Newman goes from worst to first with Winston win

CONCORD, N.C. -- Ryan Newman enjoyed a fairy tale trek to Victory Lane in The Winston Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, soaring from worst to first to take the checkers in NASCAR’s all-star event.

“This feels really good right now, but it’ll feel better tomorrow,” said Newman from the Winner’s Circle. “We struggled a little bit in qualifying, but kept working on making it better. We barely made the cuts. I had to drive the wheels off the thing.”

Understatement. After finishing third in the Winston Open, Newman led the No Bull Sprint flag-to-flag, qualifying him for The Winston -- in the final transfer spot, 27th position.

By the end of the first 40-lap segment, Newman had worked his way to the 20th position -- the final transfer spot as only the top 20 cars in the first segment moved on. Newman finished sixth in the second segment, which put him in fourth after the full 10-car field inversion as voted by the fans on NASCAR.com.

He quickly worked his way up to second, behind Tony Stewart, who started the final segment in first position. Once past Stewart, Newman was seemingly untouchable, stretching his lead to more than two seconds before the caution flew with five laps remaining after Kurt Busch spun Robby Gordon.

On the restart, Newman blasted out to a 20-car length advantage, but he was cited for jumping the restart. Hence, NASCAR displayed the caution to tighten the field.

That produced a one-on-one, five-lap battle for the ages between Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt quickly pulled to Newman’s rear bumper, and rode it for four laps before Newman slipped a bit in Turn 2 of the final lap. When he bobbled, Earnhardt got into his left rear, nearly spinning Newman out.

Earnhardt lifted, enabling Newman to recover and go on to win his first career Winston Cup event and a Winston record purse of $750,000.

“I had such a great car. If I could do it over, I could’ve won,” Earnhardt said. “I got into the back of him, and I let off ‘cause I didn’t want to spin him out. That was the end of the race. (Newman) is a hot shoe. He’d have done anything and everything to win. I’ll probably run it back 10 damn times in my head and not come up with another solution.

“He’s a great race car driver. He was really wild when he started out, but things like this will really calm you down. We finally did something good. We’ve had a lot of bad luck over the last couple weeks.”

With the win, Newman became the second rookie driver in NASCAR history -- the other being Earnhardt Jr. two years ago -- to win NASCAR’s all-star event. Only one other driver, Michael Waltrip, has ever won from the transfer slot.

“I knew once we got the car out front it was awesome,” Newman said. “It was just a matter of track position. Once you get up front its easier to stay up front. Look at Jimmie. He was awesome out front.”

Jimmie being Jimmie Johnson.

After the final 10-car field was inverted following the second segment, Tony Stewart was propelled to the lead and Johnson, winner of the first two segments, to the rear. Though he took home $100,000 by winning each of the first two segments, he was unable to recover from his dead-last starting slot in the final segment.

Johnson’s car owner, defending race winner Jeff Gordon, failed to make the final segment.

After Mark Martin blew an engine 13 laps into the second segment, Gordon pitted. During that stop, the sponge fell off the windshield washer and landed outside Gordon’s pit stall. Thus, he was penalized and sent to the rear field, in 17th position.

He quickly moved to 12th, but struggled to get past Waltrip. Finally, he did, but finished 11th in the final running order of the second segment, subsequently failing to qualify for the final 10-lap segment. Only the top-10 finishers in the second segment move on, eliminated Gordon by one position.

“That’s pretty disappointing, to come up one position shy,” Gordon said. “We were in good shape. It’s our own fault though. We had a dumb problem happen in the pits, then I got hung up with Michael Waltrip.

“He ran me everywhere but in the infield to keep me from getting by him. I certainly had a car capable of doing it, but it didn’t happen and that’s just the way it goes. That’s kinda how this whole year’s gone for us.”

Johnson’s year has been the antithesis of Gordon’s. He can seemingly do no wrong.

After winning the first segment, Johnson led flag to flag in the second segment, running his total to $100,000 after 70 of 90 laps.

Tough on restarts all night long, Johnson was uncontested throughout the segment, which was filled with fireworks from the outset.

Elliott Sadler went spinning into the Turn 2 wall just three laps into the segment. After emerging from his car, Sadler waited patiently as Ryan Newman circled back around the track. As Newman approached, Sadler pointed at him, cocked back and launched his helmet at Newman’s Ford.

“I’m not Jimmy Spencer, I might forget sometimes, but I won’t forget that,” Sadler said. Damnit, this is The Winston and I wanted to win it. I wanted him to know I won’t get pushed around.”

Ward Burton pushed Sterling Marlin around -- and into the wall -- midway through the first segment, to bring out the segment’s second caution. On lap 16, Ward Burton dove to the inside of Sterling Marlin, but hit Marlin in the left rear. That sent Marlin into the Turn 3 wall, and sent Marlin, Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace and Bobby Hamilton home prematurely.

“Something happened in front of me, I think Sterling said he may have gotten turned around,” Jarrett said. “Everybody is in a hurry. That’s what this race is all about.”

Marlin had waved his left hand out the driver’s side window to let those behind him know he was going to pit, but

“We were gonna pit, stuck my hand out the window and Ward hit us in the rear,” Marlin said. “Hit the fence. I don’t know what Ward’s problem was, guess you’ll have to ask him. We were minding our own business down the back straightaway and he just got against us and turned us head-on into the fence. It was pretty uncalled for.”

A slightly better call resulted in Johnson’s first $50,000 prize of the night.

Johnson, in his first Winston, elected to make the required green flag pit stop prior the aforementioned accident, propelling him to victory in the first 40-lap segment, which paid the winner $50,000.

Johnson pitted just 11 laps into the first segment, and after the Marlin accident re-pitted for tires. With everyone else still needing to pit, Johnson was thrusted into second position behind Jeff Burton, who hadn’t yet pitted, either.

Burton used interesting pit strategy in the first segment, as well. He was cycled into the lead after the majority of the field elected to pit. Burton then stayed out until Turn 4 of the final lap. His pit stall was some 50 feet from the start/finish line. Thus, after his stop, he needed just get to the start/finish line. He finished second.

“We sat down yesterday and looked at that thing, said man, that’s a no brainer,” Burton said. “Had the clutch not been slipping, we’d have won the thing. Smart move by Frank (Stoddard, crew chief).”

Other than those eliminated by the accident, Ward Burton, Steve Park and Mike Wallace also failed to finish in the top 20, and thus were sent home as only the top-20 cars qualify for the second segment.