08/26/2020
Ryan Newman – Daytona Advance
ADVANCE NOTES
Dramatic Daytona Set to Cap Regular Season Saturday Night
- For the first time in the sport’s current playoff format, the NASCAR Cup Series’ regular season will culminate Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, which is expected to be a high drama event as drivers have one last chance to lock themselves into the 2020 Playoffs.
- This marks the second trip to Daytona in as many weeks, as the series visited the Road Course Aug. 16. With 10 drivers with at least one win in 2020, three additional drivers have locked themselves into the playoff grid. A win by a non-locked in driver would punch their ticket into the 10-race playoffs, which begin Labor Day Weekend at Darlington.
- NASCAR will continue to use three competition-based performance metrics to determine the starting lineup and pit selection order for each race, replacing the random draw procedure.
- NASCAR will reward both season-long and single-race performance to determine the lineup and pit selection, using owner points position, the finish and fastest lap from the most recently completed race. Beginning with the NASCAR Playoffs at Darlington, playoff cars will fill the top starting positions starting from the Round of 16, all the way through to the Championship 4.
- Four weeks of NASCAR action were initially completed prior to the COVID-19 hiatus with races at Atlanta, Homestead, Texas, Bristol, Richmond, Talladega, Dover and Martinsville postponed before the schedule later picked back up in mid-May.
Newman Historically at Daytona
- Newman returns to the oval at the ‘World Center of Racing,’ where in February he led coming to the checkered flag in the Daytona 500, before experiencing a horrific crash, which kept him out of the car for three races. After a quick recovery and successful test at Darlington in March, Newman was cleared to return to racing, and did so when the sport went back racing in May.
- Newman was credited with a ninth-place finish in the 500 after leading 15 laps, while teammate Chris Buescher finished third. Dating back to last season’s Daytona 500, Newman has finished no worse than 14th at Daytona, and crossed the line fifth in this race in 2019.
- Overall at the 2.5-mile tri-oval, Newman has 37 starts, one win (2008 Daytona 500), six top five finishes and 12 top-10s. Despite an average finish of 18.2, Newman has finished ninth or better in five of the last six Daytona races, including results of fifth, eighth and fifth in the past three summer events.
- Looking at Newman’s results at the circuit’s other Superspeedway – Talladega – he came within inches of winning there last fall, and finished top-10 in both events there a season ago.
- Newman also made one start in the Xfinity Series in Daytona, finished eighth back in 2010.
Scott Graves Historically at Daytona
- Graves will call his ninth Cup event at Daytona on Saturday, where he has an average finish of 17.5. He led Newman to the fifth-place finish a summer ago at DIS, and was atop the box for the dramatic, last-lap ending in this season’s Daytona 500.
- Graves has a runner-up finish at Daytona in Xfinity action, leading Buescher to a second-place result back in 2015 at the season kickoff event. He also finished eighth with Daniel Suarez in 2016.
QUOTE WORTHY
Newman on racing at Daytona:
“I’m just thankful for the opportunity to continue on and hit the reset button, so to speak. Thankful for everyone’s prayers, texts, thoughts, calls, cards and all the support that came after February, and even outreach that has continued to this day. This weekend has the potential to be super sweet for somebody, and nothing would be more special after what happened in February than for us to be that team. Daytona is Daytona, and we will do our thing when the time comes and hopefully have some fun doing it.”
Last Time Out
Newman finished 19th and 24th in last weekend’s doubleheader at Dover.
Where They Rank
Newman is 25th in driver points after 22 points races in his 2020 campaign. In owners’ points, the No. 6 is 24th.
On the Car
Guaranteed Rate returns to Newman’s Ford this weekend in Daytona, as part of the overall 12-race schedule for the brand to close out the 2020 slate.
About Guaranteed Rate
Guaranteed Rate is one of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the Company has more than 5,000 employees in nearly 350 offices across the U.S., and is licensed in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Since its founding in 2000, Guaranteed Rate has helped hundreds of thousands of homeowners with home purchase loans and refinances and funded more than $30 billion in loans in 2019 alone. The Company has cemented itself as Positively Different by introducing innovative technology, such as the world’s first Digital Mortgage, by offering low rates and by delivering unparalleled customer service. Honors and awards include: Top Lender for Online Service for 2018 by U.S. News & World Report; No. 3 ranking in Scotsman Guide’s Top Retail Mortgage Lenders 2019; Top Lender 2016, 2017 and 2018 by Chicago Agent magazine; Chicago Tribune’s Top Workplaces list for seven consecutive years; and Best Online Mortgage Lender, Best Mortgage Lender for VA loans and Best Conventional Mortgage Lender by NerdWallet in 2019. Visit rate.com for more information.
