Late-race caution ruins Newman's hopes

By JIM UTTER / The Charlotte Observer

AVONDALE, Ariz. - Ryan Newman appeared headed to a much-needed strong finish Saturday but while he made his final pit stop late in the race, the caution came out for a wreck.

Newman thought his team had decided to take two tires rather than four to hurry the stop, but when he drove out of the pit stall his left-front tire came off. He backed up and got a new tire, but ended up with a 38th-place finish.

“The bottom line is we came in and the caution came out. Everything was the wors- case scenario,” Newman said.

“Unfortunate situation for about six seconds there, but it led to us be 11 laps down and we had a car that was easily capable of winning the race.”

Newman is now 26th in points with one top-10 finish this season.

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