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Forgoes pit to charge ahead of Stewart at Tropicana 400 for third win

Monday, July 14, 2003

By Chris Dolack, Special to the Post-Gazette

JOLIET, Ill. -- Just like the morning rush hour on the Parkway East, it pays to be at the front of a traffic jam in a NASCAR Winston Cup race.

Pit strategy and a fuel-efficient Dodge Intrepid helped Ryan Newman slide into the lead of the Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway yesterday, and he never looked back.

After starting 14th and cruising along in the top five, Newman raced the final 69 laps around the 1.5-mile D-shaped oval without making a pit stop to earn his third victory of the season.

"It was just a matter of pit strategy and track position and everything else that goes along with that, primarily clean air," said Newman, who earned $191,000 for taking the checkered flag. "We didn't strive for fuel mileage today. We strove for balance in the car the best we could and at the same time hoping our fuel mileage windows were right."

Newman's victory ended Kevin Harvick's two-race win streak at Chicagoland. Tailing Newman down the stretch, Harvick ran out of gas three laps from the finish and wound up in 17th place.

When he was in front, Tony Stewart was untouchable, but he settled for a second-place finish after leading a race-high 80 laps. Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Michael Waltrip followed Stewart across the finish line.

"I think we had the fastest car," said Stewart, who posted his ninth top-10 finish this season.

"I think we were proving that with our lap times there at the end. It was just scenarios where we got caught in the back of the pack."

The only other contender was rookie Jamie McMurray, who drives for Chip Ganassi of Fox Chapel.

McMurray maintained a top-10 position for nearly all of the 267 laps and was clearly the three-car team's top driver yesterday. Fellow Ganassi rookie Casey Mears was on his way to a top-15 finish before setting off a scary pileup by bumping Johnny Benson and later crashing himself. Veteran Sterling Marlin finished an uneventful 21st.

"We just need to work on adjusting our car for the end of the race," said McMurray, who led one lap and was the highest finishing rookie for the seventh time this season. "At the beginning, it was unreal how fast the car was and it didn't fall off."

For Newman, the 2002 rookie of the year who drives for Roger Penske, this victory was just another high on his roller-coaster sophomore season.

In addition to his three wins in 18 races this year, Newman has failed to finish five times. Once he was in front yesterday, he said he wasn't worried about hard-charging Harvick and Stewart.

"We were in clean air and we were holding our own with Kevin," Newman said.

"I was kind of pacing myself, keeping my distance without trying to abuse my race car. [Stewart] wasn't in the right place at the right time. Obviously he had a fast race car, but you've got to be in the right place at the right time."

The race was slowed by cautions seven times for 36 laps. The scariest moment came on lap 214 after Mears and Benson collided.

Benson's car made contact with Bobby Labonte's Chevrolet, sending it into the wall only two laps after stopping for fuel. Labonte's car was engulfed in flames, but he was able to escape without injury.

Dave Blaney, a 1991 Lernerville Speedway sprint car champion, started ninth but steadily lost ground throughout the race and finished 31st, five laps behind Newman.

Points-leader Matt Kenseth finished 12th and has a 165-point lead over Gordon.

It is the ninth-largest point lead at the halfway mark of the season since the point system was established in 1975.