Did Ryan Newman Nearly Expose The System?

In the early years of his Cup Series career, Ryan Newman was seen as a future Cup Series champion. The first four seasons of this race, from 2002 to 2005, saw him win 12 cup series races. Unfortunately, that momentum quickly stalled and the final three seasons in his tenure with Roger Penske saw him win just one race, the 2008 Daytona 500. The move to Stuart Haas Racing would improve, but only slightly in his five seasons there. , he would only score four wins, the most important being the 2013 Brickyard 400. At one point in his career, Ryan Newman was seen as a very good driver, but not championship caliber, which is why his 2014 season with Richard Childress Racing is seen as one of the craziest in Nascar history.

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in the 2014 regular season, Ryan Newman performed at levels one would expect outside of destroying the Daytona 500. The first quarter of 2014 saw him in a solid ninth place in the rankings. It seemed like from the start he and new crew chief Luke Lambert were really clicking, you have to remember the last two seasons under Jeff Burton were absolutely putrid, so it was great to see the 31 team back inside the top 10. The next monumental step was once they were in the top five in the regular season. qualifying, being fifth after 21 races but, frankly, nobody remembers any of that.

No, the following two incidents that took place during the next two races at Watkins Glen in Michigan are what most fans remember from Ryan Newman's regular seasons in 2014. I'm fine. It was just a bad place, wrong place, wrong time, but from my point of view, it was, I mean, Biffle jumped the curb, climbed the divider or something onto the curb, I got out and walked across the grass and I probably could have hit him. a little more. but I tried to time it so I could pass and he slowed down when he got back on the track.

It seems that the intensity level of that conversation is quite high and rarely do the drivers agree in any situation that they fought for so long. like those two did for that place five years no, that's not why you should clean me up raise me again you're better than that but today don't feel better about yourself I don't have to feel better about myself you're in the way you have everything, a lot of my fight, the murder you had, I would have been in your way, but I didn't, you had everything I have and then you made the decision to put yourself in this position so that people like that in the race, you made a bad decision let me just tell you it's normal

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stuff i mean anyone who has watched the sport long enough or been in a race car understands the frustration that comes with racing and

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and just just normal stuff Despite those two setbacks, Ryan Newman's consistency would continue.

The good news is that he was one of the best non-winners in terms of performance during the regular season. Unfortunately, the bad news is that we were in the first season of the new winning format. and when the playoffs were ready to begin, we had 13 different winners in the first 26 races. Ryan Newman got there thanks to his consistency, but the problem was that he was going to be 15th. The mentality was simple: just survive and advance in the first playoff. The race in the round of 16, Newman started on the front row, finishing 15th and 18th would quickly put Ryan Newman on the bubble when the final race at Dover, with other drivers having trouble in the playoffs as well as the team 31 by Ryan Newman, quickly regained his consistency.

It was shown throughout the regular season that Newman was able to get a top 10 finish and advance to the round of 12 by a fairly considerable margin. The round of 12 would be the team's best 31 average finishes of 6th and 7th at Kansas and Charlotte. I had them in a pretty good spot, but unless you have a win to secure your way to the round of 16, nothing is certain, as Talladega was in the cut race towards the end, it looked like Ryan Newman was about to scoring their first win of the 2014 season, but Keslowski passed everyone towards the end with Ryan Newman finishing fifth, suddenly they were starting to get attention, yes, they hadn't won a race, but they were going to leave Talladega as the best. of the rest in fourth place, the round of eight started extremely well and his best finish in the playoffs up to that point was third in martinsville, he would not move to texas as he was pretty mediocre all day finishing 15th. to make a cinderella If it happened championship appearance 4, Ryan Newman would need to win in Phoenix or survive upfront in the cutoff race in Phoenix.

Team 31 ran just inside or outside the top 10 all day, while Newman's 2014 season is considered extremely consistent. Gordon's 2014 season is considered extremely dominant, but now hovering just above the cut line, it's pretty obvious at this point that Kevin Harvick is going to win and advance to the fourth championship. The question now is who will get the last spot, Jeff Gordon or Ryan.

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ryan just an update buddy we're at the moment we're in two positions okay yeah that's something we need to look at although it's going to be tough here go ahead buddy you're the man that can do it.

Ryan Newman could find himself in a spot here we have two cars running side by side in front of him 42 on nine Newman only needs one of those spots two laps to go Kevin Harvick way off Jeff Gordon Brian Newman trying to find a way to avoid these two cars in front of him the white flag is up kevin harvick has started the last lap of the race ryan newman is testing the high side to see if he can get a big run here in this 42 car harvick gordon kenseth kozlowski all four first hamlin and logano fifth and sixth ryan newman looking to find a way to overcome it doesn't look like it's going to work win and is ready to compete for a championship checkered flag in Phoenix for kevin harvick newman next to the 42. and these 42 in the wall are clearly checkered Flag inspector Ryan Newman is going to make that move on the last lap.

