NASCAR Cup
Newman's focus is championship
Ryan Newman's wish list is fairly short for 2006; win the NASCAR Nextel Cup championship. Newman has best impressed with his ability to earn pole positions, but his race success has been spotty. Newman earned just one victory last season and just ...
Edited: Feb 13, 2006, 1:31 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Ryan Newman's wish list is fairly short for 2006; win the NASCAR Nextel Cup championship. Newman has best impressed with his ability to earn pole positions, but his race success has been spotty.
Newman earned just one victory last season and just squeezed into the Chase for the Championship. This year, Newman and Team Penske, are looking to expand on their skills to have a more consistent season.
"Our goal is to win the championship," said Newman. "I've sat here the last four years and said the same thing. We've got a great group of guys. We've got a couple of different guys this year, but we've got the same core group of guys.
"We went through a lot of troubles last year speed wise, especially on the intermediate tracks. We look forward to being able to get back to our old ways basically compared to the competitors on those tracks."
A leg up on the No. 12 Penske Dodge's goals would certainly be an explosive set of accomplishments during Speedweeks at Daytona. Newman finished 20th here last year but Penske does not have a lot of success on restrictor plate race tracks.
The only Daytona Speedweeks win Penske has is in the Bud Shootout in 1998, Newman is hoping that is something he can change.
"I think we started off strong in 2002," said Newman on his plate program. "I was pretty inexperienced and I think we finished seventh in my first 500. I think I've experienced a lot of things in the past as far as the big crashes. We've had some pretty good runs. I feel last year was as strong as we've been as far as speed and competitiveness in the racecar itself, and I feel like that helped me a lot.
"Sometimes when you're stuck in the middle of the pack you're not experiencing the things you need to do to run up front. You learn more patience and how to work the draft with other cars and maintain the best position possible. It's pretty obvious that it's difficult to lead all the laps compared to how it used to be in restrictor-plate races."
After a controversial few years with Rusty Wallace as a teammate mired in a relationship that was tenuous at best; Newman is looking forward to having Kurt Busch on board and forging the way for both of them to make the Chase and have a chance at winning the Daytona 500.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Martin not slowing down just yet
Next article Daytona 500: Countdown - Top 4 moment
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Kurt Busch
Kurt Busch buys NASCAR truck from his rookie season for $110,000 at auction
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Kurt Busch buys NASCAR truck from his rookie season for $110,000 at auction
Kurt Busch talks grief with CNN's Anderson Cooper and the loss of brother Kyle
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Kurt Busch talks grief with CNN's Anderson Cooper and the loss of brother Kyle
Kurt Busch opens up on brother's passing in new TODAY Show interview
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Kurt Busch opens up on brother's passing in new TODAY Show interview
More from
Team Penske
NASCAR Cup Phoenix starting lineup: Blaney earns pole as Larson struggles
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
NASCAR Cup Phoenix starting lineup: Blaney earns pole as Larson struggles
Ryan Blaney kind of faces a must-win scenario this weekend at Phoenix
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
Ryan Blaney kind of faces a must-win scenario this weekend at Phoenix
You Ask The Questions: David Malukas
IndyCar
You Ask The Questions: David Malukas
Latest news
NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
11 h
NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar
Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 12 h
Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026
Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
12 h
Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP
KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP 13 h
KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe