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Flyin' Ryan Newman leads race-high 88 laps in fourth winPosted: Sunday July 27, 2003 6:14 PMUpdated: Tuesday July 29, 2003 5:11 PM
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) -- Ryan Newman used the oldest tactic in auto racing once his team assured him he had enough fuel to take him the distance. "I just put the pedal to the metal, and did the best job I could, which was apparently good enough," he said. Late caution flags helped Newman stretch his gas to the end, allowing him to barely hold off hard-charging Kurt Busch and win Sunday at Pocono Raceway. Newman was asked to go the final 46 laps without stopping. Save gas, he was told earlier, and do it without letting anybody pass. "Those two things are contradictory, and hard to do," Newman said. But Newman has a degree in engineering from Purdue, and a knack for solving problems. Newman also played the fuel card two weeks earlier and won at Chicagoland Speedway. This time, he needed some help -- plenty of it -- to complete the race.
That aid came in the form of crashes involving rookie Casey Mears and Bobby Labonte that slowed the field for a total of 12 laps late in the Pennsylvania 500. "Those cautions played to our favor for sure," Newman said. "I think in hindsight we wouldn't have been able to make it if we hadn't had those cautions." While teammate Rusty Wallace, who finished 11th, was berating his crew, Newman was praising his. "It was a matter of going for a gutsy call," Newman said. Wallace's team decided to bring him in for a late stop, infuriating the 1989 Winston Cup champion whose career-worst losing streak reached 82 races. "We were so damn conservative on our pit calls," he said. "We were basing everything on the race going green the rest of the way and we wouldn't have enough fuel. "Ryan said the heck with that, we hope we have some cautions and we hope we can make it on fuel. They gambled and it paid off. I love my guys, but when I've got to hit pit road, it scares me." Newman said he wasn't thinking entirely about fuel as Busch made a determined bid after the race went green for the final 12 laps.
"The 97 there at the end, I had to do some stuff to keep his nose in the dirty air," Newman said. "Fuel mileage and track position paid off." Handling also had a role in the victory. "I had to line myself up to get off the corners," he explained. "We didn't have great steam down the straightaways." Busch never let up in a battle between the biggest winners this season on the circuit. "It was a great day," he said. "But he was in position to win." Busch nearly provided the first victory on the mountaintop for Roush Racing -- now a five-car unit -- since the team entered Winston Cup racing in 1988. But every time he pulled within a car-length or two, Newman got away. Newman parlayed his series-leading fifth pole of the year into his fourth victory of the season and fifth overall. He and Busch came in leading the circuit with three wins apiece. Newman's Dodge beat the Ford of Busch by .307 seconds -- about six car-lengths -- to take the $4.2 million event. He led 88 of 200 laps in just his fourth Cup race on the 21/2-mile triangular track. Newman also won here in an ARCA series race in 2000. Dale Earnhardt Jr. also conserved fuel and lasted to be third in his Chevrolet, followed by teammate Michael Waltrip and the Chevy of two-time Pocono winner Terry Labonte. Earnhardt moved into second in the standings, passing Jeff Gordon, who was spun out by Dave Blaney on the 124th lap. Four-time series champion Gordon wound up 36th and fell to third in the points. Points leader Matt Kenseth, among those who made late gas stops, finished 13th. He leads Earnhardt by 232 points and Gordon by 308 after 20 of 36 races. Jeff Burton, Joe Nemechek, Todd Bodine, Blaney and Sterling Marlin completed the top 10. Tony Stewart, who won in June, had the fastest car in the field, moving to the lead from 33rd on the grid. But he blew his engine on the 154th lap. Stewart's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, three-time Pocono winner Bobby Labonte, blew his Chevy engine before crashing on lap 181.
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