in February he started 18th but finished 36th after suffering engine issues. Newman will look to finish much better this weekend. He does have one pole, two top fives and four top 10’s at ACS.
Newman looks to ACS to continue his recent three race streak of top 10 finishes and hopefully end up changing that goose egg in his stats at ACS.
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