Newman's seventh place comes at right time for SHR

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- In the 14 previous races they had together at Bristol Motor Speedway, Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart had each beaten the other man seven times. But Newman beating the boss in Sunday's Food City 500 was no doubt his biggest advantage.

Food City 500

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
2.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
3.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
4.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
5.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
6.	Mark Martin	Chevrolet
7.	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet
8.	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet
9.	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet
10.	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota

• Results | Laps | Photos

Newman finished seventh in his No. 39 Chevrolet to Stewart's 17th in the No. 14, scoring his best finish since he was sixth at Bristol last August -- 17 races ago when he was driving for Penske Racing. It was Newman's eighth top-10 finish at the track

But more important than that, after scoring finishes of 22nd or worse each race this season, Bristol's result moved him considerably away from the dangerous edge of the top 35 in the owners' standings.

"This is big for team morale -- we got the monkey off our back," Newman said. "We knew we were capable of this type of performance going into Daytona, but ran into a string of bad luck. This helps out everybody on the Army team and more importantly it takes away the top 35 deal."

Stewart, co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, has been able to draw plenty of positive karma from his own team's three eighth-place finishes in its first four starts, but it was hard to tell if he wasn't more pleased for his fellow Indianan Newman.

"I'm happy for all the guys on the 39," Stewart said. "They've all been working hard, and it's hard to not let your morale get beat up having the kind of bad luck they've had. It's not because they haven't been running good, it's because they've had terrible luck.

"It was good to see them get a good run like they deserved [Sunday]. I'm sure they would've loved to have had a top-five, but this helps them out a ton in the points. I'm really proud of everyone." (Continued)