NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 31, 2005

Ryan Newman

RYAN NEWMAN: Sometimes you just hit it right from the get-go. Our first experience at Dover in 2001 as a Busch team, we won the pole there and we led a lot of laps in the race and ended up getting caught up in a little mess at the end of the race. But sometimes you just click, either from a driver or team standpoint or just, you know, liking a racetrack. And I definitely like Dover Downs. I really enjoy the racetrack, the banking, the speeds. It's a lot of fun. It's truly a driver's racetrack because of the way the elevation changes going into the corners and coming off the corners. You really have to stay on top of the race car. Our team has enjoyed racing there and I guess all the good things lead to good results.

RYAN NEWMAN: Well, if the same game plan got you to fourth in the points, the way our game plan has been going, three of the last three have been in the top five. We don't look at all at changing that part of it. You know, our consistency has been a little bit off this season up until the last three races. From our standpoint, we would never consider a big strategy change unless we had a huge lead going into the last 10 races. Knowing that you were going to be first after Richmond, I see no reason to change the way -- to change the process of racing or your mentality towards your basic -- I guess maybe your reliability and such when it comes to the race car. So as a whole, I don't think that I would ever, or our team would ever, change. Even right now, I'd still say it's definitely really early. I think we're 90 or a hundred points out of 10th.

RYAN NEWMAN: A very small amount maybe from my perspective. Experimentation to me, we have the opportunity to do plenty of testing, so I think the experimentation should be done then. When it comes to strategy in the race and things like that in reference to the fuel and if you're going to, you know, risk certain situations, that's maybe a different form of experimentation.

RYAN NEWMAN: Yeah, actually not the exact question you're asking, but I thought about the whole Lucky Dog thing in the middle of the race, maybe about our 13th or 14th caution. I was thinking, and the best way to answer your question, is I remember in the last year and a half, two years, you know, races at Atlanta, a sister track to Charlotte, where we've had 10, 12, maybe 14 at the most cars on the lap at the end of the race. And you look at I think we had, what, 26 or 30 or something at some point there late in the race at the 600. My outlook hasn't really changed on the Lucky Dog Rule itself. I still, you know, find it hard to justify giving a car back a lap if he hasn't earned it or if he's not competitive enough to earn it, a car that, you know, something happens to him, he has a tire, you know, cut or something like that, has to pit and goes back out. You know, there's different ways to looking at it. But I guess my answer on the Lucky Dog Rule is, you know, it will probably, according to the law of averages, average out. If we had 26 cars on lead lap at Charlotte and 14 at Atlanta, I guess the happy medium is somewhere around 18 or 20, whatever it is there.

RYAN NEWMAN: Again, it all depends on how you look at it. There's a lot more to it than just fairness when it comes to dealing with, you know, sponsors and having competition at the end of the race for the fans. You know, if you start eliminating some of the not -- not necessarily eliminating, I guess there's no other word for it, but given the way some of the races go, tough to say without using the wrong word. I guess there's nothing really wrong with it right now. I don't see anything wrong with the Lucky Dog Rule.

RYAN NEWMAN: The racing I think in general was maybe the same, maybe just a tick worse than what we've seen in the past from a side-by-side car-being-able-to-pass-another-car perspective. You know, we obviously saw a ton of spins. You know, I didn't see a lot of them. I was involved in one of the bigger crashes of the night, accidentally getting into the back of Terry Labonte. I think there was a lot of one-car spins, just cars on the edge, you know, misbalanced, drivers spinning out. That's something we don't see at every racetrack. I don't have a distinct answer if it was related to the surface, if it was related to, you know, what was going on or if it was just a 600-mile race and guys were missing the setup. I'm not real sure. But we did see, I guess, some acts of call it violence or not thinking, you know, aggravation in guys spinning out and getting involved in accidents. So it's really tough to say.

RYAN NEWMAN: You know, I think that it needs a little homework done to it in cleaning up some of the things that were going on down in turn one. I mean, obviously we don't want to have a 600-mile race and have a guy stopped out in the middle of the racetrack to start trimming up some of the racetrack, the rubber filler they use in the racetrack, you know, during the race. I think they'll address that situation and hopefully we won't have it again. You know, I won't say it was ideal racing conditions. I also don't believe -- I know we didn't have anything that hit our race car or affected our race car in any negative way.

