NASCAR

Ryan Newman Can Win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Title

By Ryan Pritt on November 12, 2014

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If the new format of NASCAR‘s Chase for the Sprint Cup has proven anything in its first year, it’s that anything can happen. When it comes to Sunday’s finale at Homestead, expect the unexpected. That’s all that Ryan Newman, the Chase’s last remaining Cinderella, needs to hear.

Newman hasn’t won a race this season, instead riding consistency all the way to the championship race. And looking at the numbers, there’s no doubt that Newman is still a long shot, just as he has been every step of the championship process.

His average finish of 14.6 at Homestead ranks third among the remaining four Chasers, behind Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin, who won last year’s season finale. That number includes a pair of DNFs. There’s also the speed issue, of which Harvick, Hamlin and Joey Logano, the other remaining Chaser, have seemed to flat out have more of consistently this season.

But in the final turn of the final lap with his season slipping away, Newman proved one thing — he’s willing to do anything on the track to get the job done. If not for his slide job on rookie Kyle Larson, that sent Larson into the wall, Newman would have never picked up the 11th position and would’ve been eliminated. Instead, his bold and deliberate move snuck Newman in and kicked Jeff Gordon out.

And while Newman may not have had the fastest car this season, he has avoided disaster as well, with only three finishes outside of the top 20 this season and none in the Chase. In fact, five of his 14 top 10s this year have come over the past nine races, signaling that maybe the No. 31 team is peaking. Either way, if any of the four Chasers get into trouble on Sunday, it’s highly unlikely to be Newman.

Also, Upon a second glance, his Homestead numbers may not be as discouraging as they appear on the surface. Newman has just four top 10 finishes in 12 races at Homestead, but two of those have come in the last four races there, while his two DNFs came in his second and third career race at the track. Throw in a pole and a win in a Nationwide car in 2005, and it’s certainly not all gloom and doom.

In the end, Newman is going to have to figure out just one thing and that’s how to finish ahead of Hamlin, Harvick and Logano. For the record, Newman has done just that exactly four times this season so far. If he does it one more time, he’ll finally have his first trophy of the year.

Ryan Pritt is a NASCAR writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @RPritt, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.