Ryan Newman ‘Control+Alt+Delete’

Entering this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway 12th in the 2013 Chase for the Sprint Cup standings, the chances of Ryan Newman making a run for the championship over the final six races of the season could, at best, be considered a long shot.

However, the driver of the Quicken Loans Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) isn’t ready to concede just yet. In fact, he’s ready for a reboot heading to a racetrack where Newman feels right at home.

Newman entered Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City seventh in the standings, 48 points behind series leader Matt Kenseth. But, an accident not of his own making sent him to the garage for lengthy repairs and eventually to a disappointing 35th-place finish. Newman lost five spots in the standings and is now 73 points behind Kenseth.

This weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway for Saturday night’s 500-miler. It was at the 1.5-mile speedway where Newman first made a big splash. He’s optimistic the track can be a bright spot once again for his No. 39 Quicken Loans Racing team.

In just his third Sprint Cup start while running a partial schedule in 2001, Newman shocked the field with an ultra-fast qualifying lap at Charlotte, which earned him the pole position for that year’s Coca-Cola 600. That feat tied Newman with his SHR teammate Mark Martin for earliest career Sprint Cup pole.

The following season, Newman again stunned his competitors when he claimed victory in the 2002 NASCAR All-Star Race in his rookie season. The win was Newman’s first in the Sprint Cup Series, and he won the non-points race in dramatic fashion. On that night, Newman wasn’t even qualified to race in the main event at the start of the night but raced his way in by winning what is now known as the Sprint Showdown. In the main event, Newman beat Dale Earnhardt Jr., to the finish by .158 of a second to become only the second rookie to win the All-Star Race.

Since that first start at Charlotte back in 2001 when he grabbed the top spot on the starting grid, the South Bend, Ind., native has continued to rack up pole positions at the track. He now has nine poles to his credit at Charlotte – the most of any active Sprint Cup driver. In fact, he is second in all-time poles at the 1.5-mile oval behind the legendary David Pearson, who had 14.

And while he has not recorded a points-paying Sprint Cup win at the racetrack, he does have two wins in addition to his All-Star Race feat – an ARCA victory in 2000 and a NASCAR Nationwide Series victory in 2005.

Newman may no longer be considered a threat by many to win the championship this year, but he can’t be counted out as a threat to finish the season on a high note by bringing home a win or two. After all, he’s scored victories at half the tracks remaining on the schedule – one apiece at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth and at Phoenix International Raceway. And Newman has proven he knows what it takes to get around Charlotte, despite the fact that a win in a points-paying Sprint Cup race has so far escaped him. Perhaps this is the weekend where he’ll finally be able to “Bring it Home.”

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