NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 28, 2004

Ryan Newman

RYAN NEWMAN: No problem.

RYAN NEWMAN: Yeah, we were a little bit disappointed in the good run we had going there at New Hampshire, but turned around and followed through at Dover. That felt really good, especially after the way we ran last year, to be able to come back and do the same thing - or at least attempt to do the same thing as far as dominating the race. It was just a good run all day for our ALLTEL Dodge and, you know, very much deserving to the guys on the team because they work so hard all year. Now we got two victories to claim for.

RYAN NEWMAN: Well, historically, it usually takes about 10 weeks for us to get off of a run. If we start one right now, we should be in good shape, and that would include the Daytona 500 next year. All things aside, that's just, you know, potential. But I think we have a great race team, and we have great race cars going into these last eight races. We look forward to each and every lap, no matter if it is at Talladega or Kansas for that matter.

RYAN NEWMAN: I guess just in general, you know, having a package that we can race and not draft, you know, basically, or handling what's a little more important or the car separated out because the car basically had a handling advantage over another car. That would make it more fun from a driver's standpoint. Obviously, it's very fun from a spectator's standpoint.

But, you know, that doesn't include the driver's feelings.

RYAN NEWMAN: Mostly the surface itself. Talladega is more of a forgiving surface. Daytona pretty much eats up the tires, and you have to handle at that race track. That's why you've seen what you saw this year as far as the Daytona 500 with the three cars separating themselves from the rest of the pack and basically not being able to pass each other because of the handling part of it and the (inaudible) part of it at the same times. Talladega, it seems like we finish under the checkered flag usually four wide, four deep, no matter what lap it is.

RYAN NEWMAN: I'm having fun with the racing part of it, you know. Going back to the points system, I've always said that I don't like the points system from a competitor's standpoint, which is what I am. And, you know, I think that might be a good marketing strategy, and we'll see what that turns out to be at the end of the year as far as the stats go. But I think overall, we're here to race, and we attack each lap at each race track in the thoughts of being the fastest and doing our best to be able to win. The points system is just kind of a separate situation where if we race good, the points will take care of themselves.

RYAN NEWMAN: Yes, I agree with you, but I don't think that was something that NASCAR necessarily needed, or the NEXTEL Cup Series necessarily needed. I think the whole idea of revamping the points system kind of got blown out of proportion. Like I said throughout the entire year, it is what it is this year. We'll take it for what it's worth. Everybody has had an equal opportunity. Not everybody has an equal opportunity right now, in these last ten races, and that was part of my pet peeve of it. But we'll go on and try to do our best to win the championship.

RYAN NEWMAN: You know, I think your confidence can get too high in some respects. But if you just maintain the focus - and I said it at Dover, you know, when I was doing the post-race media stuff - I said today's victory celebration is over. We have to stay focused on what happens next week and that's Talladega, and it's a different race car, a different race track.

RYAN NEWMAN: The potential is always going to be there for a fuel mileage race no matter if it's Martinsville or Talladega or Kansas. So, you know, it was, you know, for us, it was just a good strategy race for us last year. We were in a position to run out of fuel at the end of the race, but we obviously had enough to make it. We were in the right position because of the way the yellow flag fell. That's just part of strategy. That's part of what they call "racing luck." That can happen at Talladega, that can happen at Martinsville, and that can happen at Kansas, you know, three races in a row or whatever. So we're just going to take it one step at a time. I think we've, just out of coincidence, not seen as many fuel mileage races this year with the exception of my instance there at Richmond where we were just barely able to make it, and that got us in the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup just because of fuel mileage.

RYAN NEWMAN: Just, you know, basically just feel, you know, how your car is set up, what the ideal line is. You don't want to bind your race car up, whether it's qualifying at Talladega or Martinsville, for that matter, or just getting the right arcs, getting into turn one at Kansas, which is one of the most difficult corners that we race at all year (inaudible). You just try to find that ultimate line. Buddy Baker has done a lot to help me to figure those things out. That's (inaudible) the process of doing it, which is quite private. But everybody's got their own way of finding their ideal line and their ideal groove, and then finding a package of springs and shocks and sway bar, everything else, to make that work.

RYAN NEWMAN: I don't know. I mean, I think that's everybody's question going in - is it going to be crazy, or is it going to be relaxed? I think it has more potential to be crazy, but, you know, at the same time, we never know. So we just have to take each lap one lap at a time and, you know, see how things turn out. Some of the biggest crashes we've had at Talladega have been because of blowing tires and (inaudible) because of debris. Those things aren't related to crazy drivers or the points system or anything else.

RYAN NEWMAN: Yeah, that's a funny story right there. We had it sitting at our conference table here, when you first walk in the (inaudible). I brought the dogs in today and Mopar (phonetic), the one that never speaks, just started barking and howling at it. He's part hound dog. So it was funny to watch him go off on the Monster trophy. But that's where it is right now. It's definitely a cool trophy.

