NASCAR BGN: Ryan Newman gets good run in qualifying at New Hampshire

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

May 12, 2001

RYAN NEWMAN-02-ALLTEL Ford Taurus (Qualified 5th) - SEVEN BUSCH SERIES RACES AND SIX TOP-FIVE QUALIFYING EFFORTS. "It's definitely a good run any time that you're in top 10 in Busch Series qualifying. It's just hard work from the ALLTEL crew. Two days of testing here really helped, but the change in the track from grinding on the turns, I think threw us off a little bit. I'm still really learning when it comes to a track like this that is flat and requires a lot of braking. We'll just keep going and see what we can do in Happy Hour, and I definitely think we'll be a contender for the race."

THEY DID SOME GRINDING IN THE CORNERS LAST WEEK, BUT HOW HAS THAT CHANGED THE TRACK? "There was bump in the entry to (Turn) 1 and basically to the entry in (Turn) 3. I think what it amounted to, since this track is such heavy braking, thousands of laps with heavy cars kind of rippled it up. I think that's what the majority of it was. I think they ground most of it off, but when you grind something, you can't get it perfect because the machine you use is on top of the surface also. I think that and the sealer, too, gives it a different feel. We dealt with that at Richmond, so we know what we need to do to be successful."

YOU DIDN'T RACE DURING THE MONTH OF APRIL, BUT YOU DID TEST EVERY WEEK. IS IT HARD TO GET BACK INTO RACING MODE? "I've been doing this for over 18 years, so it isn't like it's all that new. It's different, but I think that it's better to be cool, calm and collected than uptight and nervous."

SOME DRIVERS SEEM TO NEED 10 LAPS TO GET IN A GROOVE, BUT YOU DON'T. "When it takes you 10 laps to get into your groove, you're nine laps behind."

Text provided by Greg Shea

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