AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Ryan Newman stole a victory Saturday night by being in the right place at the right time with the right strategy. The only times he worried about going left was beating Jeff Gordon into the first turn on the final restart, then making the left turn into Victory Lane after taking the checkers.

Ryan Newman is congratulated in Victory Lane by Jimmie Johnson.

“

I said, 'put two on me.' I didn't want to get jumped by a bunch of guys that did two.

”

-- RYAN NEWMAN

It snapped a personal 77-race winless streak and set off an emotional celebration for a guy renowned for his dry humor and stoic demeanor, and left Gordon wondering what he has to do to win one of these things under NASCAR's overtime rules.

It seems a Cup race no longer is guaranteed to go to the swiftest. Instead, the green-white-checkered rule leaves the outcome entirely in the hands of the high-stakes gamblers sitting on the pit boxes. It's now Texas hold-'em on four wheels.

Or in Newman's case, two right-side tires.

When Terry Cook slapped the wall and brought out the caution flag with four laps remaining, it did two things. It wiped out a likely weekend sweep for Kyle Busch and threw what had been a somewhat orderly race into utter chaos. And crew chiefs thrive on chaos.

As the contenders pondered their strategies, Newman and crew chief Tony Gibson debated what to do.

"Gibson wanted to put four [tires] on it," Newman said. "I said, 'put two on me.' I didn't want to get jumped by a bunch of guys that did two. As it turned out, I don't know where the first guy was that finished on four tires. I don't know if he was even in the top five. He made the ultimate call."

Six other teams, including Gordon, came to the same conclusion, and Gordon beat Newman off pit road. So when the race restarted, Gordon chose the outside lane, placing Newman at what should have been a disadvantage.

"The inside, from what I had seen, hadn't been the ideal lane all day," Newman said. "I'm not sure if Jeff didn't get a great restart. I didn't feel I did, but it was just the right place at the right time."

Gordon made a rare mistake, but one that would cost him dearly.

"I just spun the tires on that last restart," Gordon said. "And Ryan got a really good one. We both, I thought, kind of spun the tires and so I wasn't too worried, but, man, all of a sudden he shot forward. I was like, 'oh, man, I'm in trouble here.'

"And I thought I might be able to get to his quarter panel off of [Turn] 2, but it was just too late over there and he was making a run up toward the wall, and so I got in behind him and tried to make a run at him, but came up short."

And Newman is one to take full advantage of any situation.

"I got a good start and hooked the apron just right," he said. "I got a good run to the green, which is so difficult here.

"I was talking to -- of all people -- Kyle Busch about it before the race. I mean, this is one of the longest straightaways we have before the green flag from Turn 4. Most tracks are D-shaped and you can kind of see, but here it's really hard to gauge, at least when you're mid-pack, what to expect on a restart."

Newman dove under Gordon and made the clean pass, found himself in clean air and was never headed over the final two miles. Still, Gibson wasn't convinced his strategy would pay off until the black and orange No. 39 Chevrolet came screaming down the frontstretch for the final time.

"I didn't really get excited, because like I said before, we've been in this position and something's happened," Gibson said. "So I didn't get excited until I saw the car come off the corner and headed to the flag. That's when I got excited. I knew we had it."

Newman summed it up succinctly.

"Two tires paid off, clean air, and the track picked up so much grip as we went there, and it was just 'right time, right place.' "

And the rest of the competition was left to ponder what they could have done differently to make things turn out right the next time.

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