Top 20 Countdown: No. 14 Ryan Newman
(Getty Images)
2009 statistics
Finish | Poles | Wins | Top 5 | Top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
9 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 9 |
The countdown
No. 20: Martin Truex Jr. | Career stats
No. 19: Brian Vickers | Career stats
No. 18: Kasey Kahne | Career stats
No. 17: Clint Bowyer | Career stats
No. 16: David Reutimann | Career stats
No. 15: Kevin Harvick | Career stats
No. 14: Ryan Newman | Career stats
No. 13: Revealed Jan. 20
Editor's note: Yahoo! Sports is counting down the top 20 drivers of the 2010 season. The order was determined by a survey, which asked five NASCAR journalists – Jay Busbee and Jay Hart (Yahoo! Sports); Jenna Fryer (Associated Press); Dustin Long (Landmark Newspapers); and Nate Ryan (USA Today) – to predict the final standings for the 2010 season. The countdown will conclude on Feb. 5 with the unveiling of the No. 1 driver.
2009 finish: 9th
Our 2010 predictions:
• Jay Busbee: 14th
• Jay Hart: 15th
• Jenna Fryer: 14th
• Dustin Long: 13th
• Nate Ryan: 14th
2010 Outlook: It's going to be a far more pressure-packed year for Ryan Newman in 2010 than it was in 2009. Newman left Penske Racing at the end of the 2009 season to join the brand-new team of Stewart-Haas Racing, and it wasn't out of the realm of possibility to speculate that the 2008 Daytona 500 winner was about to drop off the map completely. But then Newman and Stewart both did something completely unexpected – they set up camp in the top 10 and never left.
Newman's best stretch came early in the year, when he reeled off six straight top-10 finishes from Talladega in April through Pocono in June. But he made the most headlines as the victim of one of the year's scariest wrecks when he went airborne at Talladega in November and landed roof-down on top of Kevin Harvick.
Now, heading into the 2010 season, Newman is shrouded in questions. Will he be able to build on his past successes and another year of familiarity with his team to make the jump into the top five? Or, with increased competition for the 12 Chase spots, will he be the odd man out? There's plenty of evidence for both outcomes, but Newman's relatively low position in this poll indicates that observers don't think much of his chances for a repeat Chase run.
What you need to know: In 2009, Newman was one of the most statistically dependable drivers in the sport. His average start was 14.3 and his average finish was 14.7. He's usually pretty dependable in qualifying, though in recent years has dropped off his high of 11 poles in 2003. Another interesting fact: Newman is one of the few drivers in NASCAR with a college degree, having earned his bachelor's at Purdue in 2001.
