Ryan Newman made a stop last week that surprised one of his biggest fans. Credit: Autostock

Hello, Newman

Driver makes day of lucky contest winner with special appearance

Ryan Newman cruised up to the Alltel retail store in Kannapolis, N.C. last week in a 1960 Ford, fresh from the muffler shop after having dual exhausts put on.

In the side door he went, right up to a retail kiosk, and he tapped Kimberly Robinson on the shoulder.

"Hi," he said.

"Oh my God!" was the surprised reply -- at quite a bit more than normal volume.

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Newman, in town for the Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, was there to gift one lucky fan with an all-expense paid trip to the Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Speedway on Nov. 12. As the winner of Alltel's "Go Racing with Ryan" promotion, Robinson's name will also appear on the No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger for that race.

Robinson, from Tifton, Ga., had made the trip up I-85 from her home with the express intention of meeting Newman at the Kannapolis Alltel store. She and her husband were committed to staying as long as it took in hopes of seeing her favorite driver, and it paid off.

Newman has done this two other times for the company, with similar results. First, fans don't expect to see a real, live NASCAR driver out in public, at least without an entourage, and they never expect the driver to just walk up and hand them the keys to a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Yet, there was Newman, like Santa Claus without the red suit and reindeer, making Robinson's dream come true.

"It's just neat to see the reaction," Newman said. "She was just so excited. To see somebody in an Alltel store, with her toenails painted in team colors, wearing her Alltel Ryan Newman shirt on a Tuesday afternoon and taking a week off work from Georgia. That's pretty neat. It tells you a lot about the sport.

"The reaction is the neatest thing. Obviously, you want to make millions of people happy, but if you can touch one person's heart in one day, then you've accomplished something."

Robinson, who is, of course, an Alltel customer, was in the process of looking over one of the company's new Fastap phones and updating her wireless plan when Newman surprised her.

"It took me a second to realize who it was," Robinson said. "I thought it was my husband, Kevin, trying to ask me something. When I turned around, I couldn't believe it. I thought I was fixing to have a heart attack. I knew nothing about this.

"This was the first stop in our race-week plan, and I'm so glad we made it."

Robinson has been a race fan for four years, after her father got her into the sport. "My dad is a die-hard Earnhardt fan, and my husband always watched the races with him. They kept telling me, 'you've got to get a driver, you've got to get a driver.' I happened to watch Ryan one day, and I saw the kind of personality and attitude that he had and just kind of fell in love with him."

Like many NASCAR fans, Robinson doesn't just cheer casually for her driver.

"It's a dream come true," she said. "It's such an honor. I had no idea I was going to meet the person I watch every day of my life. I check the web site every day, check NASCAR.COM every day and see if they have any articles on the web site about him.

"I had no idea I was going to get to meet him, give him a hug and a kiss."

Newman was happy with the result.

"She [Robinson] was definitely excited," he said. "It's just cool to see the excitement and joy on her face. She was as much excited about being able to prove her friends wrong [about getting to meet him] as getting to finally achieve her goal for the week."

The first time he did this, in Albuquerque, N.M., it was Newman who was surprised.

"Maybe the first lady had Tourette's or something, because she cussed at me," Newman said with a smile. "She said something like, 'dammit, why'd you scare me like that?' I'm like, 'I'm sorry...I was just trying to make it exciting for you!' That was kind of unique."

Obviously, there is a business reason for the program, which is to call attention to Alltel, owner of the country's largest wireless network and home to more than 10 million customers.

"This initiative has proven highly successful and we've received strong feedback from our customers inquiring when we would be doing this again," said Frank O'Mara, executive vice president of marketing for Alltel. "We are committed to providing our customers the wireless experience they expect. This is a fun way to thank one of them for choosing Alltel as their wireless provider."

By the way, she did buy the phone.