LOUDON, N.H. -- It wasn't quite from the basement to the penthouse, but for Ryan Newman, and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Kevin "Bono" Manion, Gary Putnam and assorted crew, Victory Lane at New Hampshire Motor Speedway served just fine Saturday.

Newman, who'll start fifth in Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 Sprint Cup race, made his fifth start in the Whelen Modified Tour pay. He started from the pole, led 28 of 100 laps and beat Northeast Modified hotshot Ted Christopher -- who has 10 career victories on the "Magic Mile" in Modifieds and East Series cars -- by .125 seconds after a last-lap pass.

“

For someone like [Newman] to come down and show us little guys respect like that is pretty cool.

”

-- BOBBY SANTOS III

It was particularly satisfying for Manion and Putnam, the crew chief and car chief, respectively, for EGR's Daytona 500-winning No. 1 Cup Series Chevrolet driven by Jamie McMurray. Two years ago the men, graduates of New England Modified racing, put the car together as stress relief, or a busman's holiday.

Now, in true backyard racers' style, they operate two Modifieds out of Putnam's single-car, tucked-under-the-house garage. They have to put one car in the trailer to work on the other in the "shop."

"This is just so cool," Manion said, before scratching his head and wracking his brain and finally coming up with a number. "The last Modified race I won was in 1995, the Tour race at Thompson, with Steve Park."

Since then he's worked at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and now, EGR. He's made a lot of connections, won some races and at New Hampshire, an Earnhardt Childress Racing Engines powerplant was under his Modified's hood.

And on Saturday a slew of guys in red "Bass Pro Shops/Tracker" uniforms, signifying them as EGR men, surrounded the car in post-teardown. Manion and Putnam, hands full of tools, were right in the middle of them.

"For sure this is team-building, and a lot of guys at our shop, which has a good group of racers, have dirt cars or Modifieds or Late Models," Manion said. "It's really fun and exciting that all these guys pitch in and help, because you can't do this sport alone. It's just fun to see a smile on everyone's face."

Newman, after leaving Victory Lane, maybe had the widest. (Continued)