Ryan Newman has never had fewer than six poles in any season since making his Cup debut in 2002. Credit: Autostock

Rocketman grounded: No poles for Newman

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Qualifying always has been a happy time for Ryan Newman.

Until now.

The man who has won more poles -- 35 -- the past five seasons than anybody in the Nextel Cup Series is now eight races into the season without a spot on the inside of the front row.

What's Up With the Rocketman? Poles after eight races '06 '05 '04 '03 '02 0 3 3 2 0

Newman, in fact, hasn't gone this deep into the season without at least two poles since his first full season in 2002.

"We haven't put as much emphasis on qualifying because we've been struggling racing,'' said Newman, who qualified 13th for Saturday's race at Phoenix International Raceway despite picking up three-tenths of a second from practice. "It would be nice to get back to where we could focus on both equally and be good at both.''

Total poles per season '06 '05 '04 '03 '02 0 8 9 11 6

This time a year ago, Newman had three poles and was ninth in points. He enters this race 18th in points with five finishes of 18th or worse, including 40th two weeks ago at Texas and 43rd in the third race at Las Vegas.

To say he's not worried is an understatement.

"Oh, yeah. We've flat sucked at times,'' Newman said.

Newman blamed some of his struggles on offseason changes at Penske Racing South, where Rusty Wallace retired and a new team was built around 2004 Cup champion Kurt Busch.

He said the decision to use the 2004 Dodge Intrepid instead of the new Charger also put the team behind, particularly when Dodge officials said the '04 couldn't be used after Texas.

"It was a total regroup at Penske Racing in the offseason,'' Newman said. "It wasn't good in a lot of ways. I'm not blaming anybody. The fact is, we made some changes and we're playing catchup.''

Penske Racing president Don Miller admitted the restructuring was a setback. He also has seen positives, such as sharing between the teams of Newman and Busch that wasn't there when Rusty Wallace was in the No. 2 car that Busch inherited.

"We went form exchanging barbs to exchanging information,'' Miller said. "The teams really, really are working together.''

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That effort has intensified this week with Roy McCauley, Busch's crew chief, at home after having a procedure to repair blockage in one of his arteries. He was replaced by Mark Gimbel, who is doubling this weekend as Busch's Busch Series crew chief.

"I'm real happy with that,'' Miller said of the sharing.

He would be happier if his drivers were in the top 10 in points.

Despite bickering last season, Newman and Wallace qualified for the Championship Chase. Busch, who qualified second for Saturday's race, is only one spot ahead of Newman in points despite having a victory at Bristol.

"Every time you make a big change it's going to have an effect,'' Miller said. "Sometimes it's positive; sometimes it's negative. We put a lot of effort into the 2004 Dodge, looking at aerodynamics.

"We got a little bit behind with all the things all the [Dodge] guys are doing now. But we'll get it back.''

Newman hopes so.

"We've just been off, off as a group,'' he said. "We had a pretty tough offseason with one team folding up and another team changing hands and a lot of meetings.

"We're just working hard trying to turn things around. But we're still struggling with some of these specs and trying to be able to pick up speed like that for qualifying.''