Newman Wins Daytona With A Little Help

Richmond Times Dispatch
Published: February 18, 2008

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—When push came to shove, Ryan Newman had all the help he needed behind him and a clean view ahead of him.

Coming off Turn 2 of the final lap of the Daytona 500, race leader Tony Stewart dropped to the inside line in front of teammate Kyle Busch. But Busch was too far back, and Newman had teammate Kurt Busch stuck to his back bumper.

That Penske Racing chain stayed intact, Newman claimed the 50th running of the Daytona 500 and became the 32nd different driver to win The Great American Race.

“Without Kurt, there was no way possible,” Newman said from victory lane. “He could have made it three wide late, and he was the greatest teammate ever.”

Newman’s first victory since Sept. 18, 2005, was hard-fought after a restart with three laps to go. Jeff Burton led a single-file line back to the start/finish line, with Kyle Busch behind him and Stewart third. As soon as they crossed the line, Kyle Busch went to the inside, even below the yellow line, and Stewart went to the outside. Burton was hung out to dry in the middle, and dropped to 13th.

Newman and Kurt Busch chose the outside line behind Stewart, and Kyle Busch dropped back in the field to make up for his below-the-line move. Stewart stayed in line with the two Penske cars until he came out of Turn 2 on Lap 199. By then, Kyle Busch had worked his way back to the front of the inside line.

Stewart dropped to the inside, but there was too much space between he and Kyle Busch, and Busch’s No. 18 didn’t suck up as fast as Stewart had hoped.

“I know Tony was mirror driving,” Newman said. “I was doing the same thing. You want that push from your teammate versus anybody else.

“He opened the door. The seas parted. Like I said, Kurt was the push from heaven that made it all happen. But, you know, Tony was very much a sportsman. He could have made that [car] extremely wide, and he chose to race.”

Newman took advantage as his No. 12 and Busch’s No. 2 flew past, taking Stewart’s dreams of winning the 500 with them.

“It would be a lie to come in here and say I was happy to go from first to third on the last lap of the Daytona 500,” Stewart said during his postrace news conference. “I just made the wrong decision on the backstretch. . . . It’s probably just one of the most disappointing moments of my racing career tonight.”

Instead, it was Newman standing in pit road, his car getting showered with gold glitter and his dream coming true. It was team owner Roger Penske’s first Daytona 500 victory.

Newman credited Kurt Busch repeatedly, and Busch said he was happy to be in position to help Newman win. Busch said his car was not good enough to reach victory lane, but it was good enough to help Newman do just that.

“Having that mindset all day of just plugging away, working our way up, and if this thing ends and we’re 10th or better, that’s a victory,” Busch said. “For us to come home and push Ryan Newman to victory, I feel like I’ve got a small bit of that victory within me.

“I was emotional pushing him across the line. It felt incredible to have a Penske 1-2 finish today. To have Newman jump up in front of me, I thought that was the most beautiful thing in the world because I knew one of us Penske cars was going to win at that point.”

They were just two of the six Dodges to finish in the top eight. Reed Sorenson, Elliott Sadler (Emporia), Kasey Kahne and Robby Gordon finished fourth through eighth. It was a welcome change for the manufacturer, which admitted it was well off the pace last year.

Stewart and Busch were the only two non-Dodges to crack that list, and Stewart said his move to the outside when Busch went low was the move he had to make for himself.

“On the restart, I hung him out,” Stewart said. “But I tried to win the Daytona 500. I mean, you work all day to try to get yourself in a position to win. Then when you get a restart with three to go, you got to do what you got to do to try to win that trophy.”

The expected Joe Gibbs Racing-Hendrick Motorsports showdown didn’t show up in the final standings, but the two teams combined to lead 152 of the 200 laps. However, Jeff Gordon was knocked out with a suspension problem, and Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears both wrecked. Gibbs driver Denny Hamlin had all kinds of problems, and the Manchester High alum finished 17th.

Newman led just eight laps, but that total includes the most important one—the one that got him into victory lane at Daytona.