RYAN NEWMAN: The SAFER barrier has been a blessing for every race car driver that gets to race against the wall that has that. I am extremely grateful for the design of it, for the process and how things are. You know, like all things, no things are perfect, but it's definitely a huge step in the right direction. You know, we always as drivers didn't look forward to it right from failure, especially at Dover there. You know, I've seen -- I was right behind Kenseth when he blew a right front and right behind Nemechek he blew a right front a couple years ago. There's no other word for it than ugly. It's definitely a good thing to have the SAFER barriers and we'll appreciate it and hopefully not use it.

RYAN NEWMAN: I still have the same kind of mixed feelings that I've always had. I've always said that from a competitor's standpoint, I don't think it's the ideal points system. From a marketing standpoint, I said you can draw your own conclusions because that's not what I get paid to do. It's definitely equal for everybody. Everybody has an equal opportunity up until the last 10 races. You know, if you get into the Chase, then that's great. We hope to do that. I really haven't changed my outlook on it at all, other than the fact that that's the points system we have to work with. It's, like I said, from the get-go it's fair for everybody. That's what we have to deal with, and that's fine with me.

RYAN NEWMAN: The second one's a good question, no doubt, from a micromanaging standpoint. And honestly, I haven't been in the sport long enough to give you a straight answer that has validation behind it. But the qualifying question, as far as the impound and non-impound, you know, it's a lot of fun to make of cars go absolutely as fast as they can. We all know in an impound situation, having to do what we do to make the cars go good in the race, they don't go as fast. So that's a very, very small negative. But everybody, again, has an equal opportunity to make their cars go fast. From a competitive standpoint, I don't see a huge gain or loss in competition when we do an impound versus non-impound qualifying procedures. We've proven this year we can win a pole in either type of qualifying format. So it doesn't matter to me. My wife always says that qualifying at Pocono takes forever because of the length of the track and the cool-down lap and everything else. We'll see how it turns out for everybody.

RYAN NEWMAN: You know, you'll spend your entire time in race trim, and then be able to just do the changes that we do to make the car go good for two laps in qualifying. And typically any more it's one lap at places like Pocono because of the engine heat that we get. You know, you basically will have to make the car go good in race trim. That's the obvious first priority. But you obviously don't want to give up track position at a place that's two and a half miles long and has such long straightaways for the race. So qualifying, you know, for me and our team is just as important as it always was.

RYAN NEWMAN: I'm not real sure. Off the schedule -- I'm not real sure what the schedule is like. Before when we did qualifying in trim on Fridays before qualifying, we'd do three, maybe four runs and that would be it. You know, you could only do so many runs on a set of tires and your car changed so much on that set of tires that you only did maybe one run. You know, that might change a little bit with what tires we have this year as well as with the format.

RYAN NEWMAN: I think you might be able to attribute a small amount of it to the spoiler. I don't know the stats off the top of my head, but the Busch race had quite a few cautions in it, too - not nearly as many as the Cup race for number of laps. My point is the Busch cars have the taller spoiler. I don't know if that's the answer. But, like I said, I've seen races at Atlanta or Charlotte where you'll have two, three green-flag runs in a row. It just didn't happen this past weekend. There may be different answers for that. I forget the second part of your question now.

RYAN NEWMAN: In reference to the spoiler, I think that the less downforce we have on the cars, the more the driver has to drive the race car, which is good from my perspective, because I'm happy driving the race car as hard as I can every time. I said after qualifying, because people were asking me about the speeds at Charlotte, if the -- they were asking me if the speeds were too fast. My answer is, we could put on a great show running 65 miles an hour around here in rental cars. It's different. It's not the sport that we're in. It all depends on what you're after.

RYAN NEWMAN: I think -- I don't know if this is even a proper term or terminology, but I think geographical diversity is a good thing for NASCAR as far as spreading out across the United States and touching every potential market and fan that there is out there. That I think is a good thing. You know, obviously we have the big markets that need to be taken care of. And New York is probably on that list, for sure. And I don't know from a statistical standpoint if Watkins Glen takes care of the New York fan base like NASCAR wants it to. So that is not fair for me to answer as far as it's a necessity to have a race on Staten Island. My reserve would be in reference to the actual location itself, if it makes any sense for fans to be able to get in and out as well, the teams be able to function properly, getting in and out of an island like that. Saying that, me not ever having been there.

RYAN NEWMAN: Don't know that for sure. I think the answers for that will be with the whole impound procedure in a year or two to come if we, you know, get to a two-day program instead of a three-day program. That might free up some time and give us an opportunity to touch more markets more efficiently, more efficiently from a time perspective from the teams, that has to be considered also. You know, I'm not against racing more. It's just a matter of logistically being in so many places at once and still being able to satisfy our sponsors.

