Modified race offers fun, competition to Cup stars (cont'd)

"I know Teddy is one of the hardest racers out there, especially in a Modified, and he'll run it in hard on you, and he's not afraid to use the nerf bars," Newman said. "I don't race these cars enough to be able to race that way, and when he nerfed me up out of the way I didn't appreciate it a whole lot.

"In saying that he didn't do it at the end -- that takes a lot of man to go back and say -- and I know he told Bono this, 'I didn't like what I did to [Newman] in the beginning and I wasn't gonna do it to him at the end.'

"I respect him more for that, and that's what's cool about Teddy."

In the morning Santos -- who in many corners is seen as one of the most talented youngsters in the sport, given his success in Midgets, Sprints and now, Whelen Modifieds -- talked about how enthused he was about the opportunity to lead the field to the green with a guy who, nearly two decades before, was fashioning a career foundation in roughly the same manner -- in open-wheel cars on pavement.

"It's exciting and I'm looking forward to racing with Ryan," Santos said. "I've raced with him in the past, in Sprint and Midget cars. I really like him and he's definitely a classy person to look up to -- but you look at him and I'm sure he looks at it the same way; he's just another one of us out here to win.

It's a good challenge [when Sprint Cup guys drop down]. I've raced with him, I've raced with [Tony] Stewart, I've raced with Kasey [Kahne] -- I've raced with a bunch of these guys in all the races I'm doing and I just look at them as other racers.

"I think I might be a couple wins up on those guys, when we've raced each other. And honestly, if you want to be the best you have to beat the best, so I'm happy he's here."

After the race, Newman had the same high praise for the driver eight years his junior. Santos said he spoke with Newman for about a half-hour Thursday after qualifying, where Newman denied Santos his fourth pole in five starts this season -- two of which were track records -- at Thompson and Stafford, which are Modified strongholds.

"Bobby Santos is a heckuva race car driver, he's real smooth, he's real aggressive and he's pretty mild-mannered, from what I've seen," Newman said. "He's a pavement specialist, like I was in USAC Sprints and Midgets, and he's building quite a resume for himself as a good, clean race car driver, so it's fun racing with him."

It remains to be seen where Santos, even after three wins, a second, a fourth Saturday and his qualifying prowess, goes. He said he's only focused on winning another Modified championship for Garbarino.

"Right now we're just concentrating on what we're doing this year, we're having a great year and it's an awesome team I'm driving for," Santos said. "Great teamwork is the biggest thing, I think -- that everybody likes each other and works together well.

"As far as other stuff, I haven't really gotten any phone calls. I think it's just that the economy is so bad, but I don't know. I'm just having fun racing with these guys right now, and doing the best that we can. I'm just thinking about that and if anything happens down the road, from that, then great."

Saturday afternoon, for Manion and Putnam and their gang, "great" was the visit to Victory Lane.