Ryan Newman Finishes 7th In Sharpie 500 at Bristol

Carl Edwards won the race at Bristol Saturday night with Kasey Kane finishing 2nd. Kane lead the most laps tonight at 305. Carl Edwards led the second most at 182 laps. That left 13 laps for others to lead.

Ryan Newman and his #12 Alltel Dodge team earned thier 10th Top 10 finish of the year by finishing 7th in the NEXTEL Cup Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Newman started 7th and stayed in the top 7 all night. He had a good car and did not push any issues. He just raced his race and suceeded at staying up front.

Newman consistantly lost positions on pit row though. on his first pit he came in 4th and went out 5th. On his second pit he came into the pits in 5th and left in 7th. Those tow pits were under caution. The third round of pits came under green. When green flag pits started, Newman was running 5th. Within a couple laps all lead cars had come in and Newman stayed out to lead a lap and gain 5 bonus points.

The most excitment for Nemwan was when he accidently got in the back of Dale Earnhardt JR when JR had to check up. This send JR fishtailing and making a great recovery. Shortly after that JR got back around Newman.

Earlier JR and Newman had gone back and forth trading positions. One time Newman just let JR go by instead of risking a wreck.

NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS...

While Newman had a great race and a top 10 Finish, so did everyone that he is battling with for 12th in the points position.

Dale Earnhardt JR finished 5th and led 1 lap for 5 bonus points.
Kurt Busch finished 6th and led 2 laps for 5 bonus points.
And of course Newman finished 7th and led 2 laps for 5 bonus points.

Almost doesn't seem fair, does it?

So here is where that leaves us for the poitns chase.

8th Kyle Busch +145 (From 12th)
9th Clint Bowyer +65
10th Kevin Harvick +9
11th Martin Truex JR +8
12th Kurt Busch ----
13th Dale Earnhardt JR -158
14th Ryan Newman -175

So the race for 12th has really tightened up for those 12th and above. But once again Ryan Newman has a good race along with everyone else guning for 12th and still fell farther behind in points to 175 points back.

Now, is it possible since 12th through 8th has really tightened up that JR and Newman still have a chance. I think so. All it will take is for either (or all)Kurt Busch, Martin Truex JR, Kevin Harvick or maybe Clint Bowyer to have a bad couple next weekends.

We will have to wait and see what happens.

Next weekends race is at California. Ryan Newman will be sporting his newly "inked" #12 Kodak Dodge.

Congrats to Ryan Newman on a great finish this weekend at Bristol, unfortunately everyone else that he did not need to have a great finish.....DID!!!!

Oh, and I am sick of ESPN. I posted something about that during the race, probably the post right below this one. But I think I will need to vent more about it tommorrow1!!