Based on his performance the past three weeks, it appears his bad luck
hasn’t gone away, but he is getting closer to victory lane.
Three weeks ago, he finished fifth at Talladega. The following week, he
had the lead at Lowe’s with a few laps remaining only to crash into the
wall because of a mechanical failure. Last week at Martinsville, he
muscled points leader Jeff Gordon out of the way before making a run at
eventual winner Jimmie Johnson. A last-lap caution flag forced Newman to
settle for second.
“We had a truck arm break going into Turn 1 at Lowe’s, and it took us
out of the race,” said Newman, who won 12 of his first 143 Cup races
before his 0-for-77 skid kicked in. “That just seems to be how our luck
has been the last couple of years … we have a good car and something
breaks or we get involved in someone else’s accident and it takes us out
of the race. It’s not something that we can control, but we know we had
a winning car and we’ve come so close the last couple of weeks, but
things haven’t gone our way.”
Newman, 29, isn’t lacking for effort. The driver known as Rocketman for
his qualifying prowess, has claimed a Series-high 15 poles since 2005,
the last season he won a Cup race. His five poles this season trail only
Gordon’s seven. His 42 are 11th-most all time.
“You keep working on the cars and doing everything you can to make them
better and faster and then you just wait to see how it turns out,” he
said. “We know we’re close to winning a race, and we’re going to keep
working as hard as we have to until we get to victory lane.”
Kyle Busch penalty overturned October 25
Wednesday, the National Stock Car Racing Commission overturned a penalty imposed by NASCAR on Kyle Busch's No. 5 team in the Busch Series, following a technical infraction found on his car at Kansas.
The team's crew chief Michael Bumgarner had been fined $10,000 by NASCAR after their car was deemed to have unapproved modifications in the plenum area of the engine's intake manifold.
Hendrick Motorsports had argued in their appeal that the modifications permitted under the current NASCAR Busch Series manifold rules were largely subjective in this area when it came to enforcement.
The Commission concluded after considering the appeal that a direct comparison between the part in question and the unpolished manufacturer casting or other approved pieces, could be inconclusive in some respects without the introduction of additional enforcement parameters, which are not currently in the rules.
According to the Commission's statement also, the manifold did conform to the applicable NASCAR-approved gauges and other measuring devices.
The ruling body thus unanimously decided to overturn NASCAR's decision, meaning no penalty will be imposed to the team.
"Obviously, we're pleased with the decision," said team owner Rick Hendrick. "We appreciate the commission giving us the opportunity to present the facts and send a clear message about our performance at Kansas.
"The team prepared a race-winning car that met every rule in the book. It's important that our fans, our sponsors and our competitors know that's the case."
Kyle Busch won the Busch Series race at Kansas Speedway last month at the wheel of he No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
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