Ryan Newman and the All-Star Challenge

This will be Ryan Newman's sixth appearance at the Nextel Cup All-Star Challenge. Newman won this event in 2002 and is locked into competeing in this event until 2012.

Newman has an average start of 9.4 and an average finish of 7.8. He has three top-five starts, including a pole position in 2005.

Newman has completed 405 of 450 laps in this event giving him an 90.2% completion rate.

Newman is the only driver to race his way into the All-Star Challenge and then go on to win the race. In 2002, Newman won the No Bull Sprint, which made him eligible for the all-star race then known as The Winston. He then went on to win the main race.

Chassis PRS-053 is the primary car for the All-Star Challenge. It has never been raced, and it's an older chassis that was built for the No. 2 team. The Alltel team has updated it to current specifications, tested it at Lowe's Motor Speedway last week during the NASCAR test, and recorded the fifth-fastest time during the evening session on the second day. The lap time was 29.126 seconds, or 185.401 mph on the 1.5-mile track. The backup car is PRS-076. It hasn't been raced this year, but it has been the backup car for every race at an intermediate track this season.

Newman On The All-Star Challenge: "I like running this race every year. You don’t have to worry about points and you can just go out and have fun. My team has always been excited about this race and this year, it has many more features to it than just the race. The Pit Crew Challenge on Wednesday night will decide qualifying order for Friday night, so the over-the-wall guys play a bigger role in this year’s race. I think this whole week is fun for all the teams involved. We have a really good bunch of guys on the pit crew and they did an amazing job for me in the pits at Darlington. I think they have a really good chance of winning the Pit Crew Challenge. I know we’re going to have a good car on Saturday night, too, and I think we will be contending for our second all-star win.”

Ryan Newman and his Penske Racing #12 Alltel Dodge Nextel Cup Team should have a pretty good run here at Lowe's for the Nextel Cup All-Star Challenge.

Newmans record at Lowe's is pretty good. The total average finish is not that great at all, but it seems like he is either really good, or really bad looking at previous stats. This will be discussed more next weeks race.

Mike Pratt