The second year at Stewart Haas Racing for Ryan Newman didn’t exactly go as planned. In fact while he did win one race; he still struggled with speed and keeping pace with the competition.
Once again Newman struggled to finish at a restrictor plate track with a 34th place finish to start off the season.
His first five races his best finish was 16th and that was at Bristol Motor Speedway. He was sitting 26th in the points and looking for answers.
Newman and his team though started to turn things around with his win at Phoenix and three other finishes of 11th or better. He moved from 26th to 16th in the points and was moving forward.
Newman ran around top 15 and top 20 through middle part of the season. He collected a handful of top 10’s but the highest in the points he would get would be 12th.
While he ran decent and finished races there were things missing, whether it was on pit road or under the car; Newman never quite had the car to contend for wins.
Newman made the news off the track this season. News spread that two drivers were fined for comments made about the sport. Newman came out and admitted that he was one of the drivers fined. The fines started a firestorm of debate with fans and the drivers on whether or not NASCAR had the right to.
Newman summed up what NASCAR’s point was with the fines; "I don't want to talk about the negative," Newman said. "NASCAR doesn't want to talk about the negative.We're here to put on great races for the fans and enjoy it with your family so you will go home and talk about how much fun they had so they'll want to come back next year.”
Following the fine and the fire storm that came with it Newman and his team had their work cut out for them if they wanted to make the Chase.
In the 10 race stretch starting at Pocono in August; Newman worse finish was 23rd at Michigan. Newman didn’t make the Chase but in that stretch he logged six top 10 finishes which included four Chase races.
Newman was out running some of the Chasers but his luck turned at Charlotte with early troubles that saw his top 10 finish streak end at four.
In the final six races he had four finishes of 20th or worse which included a 36th at Charlotte.
Newman though finished the season off strong with a second place and seventh place finish.
Newman ran well in the first four races of the Chase, had he made the Chase, Newman would have been a factor. The team seemed to be searching early on in the season but found something midway through the season.
He finished 15th in the points in 2010.
In 2010, Newman had four top fives and 14 top 10 finishes. His average finish was 15.7 and average start of 11.9.
He only led 63 laps in 2010 and spent just 59 percent of the laps running in the top 15. Of the 7676 laps run this season, Newman ran 6811 on the lead lap; eighth best in the series.
Newman and his team came into 2010 with a lot of high hopes but early struggles saw them playing catch up and were never able to recover.
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