Ryan Newman went from first the last Saturday night in a cloud of smoke both from under his hood and from the carnage caused behind him.

Newman, who had led 30 laps, blew a front seal on his Dodge motor on lap 133 during theSubway Fresh Fit 500, ruining his night and several others. Watch as the red flag comes out at 0:06:



As you can see, Newman lost his engine heading into turn three, and behind him several drivers lost control. The list included point leader Jeff Burton, Reed Sorenson, Matt Kenseth, Johnny Sauter and J.J. Yeley.

Now, I'll admit, I was one of the fans yelling at his TV because Newman failed to get off the track after obviously oiling-down the race track.

His quotes, though, after the race helped to settle me down some after Newman fully explained his issue and tried to reason why he caused a full-fledged race-stopping oil cleanup.

What: Subway Fresh Fit 500
Where: Phoenix International Raceway, Phoenix, Ariz.
When: Saturday, April 12 8:30pm/et FOX
Distance: 312 laps, 500k
Weather: Clear, with a low around 61. East northeast wind around 7 mph.
2007 Winner: Jeff Gordon
Predictions: Keep Reading





Gordon Was Horrible at Texas, Could Be Horrible at Phoenix - All across the NASCAR web world, there's been plenty of talk about how bad Jeff Gordon was one week ago at Texas Motor Speedway.

There's also been plenty wrote about how Gordon scored his first Phoenix victory one year ago in this same race and how that should bode well for a comeback for the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

I just don't see that happening. Remember back to last fall when Gordon was battling teammate Jimmie Johnson for the Cup title and how Gordon flat out struggled to stay in the Top-10. During Friday's practice sessions at PIR, Gordon was a lowly 30th-fast in both practices.

Ryan Newman will start out front for Saturday night's Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

The Penske Racing driver, fresh off a 25-point penalty from his Dodge being too high in post-race inspection Sunday at Texas, will line up from the pole after laying down a lap of 133.457mph.

His pole-winning run -- the 43rd of his career -- was just .009 seconds faster than Elliott Sadler. It also puts Newman 10th all time on the list of pole winners.

Last week's winner Carl Edwards will start third.

Mark Martin and Kasey Kahne will round out the Top-5.

The rest of the Top-10 Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex Jr. and Scott Riggs.

Johnny Sauter, who replaced Jeremy Mayfield this week in the No. 70, made the field despite being outside the Top-35 in owner points.

Kyle Petty and John Andretti both didn't make the race.

Ryan Newman won one of the "most competitive" Daytona 500s in history, according to NASCAR's stats.

Here's why, by the numbers:

42 - Number of lead changes at the start/finish line, which the most since 2001 (49)

5 - Number of time a Daytona 500 (since 1970) has had more than 40 lead changes

16 - Number of drivers that led a lap (second highest in Daytona 500 history to 2006's 18)

7 - Number of car owners represented in the Top-10 (Penske, Gibbs, Ganassi, Gillett-Evernham, Robby Gordon, Hendrick, Roush-Fenway)

81 - Number of races since Newman's last win

10.23 - Newman's average running position during the Daytona 500

20 - Miles led by race winner, Ryan Newman

257 - Number of green flag passes made by Newman's teammate Sam Hornish Jr. Newman had 215.

He wasn't on my picks, and more than likely he wasn't at the top yours.

But that didn't matter to Ryan Newman Sunday evening at Daytona International Speedway. Newman won his first-career Daytona 500 in thrilling fashion, his first win since 2005 in the Sprint Cup Series.

At the white flag, Newman didn't lead but Tony Stewart did with his teammate Kyle Busch coming fast. Off of Turn 2, the outside line that Ryan Newman was leading was gaining on Stewart with teammate Kurt Busch planted squarely in the rear end of Newman's Dodge.

Stewart ducked low thinking that he would head off a a charge by Kyle Busch and that he could use a push to keep the lead, but it backfired, and the Penske freight train powered past with Kurt shoving Newman to the lead.

Stewart later called it one of the most disappointing things to ever happen to him in his racing career as he was once again denied in a bid to win the Daytona 500.

The race ended with 7 cautions and all but 6 of those occurred after the halfway mark.

Amazingly, the highest finishing Hendrick Motorsports team -- all four cars were pre-race favorites -- was in ninth-place by Dale Earnhardt Jr.

NASCAR FanHouse will have plenty more coverage of the Daytona 500 coming to a screen near you.

UPDATE from the NASCAR Scene: Clint Bowyer took the blame for causing the wreck Friday night after going low on Ryan Newman entering turn 3. From the NASCAR Scene:

"It shouldn't have happened," Bowyer said. "I got underneath him. The 41 [of Reed Sorenson, behind me] was pushing pretty hard, and I knew I wasn't trying to push the envelope. [Newman] came back down, and I was trying to let off. It's just unfortunate for everybody. ... I just got under him. I tried to stop and there was no more room."

