LOUDON/LENOX INDUSTRIAL TOOLS 300 PREVIEW

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge Avenger, will make his 11th Cup start at New Hampshire International Speedway. It will be his 205th career start in the Cup Series.

Newman has an average start of 5.8 and an average finish of 11.4. He has only two starts outside the top 10—a 16th and a 13th—and has earned four Bud Pole Awards. Newman earned his second pole award of 2006 at this same race last year.

Newman has seven top-10 finishes at NHIS, including two wins. His last win came at Loudon in September 2005. Of his seven top-10 finishes, five of them have been in the top five.

Newman has led 515 laps in nine of his 10 races at Loudon. He has completed 97.7 percent of the laps possible at New Hampshire—2,848 of 2,915 — since he made his Cup debut at the track in 2002.

Crew chief Mike Nelson and the Alltel team are taking chassis PRS-513 to Loudon as their primary car. The Dodge Avenger was last used at Darlington Raceway in May where Newman qualified 29th and finished fourth. Chassis PRS-509 is the backup car. It was tested at Richmond in April and has been the backup car at many of the Car of Tomorrow races. However, it has not been used in a race.

Newman on New Hampshire: "I like running at Loudon; it’s a fun track to race at. I’ve had some really good success here in the past and I look forward to racing here every year. We’ve got a really good chance to win at this track and (crew chief) Mike (Nelson) and the whole team have done a great job this whole year giving me fast race cars. I think we’ll have a really good chance of getting the pole this weekend, leading laps and competing for the win.”