07/12/2019

Newman looking ahead to Kentucky

SPARTA, Ky. (July 12, 2019) – Ryan Newman earned his first top-five finish of the season last weekend at Daytona. Due to inclement weather, the race was called 33 laps early and the driver of the No. 6 Ford found himself in the right place at the perfect time.

“We could’ve done a lot of things,” Newman told SiriusXM’s Claire B. Lang. “We could have been trying to lead every lap and got into a crash, we could’ve gambled on a strategy that changed our outcome but in the end we finished fifth. I’m proud of Roush and the team that we got our best finish of the year under those circumstances.”

Newman’s fifth-place finish last weekend was just enough to push him back into the provisional playoff grid. But the team isn’t satisfied with ‘just enough.’

“They’re just points, we’ve got to win races,” Newman explained. “We’ve got to win races to make ourselves a championship contender, a playoff contender is one thing, but I’m not being in the playoffs just to be in the playoffs. I want to be there to be a champion.”

This weekend the No. 6 Acorns team heads to Kentucky, a track where Newman has three top-10’s and three top-five finishes. While the driver has no wins in “The Bluegrass State,” he does believe that there is a chance he can get it done this weekend.

“It’s a challenging racetrack,” Newman said. “I’ve enjoyed it.  We’ve had some good runs there and I feel like it’s a good track for me. I haven’t been to Victory Lane in a Cup care yet but we’ll just keep doing our thing and see if we can get to Victory Lane.

Newman and the No. 6 team return to the track Saturday, July 13 at Kentucky Speedway at 7:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Network.