Newman's Dodge spun up the track and into the path of Johnson.

"Once [Bowyer] got underneath me, it was either turn right and go into the corner with a guy on the outside of me or count on him checking up," Newman said. "He said he checked up, he just didn't check up enough. He didn't mean to turn me around, but that's the way it happened."

Newman's backup car is on the way down from North Carolina right now while Johnson and Gordon rolled out cars that might have been the backups for the Daytona 500.

Original Post: The Daytona Speedweeks haven't started well for the top two drivers from last year's championship standings.

Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon will be joined by Ryan Newman at the back of the pack for the start of Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout after a practice crash in the second session of practice Friday night at Daytona International Speedway.

If there's a prettier scene than that in NASCAR, I've yet to see it.

I didn't say the racing was amazing in California -- frankly, it's not -- but it's still a gorgeous background. Almost on par with Labor Day in the Darlington, S.C.-area.

Almost.

Anyways, Jeff Gordon took top honors in the afternoon session Thursday with his lap of 180.505mph on his 75th lap of the session. Yes, seventy-fifth.

The California-native, though, didn't pace the overall speed chart from the morning and afternoon sessions as that honor belonged to Denny Hamlin's Toyota with a lap of 182.523.

Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, and Gordon's lap from the morning session rounded out the top-5 in the cumlative morning and afternoon results.

Teams were given the option over the two-day California Speedway test to choose from four of the five sessions offered. Three were offered Thursday (including one under the lights) and two on Friday, to give teams either a chance to test at night for when they return for the track's second date in September or to head home Friday afternoon.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sat out the first session on Thursday meaning he'll be around until the track closes Friday afternoon.

As of this post, times haven't been posted for the night session. Until then, go back to looking at that gorgeous picture.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day until the end of 2007 as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 13th-place Ryan Newman.

Driver: Ryan Newman -- South Bend, Indiana
Team: No. 12 Alltel Dodge
Points: 13th (-2677)
2006: 18th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 5 poles, 7 Top-5s, 15 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

According to NASCAR's loop data, Ryan Newman improved significantly in 2007 compared to his 2006 season. He was awarded the "Oh So Close!" award for not only finishing in the Top-5 a few times, but also for improving his driver rating quite a bit.

That stat went raise nearly 10 points from 76.3 in 2006 to 86.5 in 2007 -- the most of any non-Chase driver.

"Oh So Close" could partly describe most of Newman's season as well. With 5 poles, Newman continued to follow suit with the track of most of his career with Penske Racing -- he can qualify extremely well but putting stats in the win column is much more challenging.

His stats in 2007 back up that fact with an average start of 13th with an average finish of 18th. His best finishes of 2007 were three 2nd-place finishes at Pocono, Dover, and Martinsville.

Newman seemed to hit stride with those finishes just before teammate Kurt Busch won a few races in the late summer months but couldn't convert them to victories.

Can you really expect 2007 to be much different? Newman is a good driver with a good team, but by and far, together they seem to struggle to always put the whole package together on race day.

Consider Jimmie Johnson the new Martinsville master.

Johnson took Sunday's Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway for his 30th career victory over Ryan Newman and Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon. He now follows Gordon in the Chase for the Nextel Cup by 53 points with just four races left.

It's the first time one driver has taken three-straight at Martinsville since Rusty Wallace did it in 1994-95.

Late in the race, cautions were the story and likely affected Jeff Gordon's chances -- who led a race high 168 laps -- at winning a possible third race in a row. Needing longer runs for his car to come in, Gordon was hampered by several yellows and was passed on a late restart by Newman.

Another caution flew leading to a final green-white-checkered finish that could have been more exciting had David Ragan not spun in turn one. NASCAR, like usual, waited to throw the caution flag and very nearly put a stalled Ragan in harm's way as the leaders flew into turn one before NASCAR threw the yellow, sealing Johnson's win.

Clint Bowyer, third in points, and Tony Stewart, fourth, finished 9th and 13th respectively. Bowyer now sits 110 points back of Gordon and Stewart holds a deficit of 244 points, unofficially.

Ryan Newman's almost win was more exciting than Jeff Gordon's Bank of America 500 win--for me anyway, and I'm sure quite a few others, including Newman:

"It's disappointing, to be that close to your first win in that many races, and it's tough to swallow. But when you go out on top, there's no better way."

It was disappointing. With only five laps to go, I thought that Newman had finally caught a break with Gordon's engine sputtering holding him and other drivers back while Newman made a run for it. For all of two laps it looked like Newman was going to be able to pull off his first race in two years ... that another non-Chaser was going to win a race.