Newman hits kill switch, sees victory slip

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DARLINGTON, S.C. -- For the second time in four races, an engine "kill switch" mounted on a steering wheel affected the outcome of a race -- only this time, it spoiled a dominant performance by Ryan Newman.

Newman, who already has a league-leading five victories this season, led a race-high 120 of the first 229 circuits of the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

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But he ended the race in 23rd position, eight laps down to winner Terry Labonte.

"We had a good car, led the most laps and probably should have won the race," Newman said. "I just made a mistake. The air-cooling system wasn't working well, and when I came in the pits I hit the kill switch by mistake (and) that really killed us.

"It's a shame, because I thought we had the car to beat."

He had a healthy lead when the leaders pitted under caution at the start of lap 230. But when Newman tried to leave his pit, he thought his car had stalled, so his crew tried to push start him from pit No. 1 -- the closest to Turn 1.

Newman's crew tried seven times to restart his car. Each time, they failed, and the car had to be pushed backwards for another try. Newman lost three laps under caution trying to get restarted.

	Ryan Newman's crew tries to start the car on pit road.

On one pass, Newman's crew chief Matt Borland pleaded with someone to get Wallace's spotter to tell his driver, who had been involved in an earlier accident and was limping around the racetrack making laps, to give Newman a push.

It appeared the request came too late and Wallace, apparently unaware of what had occurred, could not stop in time to get behind Newman's car.

After the race returned to green flag conditions and as his crew pushed him backwards towards the Winston Cup garage, Newman realized the kill switch -- a button that is alternately pushed for "on" or "off" -- mounted on the steering wheel to give drivers a way in which to quickly shut off the engine in case of mechanical failures such as stuck throttles, had been pushed to the "off" position.

Newman restarted and rejoined the race eight laps down in 26th position.

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"It would have been really nice to win the last race on Labor Day here at Darlington," Newman said. "But now we'll just have to win the first race here in November (2004), I guess."

Three races ago at Watkins Glen International, Kevin Harvick said he lost "about 20 spots" in the Sirius at The Glen when John Andretti hit him from behind. Harvick knocked his kill switch to the off position, did not immediately realize it and ended up finishing fifth.

At Michigan International Speedway two races ago, Jeff Gordon's electrical system was plagued by some failures that were reportedly exacerbated by his kill switch.

A couple crew chiefs wish NASCAR would consider instituting changes regarding the switches.

"It's a push-button switch and you can't tell whether it's on or off," Harvick's chief mechanic, Todd Berrier said.

Matt Borland, Newman's crew chief, said teams were not allowed to use any type of light to indicate whether or not the switch was on or off. He said his team would analyze the issue Monday at its shop.

	Ryan Newman ended up 23rd. Credit: Autostock

Berrier said he's lobbied to go to one power switch in the cars for about two years.

"That switch should be the only one in the car if there's going to be one (kill switch)," Berrier said. "I've told them (NASCAR) that ever since they instituted it (because) it's just like having two of the same thing in your street car -- you're only going to use the one you're most familiar and comfortable with.

"Even if you hit it (accidentally) you wouldn't lose that much time if you knew to hit it when it (ignition) went dead."

Currently, drivers use a dash-mounted flip switch to start their cars' engines. The steering wheel switch was a safety measure added in 2001 after fatal accidents involving Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin.

"The steering wheel thing is just a whim to make it look like we were doing something for safety," Berrier said. "And it would be good for safety if it was the only switch but right now nobody knows it's there until it's too late and they screw around with it for a lap trying to figure it out.

"If it was second nature to immediately reach for the switch on the steering wheel it would be second nature, but right now it ain't so until it's second nature it's never going to be fixed."