By: Pete Pistone – MRN (Motor Racing Network)
INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana native Ryan Newman achieved a childhood dream by scoring a home state victory in Sunday’s Crown Royal Presents the Samuel Deeds 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Newman took advantage of Jimmie Johnson’s slow pit stop on the final trip to pit road and was able to inherit the lead with two tires then drove away to the win.
“I don’t realize it yet. It’s a dream come true,” said Stewart. “It can’t hit you all at once, it’s not good enough. It will take a week or so for it to sink in.”
Newman led 45 laps and credited his crew chief with making the call that put him in position to win.
“Matt Borland just made an awesome call,” Newman said. “I have won more races with him on old tires and out of gas than I have with four tires and the best car.”
The rest of the race went green after what turned out to be the decisive pit stops and Newman was thankful he was able to maintain his advantage over Johnson.
“I’m happy it stayed green, we needed that,” Newman said. “Jimmie did a good job. He had a great car. I stayed in back and watched him for a little bit and he would check out on restarts and I had to come back. We had a great long-run car. What an ending to a great day.”
It was the Stewart-Haas Racing driver’s first win of the year and he joins Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Jamie McMurray and Dale Jarrett as the only drivers to win both the Brickyard 400 and Daytona 500.
Newman scored his 17th career Sprint Cup Series win with his last coming at Martinsville Speedway on April 1, 2012.
“He just had an awesome weekend,” said Newman’s team owner Tony Stewart. “I kept looking up the board and watching and I was scared to ask where he was at and how big of a lead he had. I didn’t want to jinx him. Just really proud of him — he’s a great teammate and an even better friend.”
Johnson, who dominated the race and led 73 laps, was forced to settle for second and lose his chance at becoming the only five-time Indy winner.
“I can go home with a smile on my face, four time,” Johnson said. “These things are hard to win, having a race winning car like we did.
“Today we were awfully close. These things are so hard to win. Having a race winning car like we did, I hate to let this opportunity slip by, but it’s gone, not a lot we can do about it, but we’ll come back next year and try to do it again.”
Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top five.
“Yeah, I feel good about where we’re at,” said Kahne, who moved into ninth in the standings. “You know, New Hampshire we were 11th. Now today. There’s been races we’ve been fast and things happen the last month, month and a half, like you’re saying. Racing, those things happen.
“But, yeah, I feel good about the last two races, where we’re at, where we’re headed.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who rallied from an early problem with a lose wheel, finished sixth (Read More). Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kyle Busch completed the first ten finishers.
“We just weren’t quite as fast as we needed to be,” said Logano, the best finishing Ford driver in the field. “We led some laps but the 48 was just so fast plus he had new tires. We lost a little there and then we had some issues on pit road today that cost us about three or four spots. I feel like we could have finished in the top-five and am proud of the effort the guys put into this car.”
The race was slowed by only three cautions for 14 laps. There were 20 lead changes among 12 different drivers.
Johnson extended his lead in the Sprint Cup Series standings to 75 points over Clint Bowyer with Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Earnhardt Jr. the top five.
Jeff Gordon has the tenth and final Chase transfer spot by one point over Stewart.
The Sprint Cup Series now heads to Pocono Raceway for next Sunday’s GoBowling.com 400.