RYAN NEWMAN: I don't feel that it's necessary, at least I know it hasn't been necessary in the past. Whether it is necessary at this day in 2005, you know, that will be NASCAR's decision. But, you know, obviously in the past it was never necessary because it grew in the South, and at least in my eyes always considered a national sport.

RYAN NEWMAN: The impound procedure, we've done well at. We haven't -- I guess we haven't experienced it a whole lot here the last three or four weeks, the impound procedure itself. I guess Richmond was the last time for that. In general, it's just, from a driver's standpoint, not much different. There's not many things that are different about how you drive the race car, so it doesn't have much of an effect. The biggest effect is how the teams have to work and prepare the race cars around the time that NASCAR allows them to go through technical inspection and be prepared a hundred percent like they've always done in the past at non-impound racetracks, which is what we've been used to for the last five years at Penske. The changes on the race car, obviously I'm not going to give you the information as far as what all we change, but there are distinct changes in the race car between an impound and non-impound qualifying effort, depending on the racetrack.

RYAN NEWMAN: Actually, for the first time in a long time, I'm pretty neutral on the whole situation. I think there's definitely good things about it and there's definitely some things about it that need to be reworked. And I think the whole program and procedure is definitely in NASCAR's eyes and they're refining it as they learn about it. That's part of the purpose of it.

RYAN NEWMAN: That's a big part of it. We don't the luxury of testing every racetrack we go to. Sometimes when we do test, it's sometimes not the same racetrack we come back to for the race. We like to learn as much as we can and apply it. The better we come off the truck, usually the better the weekend goes for us. But it's definitely a relief when you can come off the truck and be fast.

RYAN NEWMAN: Yeah, I can see definitely where the logic comes behind that. But personally my answer is I do not race any different whether we have a SAFER barrier or not a SAFER barrier, or if I have a helmet on my head or if I don't have a helmet on my head. I don't change the way I race. I can see where some drivers would think that way. Like I said, I can see the logic behind it. But I don't think that is the case in 95% of the accidents that are out there.

RYAN NEWMAN: Just drivers losing control, whether it's from -- if you want to talk up 5 to 10% of it from the aero changes, if you want to say it's some of the setup changes, if it's the racetrack, 10% of it is drivers just flat not being talented, if another 10% of it's the racetracks changing, crew chief changing, crew chiefs not making the proper adjustments. You can also attribute a percentage of it to, you know, mechanical failures.

RYAN NEWMAN: The second part's easy. I'll say: not much. The last race, at Charlotte, I thought we had a car that was easily capable of winning. We got to the front, led some laps. You know, I felt I was really, really confident with the car and felt the car was really strong. You know, going back a few races at Bristol, we were off, just kind of missed. At Talladega, we had a car that was capable of winning and got caught up in the big accident. I think our rounding the corner happened more than three races ago. It's just now that we have a few races under your belt with three top fives, we've been able to show it.

RYAN NEWMAN: Yeah, I mean, it all depends on how you look at it. We definitely as a whole in NASCAR have tore up more cars this year. But, you know, I guess if you look at the grand scheme of things, there's crazy cycles for everything. If it's high tides, low tides, the race cars being crashed or the reasons behind them, we can always try to create some rationale behind it. But the team that gets through it the best is, you know, going to have a better shot at winning the championship. And part of that's what we're trying to do at our ALLTEL Dodge team.

RYAN NEWMAN: There's room for improvement because we haven't been to Victory Lane yet. But I think we're mid stride, and I think that statistically and historically Dover is where we usually -- you know, is where the fire actually ignites and we take off. You know, we'll have to see if we can live up to our historical - what do you call it - things that have happened or whatever. But we definitely look forward to this stretch in the season and always have.

RYAN NEWMAN: I told the guys on the crew, I said, "You'll know we've made it in this sport when they start throwing ALLTELL cell phones over the fence during the race." You know, I'm not happy with fans who throw things, you know, don't show respect for the reason that they're there. I mean, they're there to see a show. If they don't like it, then they can leave. That's maybe a harsh way of saying it, but there's no sense endangering other people's lives by throwing things. The booing, that's vocal. I mean, that's freedom of speech. That's cool with me. But throwing things is out of line

RYAN NEWMAN: I won't say it gets to me, but I hear it. And I know -- I've seen both sides of it. I've seen people be booed for, you know, guaranteed reasons of being booed. But I've also seen people being booed because they're the best. It all depends at how you look at it.

