After 82 Races, Newman Back In Victory Lane

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Busch Pushes Newman To Win * CIA Stock Photo

It had been 82 races, since 2005, that Ryan Newman had visited Victory Lane in the Sprint Cup Series. On Sunday evening at Daytona International Speedway, with help from a teammate, Newman picked up his 13th win in 225 career races. It got pretty wild on the final restart with three laps to go. Newman restarted in fourth spot and was edging his way to the front while Jeff Burton was leading the way. It didn't appear that Newman had enough to make a pass for the lead until Kurt Busch put the nose of his Penske Dodge to the rear bumper of Newman's Dodge. It propelled them both to the front where they finished first and second.

Newman collected $1,506,045 for the win plus the $1 million bonus from Dodge.

“Kurt was the push from heaven that made it all happen," Newman said. "Without a doubt, he could have easily gone three-wide and split us through the center and made one heck of a mess there. But he chose to be a teammate, and that was the most honorable thing that he could do.

“I don’t have the words to explain how I feel. This is awesome. It’s probably one of the most awesome things that has happened to me. Just to be a part of the 50th running of the Daytona 500; 15 years ago I was sitting in the grandstands in the Seagraves Tower as a spectator. It’s awesome to make the change.”

It was the first restrictor plate race victory for Penske Racing in 125 tries.

“I’ve been here almost 30 years trying to get in victory lane,” said Penske. “To achieve this with the competition, with Ryan and Roy and the whole team, it’s just unbelievable. We’ve worked hard. We’ve come close. I think it was a pure team effort. Ryan drove a masterful race, as he has done many times and come up short. But today was special for us.”

Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch had intentions of working together in the Daytona 500 and it all sounded good, but the execution lacked a bit as both drivers wanted to lead and both had a strong desire to win. Busch was bobbing and weaving all over the track but in the end, he finished fourth behind Tony Stewart.

“It’s pretty tough to come in here and say that I’m happy to go from first to third on the last lap of the Daytona 500," said Stewart. "I just made the wrong decision on the backstretch and tried to get down in front of Kyle (Busch). I thought we could get a push down there, but the No. 2 (Kurt Busch) got glued to the No. 12 (Ryan Newman).

"I don’t know if I could have stopped them anyway and if I would have changed lanes I think I would have ended up like a bunch of other guys -- wrecked. In all reality and in hindsight I’m probably going to be a lot happier about it. I thought we were going to have a fun hair-cutting party in here tonight with you guys (media). It’s hard to explain -- it’s probably one of the most disappointing moments of my racing career tonight.”

Driving a smart race, Reed Sorenson brought his Ganassi Racing Dodge home in the the fifth spot.

“The first half of the race was so hot and slick. You could see everyone out here separating. We took the conservative side on tires," Sorenson said. "We just tried to keep an eye on the leaders – if we could still see them we were happy. We knew there were going to be cautions at the end. We just took care of the tires, took care of the car and went after it there at the end."

Rounding out the top ten were Elliott Sadler, Kasey Kahne, Robby Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle. Six of the top ten finishers were Dodges.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and/or his team were making some bad decisions in the final laps. On a caution with 24 laps to go, Earnhardt was needing tires and was leading the race because he didn't stop when most of the other cars did. He was suckered by Tony Stewart into missing the commitment cone and missed pitting because, as crew chief Tony Eury Jr. described it, "Junior, we were going to stop but there were too many people talikng on the radios and by the time we got to it, you were passed the commitment cone."

It probably cost Earnhardt a chance at winning his second Daytona 500.

The race was Dale Jarrett's final Daytona 500. Did he think about it on the final lap, that this was his last lap in the Daytona 500?

"After I got past the start-finish line under the white flag and nobody wrecked, I thought about that," said Jarrett. "I was thinking that that was my last time I would make a lap here. I had time to cool down there and think about it. This has been a very special place for me.”

Jeff Gordon was running in the top five and was contending for a high finish but with 50 laps to go the chassis gave out from the heavy stress that is put up on the cars. Gordon finished 39th.

“We had suspension failure," Gordon explained. "We had some issues testing; all of us did. We prepared for it and felt like we had the issues fixed. The suspension is just so tough on these cars with these bumps here. You don’t know what’s taking all the load. You keep fixing one thing and it just keeps creating another issue. It’s unfortunate."

Sam Hornish Jr. scored a 15th-place finish in his best effort in three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. Unofficially Hornish Jr. leads Dario Franchitti by one point (11-10) in the Raybestos Rookie standings.

“I was pretty happy with the car all day," Hornish said. "I think we definitely had a better finish in the car but kind of got stuck back in traffic a little bit and kind of were just fighting for our life there for a little while. But I’m real happy with all the guys that work on the Mobil 1 No. 77 Dodge. They did a great job for me today, especially the spotter. I’ve got a little bit of work to do, not only getting the draft down but also getting in and out of the pits."

The Nextel Cup Series moves to the California Speedway next Sunday, February 24th, 2008, for the Auto Club 500. The race is scheduled to start at 4:00 PM Eastern Time and will be covered by Fox, starting at 3:30 PM.

NOTEBOOK ITEMS

Sam Hornish Jr. leads Dario Franchitti by one point (11-10) in the Raybestos Rookie standings.



For full final race results...     (Insider Racing News)
For top-40 Nextel Cup drivers points...     (Insider Racing News)

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