TALLADEGA, Ala. — Ryan Newman was full of could’ve, should’ve thoughts at the end of Monday’s rain-delayed finish to the 1000Bulbs.com 500, a race that ended with his Roush Fenway Racing No. 6 Ford just .007 seconds shy of winner Ryan Blaney at the start/finish line.
Those second guesses included his move at the end, his last-lap timing and strangely, a revisionist thought about Talladega Superspeedway’s gleaming new infield renovation.
“I said they spent $50 million redeveloping this place,” Newman recalled telling fellow Ford driver Aric Almirola, who finished behind him in fourth. “I should have threw in 50 bucks for them to move the start-finish line, repainted it or something.”
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Had that start-finish line come sooner, Newman had the potential to break what’s now an 0-for-36 career streak at the unpredictable 2.66-mile track. Instead he settled for his second runner-up result at Talladega in the last three years, by one of the slimmest margins in the sport’s history.
Though Newman had regrets, there were plenty of savvy last-lap moves that pushed him from fourth place at the white flag into contention for the win. He stepped out of line on the backstretch, veering to the high side and enjoying a sizable boost from Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota going with him.
Hamlin’s aggressive bump-drafting nearly knocked him sideways through Turns 3 and 4, but the powerful push also provided him a significant gap. From there, Newman wasn’t quite able to block Blaney’s advances, which included his decisive crossover move and some side-by-side contact through the tri-oval.
“I mean, we just came up that little bit short. I don’t know what else to say,” Newman said after his best finish of the season. “I could have pinched him some more. I could have probably took the aero. You can go back and bench-race that three weeks from now. It was a good race until the end.”
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While Newman remained winless, he did keep one positive streak intact — running at the finish in every race in his first season with Roush Fenway Racing. That includes all four superspeedway events, including Monday’s chaotic completion with multi-car wrecks galore.
“It’s a little tough to take right now, but he was there,” said No. 6 crew chief Scott Graves. “He did a great job all day of avoiding all the wrecks. He’s done that every speedway race for us this year, so I can’t complain. He did a great job to get there to get the run with the 11 (Hamlin) pushing him and to kind of be aware of what was going on there. It’s hard to come up short like that and just miss it, but it’s a good day.”