Notebook: Newman focused on making Chase

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Whether he likes the Chase for the Nextel Cup or not, Ryan Newman knows what he and his No. 12 Dodge team need to do to play the system in their favor: Test and make no mistakes.

Ryan Newman

Heading into Sunday's Sirius at The Glen, Newman is 10th in the standings, only 20 points behind Kevin Harvick, but only 31 points ahead of 11th place Kasey Kahne.

"We're going to test at Bristol and Richmond," Newman said. "We run well at Bristol, usually, but there's going to be a lot of crashes there. It could get ugly here, Bristol and Richmond.

"We feel pretty good about all of them, but usually if a wreck happens at California or Michigan you have time to react to it. At Bristol and Richmond it could catch some people."

Newman is comfortable that he largely controls his own destiny.

"Basically our fate is in our own hands," Newman said. "We don't have to worry about what somebody else does to get in. You've got to make your best performance count.

"The last thing we want to do is lose a motor or crash. Last week (crash at Indy) hurt us pretty bad, but if we had to kick it up a notch we could. We don't want to risk putting ourselves out of it, either."

Martin credits Roush and team

Mark Martin once won three consecutive Cup races at Watkins Glen, from the pole position, in the early 1990s. His entire record here is exemplary, and Saturday he said the reason was simple.

Mark Martin

"I've been real fortunate to have taken to road racing very, very quickly," Martin said. "It was very natural for me because I drove cars fast on hilly, curvy dirt roads before I had a driver's license. So, that was very natural to me.

"But, where I really got lucky was in the equipment that I got to drive, in the early '90s especially, which really made my road-racing career. They were fantastic cars, prepared by Steve Hmiel and Robin Pemberton and my whole team.

"Jack Roush asking the right questions (helped). He didn't tell us what to do to these cars to make them fast; he asked me the right questions and made me think about how the brakes were working and how they were distributed and how it worked the tires and different stuff like that.

"So, it was all of those things put together. The biggest thing is, though, great equipment will make a hero out of you, and poor equipment, even if you are a hero, you can't overcome poor equipment, so I've been real fortunate in that respect."

NASCAR not about racing in the rain

Nextel Cup Series director John Darby Saturday explained NASCAR's philosophy on dropping its program to run its three primary series on road courses in the rain, if necessary.

Nextel Cup Series •   Results •   Standings •   Schedule •   Best 25 Over Last Six Races •   Best Starts •   Best Finishes •   Complete Race Coverage

Teams apparently were instructed not to bring the taillight assemblies and de-foggers that had previously been mandated in conjunction with Goodyear rain tires since the late 1990s.

"Compared to the other races in the season, we don't have a provision or a function for racing in wet weather," Darby said. "I think what really helped change (the philosophy) this year was the championship chase format.

"Where this race falls in that big picture and the value of points at this time of year, to just throw such an unknown obstacle into the middle of an event (was unacceptable). If you think about it, it's very difficult to test in wet weather (and) it's very difficult to practice in wet weather.

"All the preparation the teams are doing is in dry weather, and it gets real difficult to make that conversion (to the wet configuration)."

Darby said race fans also entered the equation.

"The stock car guys have come a long way in their road racing," Darby said. "They're getting pretty darned good at it and their races are getting pretty competitive. To interject an un-equalizer amongst the competitors that you don't ever know what the result would be, just didn't make sense."

Said to make more stock car excursions

Road racing champion Boris Said, fresh off the disappointment of missing Sunday's Sirius at The Glen when Bud Pole Qualifying was rained out Friday afternoon, signed a lot of autographs in the Nextel Cup garage Saturday, one day after he won his class in Friday night's Grand-American Rolex Sports Car Series race at Watkins Glen.

Boris Said

And Said was in good spirits as well because MB Motorsports general manager Jay Frye is working hard to put together not only more stock car races for Said this season, but also an extended program in 2005.

Frye said Said has one planned oval track event coming up in an MB2 Chevrolet sponsored by Centrix Financial, and that the team probably would run at least one other oval track race this fall, as a "make up" to USG, whose Durock brand was on Said's car at the Glen.

Frye said Saturday his team was diligently seeking sponsorship to run Said in a "10-15 race program" in Nextel Cup in 2005; and that the prospective deal could also include some races as sponsor of the team's No. 10 Valvoline Chevrolet driven by Scott Riggs and the No. 01 U.S. Army Chevy driven by Joe Nemechek.

Said will test this Thursday at Kentucky Speedway with Nemechek, prior to the team's travel to Michigan International Speedway for next weekend's GFS Marketplace 400.

RCR plans to test Jeff Burton

Jeff Burton, who will drive his first race with Richard Childress Racing's No. 30 America Online Chevrolet at Michigan, will test with new crew chief Kevin Hamlin at Kentucky Speedway on Wednesday, also on the team's way to Michigan.

Pruett's assessment bodes well for Junior

If anyone's worried about Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s ability to finish Sunday's race at Watkins Glen, Scott Pruett had good news Friday.

Scott Pruett

Earnhardt, who finished third in last year's Sirius at The Glen, continues to nurse burns suffered in a sports car wreck in mid-July -- with the most severe on his left leg, which he uses to work the clutch pedal several times per lap while shifting gears.

Pruett crashed in practice on the opening Friday of the Brickyard 400 weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. By Friday at Watkins Glen, he was feeling much better and could actually get in and out of his car unassisted.

He said the Watkins Glen road course, with its swoopy, high-speed corners, would be easier on him than some tracks, and that should bode well for Earnhardt as well.

"This place (because of the nature of the course), will definitely be less stress (on the driver)," Pruett said. "I felt great in the CompUSA Lexus in the Grand-American sessions."

Pruett never practiced his Nextel Cup car, due to the wet racetrack.

Fitz-Bradshaw's Busch team helps Morales

In the first opportunity to prepare a Mexican native for 2005's NASCAR Busch Series event at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, Mexico, Fitz-Bradshaw Racing took advantage of an off-weekend for the Busch Series to crew a car in Saturday's Busch North Series race at WGI for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Grand-American driver Jimmy Morales.

U.S. Navy Chevrolet crew chief Jay Guy was on hand with his over-the-wall crew -- along with team owner Armando Fitz -- to service Morales' CompUSA Chevrolet that Fitz-Bradshaw leased from Busch North regular Dale Quarterley.

While Quarterley finished third in the Mohegan Sun 150 in his own car, Morales struggled with brake problems and finished 24th, six laps down. But he finished and began earning the laps he needs to be approved for the Busch Series' first international event, scheduled for next March.

Kahne sponsors hometown Sprinters

Kasey Kahne

Kasey Kahne, who drives the No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge for Evernham Motorsports and leads the Nextel Cup Raybestos Rookie of the Year points, has made a monetary contribution to Deming Speedway in his home state of Washington.

Deming Speedway is one of the tracks where Kahne raced Sprint Cars, as a native of Enumclaw, Wash. Kahne's contribution is to sponsor the track's Junior 125 Sprint class. The class, limited to youths between the ages of eight and 13 years old, is now known as the "Kasey Kahne Juniors." "Deming is one of the tracks where I cut my teeth as a young racer, so I am really excited to have the chance to contribute to that racing community through donating to the Junior 125 Sprint class," Kahne said. "I still have a passion for open-wheel racing, and I am thrilled to help out the young open-wheel racers in the class." Kahne continues to own an open-wheel team and competes when his schedule -- which includes racing the Great Clips Dodge.