Ryan Newman continued his upward trend Saturday night in the second race of the NASCAR Playoffs, finishing sixth at Richmond Raceway in his Roush Performance Ford Mustang.
“It was just a good team effort, good pit stops,” Newman said after the race. “The strategy wasn’t a whole lot to it, just put four tires on, but had a good short-run car. One time we had a good long-run car, but we could never get both. I think that if we would have had both we could have ran with those guys, but we were at our best probably when we were just hold good bias to a long-run car, but who would have known there were going to be that many green flag runs.”
Newman, a 2003 winner at the .75-mile track, was solid early on in the weekend, finishing third in 10-lap green-flag average. That speed carried over to the race as Newman found himself battling inside the top-three in the final stage.
After rolling off 19th in the No. 6 Ford, Newman reported early on he was too tight, finishing 16th in the opening 100-lap stage that ran caution-free. Following service on his machine, he quickly reported the balance had improved when the first yellow came out at lap 111. He restarted 12th at lap 116, but by lap 150 made his way into the top-10. From there he continued to pick off positions, recording some of the top lap times on the track, going on to finish the stage in sixth, earning valuable stage points.
After the stop under the stage break, the South Bend, Indiana, native lined back up sixth at lap 209. The stage ran all green for the first 34 laps, before the caution came back out at lap 243 with Newman running fifth. From there he pitted again for service and a slight adjustment, before restarting fifth with 150 to go. He fired off strong with the leaders, advancing up to third before dropping back to fifth with 100 laps remaining.
The final caution of the night came out at lap 314 when Newman was sixth, and after the team’s final pit stop of the race, he restarted seventh at lap 321. From there, Newman got back inside the top-five for a brief time before crossing the line sixth, his third-straight top-10 and 11th overall.
With the second of three races in the books in the opening round, Newman sits ninth in points, 13 points to the good entering the ROVAL at Charlotte Motor Speedway next weekend, where the field will be cut down to 12.
Race coverage from the ROVAL begins at 2:30 p.m. ET next Sunday on NBC. Coverage can also be heard on PRN and SiriusXM Channel 90.
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