FONTANA, Calif. – Following a 38th place finish in the season-opening race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Ryan Newman hasn’t finished outside the top-10.
In fact, Newman, the driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing hasn’t finished outside the top-five since the first race of the West Coast swing in Las Vegas three weeks ago.
On Sunday afternoon, Newman continued his typical cool, calm and collective approach which rewarded the South Bend, Indiana native with a fifth place finish in the Auto Club 400. It was his 101st career top-five in 481 starts.
More importantly though, Newman will carry his hot streak to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway next weekend, a track he won at in 2012.
“Luke (Lambert, crew chief) did an awesome job and everybody, the guys especially in the pits,” said Newman. “A hard fought day today. We did not have the Caterpillar Chevrolet that we need to and thought we were going to have. But, good strategy there at the end, got a couple of breaks with a couple of restarts there.”
Newman added, “Just didn’t get a good restart on the second one to go. (Brad) Keselowski started on the outside of me and he got the line that moved and I didn’t. We were fifth and he was first. Good day for us, overall.”
It may be hard to digest that Newman is still looking for his first win at Richard Childress Racing since taking the reins from Jeff Burton last February, but nothing has been clearer, a win is not far off the horizon.
And Newman’s chemistry with crew chief Luke Lambert is also continuing to strengthen, which adds fuel to the fire to score RCR their first Sprint Cup win since the penulimate race at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway in 2014.
“We got a couple of breaks there obviously with the caution, but the guys in the pits did an amazing job,” said Newman of the gutsy four-tire call. “ECR did a good job, just a good day for us to rebound. When your best running position is the last lap I guess you can’t be too upset.”
After qualifying ninth on Sunday, Newman spent a majority of the race inside the top-15 and despite a late-race caution that resulted in varying strategies, Newman used the shake-up to his advantage and climbed through the final restart from seventh to fifth to deliver his eighth career top-five run in 41 starts with RCR.
With his fourth top-10 finish in five races, Newman vaulted to sixth in the championship standings, just one point behind race winner Brad Keselowski and 63 points from leader Kevin Harvick.
An average finish of 3.6 from Las Vegas to Phoenix and Sunday at Auto Club Speedway made Newman of the strongest drivers during the West Coast stretch.
Unlike last year where Newman flew under the radar for much of the season, the No. 31 team’s performance at the front has made them a bonafide contender early into the season.
Overall, Sunday was a solid day for Richard Childress Racing. Teammate Paul Menard finished fourth while Austin Dillon recovered from an unscheduled pit stop with a lead lap 16th place run.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