We said what the pilots would do to make this happen. We just saw what they would do and that's going to knock Jeff Gordon out. Now Jeff Gordon's 2014 season is seen as one he lost the ring despite the dominant season Gordon had, he was no match for Ryan Newman's early survival mentality, while this is generally seen as a dirty career move in In this type of format, a driver simply has to do what he has to do to put Ryan Newman on. and richard childress competing in the championship 4. kevin harvick denny hamlin and joey logano have had an incredible season ryan newman is obviously the underdog and some see him as potentially not a factor at first those feelings were justified ryan newman was the only one in the championship four to qualify outside the top ten and it took the team all the way until around lap 70 where they were finally in the top ten, but once they got their car right they were able to eliminate the championship four contenders.

From left to right, how about this guy working the steering wheel? I mean, you can see the intensity this guy always has behind the wheel. You know all the drivers are completely focused on what they're doing, but none is more evident than when we have these. shots of ryan newman, I mean, it seems like that's the only thing he's doing through the steering wheel looking at what's in front of him, incredible concentration right there, I wonder when he was going to show up and Newman looking three at a time. Newman's spot is right there and there's no one back in 10th place.

It is not the right time to give up any track position in this race. Newman started way back in the middle of the field in 21st place and worked his way into the top six in the top five. He now has a deficit to overcome and is running out of time to try to make something happen. I'm very interested in watching the lines that these drivers, especially the ones up front, are running. We don't see them right against the wall. The track has cooled down a lot because they are taking a shorter route here, but in the later stages of the race they started to fall back a little bit, so Luke Lambert made a great strategy by taking two tires on the right side that were eventually going to have .

That track position they so desperately needed and knew they had at their disposal the hardest driver to pass in all of Nascar, so with less than 20 laps to go, suddenly, Ryan Newman is now fighting inside the top 3. One time we get a pair. of warnings to regain the field championship 4 hopeful kevin harvick was now back in front remember this is the guy who replaced ryan newman in storehouse racing team 31 and ryan newman has a chance to win it back and get the upset that newman has trouble getting hamlin is clear to take the lead that's kyle larson three in now hamlin has trouble jamie mcmurray out here comes harvey harvick to second place three of the four championship contenders running one two three with eight laps to go Newman's second place over Hamlin is Joey Gates' 32, which is at the end of the track, Newman comes trying to take that second caution due to debris from 32.

Now it will be essential to see where 31 was when the yellow flag came out in the middle of the clue. the yellow flag for debris with six laps to go would stack the field again, now it was up to kevin harvick and ryan newman to fight with three laps to go it became immediately apparent that kevin harvick clearly had the better car ryan newman put up a tremendous He fights trying to take advantage of Kevin Harvick's lead in the final laps, but in the end it would not be enough. Kevin Harvick would walk away as champion of the 2014 Cup Series, he is going to do it, he is going to win the race and the NASCAR sprint. championship kevin harvick of california does it you are the 2014 kevin harvick may have taken a championship, but ryan newman walked away with the hearts of the fan base, this begs the question that has been asked for years since, did ryan newman just

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? well, in a short answer, no, when you look at the big picture, this is exactly what Nascar wants, they want that underdog type playoff driver to somehow get a game 7 moment and somehow win the championship and in In this case that almost happened in a format that emphasizes winning above all else Ryan Newman in the last race of the season, he needed to win the race to win the championship, if he was fighting Kevin Harvick for second place on the track and finished passing him and still winning the championship, that would have been really exposed. system because Ryan Newman would have won the championship in that scenario with zero wins, so my point is to really lay out this win in his final system.

The champion has to win zero races, while Ryan Newman didn't expose the system at all. His season is still seen as one of the best in the championship 4 era, a guy who didn't win a race all season but was consistent enough to make it to the championship somehow, it's a feel good story unfortunately , this would be the peak during their time at richard childress racing, they would never reach the 4 championship again, in fact they would not even finish inside the top 10 in points after 2014. They would not even achieve a victory together until 2017 at Phoenix and that victory It was due to a brave strategic decision that kept Newman at the helm at the end of 2018.

It became clear that Ryan Newman's time at RCR was coming to an end. The vibe between him and Luke Lambert was extremely different compared to four years ago. It's the worst car I've ever seen. I've been to Phoenix for five years. We appreciate your positivity. I just have to accept the facts. In the end, that's all. Look, it's a team. We are all together. I know you only have one more week, but it's time for you to start being one. part of this being part of the lie or being part of the positive towards the negative I don't understand there is a difference between constructive criticism and being right and you know the difference well, I'm sure it's the worst car I know.

I had here in five years so there you go oh my gosh it just proves once again that when you're hot you're hot and Ryan Newman's run in the 2014 playoffs was one of the hottest runs in the history of Nascar, will be remembered as a season in which In one case, consistency triumphed in every victory that could be achieved, but unfortunately, in the end, when it comes to exposing the system, Ryan Newman's 2014 season did not do that and once again, that will be enough for another video. Thank you all so much for watching. This is black flag business, I'll catch you next time.