11/03/2020
Ryan Newman | Phoenix Advance
Season Finale 500 – Sunday, Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90
ADVANCE NOTES
Season Finale in Phoenix This Weekend
- The 2020 NASCAR season comes to a close this weekend out west, where Phoenix Raceway hosts the finale for the first time in its history.
- The return to Arizona is also unique in that the spring race at Phoenix marked the last pre-COVID event for the series, as the pandemic ultimately postponed the schedule for two months following. Despite the hiatus, the #NASCARPlayoffs schedule remained intact, with Phoenix capping the 36-race campaign.
- Four weeks of NASCAR action were 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.
- Sunday’s starting lineup will be set by three competition-based metrics, rewarding both season-long and single-race performance, and will be announced later in the week.
Newman Historically at Phoenix
- Newman will make his 36th start at Phoenix this weekend, the track where he earned his most-recent NCS win. He won the spring 2017 race after starting 22nd en route to his 18th Cup win.
- Overall at the 1-mile track, Newman has 12 top-10s, 10 of which were inside the top five, with an average finish of 16.7. He also won the 2010 spring race in Arizona.
- Dating back four events at Phoenix, Newman has an average finish of 13th, including a 12th-place finish last spring. Newman missed the spring race this season, as it marked one of the three events he missed following his accident in the season-opening Daytona 500.
- Newman has four Cup poles at Phoenix and an average starting position of 14.3, with the most recent pole coming in 2008.
- He also has two starts in the Xfinity Series, finishing fourth back in 2011.
Scott Graves Historically at Phoenix
- Graves will call his eighth Cup event at Phoenix on Sunday. He has an average finish of 15.3 in seven starts at the 1-mile track, with a best finish of eighth in 2018.
- Most recently, Graves finished 12th and 18th with Newman last year, and finished 23rd with Ross Chastain this spring as he was filling in for Newman.
- Graves also has seven Xfinity starts with a pair of top fives. He led Daniel Suarez to a third-place run in 2016, and followed that with a fifth-place finish that fall.
QUOTE WORTHY
Newman on racing at Phoenix:
“We go to every race track to try to win and put our best effort forward, and Phoenix will be no different. Obviously, we are not in the Championship 4 but the reality is, we do have the ability to win the race and end on the season on a good note. I missed this race back in the spring, but it is a fun track and one I’ve been fortunate to have some success at, so we’re looking forward to the weekend in the Guaranteed Rate Ford.”
Last Time Out
Newman had speed early on in the goings Sunday at Martinsville, earning stage points in the midway part of the race, before going on to finish 18th in the Guaranteed Rate Ford.
Where They Rank
Newman is 25th in driver points after 32 points races in his 2020 campaign. In owners’ points, the No. 6 is 23rd.
On the Car
Guaranteed Rate returns to Newman’s Ford at Phoenix, 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.