RYAN NEWMAN: It's very important for me, you know, both physically and mentally. But basically it's a great starting incentive for the entire weekend, for the guys on the team. You got guys that come in on Sunday morning or Saturday night that are guys that change tires and do things like that, and they get pumped up when they realize you're starting on the front row or you got the pole or you got the best shot at, you know, the start of a good day to (inaudible) five bonus points. That's very important. You know, secondly, (tech) position as well as pit selection, all those things make it that much easier for the guys on the crew. To answer your next question, we click at it because we work on it. It's pure teamwork, and it's effort. It takes everybody from the people that hang the bodies to the horsepower that we have under the hood to my line to the Crew Chief Matt Borland's setup and so on.

RYAN NEWMAN: Well, you know, again, if it gives you an opportunity to get a good pit selection, get an opening, you may not get caught on pit lane. You might be able to get to lead your only lap of the day on the first lap if you get the pole. You know, you just never know. Those are five bonus points, and all it takes is one point to make the difference in a champion to second place. So it's still critical and, you know, it's definitely one of the hardest places to get a pole. We've yet to get a pole at either a road course or (a short track).

RYAN NEWMAN: Oh, yeah. Rusty has taught me a lot about short tracks, you know, mostly from just watching him and learning. He's an awesome short-track racer. I think, equally, everybody at the 12 car has taught him, his team, some of the tricks of the intermediate tracks. He's done a lot better there than he had the past couple years. So it's going to be a unique situation for me, especially for being in my fourth year, his retirement year, as well as what it's going to be like when he's gone. I don't know exactly how it's going to be.

RYAN NEWMAN: He's a contender for the championship. He's just another contender and competitor. I don't think he's any different than anybody else right now in the top ten. He's yet to have a bad race; Matt Kenseth had his this past weekend, and both me and Jeremy and Tony had ours at Loudon. If he can get away without having a bad race, he's got a better shot at the championship, but so does everybody else. So equal opportunity with eight races left.

RYAN NEWMAN: It doesn't matter because I don't listen anyway (laughing). I go out there and just do the best job I can for myself and the team. Just because Mark Martin is the sentimental favorite doesn't mean anything to me. I mean, he's a competitor to me.

RYAN NEWMAN: Not a whole lot, no. Not a big non-racing fan.

RYAN NEWMAN: No, no. I got some other stuff going on this Saturday.

RYAN NEWMAN: Well, it's been the same pretty much the last three seasons, and I've called it a roller coaster every time. I guess it's part of the sport when you've got 42 other competitors. Your odds are kind of against you that you're going to finish in the top ten every week. So just the roller coaster part of it is something you have to fight through. You know, as in battles and (inaudible), the strongest teams survive, and we're doing our best to try to survive.

RYAN NEWMAN: Well, it all depends on who you're around and what's happening. Odds are, you're going to have to be in a pack of cars at some point, especially at the start of the race. You just got to hang on and hope that luck's on your side.

RYAN NEWMAN: Well, it has a lot of potential to be very important, I guess, without thinking about it too in depth. Yeah, it is important if you look at it from a numbers standpoint. If you start on the pole in each of the last 10 races, then you've got pretty much a 50 percent shot at getting 50 points when only the top ten were separated by 40 points in the first place. So you can create some big advantages there just based off of qualifying.

RYAN NEWMAN: Yes and no. It's still only rewarded for leading a lap, which everybody has a chance to do basically just by staying on the race track, if you're on the lead lap when the pit stop comes, so... It all depends on what position you're in on the race track. It's not the ideal pole plan that I would like.

RYAN NEWMAN: Basically, hopefully, you're fine-tuning whether it's at a specific race track or a package you're working with or, you know, whether it's tire pressures or whatever, you're just trying to zone in on what's perfect versus what's good and what's a good starting point, which you're usually working on at the start of the year. So, you know, some race tracks are good to test at; some race tracks are harder to test at because of their track conditions and, you know, the time of the year that you get a chance to test there. So it all depends.

RYAN NEWMAN: There's always an edge. I mean, the cars can always go faster no matter if you're the fastest car that day. You can always go faster. You've just got to keep working on it.

RYAN NEWMAN: My personal thing is I would rather not have it on the schedule, period. But, you know, it's part of what NASCAR decided to make part of the race as well as part of the schedule, so we just take it for what it's worth.

RYAN NEWMAN: Without a doubt. I mean, there's still 185 points available there. So it's got to be (inaudible).

RYAN NEWMAN: Communication and teamwork and understanding. You know, I personally like the intermediate tracks. I think 95 percent of them are banked. Some of the tracks we go to, like Loudon and even Richmond to a certain degree, are flatter race tracks. I definitely enjoy the banked race tracks, so that's a big part of it, is being able to work with banking and being able to have track position be only 70 percent of the day instead of 90 percent of the day.

RYAN NEWMAN: Yeah, but at the same time, who would have thought of a 17-car pile-up at Dover in the spring race, you know? Sometimes it happens; sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes a crash will take out two cars, and sometimes it takes out twelve cars. Obviously, we've seen crashes at Talladega where, for instance, the spring race when Kenseth spun out, it looked like he should have took out about 20 cars not because it was his fault, but just because of the way things worked out. But he ended up spinning by himself. That's just part of racing luck.

RYAN NEWMAN: Thank you. Appreciate it.