DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The number of times Ryan Newman was hit on the track during Saturday night's Sprint Cup race was ridiculous by anyone's standards.

"We were at the mercy of a lot of untalented drivers," said Newman of getting hit three different times in the Coke Zero 400 by three different drivers. "Three times I was either hit or got hit by somebody that ran out of talent. That was disappointing but the guys did a good job fighting back."

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We were at the mercy of a lot of untalented drivers. Three times I was either hit or got hit by somebody that ran out of talent.

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RYAN NEWMAN

Newman knew he would have an uphill battle when the green flag dropped Saturday evening at the Daytona International Speedway as he would start 32nd on the grid after a lackluster qualifying effort.

Although, Newman said he never would've predicted the disaster like the one to play out in the next 136 laps; not even for superspeedway racing at Daytona. Defending champion of the Daytona 500 in February, Newman worked the draft and was making his way into the top-20.

Running in the 18th position on Lap 45, Newman's Dodge went spinning off the track after contact in the backstretch from the No. 26 machine of Jamie McMurray. The hit, causing a flat right-front tire, brought Newman down to pit road for fresh tires and fuel.

Newman managed to hold on to his lap, battle back and fly by defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and crack the top 10 by Lap 108.

The progress wouldn't last long however.

On Lap 124, David Gilliland had his turn at the proverbial pinata that was the No. 12 Dodge of Newman. Gilliland said he felt a tire going down, got loose and hit the wall, but not before taking Newman with him.

Both cars were running in the top 10 and Gilliland's day would be over at this point; however, Newman was able to go on.

He went on until Lap 136, where a bobble from Martin Truex Jr. caused the No. 1 machine to make contact with Denny Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota which then collected Newman, again.

Hamlin and Newman both spun and hit the wall causing major damage.

On his in-car radio, Newman immediately called for his crew to meet him in the garage. The blue crew feverishly went to work on the No. 12 while Newman sat patiently inside while at least 14 laps went by in the race.

With 10 laps to go, Newman was back on the track and picked up a few valuable positions in the race; a race that saw at least five wrecked cars and 33 laps of caution.

After the race, Newman, who finished 36th, met his wife at his hauler in the Cup garage and tried to contain his frustration noting that his team never gave up.

"Well we didn't, but in the end that's not going to make a difference, we lost a lot of points today," he said.

That said, so will Martin Truex Jr., pointed out Newman, who came to Daytona 15th in the point standings, one spot behind Truex in 14th.

As the Chase approaches, drivers are closely monitoring the performance of other drivers as much as their own and Truex is facing expectedly stiff penalties from NASCAR after failing inspection this weekend. His car was impounded and Truex went to a back-up car which ultimately finished 17th.

Of his Chase chances, Newman said, "I don't know, obviously the No. 1 car is going to have a dilemma to deal with come Tuesday. But we'll see what the points look like."

Heading to Chicagoland next week, Newman is 185 points from the 12th spot that would qualify the driver to make the Chase.