RYAN NEWMAN: I feel we've always had that. I've done these teleconferences and sat there every other question and said, you know, when we get the monkey off of our back, you'll see. I think Matt Borland and everyone here at the shop have done an awesome job of giving me the best equipment that's out there. You know, whether it's for one lap in qualifying or the race itself, like I've always said, it's two laps in qualifying, and that's a heck of a lot easier than 200 to 500 laps during the race with pit stops, debris, potential accidents that aren't even your fault. You know, there's a lot more to it than just a race car that's capable of going fast.

RYAN NEWMAN: For sure, Talladega. That was a no-brainer there. We were hot and cold the first eight races of the season. I think, like I said, you know, maybe five races ago we've rounded the corner. And I think that we're a lot better than people give us credit for right now.

RYAN NEWMAN: There's, again, several different ways of looking at that. And we've got 31 poles and 11 wins now. I'm not going to even try to pat myself on the back, that's not the point. But we've done our share of winning on Fridays and we've done our share of winning on Sundays or Saturday nights. I'm not at all -- it doesn't make me big-headed or anything else if Kurt Busch calls me the King of Fridays. I think if I can be the king of anything, that's great. Some guys never get to be a King of Happy Hour, a King of Fridays or a King of Sundays. And that's cool to me. But I don't think that makes us lack at all in any other respect throughout the weekend as far as if we're good or not good.

RYAN NEWMAN: I think it helped me a good bit. I think it helped to understand how different the racetrack was because it was definitely different. I mean, it was a lot the same, but it was noticeably different as far as how you drove it or how a driver drove it. You know, it just gave us an opportunity to learn some things on the car that, you know, we could carry over. Whether they were right or wrong, we still had the opportunity to learn. By finishing third in the Busch race, we knew a few things we were doing on the Cup car would not be terribly off.

RYAN NEWMAN: I wouldn't say it necessarily picked up the performance, but it gave it an opportunity to reiterate that, you know, we were capable of doing that. There was nothing that I learned on Saturday night that said, "Man, this is going to win me the race on Sunday." Nothing to that extent. But it definitely didn't hurt.

RYAN NEWMAN: For sure the Charlotte race was not my only one.

RYAN NEWMAN: They're two totally different animals, no doubt. Winchester I still say is my absolute favorite racetrack in the entire world. Darlington is a close second to that. But Dover is right up there on the list, as well. Because it's concrete, because you run the bottom of the racetrack at Dover, it's a lot different than Winchester. Winchester, it's a different kind of bumpy. It's kind of an erratic bumpy where Dover has the bumps that are very sequential in the form of the concrete breaks. It's kind of repetitive bumpiness. They're really different. But I've always enjoyed the banked racetracks, whether it's Charlotte, Dover, Michigan or Atlanta. I just really enjoy those types of racetracks.

RYAN NEWMAN: Never really talked about it. I mean, he's obviously got a big, big program going there with Sam and Helio to win the championship there, and I do here. I don't have any dedicated desire to want to do that. I mean, obviously it would be a lot of fun if there was 369 days in the year to be able to do something like that. But there's not, so we stay focused on doing what we're doing.

RYAN NEWMAN: I don't see how you classify him as a third-year driver. But Biffle has a ton of talent. He's obviously a very, very car-controlled style of driver. He likes to hang the car out, which is totally cool, as long as you can control it. He's proven this year for sure that he can control it. You know, he's definitely a great competitor and nine times out of ten a great racer and fun to race with.

RYAN NEWMAN: You know, when I look at Greg, I always forget how old he is because he doesn't look near as old as he is. I don't mean that in a bad way to him. It's just that he is easy to underestimate as far as being a talented driver, who is not necessarily a veteran but has a ton of experience.

RYAN NEWMAN: Sitting in the car is not necessarily the best way to answer that. But I think when I'm sitting in the car after we make a run and talking to the guys, I think I have a different way of describing what's happening to the car, in a way that as a team we can get farther forward. I've always said the engineering degree has helped mostly with the language that I've learned to understand from a physics standpoint to describe what's happening in the car. Obviously, it helps to understand the car itself. My college degree didn't necessarily help with that, but it helped to understand what was happening and why. You know, I can take any race car apart and put it back together by myself without a doubt. But to be able to understand what's happening when you're driving around the racetrack, you know, is one of the harder things. Describing that to the team in order for them to make the car go faster, because I don't make those decisions, is what makes the difference.

RYAN NEWMAN: I'll never say it's not possible. But, like I said, one of the toughest things, it's not necessarily about the driver showing up at the racetrack to practice and qualify the car and then race it. It's more about logistically moving race cars across the United States, having transporters and having the money to go behind all that to do it and do it efficiently without burying people in the ground from a time perspective. I'll never say it's not possible. But is it, I don't know how you say it, rational to do it?