08/12/2020
Ryan Newman – Daytona Road Course Advance
ADVANCE NOTES
Road Course at Daytona on the Horizon for NASCAR This Weekend
- For the first time in the sport’s history, the NASCAR Cup Series will take to the 3.57-mile road course on the infield at Daytona this weekend. The weekend date was originally held for the series’ annual trip to the Watkins Glen International road course, but the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced adjustments to the schedule, meaning the NCS will visit Daytona twice over the next three weeks.
- The race will be held on the same road course as the Rolex 24 at Daytona, North America’s premier race for sports cars. NASCAR also announced several key competition components at the Daytona RC, including the addition of a chicane off Turn 4 at the famed oval. Overall, the course features 14 turns.
- Additionally, as announced last week by NASCAR, the series will now use three competition-based performance metrics to determine the starting lineup and pit selection order for each race, replacing the random draw procedure that has been in place since NASCAR’s return in May.
- 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 on Road Courses
- Newman will be one of the few drivers with a leg up and prior experience at the Daytona Road Course come Sunday, having driven the track previously in the former IROC Series.
- Newman – along with other current Cup stars Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr. – made starts at Daytona in the series from 2003-06. Newman won the 2004 event after starting on the pole in the 40-lap event, and finished third in the final series event at Daytona.
- Overall, Newman has 38 road course starts in the NCS with 11 top-10s and three top fives. Newman finished runner-up in one of his first-ever road course starts back in 2002 at Watkins Glen, and followed that up with a ninth-place run a season later. Most recently he piloted Jack Roush’s No. 6 Ford to a seventh-place run last year in Sonoma, one of his eight top-10s at the track.
- Newman does have a road course win in the Xfinity Series, which came in 2005 at WGI after starting fourth.
Scott Graves Historically on Road Courses
- Graves will be atop the box for his 11th Cup road course event, having called four previously at WGI, four at Sonoma, and two at the ROVAL at CMS. His best results came at WGI, where he led Daniel Suarez to a third and fourth-place result in 2017-18.
- Graves has visited victory lane twice on road courses in the NXS, leading Carl Edwards to a victory in the No. 60 entry in 2012 at WGI, followed by a win with Buescher in the same car two years later at Mid-Ohio.
QUOTE WORTHY
Newman on racing at the Daytona RC:
“I’m probably one of a few guys that has laps – even though it was back in the IROC days – at this track. The guys that have the 24-hour experience, that’s going to play to their advantage. We will definitely do some simulator work and try to get a better understanding of our car and that racetrack. It’s going to be a lot of green for a lot of people once the green flag drops come Sunday.”
Last Time Out
Newman bounced back from a 28th-place run in the first leg of last weekend’s doubleheader at Michigan to finish 13th Sunday.
Where They Rank
Newman is 26th in driver points after 19 points races in his 2020 campaign. In owners’ points, the No. 6 is 23rd.
On the Car
As announced Wednesday, Guaranteed Rate returns to Newman’s Ford this weekend in Daytona. The brand will be on board Newman’s machine for 11 of the final 14 races in 2020, as the two announced a partnership extension following their debut into the sport at Loudon.
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.
