BUY TICKETS: Celebrate Auto Club’s 20th anniversary
RELATED: Newman wins big in Phoenix
Richard Childress was still a driver/owner when Ryan Newman was born — the year was 1977 in case you’re wondering — and now all these years later here the two were, seated beside each other in the media center Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. Newman the winning driver of the Camping World 500, Childress the winning team owner.
Childress took a chance on Newman in 2014 because he needed a veteran driver, and Newman took a chance on Richard Childress Racing because he needed a job. That’s often how things work in the world of NASCAR.
It took the pair more than three years and 112 races to get into Victory Lane, and the truth of the matter is that some wondered if Newman’s winning days had come and gone.
He had made the transition from open-wheel sprints and midgets to NASCAR and quickly found success with Team Penske, where he won 13 times from 2002-08. He won four more times after a move to Stewart-Haas Racing (2009-13) but found himself out of a ride when SHR brought Kevin Harvick on board.
RELATED: All of Newman’s wins in photos
Some wondered the same about Childress and his three-team organization competing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Before Sunday’s victory, no RCR driver had been to the winner’s circle since Harvick’s victory at Phoenix in the fall of 2013.
That’s a tough pill to swallow for an organization that had once been the cream of the crop in NASCAR’s top series, winning six championships and 105 races.
“It’s been a long, hard fight, and a battle all the way,” Childress acknowledged. “Nobody ever gave up. We never gave up on Ryan. We know that he can do it. Our cars just haven’t been quite where we needed to be.”
RELATED: Newman’s career stats | Childress’ owner stats
Childress, inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame earlier this year, knows what it’s like to struggle. He made nearly 300 starts as a driver at NASCAR’s top level without going to Victory Lane. “But I always felt like this might be the weekend that the bigger teams might have a problem and I’d be there in position to win the race,” he said of his driving career.
He’s always been quick to acknowledge that improvement doesn’t come overnight, but instead can be a long, arduous process. “Like turning an ocean liner around,” he’s often said. “It takes time.”
RCR hasn’t been the only team that has found itself scrambling to recapture past success, but maybe Sunday’s victory is a sign that the organization is indeed once again headed in the right direction.
NASCAR’s top series is full of drivers who have yet to win — nearly half those in Sunday’s field at Phoenix remain winless. A handful of others are mired in winless streaks as long or longer than Newman’s run of futility.
“Going a long time without winning, you have confidence in your mind that you can do it,” Newman said. “There are guys that go their whole career and never win, good drivers.
“You just got to stay humble. This sport, you walk away from it, there’s one guy that wins, 39 losers. You have to be humble walking into it that you’re probably not going to win that day. (The) odds are against you.”
MORE: Dillon, Childress congratulate Newman over radio
In the time it took Newman to return to the winner’s circle, 19 others won one or more races. Drivers such as Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth measure winless streaks in weeks, not months. And certainly not years.
“But those days of domination I think are kind of fewer and farther between,” Newman said, “if you look at the first four races of this year.”
True. With Kyle Larson on the brink of a second career win (he’s finished second three times in four races this season), Chase Elliott continuing to knock on the door and a host of teams finding themselves in the mix, the series’ competition pool appears deeper than ever.
Now we can add Newman’s name to the list. Sunday’s win all but assures him of a spot in this year’s 16-team, 10-race playoff.
Unlike his last two appearances, however, this time he’ll go in as a race winner.
He won the 50th running of the Daytona 500 and he’s won the Brickyard 400, two of NASCAR’s signature events. The Phoenix win, he said, will be no less memorable.
“Yeah, the drought makes a difference,” Newman said. “It shouldn’t, but it does. That’s just the way your mind works.
“If we go out and win the next three races in a row, it will still feel sweet. After not winning for so long in a sport that’s so demanding, it does add some sugar to it.”