Newman's 2004 season not pointless at all

A lot of folks figured Ryan Newman would be the man to beat in the race for this year's Nextel Cup championship.

That's not a bad choice, given he led the series with eight victories and 11 poles the year before. The only reason he didn't win the title in 2003 was a string of five DNFs in the first 15 races.

Headed in 2004, many figured Newman would be able to continue his hot streak. But it hasn't happened so far. Yes, he's won three poles, and yes, the season is only nine races old, but we haven't seen the 2003 version in 2004.

At least not yet.

"We've made a couple of mistakes this year, and we really struggled at Las Vegas," said Newman, who sits ninth in the points standings as the Auto Club 500 gets ready to run at California Speedway this weekend. "I think since then we've learned a lot. I don't think it's too late to learn what we need to learn to be a Nextel Cup champion. I don't think we're out of the race by any means."

No, he's certainly not, especially with the Chase for the Championship looming in a few months. Newman's struggles at Las Vegas, where he finished 27th, dropped him out of the top 20 in points.

Since then, he's finished 11th or better in every race, except for the crash at Texas. Newman and the No. 12 Penske Racing team are 218 points out of the lead, but that doesn't really matter as long as he stays in the top 10.

Newman and crew chief Matt Borland don't make many mistakes, but the team has had a few missteps in 2004. Vegas was the most glaring error, as Newman started fifth but didn't lead a lap and ended up two laps down on a track the team is usually strong.

Another mistake was simply driver error, and Newman admits it.

	Ryan Newman

"Me hitting the cone at Darlington by half an inch or whatever it was, that's still a mistake and it could have cost us the win," Newman said.

Newman had a strong car at Darlington that day, but coming into the pits for a green-flag stop, he nicked a cone that marked the commit line. After a penalty, Newman clawed his way back to finish third.

Those kind of races are both positive and negative for a team going after the championship. It's nice Newman and the team fought back from a mistake, but you don't want to give away too many races like that.

Remember, though, that the California race marks a turn of the calendar to May, and there are six months left to this season. Sure, the Chase for the Championship is 17 races away, but Newman isn't looking at the points standings that hard yet.

"We look at them every week but not until Sunday night or Monday do you realize what you've done," Newman said. "We do the best job we can on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and what happens, happens. We're still there to be No. 1 for ourselves, our sponsors and the fans. Whether it's from winning the race or winning the championship or being the points leader, we're there to be No. 1. We're still working for that.

"I don't think you can points race. We finished fifth (at Martinsville) and dropped a spot in the points to 11th. You've just got to continue to keep doing the best job you possibly can."

That was the team's simple goal last year, and it seemed to work fine, didn't it?

Newman is even ahead of the game over 2003, as he was 20th in points this time last year. So there is no panic in the No. 12 hauler, at least not yet.

They return to California after a strong qualifying effort last year, but Newman didn't get much chance to race. He was taken out in Turn 2 on the first lap.

"We have such a good car every time we go to this track," Newman said. "I kind of look at last year's race here as the one that got away. That was painful for the whole team."

Newman tested at California back in January, and even though that was a long time ago, Newman said the test will pay dividends.

"We tested at California quite awhile ago, but the test went well," Newman said. "It was really, really windy and the track was dirty because it was so windy. We didn't get a perfect test in, but we learned a few things about the cars."

Now it's time to apply what they learned. Does that mean it's time for Newman and his team to head to the front of the Nextel Cup standings? Stay tuned.